Amsterdam, the Dutch Masters and Cheese

Driving in the Netherlands is pretty straightforward - km after km of flat, straight roads with a wide bicycle path on one side and a canal on the other, interrupted every now and then by a "rotary" where you have the opportunity to change direction - easy and predictable.

Approaching the city of Amsterdam, the tempo accelerates - more cars, more bikes and more canals. After about 5 minutes of driving into the center of the city with its narrow cobblestone streets, dodging cyclists right and left, endlessly circling to find our hotel since GPSally is not hip to one-ways, we discovered the First Truth of big city exploration in Europe : Never Drive.

Here's why:

After what seemed like an hour of driving in circles, feeling intensely inadequate for not having eyes in the backs of our heads, we land on the sidewalk in front of the Albus Center City.

The Albus is very purple plexi-modern, with stylish "urban micro" rooms  - ours had a 2-person rainfall shower!  The price was reasonable, we thought, for center city.  That is, until we discovered that there is no "free" parking associated with this hotel (Be advised!), and that parking anywhere on the streets in this neighborhood is 5 Euros per hour, at all hours of day or night, if you can find a spot!  We finally located an overnight parking garage a few blocks away and were able to negotiate in a mixture of English, German and Dutch, a price of 40 Euros per night and we were happy. Lesson:  Remember Truth 1.

With that taken care of, we headed out to explore and find an evening bite.  There are hundreds of restaurants of all kinds within walking distance of center city:  Italian, Turkish, French, Indonesian, Japanese, Spanish, Subway?  We tried the Dutch specialty stew "mashpot" at a cozy little gem of a restaurant nearby called Tomaz.  Mashpot is nothing to write home about, but hearty enough to get you through a cool evening.

Took the long way back to the hotel afterwards and managed to stay out of the famous "Red Light" district, but some of the revelry always overflows.  Saw a few "very well dressed girls" in 5-inch heels (a bitch! on cobblestones) and had a passing whif of burning cannabis but all in all felt very safe on the streets.

In the morning, we headed out early for coffee and fresh pastry at Lanskroon a corner bakery we located the night before - ain't nothing like steaming cafe au lait and  a warm cinnamon croissant - Breakfast candy!! Got these images of the morning commute.

Daddy Duty:  How's that for a baby seat?

Imagine taking the kids to school like this!

On to the Rijksmuseum!

The Rijksmuseum (Gothic and Renaissance Architecture) is the national (state) museum of Amsterdam and the Netherlands which houses major works by the Dutch Masters:  Rembrandt, Franz Hals, Johannes Vermeer among others.  Originally opened in 1885, the museum was closed from 2003 to 2013 for renovation.  Our timing was just right for an opportunity to see the updated version and of course, get a look at it's most famous painting, Rembrandt's "Night Watch." 

As we got closer, we were greeting by Henry Moore, whose sculpture currently occupies the garden spaces as part of the Rijksmuseum annual International sculpture display:

There is probably always a line to enter to the Rijksmuseum, so it is probably advisable to get your tickets online in advance, though a violin duet entertained us with Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" while we waited and it took about 30 minutes to get inside.

Once inside, the building is a work of art in itself with its vaulting and glass, but the collection is absolutely breathtaking.   Most works are from the time known as the Dutch Golden Age, the period during and after the Eight Years War.  After gaining independence from Spain in 1648, the new Dutch Republic was the most prosperous nation in Europe and led European trade, science and art.

The sheer volume of paintings produced (over 1.3 million) during the period from 1640 to 1660 kept prices low and even common folk could afford original art.  The technical quality of Dutch artists was very high. The detailed realism and subject matter tells a very accurate story of Dutch culture from the time including portraiture, scenes from everyday life, landscapes, still life and  to a lesser extent Biblical works like this, Ter Brugghen's powerful "Doubting Thomas," since Dutch Calvinism specifically forbade religious painting in churches (but it was okay for private collections).

