“You see that they have been forgotten over time,” says Loulou Kokkedee, curator at the museum. “During their lives they had the space to create and develop, but you see that their work did not end up in museums. Their art mainly remained in the living rooms and attics of their descendants.”
Kokkedee therefore put together a special exhibition of female artists who were important to the Amsterdam School.
Vibrant movement
The exhibition ‘Unknown Talent, women of the Amsterdam School’ is also a look back at an exhibition from 1913. It was large and controversial, with art designed exclusively by women. A feminist exhibition, at a time when women hardly seemed to count.
But the 20th century, it was thought at the time, would be the century of women. “It was a vibrant movement,” says Kokkedee. “You can read in the speeches of that time the tingle of what was to come in the 20th century.”
The first and only female architect
Architecture in particular was a difficult field for women. Kokkedee: “Architecture was seen as a field where strength and cold rationality were needed to devise a construction and it was assumed that women had less of that.”
How special it was that a woman worked as an architect is evident from a letter from one of the colleagues of Margaret Kropholler, the first and only female architect of the Amsterdam School. Curator Kokkedee reads: “You understand that her appearance in the room among fifty male individuals stirred many tongues. Several colleagues were very indignant.”
Feminist gesture
In addition to all the photos, ceramics, textiles and other art of the women of that time, there is also a clear link to this time, with stories and images of contemporary female artists. And that makes this exhibition, just like the one from 1913, a feminist exhibition, says Kokkedee: “First of all, I tried to highlight the women and their artistry, but the fact that they now play a role in public space, I see that as a feminist gesture.”
The exhibition ‘Unknown Talent, women of the Amsterdam School’ can be seen in Museum Het Schip in Amsterdam until the end of June 2026.