Completely nuts: Dutch gallery covers floor in peanut butter to honour late artist
A Peanut Butter Tribute: Rotterdam Museum Honors Wim T Schippers
The Sticky Installation
Completely nuts - Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam has unveiled an unusual memorial to Wim T Schippers, one of the Netherlands' most distinctive cultural figures. The gallery floor has been completely covered with approximately 800 pounds of peanut butter, creating a hexagonal installation known as Pindakaasvloer, or Peanut Butter Floor. This recreation honors a piece originally conceived by Schippers in 1962 and first shown to the public in 1969.
The installation comes with specific guidelines that Schippers documented before his passing last month at the age of 83. According to his instructions, curators must apply 15.6 kilograms of smooth, non-chunky peanut butter to each square meter of the floor. The substance should be spread as evenly and consistently as possible. Visitors are asked not to stand or lie on the installation and to avoid approaching it with any educational intentions.
"Peanut butter floor still raises questions like, is this art? Am I allowed to like this?" said Sandra Kisters, the acting director of Museum Boijmans van Beuningen. "And it is this sense of bewilderment that makes this piece so special. We regard it as a great honour to be able to present this unique artwork in his memory."
A Life of Artistic Rebellion
Born Willem Theodoor Schippers in Groningen, this multifaceted artist left an indelible mark on Dutch cultural life. His dadaist sensibilities and appreciation for the absurd resonated well beyond traditional gallery spaces. During the early 1960s, Schippers co-founded the A-dynamische groep, an art collective that challenged commercialization, seriousness, and boredom in artistic expression. Their provocative stunts included shaving cactuses and scattering glass shards or salt throughout exhibition spaces.
Food served as a recurring medium in Schippers' work. Beyond the famous peanut butter floor, he upholstered a chair with canned noodles and covered an entire table with peas. His creative reach extended into television from the late 1960s onward. His music program Hoepla gained notoriety after featuring the first completely naked woman on live Dutch television, leading to its discontinuation.
Schippers also created the beloved comedy character Sjef van Oekel, a Belgian frites salesman dressed in a tuxedo, portrayed by comedian and opera singer Dolf Brouwers. For Dutch audiences, he remains most recognizable as the Dutch voice of Ernie, Kermit the frog, and Count von Count on their local version of Sesame Street.
"You could compare his status and influence to Monty Python," said Kisters. "He believed that life and art were always entirely serious and entirely non-serious at the same time."
From Conceptual Art to Final Works
Schippers continued producing conceptual art until his death in June. His 1999 piece Het Is Me Wat (That Is Quite Something) featured a massive stone suspended above a pedestal using powerful electromagnets. Hilversum's Media Park still displays his four-meter-high sculpture Stationnement Gênant (Unauthorised Parking), depicting a pile of excrement, which was unveiled in 2011.
In April of this year, Schippers revealed to Dutch media that he was completing his final artwork, titled Wim is Gone. "I keep putting it off, because then I think I'm going to die," he explained.
A History of Visitor Interaction
The peanut butter floor has appeared in Dutch museums on multiple occasions. During its 1997 showing at Utrecht's Centraal Museum, schoolchildren vandalized the installation by covering it with chocolate sprinkles and bread slices, recreating a beloved Dutch childhood snack. Reports suggest Schippers was pleased with this unintended transformation.
When the floor was previously installed at Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in 2011, an inattentive visitor slipped and damaged the work. Curious visitors submitted 648 questions about the piece, each of which Schippers answered personally in writing.
The current exhibition runs until 6 September. During this period, the museum's restaurant will feature peanut butter sandwiches on its menu, with optional additions of cheese and spicy sambal relish. Additionally, the museum shop will stock smooth peanut butter, allowing visitors to "make their own art at home," according to Kisters.