The Miniature Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art was founded by Ria and Lex Daniels in 1990. It was initially located at the AMC hospital in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

, but moved to the

Kunstmuseum Den Haag The Kunstmuseum Den Haag is an art museum in The Hague in the Netherlands, founded in 1866 as the Museum voor Moderne Kunst. Later, until 1998, it was known as Haags Gemeentemuseum, and until the end of September 2019 as Gemeentemuseum Den Haag. I ...

in 2013, where it was on a long-term loan for five years.

History

The Collection of the Miniature Museum is based on the private collection of Ria and Lex Daniels, Amsterdam art collectors and retired gallery owners. In the late 70s, the Daniels began to collect miniature artworks for their private collection. These works were initially displayed on a wall in their private home, but a renovation pushed them to reconsider what to do with their collection. What started out as a spontaneous idea, quickly turned into a serious endeavor, and by 1990 they had devised a plan for a miniature museum. The Miniature Museum was officially established in 1990. In the following three decades, a large number of artists were invited to contribute to the growing collection of the Miniature Museum. Since early on, the museum has been linked to the Medical Cancer Research Foundation, supporting the foundation with donations. On December 2, 1997 the mayor of Amsterdam opened the miniature museum at the pediatric oncology department at the AMC hospital in Amsterdam Zuid-oost. From 2013 to 2018, the Miniature Museum was housed in the

. A new building was specifically built to house the miniature collection. The exhibition in the new building was curated by the Daniels in close collaboration with the Dutch curator

Wim van Sinderen Wim van Sinderen (born 10 January 1958) is a Dutch journalist and curator, working as photography curator at the Fotomuseum Den Haag. Live and work Van Sinderen was born in Dokkum on January 10, 1958. From 1976 to 1982 he attended the Teacher T ...

. Due to the size of the miniature collection, which ranged in the 2000s, a part of the collection could not be displayed at the

. Instead, the Haags Historisch Museum exhibited this part of the collection from 2017 to 2018.

Collection

The collection of the Miniature Museum consists of around 2000 miniature artworks by more than 1050 artists, who have made an artwork especially for the museum. Two-dimensional works in the collection generally measure between 10 x 10 cm and 9 x 12 cm, while sculptures are limited to 10 x 10 x 20 cm. Nevertheless, a few exceptions have been made. The museum has works by internationally recognized artists, including

Arman Arman (November 17, 1928 – October 22, 2005) was a French-born American artist. Born Armand Fernandez in Nice, France, Arman was a painter who moved from using objects for the ink or paint traces they leave (''cachets'', ''allures d'objet'') to ...

, César,

Daniel Spoerri Daniel Spoerri (born 27 March 1930) is a Swiss artist and writer born in Romania. Spoerri is best known for his "snare-pictures," a type of assemblage or object art, in which he captures a group of objects, such as the remains of meals eaten by in ...

Jonathan Lasker Jonathan Lasker (born 1948) is an American abstract painter whose work has played an integral role in the development of Postmodern Painting. He currently lives and works in New York City. Lasker has been awarded National Endowment for the Arts ...

Edward Kienholz Edward Ralph Kienholz (October 23, 1927 – June 10, 1994) was an American Installation art, installation artist and assemblage (art), assemblage sculpture, sculptor whose work was highly critical of aspects of modern life. From 1972 onwards, he ...

Sam Francis Samuel Lewis Francis (June 25, 1923 – November 4, 1994) was an American painter and printmaker. Early life Sam Francis was born in San Mateo, California,

, Christo,

Dennis Oppenheim Dennis Oppenheim (September 6, 1938 – January 21, 2011) was an American conceptual artist, performance artist, earth artist, sculptor and photographer. Dennis Oppenheim's early artistic practice is an epistemological questioning about the nat ...

Sol LeWitt Solomon "Sol" LeWitt (September 9, 1928 – April 8, 2007) was an American artist linked to various movements, including conceptual art and minimalism. LeWitt came to fame in the late 1960s with his wall drawings and "structures" (a term he pref ...

, George Baselitz,

Roy Lichtenstein Roy Fox Lichtenstein (; October 27, 1923 – September 29, 1997) was an American pop artist. During the 1960s, along with Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, and James Rosenquist among others, he became a leading figure in the new art movement. Hi ...

