Rotterdam. An exhibition on how to display an exhibition

"Art on Display 1949-69" is dedicated to some of the most important postwar installations, with 1:1 reconstructions by masters such as Carlo Scarpa, Franco Albini, and Lina Bo Bardi.

Art on Display 1949-69, Rotterdam, Paesi Bassi, 2020 Alison en Peter Smithson. Painting & Sculpture of a Decade 54-64. Interior view: sculpture Le Canonnier by Robert Müller, painting Red Ground by Rodrigo Moynihan. Tentoonstelling Tate Gallery, London, 1964

Photo Sandra Lousada. Smithson Family Collection

Art on Display 1949-69, Rotterdam, Paesi Bassi, 2020 Alison Smithson (left), installing Painting & Sculpture of a Decade 54-64 exhibition, Tate Gallery, London, 1964

Photo Bryan Hesseltine. Smithson Family Collection

Art on Display 1949-69, Rotterdam, Paesi Bassi, 2020 Alison and Peter Smithson, Painting & Sculpture of a Decade 54–64 exhibition, Tate Gallery, London, 1964. Diagram of gallery spaces. Alison and Peter Smithson Archive. Folder A052

Courtesy of the Frances Loeb Library, Harvard University Graduate School of Design

Art on Display 1949-69, Rotterdam, Paesi Bassi, 2020 Franco Albini and Franca Helg, Palazzo Rosso, Genoa, 1952-62

Photo Paolo Monti. Fondazione Franco Albini

Art on Display 1949-69, Rotterdam, Paesi Bassi, 2020 Franco Albini and Franca Helg, Palazzo Rosso, Genoa, 1952-62. Painting Santa Francesca Romana by Giovanni Antonio Galli

Credits Fondazione Franco Albini

Art on Display 1949-69, Rotterdam, Paesi Bassi, 2020 Franco Albini and Franca Helg, Palazzo Bianco, Genoa, 1949-51

Photo A. Villani & Figli. Fondazione Franco Albini

Art on Display 1949-69, Rotterdam, Paesi Bassi, 2020 Alison and Peter Smithson. Painting & Sculpture of a Decade 54-64 exhibition. Tate Gallery, London, 1964. Art work: light sculpture by Nicolas Schöffer

Photo Sandra Lousada. Smithson Family Collection

Art on Display 1949-69, Rotterdam, Paesi Bassi, 2020 Carlo Scarpa. Museo Correr, Venice, 1957-60. Interior view: painting Two Venetian Ladies by Vittore Carpaccio placed on easel

Photo Gianantonio Battistella. CISA A. Palladio, Vincenza

Art on Display 1949-69, Rotterdam, Paesi Bassi, 2020 Carlo Scarpa. Museo Correr, Venice, 1957-60. Bellini Room: paintings Crucifixion and Transfiguration by Giovanni Bellini

Photo Gianantonio Battistella. CISA A. Palladio, Vincenza

Art on Display 1949-69, Rotterdam, Paesi Bassi, 2020

Foto Johannes Schwartz

Art on Display 1949-69, Rotterdam, Paesi Bassi, 2020

Foto Johannes Schwartz

Art on Display 1949-69, Rotterdam, Paesi Bassi, 2020

Foto Johannes Schwartz

Art on Display 1949-69, Rotterdam, Paesi Bassi, 2020

Foto Johannes Schwartz

Art on Display 1949-69, Rotterdam, Paesi Bassi, 2020

Foto Johannes Schwartz

Art on Display 1949-69, Rotterdam, Paesi Bassi, 2020

Foto Johannes Schwartz

Art on Display 1949-69, Rotterdam, Paesi Bassi, 2020

Foto Johannes Schwartz

Art on Display 1949-69, Rotterdam, Paesi Bassi, 2020

Foto Johannes Schwartz

Art on Display 1949-69, Rotterdam, Paesi Bassi, 2020

Foto Johannes Schwartz

Art on Display 1949-69, Rotterdam, Paesi Bassi, 2020

Foto Johannes Schwartz

Art on Display 1949-69, Rotterdam, Paesi Bassi, 2020

Foto Johannes Schwartz

“Art on Display 1949-69”, an art show designed by the architect Jo Taillieu and inaugurated in Rotterdam on October 4, is an exhibition itinerary that focuses less on the works of art itself and more on the way they are presented. The exhibition brings together some of the most progressive post-war exhibition projects in the form of 1:1 reconstructions: Carlo Scarpa, Franco Albini and Franca Helg, Lina Bo Bardi, Aldo van Eyck, Alison and Peter Smithson.

