ARTFEED — Contemporary Art Intelligence

Fiona Tan curates Rijksmuseum's first contemporary artist exhibition exploring psychiatry and categorization

exhibition · 2026-04-19

Fiona Tan has made history as the inaugural contemporary artist to curate a significant exhibition at Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum, named 'Monomania,' which will take place from 4 July to 14 September 2025. This exhibition delves into the realm of nineteenth-century psychiatry and scrutinizes the dependability of classification systems within both medical science and museum curation, spanning 11 galleries. It showcases a variety of items, including Javanese masks and tea cosies, alongside artworks and archival materials. The exhibition opens with Théodore Géricault's 'Portrait of a Kleptomaniac' (c. 1820–24) and features an 1840s phrenological chart along with clinical case studies from Auguste Voisin's 'Leçons cliniques sur les maladies mentales' (1876). Tan's 2025 video 'Janine's Room' and a catalogue offer critiques of contemporary mental health viewpoints. The Autumn 2025 issue of ArtReview Asia will include a review of the exhibition.

Key facts

  • Fiona Tan is the first contemporary artist to curate a major exhibition at the Rijksmuseum
  • The exhibition 'Monomania' runs from 4 July to 14 September 2025 at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam
  • The show explores nineteenth-century psychiatry and the fallibility of categorization
  • It includes 11 galleries with artworks, archival materials, and objects from storage
  • Théodore Géricault's 'Portrait of a Kleptomaniac' (c. 1820–24) is featured, with its title applied posthumously
  • A gallery displays discredited pseudoscience items like a phrenological chart and Franz Xaver Messerschmidt's sculptures
  • Clinical case studies from Auguste Voisin's 1876 work show a woman with 'lypemaniacal madness'
  • Tan's video 'Janine's Room' (2025) is part of the exhibition

Entities

Artists

  • Fiona Tan
  • Théodore Géricault
  • Franz Xaver Messerschmidt
  • Louise Bourgeois
  • Jean-Etienne Esquirol
  • Auguste Voisin
  • Charles Darwin

Institutions

  • Rijksmuseum
  • ArtReview Asia
  • Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent

Locations

  • Amsterdam
  • Netherlands
  • Indonesia
  • Australia
  • Ghent
  • Belgium

Sources