Robert Mangold Robert Mangold (born October 12, 1937) is an American minimalist artist. He is also father of film director and screenwriter James Mangold. Early life and education Mangold was born in North Tonawanda, New York. His mother, Blanche, was a ...

Jenny Holzer Jenny Holzer (born July 29, 1950) is an American neo-conceptual artist, based in Hoosick, New York. The main focus of her work is the delivery of words and ideas in public spaces and includes large-scale installations, advertising billboards, ...

Annie Leibovitz Anna-Lou Leibovitz ( ; born October 2, 1949) is an American portrait photographer best known for her engaging portraits, particularly of celebrities, which often feature subjects in intimate settings and poses. Leibovitz's Polaroid photo of Jo ...

Sandro Chia Sandro Chia (born 20 April 1946) is an Italian painter and sculptor. In the late 1970s and early 1980s he was, with Francesco Clemente, Enzo Cucchi, Nicola De Maria, and Mimmo Paladino, a principal member of the Italian Neo-Expressionist movemen ...

A.R. Penck Ralf Winkler, alias A. R. Penck, who also used the pseudonyms ''Mike Hammer'', ''T. M.'', ''Mickey Spilane'', ''Theodor Marx'', "''a. Y.''" or just "''Y''" (5 October 1939 – 2 May 2017) was a German painter, printmaker, sculpt ...

Andres Serrano Andres Serrano (born August 15, 1950) is an American photographer and artist. His work, often considered transgressive art, includes photos of corpses and uses feces and bodily fluids. His '' Piss Christ'' (1987) is a red-tinged photograph of a ...

Karel Appel Christiaan Karel Appel (; 25 April 1921 – 3 May 2006) was a Dutch painter, sculptor, and poet. He started painting at the age of fourteen and studied at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam in the 1940s. He was one of the founders of the avant-gard ...

Carl Andre Carl Andre (born September 16, 1935) is an American minimalist artist recognized for his ordered linear and grid format sculptures and for the suspected murder of contemporary and wife, Ana Mendieta. His sculptures range from large public art ...

Panamarenko Henri Van Herwegen (5 February 1940 – 14 December 2019), known by the pseudonym Panamarenko, was a prominent assemblagist Belgian sculptor. Famous for his work with aeroplanes as theme; none of which are able nor constructed to actually leave ...

Robert Longo Robert Longo (born 1953) is an American artist, filmmaker, photographer and musician. Longo became first well known in the 1980s for his ''Men in the Cities'' drawing and print series, which depict sharply dressed men and women writhing in cont ...

Kenny Scharf Kenny Scharf (born November 23, 1958) is an American painter known for his participation in New York City's interdisciplinary East Village art scene during the 1980s, alongside Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring. Scharf's do-it-yourself pract ...

Günther Förg Günther Förg (December 5, 1952 – December 5, 2013) was a German painter, graphic designer, sculptor and photographer. His abstract style was influenced by American abstract painting.

Allen Jones Allen Jones may refer to: *Allen Jones (Continental Congress) (1739–1798), Continental Congress delegate *Allen Jones (artist) (born 1937), British pop artist *Allen Jones (record producer) (1940–1987), American record producer *A.J. Styles (Al ...

Bettina Rheims Bettina Caroline Germaine Rheims (; born 18 December 1952) is a French photographer. Career Early stages Bettina Rheims was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine. Her photographic career began in 1978, when she took a series of photos of a group of strip- ...

, Ed Rucha,

Richard Artschwager Richard Ernst Artschwager (December 26, 1923 – February 9, 2013) was an American painter, illustrator and sculptor. His work has associations with Pop Art, Conceptual art and Minimalism. Early life and art Richard Artschwager was born to Europe ...

Tetsumi Kudo (23 February 1935 – 12 November 1990) was a Japanese avant-garde artist whose multidisciplinary practice included painting, performance, installation and sculpture. Associated with the Anti-Art (''Han-geijutsu'') movement in Japan in the l ...

Peter Halley Peter Halley (born 1953) is an American artist and a central figure in the Neo-Conceptualist movement of the 1980s. Known for his Day-Glo geometric paintings, Halley is also a writer, the former publisher of ''index Magazine'', and a teacher; he ...

Marlene Dumas Marlene Dumas (born 3 August 1953) is a South African artist and painter currently based in the Netherlands. Life and work Dumas was born in 1953 in Cape Town, South Africa and grew up in Kuils River in the Western Cape, where her father had ...

