Name: Discover the Modern
Start: 2026-06-16T08:00:00
End: 2026-06-16T15:00:00
Location: Kunstmuseum Den Haag

The permanent exhibition Discover the Modern puts leading and groundbreaking works by modern artists in the spotlight. You’ll embark on a wonderful journey through paintings, sculptures and models by artists who challenged the established status quo. We’ll take you by the hand and then set you free on this exhilarating rollercoaster ride through everything that, from the nineteenth century onwards, dared to break with the past.

What is ‘Discover the Modern’?

Discover the Modern is the permanent exhibition on modern art at the Kunstmuseum Den Haag. The exhibition brings together leading works by artists who broke with existing traditions and found new ways of looking at art and the world.

Visitors are taken on a tour past paintings, sculptures and models by artists who experimented with form, colour and subject matter. The exhibition focuses on the development of modern art.

A new reality

Modern art emerged at the end of the nineteenth century, during a period of industrialisation, growing prosperity and major social change. Artists began to seek new ways of expressing themselves and their times.

Both emerging artists such as Charley Toorop and Pablo Picasso and established artists such as Claude Monet and Wassily Kandinsky played a significant role in this. By challenging existing methods and art forms, a new reality emerged in which innovation took centre stage.

The ever-changing present

Modernist artists believed that art could contribute to a better society. Their constant quest for innovation makes it difficult to categorise modern art under a single period or movement.

That is why the Kunstmuseum Den Haag has chosen not to present the exhibition chronologically. Works of art from different periods, movements and disciplines are displayed side by side. This creates new connections, narratives and dialogues between artists from different times and places.

Links between artists and movements

The exhibition shows how artists influenced one another and how ideas have evolved throughout art history.

What influence did Piet Mondrian have on Minimalist artists such as Donald Judd? What do Francis Bacon’s paintings have in common with Berlinde De Bruyckere’s sculptures? And what similarities are there between Ernst Ludwig Kirchner’s Expressionism and Marlene Dumas’s portraits?

Discovering these connections offers a new perspective on modern art and its development.

No set route

There is no set route for the exhibition. Visitors can choose their own path through the artworks and discover the stories behind the collection in their own way.

Featuring works by artists including Monet, Mondrian, Kandinsky and Bacon, Discover Modern Art offers a broad overview of modern art and the artists who shaped this movement.