For as long as we've been around, we've tried to control nature. Sometimes out of admiration, sometimes out of necessity. At a time when the relationships between people and nature are on edge, we look back to think ahead.
Sometimes you tried to capture, own, organize me.
But my meaning is not to be captured in lines.
Yet the drawings tell my story — and ours.
About how you saw me and see me now. About how I change. And about how we can live together.
Signed, Nature.
At a time when our relationship with the world around us seems increasingly fragile, Signed, Nature invites to go back in time. In this exhibition, you will walk through four centuries of history in which man's relationship to nature has changed significantly. Is man subject to forces greater than himself? Can he rule nature? Or is he himself an integral part of all life on Earth — and should he therefore listen to what nature has to say?
Signed, Nature addresses these questions and invites you to think about appropriate and sustainable ways of living together and your own views on living with your environment.
An extensive collection of ancient Utrecht landscape drawings from the Munnicks van Cleeff Collection forms the common thread. This is complemented by old, modern and contemporary works by, among others, Charley Toorop, Peter Vos, Anne Geene, Raquel Maulwurf and Piet Mondrian. Some works have never been shown before, including Niwael's Portrait of a girl on her death bed and Pink Mirage by Ben Sledsens. the Annex displays the latest work by Richard Mosse, Broken Specter, shown in the Netherlands for the first time.
Munnicks van Cleeff
The Munnicks van Cleeff Collection consists of approximately 1,500 landscape drawings and prints from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, including around a hundred works in the exhibition. The collection contains detailed images of the province of Utrecht and is a valuable document for regional history. For example, there are prints depicting famous places such as the Biltstraat in Utrecht, although they are no longer recognisable: where there were still fields in the seventeenth century, it is now fully built.
On display in De Stallen
Signed, Nature can be seen in De Stallen. This exhibition space is located in the old stables of the former Agnietenklooster, where Good Mom/Bad Mom was on display.
Twice a year, a large-scale, topic-related exhibition is shown here, with a focus on one of our sub-collections: ancient, modern and contemporary art, design, fashion or urban history.
The Stables is the museum's largest exhibition space.
Visit as a member
Visit Signed, Nature, other exhibitions and activities such as friend of the museum, member of Central Club whether Central Circle.