New Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam - A report and repost
Jack
about my visit to the renewed Van Gogh museum. To make it easy here it
is again:
For my and your pleasure I visited the new Van Gogh museum in
Amsterdam, this Wednesday July 21, Belgian National Holiday, talking
advantage that in Holland it was a usual working day.
One thing was for sure: the moulting had become indispensable: the
building, designed by architect Gerrit Rietveld in 1973 was conceived
to receive about 60,000 visitors a year. Well, in 1997 1,000,000
people visited the museum!!
"We renovated everything: only the walls and the roof remained",
explained the director, John Leighton. And not even that: certain
walls have been destroyed to open the galleries as wide as possible.
The result is that I got a formidable impression of space and
luminosity. Well separated one of each other, on a white or light blue
background, the works of Van Gogh are shown into relief of great
majesty. The visitor is able now to linger and dream in front of the
paintings, which was unthinkable in the old museum. No more jostling
and hassling, that's the past, finito!!
The visit is even more striking and thrilling than before. On the
first floor, the chronological order of presentation of the artist
simply called here "Vincent", allows the visitor to follow step by
step the evolution of his style and genius, from the rural scenes of
his birth country Holland until the landscapes and still lives painted
in France.
Not only did I have the impression that there as more space and light
but also more life in the museum. If you happen to go and look at the
third floor, the paintings of Van Gogh are judiciously placed next to
works of his contemporary artists to show how Van Gogh got inspired by
them and how he inspired them. Through the delicious subtlety of the
picture hooking, you assist at the unexpected encounter of women
painted by Manet and Van Gogh, at a symphony of pink shades on Monet
landscapes, Van Gogh and Schuffenecker. A regal!!
The new museum is resolutely "high-tech"! On the second floor there is
now an Internet space where the public can consult the web site of the
new museum and learn more about Vincent by reading his mail to his
brother Theo and consulting reference books and bibliography about the
artist. In the basement, the auditorium has been equipped by the
latest audio-visual material to receive conferences, lectures, movies
and theatre plays. And what was very important: the air control system
has been completely updated. It is obvious that the Van Gogh museum
has the ambition to become THE museum of the 21th century, completing
its neighbours the Rijksmuseum (16th to 18th century) and Stedelijk
museum (20th and soon 21th century). They all signed an agreement of
lending their works one to the other.
But let me describe the museum lay out and architecture. New
ambitions, new means.
Conceived by the Japanese Kisho Kurokawa, the new wing of the museum
is a sort of metallic grey vessel hidden almost completely hidden
(3/4) in a pit. At the bottom of this pit a thin water pellicle flows
away, sparkling in the sun. On the northern façade, the prints study
profiles like a drawer half way pulled out of a commode.
The Dutch, never stingy of tender nicknames, baptized this titan,
granite and aluminium construction already as " the mould" or the
"biscuit box".
Nevertheless, the symbiosis wanted by Kurokawa with the old building
is a success and the lighting is exceptional. Not surprising if you
know who George Berne is: the architect who signed the Louvre and
Picasso museum lightings.
This new wing is only dedicated to receive temporary exhibitions
(2,300 square meters), which is double than before. Thus, the museum
can expose 80 % of the collection in the old, renovated building. The
result is that nothing more sleeps in the reserves for our greatest
pleasure and happiness.
Jack
My Paris and Provence posts are open again at
http://home.earthlink.net/~primos
My Paris and Provence posts are open again at
http://home.earthlink.net/~primos