Groninger Museum
Postmodern museum on an island in the canal, with art, design, ceramics and the De Ploeg painters.
The Groninger Museum was founded in 1894 and moved in 1994 to a purpose-built complex on an artificial island in the Verbindingskanaal, directly opposite the railway station. The collection ranges from regional archaeology and history to Chinese and Japanese export porcelain, much of it recovered from shipwrecks, and from old master paintings to design, fashion and contemporary art. Its holdings of the Groningen expressionist group De Ploeg, including Jan Wiegers and Hendrik Werkman, are the largest anywhere.
The building was conceived by the Italian designer Alessandro Mendini as a group of linked pavilions, each with a different character and each designed with a collaborator: Philippe Starck contributed a circular ceramics pavilion, Michele De Lucchi a brick-clad block for older art and the Viennese practice Coop Himmelb(l)au a deconstructivist steel volume for changing exhibitions. A gold-coloured storage tower rises at the centre and a footbridge carries visitors across the water.
Highlights
- Pavilions by Mendini, Starck, De Lucchi and Coop Himmelb(l)au
- Largest collection of the De Ploeg expressionists
- Chinese and Japanese porcelain recovered from shipwrecks
- Gold-coloured depot tower rising from the canal island
