The art, nature and architecture of Museum Voorlinden

LINTELOO is one of the proud benefactors of Museum Voorlinden. Why? Because the museum, like LINTELOO, aims to create a meeting place where people enjoy being. Where there is space for tranquillity and wonderment, fun and inspiration. Yvette van Caldenborgh, art historian and board member of Museum Voorlinden tells you more about it.

‘Museum Voorlinden is a museum for modern and contemporary art, on the eponymous country estate in Wassenaar, on the coast and surrounded by greenery. The museum collects, presents, keeps, manages, conserves, restores, and publishes modern and contemporary art, both on its own premises and elsewhere. We offer an extensive and surprising collection, assembled by Joop Caldenborgh, my father and founder of the museum. In addition to changing presentations from our own collection, we also present temporary exhibitions and various permanent works of art.

In Museum Voorlinden, this art is given meaning for a wide (inter)national audience. The museum should be a meeting place, where people enjoy being. We want to be the oasis of tranquility in the busy Randstad region, where people may marvel and be surprised. The overall experience of art, nature and architecture is at the heart of the manner of presentation and the way in which we approach our visitors.

Museum Voorlinden is surrounded by the lush nature of the estate. The approx. 100-acre grounds border on the sand dunes of Wassenaar and cover woods, bodies of water, and meadowland. The garden that encircles the museum was designed by renowned Dutch landscape designer Piet Oudolf. With some 50 varieties of perennials and ornamental grasses, he has created a garden which is in bloom through three seasons and is of interest throughout the year because of the shapes and structures of the planting.

Our bright, white museum building, designed by Kraaijvanger Architects in close cooperation with us, is a building whose every aspect is arranged in service to the art. The elongated footprint consists of alternating planes of natural stone and transparent glass. This contributes to visitors feeling surrounded by nature throughout most of the museum. The exhibition spaces are lit by daylight, bringing the works of art to life.

The listed English-style country house, which is part of the museum, was built in 1912. Today, over a century later, its ground floor is home to a restaurant, where you can enjoy a coffee, delicious lunch or an afternoon drink.

We are hoping that soon we can open our doors to the public again. There is a special exhibition planned of works by artist Robin Rhode (South Africa, 1976), his first solo exhibition in the Netherlands. Robin uses the wall as his canvas, on which his temporary interventions depict an imaginary world. This exhibition will open, we hope, on 9 June and close on 26 September of this year. And from 19 November, we will present Listen to Your Eyes. For this collection presentation, my father was asked to select his favourites from the modern and contemporary works of art he has spent the past six decades collecting. This resulted in a visual journey of discovery, offering you a glimpse of his mindset as a collector. Listen to Your Eyes is about free association, story-telling, the cycle of life, but above all about the joy of looking.’

If you would like to know more about the art, architecture and nature of Voorlinden, go to www.voorlinden.nl, or send an e-mail to info@voorlinden.nl