Alison en Peter Smithson. Painting & Sculpture of a Decade 54-64. Interior view: sculpture Le Canonnier by Robert Müller, painting Red Ground by Rodrigo Moynihan. Tentoonstelling Tate Gallery, London, 1964. Photo Sandra Lousada. Smithson Family Collection

The period 1949-1969 was characterized by the search for a new relationship between art and the public, outlining new roles for art and cultural institutions. For example, the exhibition partially reworks Bo Bardi's famous 1968 exhibition project. The radical set up for the collection of the Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP) was a grid of over 100 easels, an experiment born with the aim of freeing the museum from its sacred atmosphere.

The exhibition includes works from the 18th and 19th centuries from the private collection of the Anglo-Armenian businessman and philanthropist Calouste Sarkis Gulbenkian – never before exhibited in Holland – and works by Portuguese and British modern artists, including Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, Terry Frost and John Hoyland, from the Modern Collection.

  • Art on Display 1949-69
  • Jo Taillieu
  • from the 4th October 2020 to the 7th March 2021
  • Het Nieuwe Instituut Museumpark 25 3015 CB Rotterdam
Art on Display 1949-69, Rotterdam, Paesi Bassi, 2020 Photo Sandra Lousada. Smithson Family Collection

Alison en Peter Smithson. Painting & Sculpture of a Decade 54-64. Interior view: sculpture Le Canonnier by Robert Müller, painting Red Ground by Rodrigo Moynihan. Tentoonstelling Tate Gallery, London, 1964

Art on Display 1949-69, Rotterdam, Paesi Bassi, 2020 Photo Bryan Hesseltine. Smithson Family Collection

Alison Smithson (left), installing Painting & Sculpture of a Decade 54-64 exhibition, Tate Gallery, London, 1964

Art on Display 1949-69, Rotterdam, Paesi Bassi, 2020 Courtesy of the Frances Loeb Library, Harvard University Graduate School of Design

Alison and Peter Smithson, Painting & Sculpture of a Decade 54–64 exhibition, Tate Gallery, London, 1964. Diagram of gallery spaces. Alison and Peter Smithson Archive. Folder A052

Art on Display 1949-69, Rotterdam, Paesi Bassi, 2020 Photo Paolo Monti. Fondazione Franco Albini

Franco Albini and Franca Helg, Palazzo Rosso, Genoa, 1952-62

Art on Display 1949-69, Rotterdam, Paesi Bassi, 2020 Credits Fondazione Franco Albini

Franco Albini and Franca Helg, Palazzo Rosso, Genoa, 1952-62. Painting Santa Francesca Romana by Giovanni Antonio Galli

Art on Display 1949-69, Rotterdam, Paesi Bassi, 2020 Photo A. Villani & Figli. Fondazione Franco Albini

Franco Albini and Franca Helg, Palazzo Bianco, Genoa, 1949-51

Art on Display 1949-69, Rotterdam, Paesi Bassi, 2020 Photo Sandra Lousada. Smithson Family Collection

Alison and Peter Smithson. Painting & Sculpture of a Decade 54-64 exhibition. Tate Gallery, London, 1964. Art work: light sculpture by Nicolas Schöffer

Art on Display 1949-69, Rotterdam, Paesi Bassi, 2020 Photo Gianantonio Battistella. CISA A. Palladio, Vincenza

Carlo Scarpa. Museo Correr, Venice, 1957-60. Interior view: painting Two Venetian Ladies by Vittore Carpaccio placed on easel

Art on Display 1949-69, Rotterdam, Paesi Bassi, 2020 Photo Gianantonio Battistella. CISA A. Palladio, Vincenza

Carlo Scarpa. Museo Correr, Venice, 1957-60. Bellini Room: paintings Crucifixion and Transfiguration by Giovanni Bellini

Art on Display 1949-69, Rotterdam, Paesi Bassi, 2020 Foto Johannes Schwartz

Art on Display 1949-69, Rotterdam, Paesi Bassi, 2020 Foto Johannes Schwartz

Art on Display 1949-69, Rotterdam, Paesi Bassi, 2020 Foto Johannes Schwartz

Art on Display 1949-69, Rotterdam, Paesi Bassi, 2020 Foto Johannes Schwartz

Art on Display 1949-69, Rotterdam, Paesi Bassi, 2020 Foto Johannes Schwartz

Art on Display 1949-69, Rotterdam, Paesi Bassi, 2020 Foto Johannes Schwartz

Art on Display 1949-69, Rotterdam, Paesi Bassi, 2020 Foto Johannes Schwartz

Art on Display 1949-69, Rotterdam, Paesi Bassi, 2020 Foto Johannes Schwartz

Art on Display 1949-69, Rotterdam, Paesi Bassi, 2020 Foto Johannes Schwartz

Art on Display 1949-69, Rotterdam, Paesi Bassi, 2020 Foto Johannes Schwartz

Art on Display 1949-69, Rotterdam, Paesi Bassi, 2020 Foto Johannes Schwartz