It could be argued that Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam is/was, after the Rijksmuseum, the most important art museum in The Netherlands and the fact that it is still closed is a calamity of no mean proportions. It locked its doors to the public in mid-2018 for a major refurbishment and was due to open again this year. However, the discovery of asbestos and other major problems meant that work was seriously derailed. The re-opening is now scheduled for 2030/31.
I don’t think it would be overstating the situation to say that the closure is a catastrophe. For a major museum to be closed for what may well be thirteen years is unprecedented. However, it was not all doom and gloom, not an unmitigated disaster.
The good news was that a year before the museum closed work started, a stone’s throw away, on The Depot. Ostensibly a storage facility for the museum’s 135,000 artworks it was to be much, much more than that. The iconic silver bowl was opened in 2021 by the King and was hailed as a wonder of the modern age. Not only was it an instant and incredible architectural icon, it was also the first museum storage facility in the world that was open to the public. Over ninety per cent of the museum’s collection, which was usually hidden away in numerous dusty warehouses and damp basements, was now accessible and was now all under one roof – a roof which is now covered by a mini forest of silver birch trees, grass and other foliage and offers magnificent views over the city. Stepping out onto the huge circular terrace on top of The Depot is like a walk in the park.
The normally hidden treasures can be viewed by the public on their shelves and racks and, in rotation, certain pieces are highlighted in mini-exhibitions in the many small galleries that border the Escher-like stairs. The current show, in The Depot’s biggest exhibition space on the fifth floor, is entitled The Stories We Tell. It brings together some new acquisitions, and some old favourites, to explore how contemporary artists use storytelling to navigate the past, reflect on the present and imagine the future.
The centre piece is a huge (of course) painting by Anselm Kiefer with an equally long name which space here does not allow. Kiefer is arguably the greatest living artist and it seems his work is everywhere at the moment. Equally long is Grensposten, a newish acquisition by Japanese/German artist Suchan Kinoshita which is a series of small black and white photos of abandoned border custom post. The sequence of photos stretches at least ten meters along the wall and a fascinating story it tells too. Another impressive piece is a stark black and white painting by Kara Walker called The Last Memory of Birdie Africa which is dedicated to the sole survivor of an event in Philadelphia in 1985 where police destroyed 65 homes and killed eleven people in an attempt to, literally, smoke out members of a black liberation movement.
In the old favourites category there are a couple of pieces by George Segal – Girl Looking Through a Window (Homage to Rembrandt) and the life-size plaster couple embracing at the foot of a wooden staircase cleverly entitled Couple at the Stairs. Nearby is another American life-size sculpture, Duane Hanson’s 1974 Seated Child. Hanson’s figures are so realistic and “ordinary” and so well positioned in museums, often in the entrance hall, that people often walk straight past thinking they are just another fellow visitor.
Of the new acquisitions the most impressive is The City by Susanna Inglada which draws attention to the dynamics of power by showing numerous figures intertwined in a chaotic scramble for equality.
A visit to The Depot is always worthwhile and The Stories We Tell, although a relatively small exhibition, shows some of the best pieces of contemporary art that Boijmans has in its collection. Michael Hasted 29th April 2025
The Stories We Tell can be seen at The Depot of Boijmans van Beuningen Museum in Rotterdam until 26th October
