Robert Mapplethorpe in
Point of View
5 July—1 September 2024
Group exhibition at Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
As part of Women of Rijksmuseum research project, this summer Rijksmuseum presents Point of View, an exhibition exploring ideas around gender in Western Europe from the 16th to the 21st century through 150 works in the Rijksmuseum’s collection. Highlights include a portrait of William of Orange wearing a skirt at the age of four, a flamboyant gold toothpick in the shape of a dragon and a glass decorated with copulating roosters. Featured artists include Gesina ter Borch, Marlene Dumas, Bartholomeus van der Helst, Kinke Kooi, Robert Mapplethorpe, Erwin Olaf, Maria Roosen, Charley Toorop and Sara Troost among others.
Every summer the Rijksmuseum stages an exhibition that explores objects from its own collection in a new light. Point of View arose out of the Women of the Rijksmuseum research project, which was launched in 2022 to embed female narratives in the Rijksmuseum collection. Maria Holtrop, co-curator of the exhibition said, ‘Through this exhibition we would like to show how prevailing ideas about gender throughout history influenced not only art but also objects of everyday life. The works on view particularly reflect how varied these notions of gender can be and how they continue to evolve today.’