Exhibition ‘Maritime Masterpieces’ in the Maritime Museum Rotterdam

Maritiem Museum

MaterialVersato® Crystal edgeVersato® New Colours

In the spring of 2021, the Maritime Museum Rotterdam will open the exhibition 'Maritime Masterpieces', a co-production with Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. A horizon with ships and the reflection of the water is what these completely different masterpieces of Dutch painting share.

Design
They want to create transparency with the concept designed by Paulien Berendsen in collaboration with Roel Vaessen from Studio Parade. "We have aligned the horizon of all the paintings. The works of art hang from transparent coloured acrylic. You can look right through the exhibition space and see the paintings floating like ships in a fleet. The reflections of the two museums on the masterpieces. Let's come back to the graphic layer: the short side carries the texts. On the one hand, the Maritime Museum tells about maritime aspects, on the other, Boijmans van Beuningen focuses on art history. We have taken into account the expected large number of visitors. As a visitor, you can easily navigate through the fleet of maritime masterpieces. "

Material
We opted for transparent, coloured acrylic sheets from acrylic supplier PyraSied Xtreme Acrylic. We worked with 25mm thick acrylic from the Versato® New Colours and Crystal collections that were specially produced for this exhibition. These thick sheets provide a beautiful statement and form a stable basis for the beautiful works of art. The colour composition ensures that the works of art stand out and also forms a nice contrast to the white lettering with information about the works. This exhibition can be seen from February 12 to September 4, 2022. Together with the Maritime Museum, PyraSied Xtreme Acrylic ensures that all showcases are fully recycled into new sheet material after the exhibition. Through this recycling service, we can together guarantee the circularity of acrylic in the Netherlands.

About the exhibition
Two unique art collections come together. Get to know a previously unknown marine world behind famous artworks. Boijmans Van Beuningen anchors in the Maritime Museum. The exhibition tells the stories of shipping and ports and the people who live in them through six centuries of (painting) art, with a unique collection from Jeroen Bosch via Willem van de Velde the Elder to Guido van der Werve and from the 16th to the 21st century. Works by Claude Monet, Paul Signac, Jeroen Bosch, Hendrik Avercamp and Jozef Israëls meet modern artworks by Guido van de Werve, Sasja Hagens and Dolf Henkes in a unique presentation. Part of the exhibition consists of a large selection of drawings by Willem van de Velde the Elder.

The exhibition is the last in the series "Boijmans bij de Buren". Due to the eight-year closure of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, the collection will travel to various museums in the region. Maritime Masterpieces was made possible in part by the Droom en Daad foundation.