The most important painting in the Rijksmuseum collection is Rembrandt's "The Night Watch," shown here to give you an idea of it's actual size.  One of the most famous paintings in the world, "The Night Watch"is renowned for it's large size (about 12 ft x 14 ft), the perception of motion, and the effective use of light and shadow (chiaroscuro).

The painting that I most wanted to see, on the other hand, was Johannes Vermeer's (barely 16 X 20 in) "Milkmaid."  Painted around 1660 when the artist was in his 20s, the balance of realism, light, color and composition make it a classic favorite.  The many symbolic elements contained in the painting (milkmaid, wide-mouthed jug, footwarmer, Delft tiles with cupid) create a fascinating narrative of the sexual and romantic themes of the day.

The Rijksmuseum also has a substantial collection of Delftware, the traditional tin-glazed pottery from the region, depicting classic Dutch themes.

With more than 8,000 objects of art and history on display, the collection of the Rijksmuseum is definitely a "must-see" in Amsterdam.  Cross another one off my bucket list - it was time to relax and have dinner.

What is Indonesia today was a Dutch colony for more than 300 years.  One of the results of that is a tasty one:  plenty of delicious Indonesian restaurants throughout Amsterdam and the Netherlands.  Our choice for dinner that evening was Kantjil & de Tijger (Rabbit & Tiger) within walking distance of The Albus.  It's a popular favorite for tourists and locals alike so reservations are recommended.  The Rijsttafel (rice table) for 2 was a delicious way to sample about a dozen Indonesian dishes at 25 Euros per person.

The next morning, after visiting our now favorite bakery for coffee and fresh croissants, we headed over to the Amsterdam Bulb market, which is a series of greenhouses along the canal with GIGANTIC specimens of Holland bulbs for sale in every variety imaginable.  Very good quality bulbs and they claim "We Ship Everywhere."

Not only bulbs, but other horticultural "goodies" for the hobbyist.  And yes, it's legal here:

...and more than anyone's fair share of Dutch shoes refrigerator magnets:

We finished the morning by taking in an exhibition, Edward Steichen:  In High Fashion, the Conde Nast Years 1923 - 1937, at a cool modern photo gallery near center city called Foam.  

With more than 200 unique vintage photos, this exhibition represents a high point in Steichen's photographic career when he created images that have been considered some of the most impressive photographs of the twentieth century. 

Our appetite for art sufficiently sated, it was time to get back on the road for Rotterdam.  En route, we passed through the 13th century town of Gouda and, of course, decided to have lunch.  

We easily found the city market square with its beautiful 15th century Gothic City Hall (and watched a steady stream of newlyweds emerge on a Friday afternoon) while having a light lunch at De Zalm.

Saw this frieze above on the Waag (weigh house), which depicts a typical scene from the centuries old Cheese Market, which still takes place every Thursday in the summer.

This is a typical cheese shop in Gouda, which offers plenty of free samples as well as vacuum packaging for the long trip home.

Cheese in hand, we journeyed on to our next stop, the North Sea Jazz Festival, enjoying the Dutch landscape all the way.  Until next time - Thanks for reading!

NordArt 2013

We first saw NordArt two summers ago while visiting in northern Germany and decided then and there that this was something we wanted to repeat again and again.  NordArt is one of the largest exhibitions of contemporary art in Europe, with more than 200 artists from around the world.  It has taken place during the summer months since 1999.

This unassuming building houses the major part of NordArt

The major part of the exhibit is housed in Kunstwerk Carlshütte in the small town of Büdelsdorf in Germany's northernmost state of Schleswig-Holstein.  A huge former foundry, with glass walls, upper story windows and skylights,  Carlshütte is a monstrous display space with an adjacent sculpture park, both which can accommodate huge sculptures and series works illuminated by huge banks of diffused light. Naturally, the industrial remnants of the foundry become part of the exhibit due to expert curator and artist Wolfgang Gramm making NordArt an all encompassing work in itself.

