Disclosing Architecture

In a short film by Quinten Swagerman, Collection department team members unroll three immense drawings by architect Pierre Cuypers, made for the decoration of the façade and interior walls of the Rijksmuseum (1885). Unusually, the drawings are full size. So, for example, Rembrandt en zijn school (Rembrandt and his school) measures 6 x 12 metres. Due to the scale and fragility of these sheets, they have scarcely seen the light of day over the past 100 years. The last time was during the restoration work on the Rijksmuseum (2003-2013), which underlines the cultural-historical value of the collection. We are investigating the possibility of restoring the 12 design drawings in this format.

During the first phase of the Disclosing Architecture programme, filmmaker Marit Geluk made Curating Decay, a documentary about the restoration and conservation of the Van Doesburg collection. From 2019, she closely followed the work of paper restorers, colour specialists, lighting experts, exhibition-makers, programmers and policymakers. Throughout the restoration process, trade-offs had to be made between the preservability, visibility and useability of this fragile material, in the knowledge that decay is inevitable.