Keith Haring Keith Allen Haring (May 4, 1958 – February 16, 1990) was an American artist whose pop art emerged from the New York City graffiti subculture of the 1980s. His animated imagery has "become a widely recognized visual language". Much of his wor ...

Anton Corbijn Anton Johannes Gerrit Corbijn van Willenswaard (; born 20 May 1955) is a Dutch photographer, film director and music video director. He is the creative director behind the visual output of Depeche Mode and U2,Pitman, Joanna"The silent partner"' ...

Louise Bourgeois Louise Joséphine Bourgeois (; 25 December 191131 May 2010) was a French-American artist. Although she is best known for her large-scale sculpture and installation art, Bourgeois was also a prolific painter and printmaker. She explored a varie ...

Peter Beard Peter Hill Beard (January 22, 1938 – March 31 / April 19, 2020) was an American artist, photographer, diarist, and writer who lived and worked in New York City, Montauk and Kenya. His photographs of Africa, African animals and the journ ...

Imi Knoebel Imi Knoebel (/i:mi: kno:ʊbəl/) (born Klaus Wolf Knoebel; 1940) is a German artist. Knoebel is known for his minimalist, abstract painting and sculpture. The "Messerschnitt" or "knife cuts," are a recurring technique he employs, along with his ...

Damien Hirst Damien Steven Hirst (; né Brennan; born 7 June 1965) is an English artist, entrepreneur, and art collector. He is one of the Young British Artists (YBAs) who dominated the art scene in the UK during the 1990s. He is reportedly the United Kingd ...

Lawrence Weiner Lawrence Charles Weiner (February 10, 1942December 2, 2021) was an American conceptual artist. He was one of the central figures in the formation of conceptual art in the 1960s. His work often took the form of typographic texts, a form of word a ...

David Levinthal David Lawrence Levinthal (born March 8, 1949) is an American photography, photographer who lives and works in New York City. He uses small toys and props with dramatic lighting to construct miniature environments for subject matters varying from ...

, and many more. The collection’s recent acquisitions include works by

Ali Banisadr Ali Banisadr is an Iranian-born American artist from New York City working primarily with oil painting and also with printmaking. Banisadr was ranked #1 in Flash Art's Top 100 Artists of 2011. Early life and career Banisadr was born in Tehran, ...

Anish Kapoor Sir Anish Mikhail Kapoor (born 12 March 1954) is a British-Indian sculptor specializing in installation art and conceptual art. Born in Mumbai, Kapoor attended the elite all-boys Indian boarding school The Doon School, before moving to the UK ...

, Angel Otero,

Arnaldo Pomodoro Arnaldo Pomodoro (born 23 June 1926) is an Italian sculptor. He was born in Morciano, Romagna, and lives and works in Milan. His brother, Giò Pomodoro (1930–2002) was also a sculptor. Pomodoro designed a controversial fiberglass crucifix fo ...

, Daido Moriyama,

Donald Baechler Donald Baechler (November 22, 1956 – April 4, 2022) was an American painter and sculptor associated with 1980s Neo-expressionism. He had lived in Manhattan and Stephentown, New York. Early life and education Baechler was born in Hartford, ...

, Enoc Perez,

Erwin Olaf Erwin Olaf Springveld (born 2 July 1959), professionally known as Erwin Olaf, is a Dutch photographer from Hilversum. Time magazine described his work as straddling "the worlds of commercial, art and fashion photography at once." Biography ...

Harland Miller Harland Miller is a writer and artist. Born in Yorkshire, England in 1964, he studied at Chelsea School of Art, graduating in 1988 with an MA. Miller published his first novel ''Slow Down Arthur, Stick to Thirty'', published by Fourth Estate, ...

Inez van Lamsweerde Inez van Lamsweerde (born 25 September 1963) and Vinoodh Matadin (born 29 September 1961) are a Dutch-American fashion photographer duo, whose work has been featured in fashion magazines and advertising campaigns. They also produce independent art ...

and

Vinoodh Matadin Inez van Lamsweerde (born 25 September 1963) and Vinoodh Matadin (born 29 September 1961) are a Dutch-American Fashion photography, fashion photographer duo, whose work has been featured in fashion magazines and advertising campaigns. They also pr ...

