Rotterdam Museum Covers Floor in 800lb Peanut Butter for Wim T Schippers Tribute

Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam has installed Pindakaasvloer (Peanut Butter Floor), a recreation of a 1962 conceptual work by the late Dutch artist Wim T Schippers. The installation uses 800lb (about 363kg) of smooth peanut butter spread across a hexagonal gallery floor, following Schippers' detailed instructions: 15.6kg per square meter, applied "smoothly and monotonously as possible," with no educational purpose. Schippers, who died in June 2025 at age 83, was a co-founder of the A-dynamische groep art collective and a key figure in Dutch dadaist and absurdist art. His work often used food, including upholstering a chair with canned noodles and covering a table in peas. He also influenced Dutch television, creating the character Sjef van Oekel and voicing Ernie, Kermit the Frog, and Count von Count on the Dutch Sesame Street. The floor has been installed before; in 1997 at Centraal Museum Utrecht, schoolchildren vandalized it with chocolate sprinkles and bread, and in 2011 at Boijmans, a visitor slipped and damaged it. The current installation runs until September 6, 2026, with the museum cafe offering peanut butter sandwiches and the shop selling smooth peanut butter for visitors to "make their own art at home." Acting director Sandra Kisters called the work a tribute to Schippers' sense of bewilderment, comparing his status to Monty Python.