EINDHOVEN, NETHERLANDS.- This year the Van Abbemuseum celebrates its 70th anniversary. During this period the museum organised many acclaimed exhibitions and put together a major art collection that is today one of the most renowned in the Netherlands. The museum now marks its 70th birthday with a series of exhibitions, lectures and collaborations focusing on the present, past and future of the museum.

What happened to Art, on view through September 17, 2006. As part of the anniversary celebrations, the exhibition What happened to Art traces the developments and changes in artistic practice from 1955 to 2000, based on the museum’s own collection. Paintings, objects and installations fill the ten spaces of the old building, where the museum began in 1936. Alongside major highlights less well-known works of the collection are shown to reveal the depth and particularity of the collection. Artistic trends are traced in chronological order.

Colourful, expressive works by Cobra artists like Appel, Jorn and Corneille are followed by those from Fontana, Manzoni, Uecker, Piene and Schoonhoven, whose sober white works, built up from textures, play with light and shadow. With their minimal forms, objects by Judd and Andre dominate the museum space, while paintings by Immendorff, Penck and Polke focus on the possibilities of painting. Each space features a certain period, a new aspect in art, or the work of individual artists like Beuys, Daniëls or Gordon. In the show contrasts and incongruities are made visible and sharpen our current view of art of the last half century.