Amsterdam 2015: Art Museums - Rijks, Van Gogh, Stedelijk

To the guy on Trip Advisor who gave the excellent tip on the best way to navigate the Rijksmuseum and specifically Rembrandt's masterpiece, The Night Watch, without being overrun by other tourists, a big "Thank You!".  His advice was to avoid the weekends, show up as soon as the museum opens on a weekday, and rush immediately up to the 2nd floor to view the works by Rembrandt and Vermeer.  This guidance was bang on, and for a few blissful minutes, it was just Rich and I and a few other stragglers, alone with the masterpieces.  Within 20 minutes, the area was overrun with people stacked 4-5 rows deep.  But by then, we were ready to move on leisurely to visit the rest of the museum, which was significantly less crowded.

The Night Watch has an interesting history that includes being trimmed on all 4 sides in the 1700s in order to make it fit in the desired hanging space between two columns.  At that time, it was just another painting and not yet considered a masterpiece.  A copy of the work, made by Rembrandt’s contemporary, gives an idea of what the original piece would have looked like.  By the Second World War, its magnificence and importance had been realized and great lengths were taken to conceal this jewel from the clutches of the Nazis.

 The day before, we had visited Rembrandt’s house which he lost when he failed to pay his mortgage.  The actual house and its remaining furnishings were underwhelming, but the final video shown at the end was excellent.  It was the BBC documentary “Rembrandt: Masterpieces of the Late Years” narrated by Simon Schama and gave important insight into how to appreciate Rembrandt’s final paintings.  As a result, I was quite interested in seeing some of Rembrandt’s other works which were hanging in the same 17th Century gallery as The Night Watch. 

I spent some time with “Conspiracy of the Batavians Under Claudius Civilis”, because of its compelling backstory.  Rembrandt was commissioned to create a grand, heroic, traditional painting for the town hall, meant to inspire Dutch pride.  Instead he painted a rough, sketch-like rendering of the plotting for a rebellion against the Romans in 69AD, led by a barbaric, deformed leader with an ugly scar where his eye should be, surrounded by a group of drunken ruffians.  Rather than the usual fine brush strokes with intricate details, the paint is “stabbed and slashed and caked on, like the makeup of the warriors”.  The patrons were horrified at what they considered to be an unfinished work and refused to pay for it.  What they did not realize was that Rembrandt was introducing one of the first examples of the Impressionist style, more than 200 years before its time.  After its rejection, Rembrandt had to cut it down in size in order to find a new buyer.

Another masterpiece discussed in the video which was on display at the Rijks was The Syndics of the Drapery Guild depicting quality control inspectors sitting around a table.  Usually a boring topic, Rembrandt brings energy to it with motion, as one man is about to rise and all the men are facing and looking directly out of the painting.  Are they looking at us?  At Rembrandt the painter?  Appropriately, a sketch of the painting was found on a piece of account paper of the ledger book – the same type used for by these men.

Vermeer’s famous Kitchen Maid painting was also a highlight from this gallery, since we had taken art history courses discussing his excellent use of lighting and colour.  The painting is significantly smaller with a more personal feel than the Rembrandt works.

By first visiting the gallery with all the iconic paintings, you would think that the Rijksmuseum was mostly an art gallery.  But wandering around the rest of the wings quickly proved that it was indeed a museum with all types of eclectic collections from the 15th through the 20th Centuries.  We were fascinated by the 17th Century doll houses that were more hobbies of passionate collectors than toys.  One in particular had its contents custom-made to scale, employing the best furniture makers, glassblowers, silversmiths, potters, craftsmen in porcelain and china, and even artists to create tiny paintings for the walls.  Rich was drawn to the many cabinets with exquisite carvings and marquetry.  We saw some early pocket watches with dials that lifted up to reveal images on the back–perhaps the precursor for the Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso watch?  I was amused by the 1960s necklace made out of 4 pieces of stove pipe, but the most brilliant fashion trend was the wearing of pajamas as evening-wear.  I am definitely all for this idea!

The top floor of the museum contained pieces from the 19th-20th Centuries.  There was a chess set that glorified the Nazi conquests during World War II, with chess pieces shaped like soldiers, guns and aircraft.  Multiple examples of beautifully crafted chairs seemed to be designed more for esthetics than comfort.  I liked the series of wacky swim-cap sketches but was perplexed by the 1968 piece titled “Wombtomb”, although I guess the name does say it all with its tomb-like shape and womb opening that you can actually climb into.  The description said that the artist wanted a “playful and liberating environment that led to happenings, performances and interactions”.  One can only imagine …

The truly memorable museums are works of art in their own right, and the Rijks is no exception.  The stately building is a stunning combination of Gothic and Renaissance styles, while the expansive grounds leading up to the museum feature a large shimmering pool and the prominent IAMSTERDAM sign.  During our visit, the pool was also occupied by a giant sculpture by the American artist KAWS, who is known for his subversion of the Mickey Mouse image by putting X’s on the eyes and hands.  The presence of this sculpture was part of a larger Art Sculpture tour that we were lucky enough to go on (more about that in another blog).  Also on the grounds were a series of bunny sculptures called “The Miffy Art Parade” marking the 60th anniversary of the children’s book about Miffy the bunny.  Each rabbit was designed by a different Dutch artist.

