Everyday, Someday and Other Stories. Collection 1950–1980

Artists and designers show it was an era of new opportunities and progress, of mass culture, pop culture and consumption, and of critiquing the established order. Featuring well-known and less familiar works from the collection, the presentation tells different stories from diverse perspectives, and shines a new light on the Stedelijk collection.

Everyday

'Everyday’ shows how art gradually draws closer to everyday life as artists begin to use mundane materials, actions and events. Bruce Nauman turns simple actions into video work and stanley brouwn elevates something as simple as asking for directions to art. Others, like Tetsumi Kudo, use ordinary objects. Artists also witness the impact of mass media on perception and stereotyping, apparent in works by Andy Warhol, Cindy Sherman, Barbara Bloom, and Hans Eijkelboom.

Someday

‘Someday’ captures the idealism of those decades: in Homo Ludens, Constant explores play as a central element in culture and society, Ben d’Armagnac founds a commune that inspires Louwrien Wijers’s poetic word sculptures. Space travel is hugely influential; astronaut William Anders photographed the Earth, creating an emblem of our planet’s vulnerability, and gave flight to a host of Space Age-inspired designs conceived by such creative minds as Václav Cigler, JVC, Wim Crouwel and Peter Ghyczy.

Other Stories

Displaying familiar artworks in an unfamiliar context, ‘Other Stories’ tells narratives that have yet to be explored. The display also sheds new light on ‘minimal gestures’. Work by Carl Andre, Robert Ryman, Maria van Elk, and Jo Baer is paired with that of artist Chavalit Soemprungsuk from Thailand, whose paintings are meticulous explorations of minimalist art.