I am reminded that my Museum Card which is valid for 1 year will soon expire. I bought this last year as a challenge to myself to discover more museums in the Netherlands.
The card costs about 54,95 Euros and even though I was successful in the ROI side of things, I still felt that I fell short from the challenge. That I wasn’t able to visit all the museums in the country that I wanted to within a year’s time frame. It is just difficult when you are working fulltime, when you have other things to do in the weekend and when some weekends (well most actually) you just want to relax and do nothing.
Moi here with a wall size painting by American artist, Sol Lewitt.
One of the museums I visited last year was the
Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (translation: Amsterdam City Museum). It is the 3rd most visited museum in the Netherlands after the Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh Museum.
Here I saw paintings of Van Gogh, Mondriaan, Monet, Picasso and Rothko. There was a collection of UFO-outer space inspired fashion accessories in the 1970s. Also a collection of famous furniture in the 21st century by Dutch and Scandinavian industrial designers. There were exhibits on Photography, most of them by Jeff Wall but there were a few by Andy Warhol as well. I even saw other forms of art, such as in video and audio.
Another special exhibit by Dutch Interior Designer, Marcel Wanders was in the basement. I made a separate entry about this here:
Pinned up at the Stedelijk by Marcel Wanders
All in all, it was a great visit, a cool museum. The Stedelijk Museum is located on the Musemplein (Museum Square) in Amsterdam Oud-Zuid beside the Van Gogh Museum.
Vincent Van Gogh painting: Two Peasants Digging. Oil on canvas, 1889. When I was there many group of students were on a tour for their art history classes.
This is from Claude Monet: The House Among the Roses. Oil on canvas, 1925-1926
Left painting is from Jan Sluijters: Bal Tabarin. Oil on canvas, 1907. Right painting is from Pablo Picasso: Seated Woman with Fish-Hat. Paint on canvas, 1942.
Painting from Piet Mondriaan: Composition No. IV, with Red, Blue and Yellow. Oil on canvas, 1929.
Another one from Pablo Picasso: The Aubergine. Gouache on paper on canvas, 1946.
Futuristic electronic music in 1963 by tom Dissevelt: Fantasy in Orbit, Round the World in Electronic Music.
Futuristic Aluminum Jewellery and Spacemen in Romper Suites by Dutch jewellery designers, Gijs Bakker and Emmy ven Leersum, 1970.
I managed to watch a video piece of 'Mutations' which was quite an interesting dance show.
Another futuristic neck piece of a jewellery in the early 1970s by designers, Gijs Bakker and Emmy van Leersum.
Left picture: Dutch designer, Gerrit Rietveld's Witteveen High Chair. Right picture: Furniture by Marcel Breuer and Willem Hendrik Gispen, also Dutch furniture designers.
Scandinavian furniture design by a variety of Finnish (Tapio Wirkkala, Kirsti Irvessalo, Rut Bryk, Toini Muona, Michael Schilkin, Friedl Holzer-Kjellberg, Raija Tuumi, Alvar Aalto) and Danish designers (Arne Jacobsen, Hans Wegner, Gunnar Aagaard Andersen, Poul Henningsen and Poul Kjaerholm).
And these furniture are from Dutch designers: Jens Fager, Maarten Baas, Marcel Wanders, Piet Hein Eek and Claudy Jongstra.
Left picture: Hanging Milk Bottle Lamp by Dutch designer, Tejo Remy. Right picture: Rietveld's Red and Blue Chair.
A Dutch visual artist (Paulien Otlheten) took a candid video of a man walking slow motion in Battery Park, New York back in 2003. Unknown to the man and to the artist, the video captured a pivotal moment of the man's life, which was during the bankruptcy filing of Enron and Lehman. The man was a finance laywer.
The video the artist made. I watched it at the exhibit in the Stedelijk Museum.
This is the letter of the Dutch visual artist to the man via the receptionist of the building he entered in the video:
And this is the response the man on the video sent to her:
Now, isn't that just cool?
Film by an Israeli artist, Yael Bartana, with footages in Sao Paolo, Brazil (a group on their wau to a ritual site) and in Jerusalem, Israel (the wailing wall).
A paper boat by Japanese artist, Yayoi Kusama: One Thousand Boats Show, 1963.
By French artist, Arman: Colour Tracing. Oil paint, paint tubes, acrylic resin, perspex, 1967.
A Mark Rothko painting: Untitled (Umber, Blue, Umber, Brown). Paint on canvas, 1962. Rothko was Russian-Jewish who migrated to the USA.
From another American artist, Sol Lewitt: Wall Drawing. Acrylic on wall, 2003.
By American artist, Bernett Newman: Cathedra. Oil and acrylic on cotton, 1951.
I am not sure if this is a mini basketball underpants ring? German artist, Georg Herold: Normal Position, 1988.
Candian photography artist, Jeff Wall: After "Invisible Man" by Ralph Ellison, the Prologue, 1999-2001
American artist Andy Warhol: Bellevue II. Acrylic and silkscreen ink on canvas, 1963.
Another Jeff Wall photography work: The Flooded Grave, 1998-2000
A cafe inside the Stedelijk Museum.
You can hear some audio art here inside the escaltor by German artist, Joseph Beuys: Ja Ja Ja Nee Nee Nee, 1970. I thought this one was funny!
The Stedelijk Museum is located on the Museumplein (Museum Square) in the south of Amsterdam.
To finish off the day, I am having here an espresso and bitter lemon at the Aran Irish pub nearby.
Visit Period: March 2013
Destination: Amsterdam South (Amsterdam – North Holland), The Netherlands
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