I was lucky enough to recently go to the Stedelijke Museum in Amsterdam, and oh what an experience, oh what an absolutely wonderful experience! We went to see the paintings and spent many hours wandering, entranced, and could have spent many more:
The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (also known simply as the Stedelijk ) is a museum in Amsterdam for modern and
contemporary art and design , founded in 1874. In 1895, the museum opened in a new building on Paulus Potterstraat , near the Rijksmuseum. (Wikipedia)
At the moment I can’t find a way or properly describing all the beautiful paintings, drawings and other art we saw – if you go to the museum site you will find excellent information and detail than I could share:
If I was able to visit again, I would pick up one of the little folding chairs which are available, carry it round with me. If it wasn’t too crowded or busy, I would sit near a painting
I particularly like, and not being an artist or artistic I wouldn’t attempt to copy them, but I could write about them. I could describe them, or I could write about what they suggest to me, what meaning I take from them, or what might inspire me and take me in another direction.
There was what seemed to be a mural (but may have been painted on a separate surface) of strange brightly coloured shapes which looked like huge exotic patchwork birds, upside down as if they were either swooping in flight, or hanging as bats might. I just had to stop and stare at them, not puzzling or wondering – just absorbing the image of these shape-creatures.
I was intrigued by Karl Schmidt-Rottluff’s Dangast Landscape which he painted in 1910. He was a German expressionist painter, born in Rottluff in 1884 and then was called just Karl Schmidt. He lived to be ninety-one years old!
https://rijksmuseumamsterdam.blogspot.com/2012/11/an-expressionist-village-scene-this.html
I came to another work which had a red horse with white spots, galloping to the right as if to escape the painting. Behind it was a whole whirl of different images,strange dream like people who might be Ancient Egyptian, or South American warriors, and who may be underwater, or maybe not as there were fish-like shapes swimming around.
I stood a long time before a work, I can’t even properly describe, strange shapes with teeth, one may have been carrying a shield, one lozenge shape appeared to have a banner and a palm tree – or maybe it was a shield and the banner was separate… it doesn’t matter, my superficial interpretation is only relevant to me and my imagination!
Kudzani-Violet Hwami, Natasja Kensmil, Ellen Gallagher, Hester En Daar, Sedric Chisolm, Cliff San A Jong, the fabulous Julio Galán – these were all fabulous artists who particularly appealed and attracted me. I’m not sure how long we were there, time seemed to stand still as I was transported in my mind to other worlds.
It was truly a wonderful exhibition, and our short visit didn’t do it justice, but unfortunately we were only tourists, and only could do so much. We had an amazing time in Amsterdam, delightful company of a very old friend who had travelled even further than us to rendezvous, cafés (my featured image is from lunch at a nearby café – goats’ cheese and walnut salad!!), restaurants, parks, and of course, canals, everywhere we wandered by canals, trying not to get mown down by the hoards of bikes!!
Now we are home and have unpacked, and done laundry, and carried on with household chores, and met up with friends, and of course, dropped round to our beloved Ship, for a glass or two!
Lois Elsden 