My Favorite Museum in All the World (so far): Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam
- Brooke
- Apr 12, 2022
- 6 min read
Sometimes we visit cities for the architecture, sometimes for the food. Occasionally for the ambiance, and maybe even all of the above. Another main driver for certain destinations is their museums, and the city of Amsterdam has no shortage of amazing ones that would make a visit just for them a worthwhile endeavor.
But how do you narrow down your choices, when you have options such as the Van Gogh Museum, the Rijksmuseum, and so many others? Since I was fortunate to have an 8 day (or so) solo interlude in Amsterdam in the summer of 2018, I didn't really have to limit myself, and decided to do about one museum a day. And while all of the museums are worth your time and money (or even better, my usage of the Museumkaart card, whose rules have sadly changed since I used it), the one that stands out to me the most, and the one that I visited twice, is the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam.
Karel Appel's Mens En Dieren
I didn't quite realize how much of an affinity I had for modern art until I walked through its hallways, though I should have had an idea since my most often visited museum during my time in NYC was the MoMA (Museum of Modern Art). Something clicked, though, as I studied the various contemporary pieces - some feeling a bit of a stretch in their claim of being "art," and some so simple and timeless that you could spend hours admiring their simplicity.
Pablo Picasso's Femme Assise Au Chapeau En Forme De Poisson
I won't claim to be an expert on art in any capacity, only someone who is happy to consume it whenever I get the chance. And as someone who believes in art for art's sake, I'm willing to make some allowances at what others might argue is not and should not be considered "art." And while a few pieces might not be to my taste, seeing them intermixed with some of the more well-known masters of the past two centuries was an interesting and intellectually satisfying way to spend a leisurely morning.
Piet Mondriaan's Tableau III: Compositie in Ovaal
Throughout this posting I will share with you some of my favorite pieces from the Stedelijk's collection. I should note that above and below, many of the pictures are of the pieces that are not the full shot of each piece, but only a glimpse of what I found interesting from a photographic perspective. To capture the full scale, emotion, and power of each piece, be sure to visit the museum when you're in Amsterdam!
Several pieces from Kazimir Malevich, including Suprematistisch schilderij (met zwart trapezium en rood vierkant) and Suprematistische compositie (met acht rode rechthoeken)
Vincent Van Gogh's Augustine Roulin (La Berceuse)
Theo van Doesburg's Contra-Compositie V
Bert van der Leck's De Opperman
Karel Appel's Mens En Dieren
Below: North Atlantic Light
Two pieces by Willem de Kooning.
Your eyes are not deceiving you - that is a boat made up of penises, sitting on a background of penises (which is really just pictures of the boat, that happens to look like a penis). This is Yayoi Kusama's Aggregation: One Thousand Boats Show. To hear more about this piece, listen here.
Roy Lichtenstein's As I Opened Fire
Claes Oldenburg's Saw (Hard Version II) on the left.
On the left, Martial Raysse's Peinture à Haute Tension and on the right, Elaine Sturtevant's Raysse Tableau à Haute Tension. Can you tell the difference between the two? When I first encountered the two images, I thought they were identical. That was, until I got a closer look and realized there are many differences between the two. The one on the left is the original, the one on the right is a duplicate, created from memory. From the Stedelijk Museum's website:
"This image shows Peinture À Haute Tension by artist Martial Raysse. In 1969 Elaine Sturtevant reproduced Raysse's work. She did that from memory. Is this actually original or not? As an artist, can you use the work of others? Do you really need to make something new out of it? When is a repetition like Sturtevant's art after all?"
A close up of Wassily Kandinsky's Bild mit Häusern, no longer located within the Stedelijk. For more information, read here about how the city returned the painting to the previous owners' heirs.
Kurt Schwitters's Ohne Titel (Um den Kern der Sache)
Gino Severini's Train de Blessés
The following group of images was taken from what was, for some still unknown reason, my favorite part of the collection. This piece is called The Beanery, created by Edward Kienholz in 1965. Here, small groups are allowed entry into this time capsule of a bar, where the artist recorded the noise of his fellow patrons, and collected real items from the very bar he hoped to represent. Inside the bar, other than the bartender, everyone's faces are made of clocks to represent the standing still of time. This intimate, almost claustrophobic experience was, to me, surprisingly moving.
This was one of the few pieces I had to visit on my quick second visit to the museum on my last day in Amsterdam, and it will be one of the first things I look forward to visiting during my next trip to the museum some time in the future.
To learn more about how the museum takes care of the piece, watch here.
The Hall of Honor's walls emboldened with George Orwell's line from his novel, "1984."
Above and below, a sampling of Keith Haring's work.
It wasn't just spending time with the Stedelijk's main collection that struck me,though, but it was also the exhibition of an unusual collection of machine's that reacted in surprisingly beautiful ways.
This exhibition was put on by Studio Drift, a pair of Dutch artists and their collective. From their website:
"Dutch artists Lonneke Gordijn (1980) and Ralph Nauta (1978) founded studio DRIFT in 2007. With a multi-disciplinary team of 64, they work on experiential sculptures, installations and performances.
DRIFT manifests the phenomena and hidden properties of nature with the use of technology in order to learn from the Earth’s underlying mechanisms and to re-establish our connection to it.
With both depth and simplicity, DRIFT’s works of art illuminate parallels between man-made and natural structures through deconstructive, interactive, and innovative processes. The artists raise fundamental questions about what life is and explore a positive scenario for the future."
This floating concrete block, entitled Drifter, is not suspended by any wires - in fact, it appears to be floating, with slow movements that rearrange its space in the air. What makes it float, we all wonder? The artists state that "the work floats between the possible and impossible." This is a precise encapsulation of the experience.
This piece above and below is called Flylight, and the artists describe it as:
Flylight is a site-specific art installation that directly interacts with its surroundings. The light mimics the behaviour of a flock of birds in flight, symbolizing the conflict between the safety of the group and the freedom of the individual.
As you watch the videos, you can see the lights following the groups of people as they walk through the space.
I didn't go into the museum to see Studio Drift, but I was glad that it was a part of the exhibition. It is not a permanent part of the museum, and so I would recommend if you see it installed in a museum in your neck of the woods, go out and take a peek.
Overall, though, my afternoon at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam reminded me of what I love about art - being surprised, being moved, being upset, and forced to reconcile biases and prejudices I have and see the beauty in things that are not always beautiful in the mainstream form of the word. Instead, the Stedelijk challenges you to look for the beauty in unexpected places. You might not always agree with its suggestions, but the museum will not be in short supply of options for you to challenge your preconceived notions.
Stedelijk Museum AmsterdamDetails
Conveniently located in Amsterdam's Museumplein, a complex of art museums concentrated in one central location, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam is easily accessed by many of Amsterdam's trams. Tickets as of April 2022 are € 20.00 per adult. However, the museum is available as a Museumkaart property, and while the card doesn't have the same magical properties it did when I visited in 2018, it might still be a good deal, depending on how many museums you are planning on visiting during your stay.
Because it is located in the Museumplein, you can find the Stedelijk by its bathtub like appearance.
As for the amount of time needed to visit, I suppose it reflects how much you enjoy contemporary art, how much time you have, and if the visiting exhibition is interesting to you. I spent about 3 hours during my first visit. Your mileage, of course, may vary.
Day of visit: May 23, 2018
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