Rotterdam museum revives 800-pound peanut butter floor by Schippers

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam will open its doors on Friday to a 25-square-meter floor covered in 800 pounds of peanut butter. The work is a posthumous tribute to Dutch conceptual artist Wim T. Schippers, who died last month at the age of 83.

Schippers first created the Pindakaasvloer in 1969. The current iteration required two museum employees several days of labor to smear 40 buckets of peanut butter to a thickness of 2 centimeters using drywall trowels.

The material for the two-month show was supplied by Calvé, a Dutch peanut butter brand. The in-kind donation effectively turns an absurdist art piece into an implicit corporate endorsement, linking a staple grocery product with a major cultural institution.

Schippers, who also voiced Ernie and Kermit the Frog in the Dutch version of "Sesame Street," built a career challenging conventional definitions of art. The peanut butter floor was part of a broader series that included installations using glass shards and salt.

Public interaction with the work has historically been unpredictable. In 1997, a group added 12 slices of bread and chocolate sprinkles—known locally as hagelslag—to the installation. Schippers reacted with approval, telling the Volkskrant: "It doesn’t look bad. The sprinkles have been applied with a sense of proportion and a skillful hand."

When the piece was displayed in 2011, multiple visitors stepped directly into the sticky surface. The upcoming exhibition will test whether the museum's current crowd management strategies can better preserve the unconventional medium without restricting public access.

Mieke Weismann, a food photographer who saw the 1997 exhibition as a teenager, noted that the pungent scent of peanut butter defined the experience. "The thing I remember is the smell," she said.

Schippers never specified the exact size, shape, thickness, or variety of peanut butter required for the piece. This lack of strict parameters leaves the physical and financial logistics of the installation entirely to the hosting institution.