Royal Asian Art Society in the Netherlands

Name variations: VVAK, Vereeniging Vrienden der Aziatische Kunst, Museum voor Aziatische Kunst, Vereniging Vrienden der Aziatische Kunst, KVVAK

The Royal Asian Art Society in the Netherlands (KVVAK) is a collectors society that has established a large collection of Asian art over time. Since 1952, KVVAK's collection is displayed at the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam.

Description

The Royal Asian Art Society in the Netherlands is an association founded in 1918 that holds the designation "Royal" since 2018. The KVVAK was founded on June 29, 1918 by the engineer H.F.E. Visser (1890-1965) and collector and art dealer G.J. Verburgt (1871-1926), with the aim to give greater publicity to high quality Asian art, stimulate interest, and promote scholarship on the topic of Asian art. The association's first president was H.K. Westendorp 1868-1941, who would later bequeath his own collection to the KVVAK. The association's collection currently comprises around 1,850 objects, consisting of various art forms such as sculptures, Japanese prints and ceramics.

After several temporary exhibitions, in 1928, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the KVVAK, it was decided to establish a fund with which the ascociation could acquire its own collection and found a museum. In 1932, the so-called Museum of Asian Art was opened in the Tuinzaal of the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. In 1952, the collection was moved to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, where it is still on display. Initially, the KVVAK collection was exhibited in the Druckeruitbouw, which later became part of the current Philips wing. After the major renovation of the Rijksmuseum in 2013, the KVVAK collection was housed in the Asian Pavilion (http://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q37769044). Not the entire Asian art collection of the Rijksmuseum is on loan from the KVVAK; the museum also has Asian artefacts in its own collection. Most of the KVVAK objects are labelled ‘AK-MAK’, but a few prints are labelled ‘RP’. For the best overview of the KVVAK collection, please visit the association's website (https://www.kvvak.nl/collectie/). In addition to maintaining its own collection, the KVVAK organises lectures and trips, among other things. The magazine Aziatische Kunst is published by De Gruyter Brill.

Provenance research

The archive of the KVVAK is located within the Rijksmuseum's collection. To consult the archive, you need to contact the Rijksmuseum's collections department. In addition, the research library of the Rijksmuseum has a collection of publications, including catalogs of past exhibitions, that are of interest with regard to provenance research on the KVVAK collection.

Resources

Related items

Keywords

Rijksmuseum
Collecting
Stedelijk Museum
Etnographics
Association
Borobudur
Asian art
Asian pavilion

Geographical

Eastern Asia
Southeast Asia

Period of activity

1918 – Present