This year’s focus was on the Baltic States and many artists whose work is featured are from the former Eastern Block like Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Russia, Czech Republic but there are also works from Germany, China, Japan, Spain, France, Italy, Mexico, Chile and the United States.

NordArt is a treat for anyone who appreciates the visual arts and Jurgen and I approach it like a modern art photo-safari. Armed with cameras, we tend to go our separate ways, discovering the vast collection and capturing our visions singularly, only to come together after a few hours to share the excitement of our discoveries. Often, our images coincide.

There was a threat of rain in the afternoon (after all, this IS Schleswig-Holstein) so we started our adventure in the sculpture garden.  Here is a little of what we saw:

Fanciful, light and free, with some heavy reality thrown in,

 

along with some odd human-like forms and some not-so-friendly looking animals

 and this work below was Jurgen's favorite, interesting from many angles:

 Then we went in.  On to the inside of the building, the placement of the work in relationship to the industrial fixtures which remain just adds to the impact.

The building is so vast that just about anything goes.



One of the things I love most about modern art is the use of new materials, and I was not disappointed with this exhibit - a recycled rubber Buddha (about 12 ft. tall seated):

to works on black plastic trash bags covered with shipping tape with some plastic shopping bags added (left) and then another embellished with a red magic marker (right) with that "wet marker" effect you get when you try to mark up shipping tape!

Carved blocks of styrofoam

a cardboard city growing from the ceiling in a room full of boxes lit red

a room of mirrors (left) that slowly flashed and dimmed


a room of etched metal sheeting and painted panels (right)

to a sculpture of the human form using nails and wood entitled “Acupuncture”

 

ultraviolet paint on fabric

Plastic fasteners stretched one by one over a stainless steel frame and painted with acrylics entitled "Underwater"

Epoxy Portrait Study

Another memorable series included these guys (smaller than life size) on stilts,

who worked very well in the space

Also one obviously made for the space:  Man Watching TV

Not sure about the titles for these (plastic and lacquered fiber glass)

This one was by an Egyptian artist done in 2012 entitled "Democracy" (below) A German gentleman, also contemplating the work, commented to me that the men in the work were all reading the same newspaper.  He went on about how he thinks democracy is in danger all over the world.  

We agreed that the larger problem is unfettered capitalism.

Here are a few more interesting and thought-provoking images:

Men in plastic bubbles (part of a larger work)

Little girl carved from wood and painted with a blinking "bomb" strapped to her chest

Separate entities working together

A pasture growing inside the gallery

Another reason why we like NordArt so much is because there is usually a great deal of photography in the show, not so much straight photographs matted and framed like you would see in a photo gallery, but new works using photographic techniques and many, many photo-inspired images.

Photo Hallway

This is a fine execution of a photographic technique we have seen before where the large images are constructed of thousands of tiny faces:

Close up on image second from left

There seemed to be a prevailing theme throughout the show of negativity, cynicism, death (somewhat humorous), not uncommon in modern shows.  Oh, those modern artists - always trying to get down:

Death's Weekend - a very clever series in needlepoint by an American artist 

part of a Dracula Series (ahem)

wonder what he's thinking!

Funeral Procession - nice use of the reflecting pool

A very colorful take on a Russian cemetery

She's holding a slingshot.  Entitled "Oops!"  .......jokesters

After the main gallery, we wandered over to the adjacent Baltic Pavilion, which showed some more traditional methods by some artists from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.  Jurgen really liked these mixed media works.

And then, of course, the best part:  The meeting at the end of the adventure to sum up the day, talk about our favorite works and of course have Kaffee und Kuchen in the Alte Meierei (Old Mill) Cafe on the grounds (a venerable German tradition that I, for one, never get tired of!)

But don't miss NordArt if you get the chance.  It's a pretty great exhibit this year.

Thanks for reading - gl signing off....