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Originally the Van Gogh Museum just consisted of the main building on the Paulus Potterstraat, and housed both the permanent collection and temporary exhibitions. At present it is used only for displaying the permanent collection. It was designed in 1963-64 by Gerrit Rietveld and completed after his death by his partners. The museum opened on 2 June 1973.
Rietveld was a leading member of De Stijl, a group of progressive artists and architects which was active in the 1920s and published its own magazine. In line with his Modernist approach, Rietveld favoured geometrical forms and light, open spaces. The most striking feature is the staircase in the central hall, where daylight enters through a high atrium and floods into the museum galleries. In 1998-99 the museum building was renovated by Greiner Van Goor Huijten Architects BV and a new office wing was added.
The Exhibition Wing was designed by Kisho Kurokawa, a Japanese architect with an international reputation. He is best known for his original designs for several Japanese museums and for Kuala Lumpur airport. His work is characterised by geometrical forms, such as cones, ellipses and squares, and a symbiosis between Eastern and Western principles in philosophy and architecture. For the new wing of the Van Gogh Museum he created a sober design that accords perfectly with the existing building. Rational (Western) geometry forms a symbiosis with Eastern asymmetry. |
