Report from Amsterdam: the blockbuster museum shows (and a couple of smaller ones) of winter and spring 2019
None of us really needs an excuse to go to Amsterdam. I certainly don’t, not after having connections in the city and making regular trips there for the last fifty years. But nevertheless when the Rijksmuseum announced that for the 350th anniversary of Rembrandt’s death they were mounting a show called All the Rembrandts I saw a clear, compelling reason to book a flight.
The displayed works from the museum’s collection offer the world’s most comprehensive and representative overview of Remby’s work, including 22 paintings, 60 drawings and more than 300 original prints. As a book collector, I have a particular love for the printed page, whether in books or in art, and since many of the 17th century Rembrandt etchings (the museum owns 1,300) are rare and delicate and not often displayed, well, there was no way I’d miss this opportunity.
It goes without saying that Rembrandt is one of the most brilliant and accomplished artists of all time, and this exhibition demonstrates and elucidates why. Rembrandt could paint or draw everything and anything: himself, his beloved Saskia, the wealthy merchants, the common people, children, animals, biblical scenes, the list goes on.
In the elaborate tango between an attentive viewer and a great artist, Rembrandt confidently takes the lead. The oeuvre is not pretty in a conventional sense (although the paintings can be ravishing in the detail) or easily accessible and understood as, say, illustration (there is so much more in the drawings and etchings than what immediately meets the eye). He simply conveys more insight and psychological truth than you could reasonably expect to be expressed on a flat surface. I’m not what to call it: humanism, genius, soul all fit. If you can, experience it all in this remarkable exhibit.
Don’t miss: Jeremiah Lamenting the Destruction of Jerusalem, Landscape with a Stone Bridge, Saskia Sitting by a Window, and Self-portrait with Tousled Hair, and the Jewish Bride (no matter how many times you’ve seen it),
Minor quibble: many of the works on paper are densely displayed and consequently viewers are densely viewing. Captions, closer to belly level than eye level, are difficult to read, made worse by low color contrast between type and background. A little more space would have helped with comfort and comprehension.
Big, important survey exhibits can be troublesome. How can you possibly take it all in, give the art the time and concentration it should have, in one visit? One answer is selectivity. I focus on the art that I connect with, that I respond to on an intellectual or emotional level, and I don’t worry about the rest, gorgeous as it might be. But still, imagine my dilemma when faced with the Treasury! exhibit at the Hermitage Amsterdam. For the tenth anniversary of this branch of Russia’s State Hermitage Museum the curators have assembled highlights from the vast collections in St. Petersburg, and the result is a feast for the eyes and an enthralling quest for the meaning of art in various times and cultures. It was more than I could assimilate in a day—but even being picky and frugal with my attention I saw enough to keep me thinking for many months ahead.
The exhibition starts with the Venus of Kostenki, a 25,000 year old fertility figure, but my attention at the entrance went immediately to a spectacularly lovely life size swan, originally from a 3rd century BC burial mound but now perched dramatically above me. The first section pairs works of art from different periods and cultures—a tricky and potentially fraught enterprise. But in this case it really worked, maybe because of a certain playfulness, almost a flirtatious approach, beckoning the viewer.
The show features some big names--Bernini, Da Vinci, Dürer, Van Dyck, Fabre, Matisse, Rembrandt, Thorvaldsen, Tintoretto, Velázquez, Van der Weyden, but also lesser known and anonymous artists from different cultures, and as a treat for some of us, several heavenly decorative arts pieces.
Don’t miss: School of da Vinci Nude Woman (a kind of voluptuous and naughty Mona Lisa), bureau with an image of Apollo, Lucas Cranoch 1 Madonna and Child, Male Portrait (a bust) by Bernini, Printemps by Aristide Maillol, and Tintoretto’s St. George. Unless you have furtive and buried numismatic longings skip highlights from Catherine the Great’s coin collection and view her regal marble bust.
Allow time for lunch at the Neva Restaurant in the museum. Go to the section with full service and an upscale menu. The food is excellent and the presentation, well, artful, with edible flowers and all that.
Every young person I spoke to in Amsterdam mentioned the Hockney/Van Gogh: The Joy of Nature show at the Van Gogh Museum. And when I got to see it I could understand why it fits that generation. The works are mostly oversized mural like multi-canvases, flamboyantly colored, flat on the wall, and quite in-your-face. Just right for the connected generation. And no wonder. Some of the works were created on an iPad, hence the extremely vibrant palette.
The show consists of about 60 works by Hockney and 11 (8 paintings and 3 drawings) by van Gogh. Though I tried to keep an open mind I found it difficult to engage with Hockneys, enormous and engulfing and dazzling as they are, because I was so drawn to the much smaller and for me more profound and comely van Goghs. I simply find van Gogh is able to observe, perceive and illuminate nature, with sublime interpretative skill, whereas Hockney for me merely converts nature to a psychedelic-lite visual festival.
“The Four Seasons, Woldgate Woods,” a video installation involved filming a path in the woods from 9 cameras and multiple perspectives over several years and all seasons. The result, shown on large walls of video monitors, seems more an original work than Hockney’s van Gogh referenced paintings. I’ve rarely seen video art that I like but this one is interesting and has substance.
Hockney channeling van Gogh might be a big blockbuster draw in the museum world but it’s small potatoes next to pure unadulterated van Gogh. (I hope that doesn’t make me sound reactionary. I do like a lot of contemporary art.)
Before leaving the Van Gogh Museum I ducked upstairs to view Unique Impressions: the Experiments of Camille Pissarro, and I’m so glad I did. Even if you don’t love prints the way I do you will find this small show a small treasure. Pissarro put the creative process ahead of the final print, researching and experimenting with techniques and materials while etching and engraving. With helpfully captioned explanations this show gives the viewer an appreciation of his great talent and inventiveness.
De Nieuwe Kerk is not new—it dates from 1408—and no longer a church, but repurposed into an exhibition space. Their annual Masterpiece series features just a single work of art that rarely is lent or travels, that has a religious or spiritual dimension, and that is best contemplated in its soaring gothic choir. Currently on display is Archangel Michael, a commanding piece by Italian Baroque master Luca Giordano. I will leave interpretation—the Counter-Reformation symbolism—to scholars who know more than I, but I will say the work is breathtaking in scale, richness and dynamic energy. If you are near the Dam Square, stop in and focus your attention on this one painting. It’s a surprisingly powerful experience where everything comes together and nothing, except perhaps the architecture, distracts your attention.