He was one of the founders of two renowned museums: De Pont, the Tilburg museum for contemporary art, founded in 1988 with his brother and sisters, and Huis Marseille, the photography museum in Amsterdam that opened its doors in 1990 on his initiative. But they weren't are museums, said Jos de Pont, who died last week in his hometown of Amsterdam at the age of 80.
De Pont made that statement six years ago Brabants Dagblad, one of his few media appearances. At that time, he had been chairman of De Pont for 25 years and decided to briefly speak to a reporter. It was pointless, De Pont said, to pat himself on the back. “It's my father's museum.”
Importer of Mercedes
His father Jan de Pont (1915-1987) was a lawyer and businessman who made his fortune as the importer of Mercedes in the Netherlands. Shortly before his unexpected death, De Pont senior determined that part of the assets from his estate should be used to stimulate contemporary visual art. The necessary papers had not yet been signed, but together with his sisters and brother, son Jos decided to realize their father's plans. There was enough money: according to the business magazine Quote With an estimated fortune of approximately 1 billion euros, the De Pont family is one of the richest families in the country.
De Pont, a private museum for contemporary art, opened in a former wool spinning mill in Tilburg in September 1992, attracting more than a hundred thousand visitors every year. Seven years later, De Pont opened Huis Marseille – Museum for Photography in his father's former law office on Keizersgracht in Amsterdam.
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Continuously involved
In a press release The board and management of both museums remember Jos de Pont as a generous and committed director who was “the driving force in a friendly and modest way” behind the success of both museums.
When asked, Martijn van Nieuwenhuyzen, director of De Pont museum since 2019, calls Jos de Pont a good example of a cultural patron. “He was continuously involved and never missed an opening. And when the roof needed to be replaced or the museum was considering a major purchase, he was generous. But he never interfered with artistic policy.”
In memory of the founder, the museum has set up a room with photos from the so-called Düsseldorfer Photoschule (Bernd & Hilla Becher, Andreas Gurski, Thomas Ruff and Thomas Struth) that Jos de Pont himself collected and donated to Huis Marseille. The exhibition can be visited from February 24.
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