Wonder

Bergen artists' village is alive and kicking. WONDER – the opening event of KRANENBURGH – shows this. For more than a century, the village has attracted major names from the past and present: Charley Toorop, Leo Gestel, Adriaan Roland Holst, Lucebert, Simeon ten Holt, but also Folkert de Jong, Rineke Dijkstra and Sjoerd Buisman. During WONDER they find shelter in a spectacular new building by architect Dirk Jan Postel on the arterial road to the sea.

WONDER shows the wealth of art from different movements, disciplines and generations. The exhibition contains recent and unique finds and work that is rarely seen. It comes from our own collection, from private collectors and other museums. A number of artists created new work especially for WONDER.

After a period of renovations Kranenburgh opens its beautiful new building to the public on November 12th with the exhibition Wonder. Two days before the official opening I was at the museum for a sneak preview of the exhibition. It was amazing to see the work Portret of Mati from 1946 hang next to the Portrait of Victor (Mati & Constant's son) from that same year. Also the exhibition showed posters handpainted by the Cobra artists advertising a Cobra exhibition in Bergen on April 1949, seven months before their infamous exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.