, Larry Bell,

Martin Parr Martin Parr (born 23 May 1952) is a British documentary photographer, photojournalist and photobook collector. He is known for his photographic projects that take an intimate, satirical and anthropological look at aspects of modern life, in p ...

Pat Steir Pat Steir (born 1940) is an American painter and printmaker. Her early work was loosely associated with conceptual art and minimalism, however, she is best known for her abstract dripped, splashed and poured "Waterfall" paintings, which she s ...

Taryn Simon Taryn Simon (born February 4, 1975) is an American multidisciplinary artist who works in photography, text, sculpture, and performance. Currently residing and maintaining a studio practice in New York City, Simon has had work featured in the Ve ...

Tauba Auerbach Tauba Auerbach (born 1981 in San Francisco, California) is a visual artist working in many disciplines including painting, artists' books, sculpture and weaving. They live and work in New York. Early life and education Auerbach grew up in San Fra ...

Tom Sachs Tom Sachs (born July 26, 1966) is an American contemporary artist who lives and works in New York City. Life and early career Sachs was born in New York City on July 26, 1966. He grew up in Westport, Connecticut, attending high school at Green ...

Urs Fischer Urs Fischer (born 2 May 1973) is a Swiss-born contemporary visual artist living in New York City. Fischer’s practice includes sculpture, installation and photography. Education and early career Born to two doctors as the second of two children ...

Yinka Shonibare Yinka Shonibare (born 9 August 1962), is a British-Nigerian artist living in the United Kingdom. His work explores cultural identity, colonialism and post-colonialism within the contemporary context of globalisation. A hallmark of his art is t ...

, and

Zhang Huan Zhang Huan (; born 1965) is a Chinese artist based in Shanghai and New York City. He began his career as a painter and then transitioned to performance art before making a comeback to painting. He is primarily known for his performance work, but a ...

Building

The first building to house the Miniature Museum at the AMC was designed by Ria and Lex Daniels themselves. In 2013 a new building was built in context of the Miniature Museum’s exhibition at the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag. It was inspired and based on an early design by Theo van Doesburg of the Dutch art movement De Stijl and was constructed by the exhibition architects Kossman DeJong.

Visitors

The museum has attracted over 1.000.000 visitors so far. All proceeds made in the sale of the catalogue have been donated to the Medical Cancer Research Foundation. Together with anonymous donations, the Miniature Museum has raised a large amount of money for the foundation. The museum is planning to publish a second volume of the catalogue in 2020. In 1997 the Miniature Museum was awarded the

Guinness World Record ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

for the smallest museum in the world. It has since been featured in the

Guinness book of records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

as such, opposite the largest museum in the world, the Hermitage.

Trivia

The largest work in the collection is ‘Jumped Up Jesus’ by

(42 x 13 x 17 cm). It is the only work in the collection of its size. However, for Kienholz's work which usually encompasses life-sized installation, the piece is considered a miniature. The smallest works in the collection is a stamp by

measuring 2 x 2,5 cm and a landscape painting the size of a pin by Karel Sirag. Sirag’s work measures less than 1 cm diameter and was painted using a miniature brush. In the pre-internet days of the 80s,

pranked the museum by sending an envelope to the museum with an accompanying letter stating to be very careful when opening the envelope as not to lose the miniature work. No matter how closely they searched, the Daniels couldn’t find the work in the envelope and feared they had lost Andre’s work with no way to contact him. A few weeks later a second letter arrived. Across the front of the envelope the words “Just kidding” had been printed in a large font. This time, the work was included in the envelope.

's artwork in the Miniature Museum dates from the 1990s. Exhibiting in Amsterdam at the time, the artist was approached by the Daniels about making an artwork for the collection. Pointing at his large hands, Spoerri said that that was impossible, and added that he was lacking the material to assemble one of his Tableau Pièges on a miniature scale. Upon hearing this, Lex Daniels headed to a toy shop and purchased a number of small utensils for doll houses. Spoerri returned on the day before the opening with a completed Tableau Piège, which he had put together in his hotel room. Currently, the museum is thinking about organizing temporary thematic exhibitions alongside the permanent collection display.

References

External links

Wonderkamers Art in miniature
*https://www.artsy.net/miniaturemuseum {{authority control Art museums and galleries in the Netherlands Museums in Amsterdam Art museums established in 1992 1992 establishments in the Netherlands