Museum Helmond

Museum Helmond (known as Gemeentemuseum Helmond until 2017) occupies two separate locations: an almost 700-years-old castle and a modern art gallery. It has three special collections: History of the City, People and Their Work, and Modern and Contemporary Art.

The key exhibits in the city history collection are displayed in the “Castle Story” gallery in the basement and upper floor of Helmond Castle. The museum collects objects linked to the history of Helmond as well as that of the castle and those who lived and worked there. They range in date from prehistoric times to the twenty-first century and include fascinating, unique archaeological objects from the High Middle Ages.

The highlights in the museum’s collection of Old Masters include Landscape with the Sacrifice of Isaac by the Helmond-born artist Lucas Gassel and the painting Pyramus and Thisbe – long attributed to Gassel – which both date from the first half of the sixteenth century. A portrait of Adolf van Cortenbach by Antonius Claeissens and The Meeting of Abraham and Melchizedek by an anonymous artist are also among the museum’s sixteenth-century masterpieces.

The collection of international art with the theme “People and Their Work” is based on Helmond’s industrial past. The collection, most of which dates from the nineteenth century to the present day, has approximately 1,500 artworks by well-known Dutch, European, and American artists who have chosen to depict subjects such as unemployment, social conflict, and working conditions.

Museum Helmond also collects international art from 1960 to the present day. Its collecting policy focuses on works inspired by popular visual culture such as media, cartoons, television, film, fashion, advertising, games and street culture, and the postindustrial urban society.

Nikkie Herberigs, Curator (December 2023)