As busy as we thought the RijksMuseum would be, the lineups to get into the Van Gogh Museum were much worse–more like the ones encountered at the Anne Frank House.  Luckily, our trusty Museumkaart got us into another queue that let us in almost immediately.  Photography was not allowed in the Van Gogh Museum except at designated locations, which seems pointless to me since images of all the works can be found on the Internet.  Many of the more famous works, such as the Bedroom in Arles, the Sunflowers, and several self-portraits, were familiar to us since we had seen versions in other museums.  A couple of works that were totally unfamiliar were Van Gogh’s attempts at painting in a Japanese style.

The curator did a really good job not only in presenting Van Gogh’s art, but also in detailing his relationships with family, friends, and other artists, describing both his influences and who he in turn influenced.  It is common knowledge that Van Gogh was close to his brother Theo, especially in his final years and the museum displayed many letters that they wrote to each other.  What I did not realize was that Van Gogh also had a second brother and three sisters. There were also excellent interactive video displays that delved into some of Van Gogh’s more famous works such as the Bedroom In Arles, deconstructing it through animation to show the various paint colour layers and brush strokes.

My favourite part of the museum was a looped video displayed on top of the entrance doors, which compared Van Gogh’s iconic images to spoof versions.  This was done for Starry Night, the Sunflowers, Bedroom in Arles (where Roy Litchenstein created a version), and The Potato Eaters.  One of Van Gogh’s many self-portraits was made the subject of the most hilarious parodies, comparing it to similarly profiled images of The Simpson’s Groundkeeper Willie, Leonardo Dicaprio, a Lego character, Mr. Spock from Star Trek, and some cat in a suit that I could not place.

Finally, the Stedelijk Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art was the least popular and easiest to get into, which made it even more surprising that this museum was the only one that wanted a 5Euro entry surcharge with the Museumkaart.  I found it ironic that a museum for modern art is housed at least partially in such a beautiful old building, but the new addition seemed sufficiently contemporary.  We were amused by how enthusiastic the ticket lady was about their new “state of the art” escalator that had been written up in Lonely Planet… um, it was an escalator … I guess if you only have one, then it seems really exciting?  I did like the comfy, bright red lounge chairs where we could rest after a long day of wandering the museum.

Compared to other museums with the same mandate, the Stedelijk’s collection of modern art seemed rather meager.  There were a few instantly identifiable names in the small collection, including Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg and Roy Litchenstein, but for the most part, there were artists that I did not recognize.  One Expressionist piece called “Blank” consisted of two walls covered with linen that had been painted black and the description indicated that the viewer should feel the walls “compressing the space between them”.  I was already feeling skeptical about the artistic merit of this piece, when we walked into the next space where there were only bare white walls.  I was just about to complain about minimalism being taken too far when I realized that this was actually supposed to be a video display and the projector had broken down.

To commemorate the 70th anniversary of Dutch liberation, a temporary exhibit described how the Stedelijk Museum was affected by the Nazi occupation and acted to protect not only its own prized works, but also works owned by Jews who were fleeing the country.  They used a colour-coding system to prioritize the pieces to determine which ones absolutely had to be saved (red dot) as opposed to the ones of lesser importance (blue and white dots).  The Stedelijk collection, along with collections from the Royal Family, the Van Gogh family and other Jewish collectors and artists, were transported to and hidden in a bunker in the dunes near Castricum (North-West of Amsterdam) for the duration of the war.  Masterpieces including Rembrandt's The Night Watch and Van Gogh's Sunflowers were stored here.

Once the war was over, the museum was instrumental in helping to recuperate and return stolen art to their original owners.   The paintings displayed in this exhibit each had a fascinating story related to the war.  In one case, a Jewish businessman fled to Toronto in 1939 just before the war started, leaving his entire collection in the care of the Stedelijk.  When his works were returned after the war, he gifted a painting “Mother and Child” by Oskar Kokoschka to the museum in appreciation.

The most popular attraction at the Stedelijk was the huge temporary exhibit “The Oasis of Matisse”, highlighting in particular Henri Matisse’s work in colourful paper collages.  He created an entire book called Jazz featuring these cut-outs along with personal writings and observations.  Another section of the exhibit compared Matisse’s works to other artists who were influenced by him.  Matisse’s series of odalisque (concubine in a harem) paintings led Picasso to create his own version as a tribute shortly after Matisse’s death.