Claude Monet: The Garden Paintings

From today Gemeentemuseum Den Haag will be known as Kunstmuseum Den Haag. The new name will make it clear that we are a diverse museum of art (Kunstmuseum) with firm ties to the city of The Hague (Den Haag) and its residents. The first exhibition that the museum will present under its new name is Monet – The Garden Paintings. The museum’s new logo has just been revealed, ahead of the opening on October 12.

Kunstmuseum Den Haag’s logo is part of a new visual identity that is based on the museum’s building, designed by Berlage, and on its collection. It pays homage to Berlage’s distinctive yellow brick that has defined the look of the museum since 1935—distinctive not only for its colour, but also its elongated shape. The proportions match the 11-centimetre unit that architect H.P. Berlage used throughout the building. The concept for the new house style was devised in collaboration with KesselsKramer of Amsterdam.

The new logo also includes an eye-catching “K” designed by Peter Biľak. The idea for the design came from the museum’s collection of graphic works. Biľak drew inspiration from the work of designer Piet Zwart, more specifically a typeface Zwart used in advertisements for cable manufacturer Nederlandsche Kabelfabriek in Delft, where he worked as the in-house designer between 1923 and 1933. Biľak used the basic structure of Zwart’s K, but has given it a contemporary twist. The resulting design is in keeping with the Hague typographic tradition. The rest of the name is written in Ping, a typeface developed by Biľak’s design studio Typotheque. Biľak runs the studio with Johanna Biľak and Nikola Djurek since 1999. Their clients include international companies like Facebook, Google, Mozilla, Vienna International Airport and the Paris metro.

“I started with the idea that Kunstmuseum Den Haag is a Hague museum with international status,” Biľak explains. “The typography of the new logo refers to something that already exists, but also adds something new. It is exciting, challenging and it projects an image of a contemporary and diverse institution.”

“The new name and visual identity are appropriate for the museum of today and of the past,” says director Benno Tempel, “a museum co-founded by artists and housed in an architectural work of art. We provide a space for all kinds of artistic expression, and will continue to do so in the future. We are keen to share this space with a broad and diverse audience, and the new name will help us enable everyone to get close to art. Art is emotion; it gives us all energy, each in our own way.”

The first exhibition that the museum will present under its new name is Monet – The Garden Paintings (October 12, 2019 to February 2, 2020), in which the museum will pay grand tribute to the French Impressionist and the paintings he made in his garden in Giverny. Monet – The Garden Paintings will focus on the period 1900 to 1926. During this period of over a quarter of a century, Monet lived a secluded life on his property in Giverny, where he produced his renowned paintings of his own gardens. Over time, he depicted the gardens in an increasingly abstract style. Many art historians have wrongly attributed this stylistic change to failing eyesight. But in fact Monet—at the height of his career—was still exploring new artistic frontiers, which later had a major impact on artists like Rothko and Pollock. One of the few major Monet exhibitions in the Netherlands was in 1952, at the Kunstmuseum. Monet – The Garden Paintings will be the first ever Dutch exhibition of this part of Monet’s oeuvre, and will bring together forty international icons of garden paintings together with the Kunstmuseum’s own Wisteria alongside three of its six siblings.

Current:

KP Brehmer
Real Art - Fake News
The artist’s first ever retrospective in the Netherlands
Up to October 27, 2019

Upcoming:

Rob van Koningsbruggen
Paintings 2003-2019
November 8, 2019–February 23, 2020

Press Office:
Astrid Hulsmann
ahulsmann [​at​] kunstmuseum.nl
T +31 70 3381 129