Show me Moore

I’ve always loved Henry Moore‘s sculpture, the fluid lines seem organic yet the human form is recognisable. Some of the sculptures are so monumental that they seem to be of the landscape, others seem to be like long forgotten fossils . So the exhibition of Moore’s works on at the Museum Beelden Aan Zee is a must-see for me.

The most impressive exhibit for me was the massive piece shown above, it looked to me like a super-sized mastodon tooth, but it’s called “Three Way Piece No1 Points” and was made in 1964-65. When you look at the surface more closely it resembles patterns of herd of animals.

The exhibition is well set out, and it’s interesting to see shells, rocks and bones showcased in the first cabinet as Moore was inspired by elements from nature in all his work. I loved that Leiden’s Naturalis had contributed to the exhibition.

When I go to exhibitions I often contemplate which work I would want to live with, and I probably spent the most time contemplating the Mastodon’s tooth above, it was probably the Three Way Ring that was safely behind glass that spoke to me the most. The curves seemed perfectly formed from all angles, and yet the view and light changed as you walked around the object. Some of Moore’s large scale works have similar interior spaces, apparently Moore endorsed the idea of “children playing inside and around his open forms, exploring them fully in space” according to the exhibition guide, and that seems kind and unpretentious for a man who changed art.

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  Three Way Ring 1967, behind glass because it’s porcelain and fragile, but oh I wanted to touch it.

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  Elephant Skull, Moore often studied bones to inspire his sculpture

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  Detail from “King and Queen”, Moore’s only sculpture of two adults posed together.

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  Detail from Two Piece Reclining Figure No2, reminds me of a dramatic coastline

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  Upright Motive sculptures in the museum’s courtyard

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  Working Model for a Divided Oval: Butterfly 1967, perhaps a butterfly emerging

The exhibits are set out in the huge main exhibition space with plenty of space to view the objects from all angles. I was there on a public holiday but it was not crowded at all, and we had plenty of space to wander around. It was a pleasure to look at the works in relative calm. I may even go back for a second viewing on a warmer day.

Museum Beelden Aan Zee is open Tuesday to Sunday, and this exhibition is on until 22 October.
Entry Fee: 21 euro which includes an extra fee for this exhibition
Entree for Museum Card holders: 3.50 (but you can go to the exhibition on a later date without paying the 3.50 again)
Address: Harteveltstraat 1, 2586 EL The Hague
Public transport access from the Hague: no1 tram from the city centre.

My Girl With a Pearl

These are the five winners of the “my girl” submissions, I can’t decide which of these is my favourite.

The Hague’s most famous girl, the Vermeer painting “Girl with a Pearl Earring” is currently visiting Amsterdam for the incredible Vermeer exhibition, so what can the Mauritshuis display while their most famous resident is away? Everyone’s interpretation of her. There are the five winning images framed and posted in the room, and a digital display with a selection of more images that changes each week.

Mauritshuis asked for fans to submit their own version of or tribute to the painting and the creativity is amazing. Some of the best are on display but you can also see a sample on a special Instagram account. I can’t pick my favourite there either, but this one made me laugh.

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The Mauritshuis has come in for some criticism for their approach, from a couple of different directions.

This is not Art, Bring Back Vermeer

I’m lucky, I’ve seen Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring multiple times, and I will visit her again when she returns to Den Haag, so I didn’t feel I missed out on seeing her on this visit. In fact I found it quite refreshing to see what other artists had done with the image, from changing the ethnicity of the sitter, to hinting at an origin story, to making a political point.

However given that the she has been in Amsterdam in an exhibition that’s completely sold out I can easily imagine feeling I’d missed out if I’d come to the Netherlands wanting to see her and then not been able to.

The girl brings her pearl back to the Hague on the 1 April, although the Amsterdam exhibition continues until June.

Why are you displaying AI-generated works?

This has been the most controversial point. One of the five winners, the central image in the row above, was selected as one of the winners. People online have had a lot of opinions about it, writing screeds on Instagram that AI is not art, that the museum does art a disservice by including it, that all AI is plagiarism. The critics have a point. I imagine similar critiques have been leveled at every other piece of technology in the art world – few artists now would mix their own paint in the way of Vermeer, Fabritius or Hals. And surely with good photography we can all have our own “Vermeer” in our homes. So yes, artists evolve and use new technologies, museums evolve to display new art in new ways. But the plagiarism charge still sticks since AI trains art-generating algorithms on existing works without every acknowledging or paying those artists. Given that AI is pretty terrible for working artists a museum displaying an AI work gives it unwelcome legitimacy. I don’t have any answers. I suspect the museum chose the winning images with an eye to prevailing trends of diversity and technology and knew they’d attract attention/criticism.

But I’ve made up my mind on my favourite “girl”, only the image does not depict a girl at all.

