Amsterdam's Modern Art Landmark with a Bathtub Roof

At a Glance

The Stedelijk Museum is the Netherlands' flagship museum of modern and contemporary art. Facing Museumplein alongside the Rijksmuseum and the Van Gogh Museum, its collection of about 90,000 works is famed for its Malevich holdings and the white "bathtub" extension of 2012.

Neo-Renaissance + a Bathtub Roof

The main building is an 1895 Neo-Renaissance design by Adriaan Willem Weissman. Under director Willem Sandberg from 1938, the museum shifted toward pioneering modern art, collecting Malevich, Mondrian, and Chagall. In 2012 Benthem Crouwel Architects added the smooth white composite "bathtub" wing facing Museumplein.

Must-See Works

• Kazimir Malevich — the largest Malevich holdings outside Russia, originally from the 1927 Berlin exhibition.
• Mondrian & De Stijl — major Mondrian paintings on permanent view.
• Chagall — Self-Portrait with Seven Fingers — an early Paris masterpiece.
• Gerrit Rietveld furniture — including the Red and Blue Chair.
• Postwar American art — Pollock, Newman, De Kooning, Warhol.

Visiting Tips

Start with the permanent Base: STEDELIJK MUSEUM hang on the lower level, then the temporary shows in the bathtub wing. If you plan to do the Stedelijk, Rijksmuseum, and Van Gogh in one day, open at the Stedelijk—it has the shortest queues of the three.