Blue Dots
Exhibition — Nov 29, 2025 until Mar 15, 2026
In 1951, in the shadow of the Cold War, the Dutch government introduced a system requiring museums to categorize their collections for evacuation in times of war. Through ‘evacuation dots’ it was determined which works should be saved first: red stood for ‘very important’, white for ‘important’, and blue for ‘less important’. This exhibition in the IMC gallery focuses on the forgotten blue dots. What does it say about a work of art—and about us—when a work was once labeled as “less important”?
With works by renowned 19th-century artists like Jozef Israëls and Thérèse Schwartze, as well as lesser-known names like José Maria Rodriguez-Acosta and Marie de Roode-Heijermans, or a once almost forgotten, but today celebrated name as Nola Hatterman.
In total, between 1951 and 1965, roughly 10% of the artworks — mostly (floral) still lifes, landscapes, and cityscapes — were allocated a blue dot. The dots bear witness to the Stedelijk’s modernist orientation: abstraction and expressionist paintings were considered of greater importance. Willem Sandberg, the director at the time, believed that artists should be ‘forward-thinking’ and concentrate on innovation. Traditional painting and modern figurative painting were often relegated to the sidelines.
75 years on, Blue Dots invites us to think about what is important. And about what, when it comes down to it, we would like to preserve for future generations.
Curated by Nadia Abdelkaui, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.
Credits
1. Willem Martens, Rêve d'amour, 1892-1895
2. Else Berg, Vrouw met gitaar, 1929
3. Jacob Ritsema, Kalfjes
4. Nola Hatterman, Louis Richard Drenthe / op het terras, 1930