A museum in Rotterdam is honouring a pillar of the Dutch art community by covering part of a gallery floor with peanut butter.
Using 800 pounds of the smooth spread, staff created a 25-square-metre hexagon on the floor of a gallery at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, a visual arts museum in Rotterdam, Netherlands, following instructions from conceptual artist Wim T. Schippers, who died last month at 83, and first created the piece in the 1960s.
To execute the “Peanut Butter Floor,” the museum appointed so-called ‘peanut butter plasterers,’ who had previously installed the artwork “with great precision” in 2011, according to a description on the museum’s website.
“On July 2 and 3, armed with buckets of peanut butter and plastering tools, they set to work again to recreate the floor,” it said.
Workers spread peanut butter on a floor to recreate the ‘Peanut Butter Floor’ artwork in tribute to Dutch artist Wim T. Schippers at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, Netherlands, July 3, 2026.
AP Photo/Mouneb Taim
Described as a “conceptual art piece” by the museum, it is part of a broader series of floor installations ideated in 1962 by Schippers, which also saw him cover floors in shards of glass and salt.
The artwork “revolves around the idea that there is a floor of peanut butter in a museum and visitors wonder why,” according to the museum’s description, which added that it is meant to raise the question, “Is this art?” and “Am I allowed to find this beautiful?”
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“Schippers viewed art as something that does not necessarily have to be logical or useful. It may be nonsensical — just like life itself — and precisely for that reason be worthwhile,” it added.
The “Peanut Butter Floor” has been installed many times since its original presentation in 1962, according to the museum. In each instance, it was constructed according to directions written by Schippers, it explained, adding that it chose this work to commemorate the irreverent figure as it is one of his most talked-about and recognizable creations, encapsulating his singular perspective, sense of humour and propensity to lean into the absurd.
“Precisely because it is so characteristic of his way of thinking and working, the Peanut Butter Floor is a fitting tribute,” it wrote.
People look at peanut butter spread across a museum floor in tribute to Dutch artist Wim T. Schippers, who died last month, in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, on July 9, 2026.
Niels van der Pas/via AP
Everything down to the brand of peanut butter used was decided by Schippers, who opted for Calvé because he said it “spread so nicely,” though he never specified the shape of the piece.
The artwork has invited plenty of attention throughout the years. In 1997, schoolchildren vandalized a version of the installation at Utrecht’s Centraal Museum by covering it with chocolate sprinkles and slices of bread, The Guardian wrote, an outcome that Schipper reportedly approved of.
Then, at the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in 2011, a visitor walked over a version of the installation and slipped on it, the U.K. outlet also reported.
During his career, Schippers presented works that included a chair upholstered with canned noodles, a table covered in peas and, in 2011, unveiled a four-metre-high structure titled “Unauthorized Parking” that resembled a giant pile of excrement in Media Park in the Dutch city of Hilversum. He was also a television writer and comedian. In the Netherlands, he was best known as the voice of Ernie, Kermit the Frog and Count von Count on the Dutch version of Sesame Street.
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