Museum Voorlinden

Museum Voorlinden is a new museum, by Dutch standards, having opened in 2016. It’s a a wonderful modern pavilion purpose built as a home for art, it’s surrounded by a garden designed to have flowers in three seasons and be interesting in all four seasons. The collection is modern and has at its base the private collection of Mr. van Caldenborgh.

Museum Voorlinden (source: Cordeel, the construction company)

The exhibition space is light an airy, with a specifically designed ceiling so that the gallery space is bathed in light. There were three exhibitions on view. The first is called “Less is More“, a sort of play on art meeting minimalism. Some of the pieces focused on impermanence, some on humans vs their environment and some explored the materials such as Trans-for-men (my favourite piece in the exhibition). This exhibition is on until January 2020 – so you have time!

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  Bowls of Pearls, 2006, Ai Weiwei

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  Membrane, 1986, Anthony Gormley

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  Self-Portrait, 1984, Tony Craggs

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  Trans-For-Men 8 (Fibonacci), Alicja Kwade

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  Plastic Tree, 2014, Pascale Marthine Tayou

The second exhibition I saw was a joy, an exploration of fabric and architecture. Do Ho Suh, a Korean artist, is fascinated with space and each piece is infused with colour.

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  A corridor of real spaces where Do Ho Suh has lived

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  You can walk through the spaces, which are all to scale

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  Each space is incredibly detailed

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  Staircase-III, 2003, stairs you cannot step on!

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  With thread on cotton paper, Do Ho Suh explores home and migration themes

And finally, the exhibition I was most curious to see, I’ve wanted to see Yayoi Kusama’s work for ages. Her power with colour and shape, her ability to visualise in any medium is so impressive. She’s been copied and underestimated forever, and it’s relatively recently – thanks Instagram! – that’s she’s started to have the sort of universal recognition her genius deserves. I was not less impressed for having seen so many images of her work.

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  Pumpkin, 2009, yes the pumpkin really is more than 2 metres tall

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  Infinity Mirror Room: Gleaming Lights of the Souls, 2008

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  Dots, 1999

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  Narcissus Garden 1966/2010

I’ve wanted to see Yayoi Kusama’s work for years, so when I saw there was an exhibition on at Museum Voorlinden i rushed off to see it, I was a bit slow noticing so ended up going in the last week. The two other exhibitions I saw are still on, but hurry for Do Ho Suh, it ends on until 29 September.

How To Visit

Address
Voorlinden museum & gardens
Buurtweg 90
2244 AG Wassenaar
The Netherlands

Getting There
isn’t easy!
I cycled from the centre of the Hague which took about 25 minutes, the only public transport option is bus 43 or 44, to the Wittenburgerweg Wassenaar stop, but there’s a 20 minute walk from there to the museum.

Ticket Prices
Adults € 17.50
13-18 year-olds € 8.50
under 12 free
NOTE: Museumjaarkaart is not valid

Opening Times
11 am to 5 pm

I recommend buying your ticket online before your visit.

High Society

To celebrate their wedding Marten Soolmans and Oopjen Coppit had their portraits painted by Rembrandt. To celebrate acquiring the pair of paintings the Rijksmuseum has created an exhibition of some of the world’s greatest full size portraits called High Society.

Marten Soolmans

Oopjen Coppit

The paintings have been restored and are magnificent in the detail of their opulence, and they once contributed to Rembrandts’ reputation with Amsterdam’s wealthy elite. This is the first time in more than 60 years they’ve been part of a public exhibition. They are jointly owned by the Rijksmuseum and the Louvre and part of that agreement is that the paintings will be kept together and displayed together. I think they’ll be at the Rijksmuseum through next year which is the 350th anniversary of Rembrandt’s death.

The High Society exhibition show cases full length portraits through the centuries from the world’s greatest artists, from Sergent to Munch  and the museum has presented it as if these world famous people turned up to an unlikely party. You can everyone meet the solemn Count and Countess da Porto (by Veronese) who lived 100 years before Rembrandt to the dazzling Marchesa Luisa Casati, who lived 250 years after him.

I met Anna Comptesse de Noailles, the first woman to win the French Legion d’honneur. Apparently when this painting was exhibited it was considered scandalous, partly because of how low her gown sweeps, but also because she is wearing her award around her neck – and apparently that is not done, it should be worn on a sash diagonally across one’s body. Obviously the designers of the award had never thought about how women would wear it.

My favourite painting was this debonair gentleman; he’s Samuel-Jean Pozzi, and he was quite the lady’s man, whose lovers included Sarah Bernhardt. I think I have a crush!

The museum created evening events for this exhibition, and I was lucky enough to go to one. It was fantastic to be in the museum after dark and after the exhibition they turned the lobby into a dance floor and we had champagne and a dance. Just as if we were part of High Society.

