Week of March 21st 2011: National Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam)

After the Van Gogh museum, we went to the National Rijksmuseum. The museum was under construction so only parts of it were open. The museum puts you on a pretty natural progression through Dutch works. The first few rooms showcase paintings of Dutch history and famous battles and also include some artifacts. From there, the museum leads you into a room filled with giant, beautiful antique doll houses.  The first floor ends with some Dutch ceramics which is known for its blue and white patterns. I remember a Dutch friend of mine having several ceramics of that style in her home when we were kids.

The second floor was more focused on art and paintings. The first couple of rooms had a variety of still life paintings. I had never thought these were that interesting before but seeing them up close was really remarkable. The paintings were so detailed and realistic, it was pretty incredible. The museum then led you into the rooms with paintings by Rembrandt, Vermeer, Jan Steen and many other famous Dutch painting. However, they still didn’t have the Girl with the Pearl Earring. Spoiler alert – I’ve been to a ton of museums this year and still haven’t seen it so finally I gave up and did a search. It’s in the Hague. I came so close but didn’t go to the right part of the Netherlands…

The last room had Rembrandt’s most famous painting, the Night Watch. It took up a whole wall in the room and there were little guides all around that told you things to look for. It was really cool to find some of the secrets of the painting. One of the most interesting facts was that the painting used to be even larger but was cut to make it fit in a former home.

The museum isn’t particularly large. I know it is being remodeled so it is possible that not all of the paintings are on display. However, I really liked the layout. The museum guided you through room by room and it was very linear. While it is nice to openly explore some museums, it’s also really easy to miss exhibits that way. I probably wouldn’t have tried to see the still life paintings if I didn’t have to walk through them, but they ended up being some of the works I remember the most.

Week of March 21st 2011: The Van Gogh Museum (Amsterdam)

I think there are few things more enjoyable than when you get to use a piece of knowledge you once learned and didn't appreciate at the time. I've mentioned before that my art classes in junior high were filled with information on famous impressionist, cubist, modern, classical, and pointillism paintings. The body of knowledge we learned in those three years was extensive.

However, I always hated that we were told to copy famous works of art. While it helped me to learn about them, it seemed stifling to our young creative minds to have to copy something that had already been made. We were then graded on how accurately we could finish the masterpiece in the one hour we were allotted. An hour was never enough time and very few people did well in the class.

Since I've spent much of the last year in and out of museums, I've often wondered whether my opinion was right or the teacher's was. Was the art history lesson worth the sacrifice of freedom of expression?

Well, I found my answer in the Van Gogh museum. The museum itself is pretty remarkable. It is laid out as a timeline of his painting career,  which only lasted for ten years. It went through where he drew his inspirations from and then which artists were inspired by his work. We were led from room to room and watched how his paintings changed as he became more skilled and responded to changes in his life.

The most wonderful thing about the museum was how imperfect Van Gogh's paintings were. Many of them lacked perspective or showed impossible angles, the strokes were rough and uneven, and in many cases the canvas was still showing. Yet all of the paintings were still remarkable. It was the imperfections that made them so unique. It became clear how his work wasn't appreciated during his time but is now celebrated for being so vibrant and distinct.

On one wall, there were two paintings of the same image. It was of a woman working at a well. The first painting was by one of the artists Van Gogh drew his inspiration from, and the second was by Van Gogh himself. Although they were the same image, they could not have been more different when it came to style and technique. One was done in fine, exact detail, and the other showed Van Gogh's rough, expressive brush strokes - and they were both beautiful.

So it got me thinking about those art classes. Even though our teacher was very appreciative of Van Gogh's work, she missed the point of his art. He never wanted to copy other artists - he wanted to be inspired by them, but to make art in his own way. If we had been taught about the different art masterpieces and then asked to paint something that was inspired by one of those paintings, I think there would have been a greater lesson there. Grading young students on how well they can copy art is stifling and uninspiring, but encouraging then to draw inspiration from masterpieces and create their own works of art - then you are really teaching something.

Weeks of March 14-21: The Food (London, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussells)

Ok, as we both know, I am have a lot of posts to write... I'm going on a 5 month lag here and am in the middle of a series on a two week trip I took. I've been trying to think of the best way to organize all of this and since it's hard to remember the exact order of things when you're so far behind, I have decided to do one massive post on the food. So get your eyeballs and stomachs ready because this is going to be a long post about a lot of delicious adventures. I didn't write about every food experience, mostly because I don't remember the name of every place, but here are some of the highlights!