The Plant Collection

When Willem Sandberg, the newly appointed director of Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum, held an exhibition in 1946 in honour of Piet Mondrian, he did something quite remarkable. He placed a Swiss cheese plant next to Mondrian’s paintings. For Sandberg, the aesthetic placement of a plant in the museum made a statement. No longer would the Stedelijk be an elite temple for art; rather, he wanted the public to become accustomed to contemporary art in a familiar, domestic environment. Artist Inge Meijer investigated the vanished and subsequently forgotten vegetation in the museum during the 1945–1983 period for this book, rendering its history once again visible.