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For over forty years, Pieter and Marieke Sanders avidly collected the work of relatively young, as well as more renowned artists from the Netherlands and overseas. Their collection includes paintings, works on paper, sculptures, installations, photography, videos, and artists’ books. The emphasis lies on innovative and conceptual work. In recent years, they have been following in particular new developments in the field of new media, video art and post-internet art.

In 2019, Marieke Sanders and her children Albertine Zoetmulder and Pieter Sanders jr. announced their intention to place a selection from the collection of contemporary art that she and her husband Pieter Sanders (1938 - 2018) collected with five Dutch art museums. After a period of intensive orientation and selection, no fewer than 225 works were divided between Centraal Museum Utrecht, Kunstmuseum Den Haag, Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and Teylers Museum Haarlem. On the occasion of this transfer, these five museums presented the joint exhibition Collector's Item, in which the collection was shown one more time as a whole. This exhibition was on show at Centraal Museum Utrecht from 14 November 2020 to 7 March 2021.

In 2024, Marieke Sanders once again donated a large number of works by Finnish photographers from the collection to Museum de Fundatie in Zwolle. These works, complemented by other works from the collection and works from the museum itself, will be on show from June 8, 2024 in the exhibition Northern Light: nature photography, curated by Maarten Bertheux. The exhibition can be seen until 22 September 2024.

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Susanna Majuri, High Tide 2006, Collection Sanders

Northern light: nature photography - Major donation photography Pieter and Marieke Sanders

From June 8, 2024, Museum de Fundatie presents the exhibition Northern light: nature photography. This exhibition focuses on the photographic view of nature and the relationship of humans to nature. Northern light: nature photography highlights topics such as the cycles in nature, human interventions in nature, including disturbing the ecological balance, and how the human condition is reflected in relation to nature. Over 100 artworks are on display, including around 50 works by Finnish photographers from the collection of collectors Pieter and Marieke Sanders, which Marieke Sanders donated to Museum de Fundatie.

The exhibition is complemented by another 40 works from Pieter and Marieke Sanders' collection and several paintings and photographic works from the museum's own collection. In addition, four artists were asked to create their own presentations: Marijke van Warmerdam, Koos Breukel, Awoiska van der Molen and Miklos Gaàl. Guest curator of Northern light: nature photography is Maarten Bertheux.

Otobong Nkanga, Shaping Memory, 2012. © Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam

Collector’s Item at Centraal Museum Utrecht

The contemporary art collection of Pieter and Marieke Sanders, 14 November 2020 - 7 March 2021

With the participation of Kunstmuseum Den Haag, the Rijksmuseum, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam and Teylers Museum, an exhibition of 70 contemporary art pieces from the Pieter and Marieke Sanders collection will open at Centraal Museum on 14 November. These works are part of a gift and conveyance of no less than 250 works to the Dutch State. To celebrate this conveyance, these five museums are presenting the collection as a whole for the last time, in the exhibition titled Collector’s Item. Each museum will be assigned a gallery in which to mount its own part of the exhibition. Visitors can count on encountering contemporary artists such as Marlene Dumas, Jan Hoek, Klaas Kloosterboer, Folkert de Jong and Gluklya. About the Sanders collection

Pieter and Marieke Sanders began to collect contemporary art by both young and upcoming and more established artists, both domestically and internationally, in the early 1970s. Their collection therefore forms a splendid reflection of the art made during the past few decades, as curated by Dutch museum-level galleries. Their collection comprises paintings, drawings, sculptures, small objects, installations, video work and artist’s books.The collection mainly consists of early work by artists such as Marlene Dumas, Babs Haenen, Hans Wilschut, Navid Nuur, Monali Meher, Driessens & Verstappen, Otobong Nkanga, Hannah van Bart, Katja Mater and many more.