Rijksmuseum new Philips Wing opens with photography collection

Modern Times. Photography in the 20th Century 
1 November 2014 – 11 January 2015
Rijksmuseum, Museumstraat 1, 1071 XX Amsterdam, Netherlands

In a display of more than 400 images, the exhibition will trace photography’s key developments during the 20th century, including the introduction of colour, the growth of documentary and news photography, and photography as a pure art form. A wide-ranging overview, it will also explore photography’s role in fashion and advertising and will feature some amateur works.

Portrait of Peggy Guggenheim, Man Ray (1890–1976), Gelatin silver print, 279 x 179 mm Paris, 1924, Collection Rijksmuseum

Rare photographs by Brassaï, Ed van der Elsken, John Gutmann, Lewis Hine, William Klein, Jacques-Henri Lartigue, Joel Meyerowitz, László Moholy-Nagy, Eadweard Muybridge, Man Ray and W. Eugene Smith will be displayed as part of the exhibition Modern Times. Photography in the 20th Century. This major photographic survey will inaugurate the Rijksmuseum’s newly renovated Philips Wing, the final stage in the museum’s recent acclaimed transformation.

The exhibition and its accompanying publication, Modern Times. Photography in the 20th Century, have been made possible thanks to the long-standing sponsorship of Baker & McKenzie.

The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam is the Netherlands national museum dedicated to arts and history. The Museum’s Philips Wing, newly renovated by Spanish architects Cruz y Ortiz, will open its doors for the first time on 1 November 2014 with the launch of Modern Times. Photography in the 20th Century, the inaugural exhibition, which will occupy all nine of the Wing’s new exhibition rooms.

Grandview Motel, Raton, New Mexico, Steve Fitch (1949), Chromogenic print 1981,
Collection Rijksmuseum, purchased with the support of Baker & McKenzie Amsterdam N.V.

Modern Times ranges over the whole of the 20th century, and also spans the decades on either side. The earliest images are Eadweard Muybridge’s motion studies, including a galloping horse from 1887, and George Hendrik Breitner’s early photographs. The exhibition’s most recent works were shot in Suriname in 2013 by the exciting Dutch photographer Viviane Sassen. Among the rarest masterpieces are photographs by John Gutmann (Olympic diver), László Moholy-Nagy (Pont Transbordeur), Man Ray’s Peggy Guggenheim, Lartigue’s early photographs of home-made aeroplanes and Joel Meyerowitz’s Moon Launch.

View from the Pont Transbordeur, László Moholy-Nagy (1895–1946), Gelatin silver print Marseille, 1929,
Collection Rijksmuseum, purchased with the support of Baker & McKenzie Amsterdam N.V.
and the Vereniging Rembrandt, with additional funding from the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds.

Modern Times. Photography in the 20th Century is the Rijksmuseum’s first major presentation to the public of the 20th-century photography collection that it has amassed over the past two decades. During that time the collection has earned international acclaim, both for its range and depth. It is especially remarkable for its large number of original vintage prints, which are often extremely rare. In many cases, the Rijksmuseum holds the only original print known to exist of an image, or that is, at the very most, one of just a few.

More information is here.