High Society is on for about another week – until June 3rd. Tickets to the whole museum are €17.50 and there’s no additional entrance fee for the exhibition. (Free entry with a museum jaarkaart)

 

Art on Sunday

I went to see the wonderful “Coded Nature” exhibition from StudioDrift at the Stedelijk Museum. The image above is one of their ShyLights. They dance above your head and as they float down they open up like a flower, the movement is gentle and mesmerising. The perfect thing to do on a Sunday afternoon

Here’s what the room full of ShyLights looks like. Everyone stays in this room for ages, watching the lights glow and dance, their faces filled with wonder. Everyone gives into the temptation to lie on the floor and watch the lights from below, and it’s amazing – until the vigilant museum stuff come in and ask you to move. Apparently the light on the floor is part of the exhibition and by lying on the floor we are ruining it for others. IMHO the one ruining it for others was the grumpy museum guy.

The title of the exhibition is Coded Nature and there’s one piece that seems to be a commentary on our destruction of the earth, it’s a long film showing floating concrete blocks drifting through the air forming large structures until nature is obliterated. And in the next room is one of the concrete blocks – a drifter – floating, un-suspended  in a huge room.

I’ve followed Studio Drift’s Instagram account for a long time, and I’ve been fascinated by the “fragile futures” sculptures. So it was really cool to see an installation of fragile futures, be able to walk around it and get up close to the tiny dandelion lights that make up the sculpture.

The exhibition filled me with wonder, it’s that intersection of art and science, it’s beautiful and kinetic and well worth visiting. I might be back next weekend.

The exhibition is on until the 26 August, and it’s free for museum card holders, or €17.50.

Amsterdam’s Newest Art Work

I was playing tour guide on Sunday and we wandered up Rokin, the area between Muntplein and the Dam, this area is being redeveloped and is full of restaurants with terraces where people were eating lunch in the sun. At the top of Rokin, just before you get to the Dam is this wonderful sculpture/fountain.

It features two heads facing in opposite directions and water seeps from the top of the heads down their shoulders, across the plinth and spills onto the ground. It was 24 degrees (75F) so it had a pleasant cooling effect, it might be less fun on subzero winter days!

It’s a stunning work of art and the courtyard around it is a peaceful oasis despite being right on a tram route.

The sculpture is by Mark Manders, a Dutch/Belgian sculptor and it was installed on the 31 July 2017.So brand new.

You can see a short movie about the installation from Gemeente Amsterdam (Amsterdam City Council) sorry it’s only in Dutch but the pictures are cool.

Animals at the Rijksmuseum

The Rijksmuseum is filled with animals at the moment! They’re on loan from the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden and they’re accompanying an exhibition of works by Frans Post, sketches and paintings made during his time in Brazil. In many cases the exhibition displays a stuffed version of the animal next to the sketch. You can see the precision of Post’s work. Here’s the Capybara, positioned under an oil painting view that includes a capybara.

The exhibition is on until 7 January – so hurry up!

In the main entrance hall there are animals from other places to admire – including a pair of polar bears looking down on you.

Banksy is in Town

There are currently two exhibitions of Banksy’s work in Amsterdam. I went to the one at Beurs van Berlage, which has just been extended to the 7 January. It was great to see some of his most famous works collected together. His works always contain a juxtaposition that is thought provoking; there were one or two I could live with.

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The second exhibition is on at the Moco Museum on Museumplein and is on until the end of the year.

Summer Sculpture at the Rijksmuseum

The gardens of the Rijksmuseum have their own exhibition in summer, this year the sculptures are by Giuseppe Penone, who uses natural elements in unexpected ways – rocks land in trees, gold glints from within a tree, and marble reveals veins.

it’s it’s free to enter and wander around. I arrived before 10 and the garden was fairly empty, there’s a small espresso bar in the old summerhouse if you need some caffeine before going into the museum. Here are my highlights from the garden sculptures. (Scroll down for video).

“Ideas of Stone”, love that it forms a question mark.

Hide and See(k) Water Sculpture, you can walk into the sculpture

“Tra” or “Between”, a sculpture by Giuseppe Penone

Who put that there?

Stone and shadow in a sculpture

Golden light in the tree

Anatomy by Giuseppe Penone

The water sculpture is called “Hide and See(k)” and it’s by Jeppe Hein, it’s a series of water jets arrayed in a square within a circle and programmed to release water in a sequence. At times you can walk through it, so I did, and took this 360 degree view from within.

ARTZUID; a sculpture exhibition

Big Pumpkin; Erwin Wurm

Two Miracles; Marc Bijl

Wellness Skull; Joep van Lieshout

Theo Neijmeijer??

Apollo Offering

Artzuid is on again this year, 70 sculptures have been placed along Apollolaan, Minervalaan, Zuidas, Vondelpark and Museumplein and they’ll stay there until the 22 September.

There’s more information on the Artzuid site, along with information about some of the artworks from previous years. This year there’s also an app – but only for iphone.

If we end up with another sunny weekend it’d be fun to spend an afternoon wandering between the artworks.