Rijksmuseum
4 July to 14 September, 2025
This summer, for the first time in the history of the Rijksmuseum, a contemporary artist has been invited to curate a major exhibition, spanning the entirety of the Philips Wing.
Entitled Monomania – Rijksmuseum’s 2025 summer exhibition will be curated by the internationally acclaimed Indonesia-born Dutch artist Fiona Tan, who represented the Netherlands at the 2009 Venice Biennale. Tan’s fascination with the birth of psychiatry at the beginning of the 19th century serves as the starting point for the exhibition that draws from Rijksmuseum’s extensive collection including works by Francisco Goya, Edvard Munch, Raden Saleh as well as Japanese masks and christening gowns
Théodore Géricault, Portrait of a Kleptomaniac, c. 1820–1824, Ghent, Museum of Fine Arts, inv. no. 1908-F; gift of The Friends of the Museum Ghent, 1908.
Portrait of a Kleptomaniac (c. 1822) by the French artist Théodore Géricault (Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent) serves as the starting point for Fiona Tan’s research into the development of psychiatry at the beginning of the 19th century. The painting is part of Les Monomanes, a series of ten portraits of individuals believed to have an obsessive fixation. Only five of these paintings are still known today. Géricault, along with many other 19th century artists, was fascinated by the extremes of the psyche. They were keen to explore, like the physicians of the time, the idea that mental afflictions could be read upon the face.
Odilon Redon (signed by artist), Ophélie, la cape bleue sur les eaux (Ophelia with a Blue Wimple in the Water), 1900 - 1905, Rijksmuseum, Inv.no. SK-A-4840.
Edvard Munch, The Sin (Standing Nude with Red Hair), 1902, Rijksmuseum. inv.no. RP-P-1953 -888.
