Willem Sandberg was a gifted designer and a pragmatic museum director, a doer

who achieved an incredible amount in the art world after 1945 and opened many

people’s eyes to contemporary art. He was an idealist who cherished the utopian

belief that contemporary art could play a self-evident and meaningful role in society

outside of its usual marginal and elitist position. At the same time, he was enough

of a realist not to harbour excessively high expectations of the result of his efforts.

H...