The Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam recently re-opened after a major refurbishment. It's all very nice, if a little bit predictable - white walls, wood floors, hanging walls and ceilings, translucent white blinds on sandblasted windows, contemporary minimal restaurant, lots of visitors wearing the mandatory black clothing, and so on. I thought a bit joyless, but to be fair one Dutch friend says its more fun when they have events there.
One day soon someone will open a landmark contemporary art museum that manages to escape from the orthodox aesthetic of monochrome minimalism. I look forward to that day!
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| Mandatory Richard Serra sculpture outside, without which no museum of contemporary art is complete. |
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| People in dark clothes being drawn towards the light of a Dan Flavin installation |
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A long chat in front of Barnet Newman - they were still there 15 minutes later.
Perhaps they are an installation. |
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| Some German girls enjoying Martin Kippenburger |
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| A tour group being told what to think about Henri Matisse |
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| Man trying to photograph the green bit of an Ellsworth Kelly |
All the usual suspects on display. I thought that the post war art was mostly better than the pre war art - the Picasso, Renoir, Cezanne, Braque etc not the maybe best examples, but some very good and notable Yves Klein, Barnet Newman and others.
A piece that particularly caught my attention was this:
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| Green Egg, Kenneth Price, 1962 (USA) |
I'd not heard of Kenneth Price before - his hand trying to claw its way out of an egg was particularly engrossing.
Altogether a good place for a visit. The website is
here
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