I was thirteen when I first visited the sculpture garden of the Kröller-Müller Museum. It was a beautiful day and the sculpture garden seemed infinitely large.
As we were walking through the garden, we came across Jean Dubuffet’s Jardin d'émail, which made a huge and lasting impression on me.
It began with a mysterious door, through which you physically and mentally entered a different world. The sun-drenched, snow-white landscape with its black lines and strange protrusions, where you could walk, run around, sit or lie down…
I had the feeling that I’d arrived in an undiscovered, new country. It was art that you could play with, in which you could use your imagination. It felt like it was made especially for me. A landscape in a landscape, my landscape.
I will never forget that very first time in the Kröller-Müller Museum. Perhaps that sense of wonder and joy is what later led me to enter the art world myself and become an actress.
That feeling, that natural introduction to art, is what I hope for all children. And all adults too, because that is precisely what the museum is so good at: for many different groups it finds the right tone, the best way to let them enjoy art.
Fortunately, the Helene Kröller-Müller Fund can help the museum continue to do so, also for future visitors.
As one of the initiators of the fund, I would be very grateful if you decide to contribute. So that thanks to you, for example, children will continue to find their own, shiny fantasy landscape in the Jardin d’émail.
Johanna ter Steege
Initiator Helene Kröller-Müller Fund