Unknown. 10 years of special acquisitions and their stories – Van Gogh Museum

The exhibition will be in the Van Gogh Museum from February 5, 2021 Unknown. 10 years of special acquisitions and their stories on display. This exhibition will feature a large selection of works of art that have been added to the museum collection over the past 10 years.

Unknown shows the full breadth of the Van Gogh Museum's collection area: from paintings to drawings, prints, sculptures and letters acquired through donations from private individuals to purchases through auctions.

Van Gogh Museum manages more than the largest collection of Van Gogh's works in the world: the unprecedented works of art in this exhibition are usually by other artists, by big names such as Edgar Degas, Berthe Morisot, Edvard Munch and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, but also by lesser-known masters such as Henri Guérard.

In addition to the works of art themselves, the stories surrounding the acquisition also play a central role. The curators explain why a museum actually collects and why this task is so important for a museum. And how is it determined which works are eligible to be added to the collection?

Ongekend is about both the art and these stories, which continually show the visitor new perspectives on the acquisition. A work of art is not static, and a museum collection is alive.

Kloosterboer is responsible for the construction of the exhibition.