18 Apr - 9 Nov 2025
18 Apr - 9 Nov 2025
The Willet-Holthuysen HouseSolo exhibition Sander Breure & Witte van Hulzen
To mark the anniversary of 80 Years of Freedom in the Netherlands, the Amsterdam Museum presents ‘Friede auf Erden’: Art and War at the Willet-Holthuysen House. In this exhibition, artist duo Sander Breure and Witte van Hulzen revive the hidden wartime history of the Willet-Holthuysen House through a new video installation, along with photographs, drawings, and paintings.
This exhibition is at display at the Willet-Holthuysen House at Herengracht 603.
Complex story loaded with memories and perspectives
Highlighting the changeability and polyvocality of history, the multichannel video installation’s central element is “Weihnachtslegende 1943,” a play for puppet theatre written by German Jewish refugee Grete Weil. This Christmas story was performed by and for people in hiding during the war. In this interpretation, it is played by children, while voices from older generations tell the story.
Photographs and drawings
Additionally, the exhibition features a presentation of slides from the influential photographer Cas Oorthuys (1908–1975), in which resistance activities at the Willet-Holthuysen House figure prominently. Also on view are works by cartoonist Chris Beekman (1887–1964)—who, like Oorthuys, was part of the communist resistance—and a selection of drawings by Aat Breur-Hibma (1913–2002), who portrayed fellow prisoners at the Ravensbrück concentration camp for women.
The Willet-Holthuysen House, site of resistance
The Willet-Holthuysen House, formerly the stately double mansion of the collector couple Abraham and Louise Willet-Holthuysen, functioned as a hub for the resistance network during the Second World War. Although the museum was closed at the time, it remained accessible to students of the Art History Institute and staff of the Institute for Social Research. Under this guise, various resistance activities occurred, such as providing addresses offering a hiding place, Resistance Council meetings, and forging identity documents and ration cards.
Curator Tour
In Dutch
Curator toegepaste kunst Thijs Boers neemt in het kader van de Nationale Herdenking bezoekers mee door de tentoonstelling 'Friede auf Erden': kunst en oorlog in Huis Willet-Holthuysen.
Datum: 4 mei
Tijd: 14.30 tot 15.30 uur
Prijs: €0,00 - €5,00. Met dit ticket krijg je toegang tot de Curator Tour én het huis.
Voertaal: Nederlands
Artist duo Sander Breure & Witte van Hulzen
Sander Breure and Witte van Hulzen have collaborated since 2006. The artist duo is based in Amsterdam. Breure and Van Hulzen’s oeuvre is interdisciplinary and includes performances, installations, video art, sculptures, photography, and drawings. Their work has been shown in solo and group presentations at home and abroad, including exhibitions at Marres (Maastricht), the Contour 7 Biennale for the Moving Image (Mechelen), Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen (Rotterdam), MACBA (Barcelona), and as part of the Prix de Rome at Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. They are included in the collections of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Centraal Museum Utrecht, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, and others.
Willet-Holthuysen House, mansion on the canal
The exhibition can be seen at the Willet-Holthuysen House in Amsterdam, located at Herengracht 605 and part of the Amsterdam Museum. This double mansion features various period rooms, including a 19th-century ballroom and a symmetrical French-style garden, and is home to numerous impressive historical objects. Exhibitions are regularly held at the Willet-Holthuysen House that shed light on its past from different perspectives.
Made possible by
The Amsterdam Museum is structurally supported by Main Beneficiary Gemeente Amsterdam, Founder VriendenLoterij and Main Partner Education ELJA Foundation. The exhibition is made possible by the Mondriaan Fonds and Vfonds.