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Rembrandt

Museum association sounds alarm: even strong museums will not get out of the one-and-a-half-meter without support

Last weekend's #unmuteus parades might lead you to believe that, as soon as the weather allows, the cultural world will be out of its misery in less than no time. The tens of thousands who took to the streets are quickly populating the halls again, and with a little more water with the beer, and slightly more expensive mints, the night and event industry - which is also there for the... 

Read More "Museum association sounds alarm: even strong museums will not get out of the one-and-a-half-meter without support

Rijksmuseum puts names to our slavery past and the effect is stunning

It is very easy not to dwell on things. For instance, I learned at school that we sailed to the East to get nutmeg and pepper. Stuff that just rolled off the trees into the boats there and that we could sell very expensively here. Sugar, another thing. That came to us from plantations just like that,... 

Read More "Rijksmuseum puts names to our slavery past and the effect is stunning

'This new law means even more obstacles and restrictions for visiting culture.'

Honourable members of the House of Representatives, It is with great concern that we look at the Temporary Test Act that will be voted on in your House on Tuesday 11 May. This new law means even more hurdles and restrictions for visiting culture. Restrictions that will be introduced but where the end date is not given. This new testing law could be a godsend for... 

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Museum directors: is their role as figureheads and media artists becoming more important than as art history experts?

Dutch museums, partly due to the recent digital Museum Week, have been able to retain a large part of their audience. There is - reports the Museum Association on its website - a slight turnover though. And the hitherto loyal public will not find their way to museums automatically and to the same extent. But the picture is that the... 

Read More "Museum directors: is their role as figureheads and media artists becoming more important than as art history experts?
Dance film The Garden shows the very bearable lightness of existence

Dance film The Garden shows the very bearable lightness of existence

The Garden is a new dance film by Sem, now also a dancer with the Dutch National Ballet, which premiered last week. The choreography is by British dancer Pascal Johnson, with five dancers dancing on the roof of artist Jean Dubuffet's famous artwork Jardin d'émail in the sculpture garden of the Kröller-Möller Museum. That in itself is special enough, however, it is the optimism of the dance film that impresses.

'Only now do I have a fairly comforting life.' Frank conversation with Hans Dorrestijn

Cabaret artist Hans Dorrestijn is known as a gloom and professional grumbler. But in recent years, Holland's blackest joker has less and less to complain about: he has had great success with his nature books and his cabaret shows, and won several awards. This week he turns 80, but he does not want to stop - his new book Wensvogels has just been published. In nine candid questions 

Read More "'Only now do I have a fairly comforting life.' Frank conversation with Hans Dorrestijn

Culture ministry's support package is a joke. Why a culture strike is needed. And easier than ever.

Slowly but surely, the absurdity of the rescue measures for the cultural sector is sinking in. The national museums will not have to pay rent for three months for a while, but will have to pay it back retroactively once the crisis is over. Entrepreneurs can get extra support worth 4,000 euros, provided they have business premises outside their homes. Actors, directors (also freelance journalists, by the way) and artists... 

Read More "Culture ministry's support package is a joke. Why a culture strike is needed. And easier than ever.

Naked men and black bronzing under philosophical veneer. Is Angelica Liddell overshooting the mark with The Scarlet Letter? (Why the Holland Festival can expect a riot)

That you cannot shamelessly treat a black man as a rutting primal beast and a faceless object for your unlimited lust fantasy as a white woman? Seems logical to me, but for Angélica Liddell, world-renowned performance artist, it is typical of the new puritanism that threatens free art. She now brings The Scarlet Letter to the Netherlands, a theatrical performance that is rather... 

Read More "Naked men and black bronzing under philosophical veneer. Is Angelica Liddell overshooting the mark with The Scarlet Letter? (Why the Holland Festival can expect a riot)

An app won't get you there. Why the minister should make archiving all arts mandatory

The heritage sector is not the sexiest sector of the Dutch cultural world. Even though nude exhibitions are flying around your ears this season, you're more likely to think of obscure museums, monuments, stamp collections, old stuff. This is how it happened that the Digital Heritage Netherlands Foundation could exist for almost 25 years without anyone in the 'more popular' arts (stage, film, literature)... 

Read More "An app won't get you there. Why the minister should make archiving all arts mandatory

Master painter Henk Helmantel honours the creation story: 'I don't have the impression that I make old-fashioned paintings. My work fits well in modern interiors.'

Museum Gouda will soon show the exhibition Faith, Harmony and Silence by master painter Henk Helmantel. In 2008, he was named artist of the year. At the same time, there are major exhibitions by Helmantel in Gorssel and in Taiwan. His paintings are characterised by a gossamer texture, careful composition and sophisticated lighting. As subjects, he often chooses still lifes and tranquil... 

Read More "Master painter Henk Helmantel honours the creation story: 'I don't have the impression that I make old-fashioned paintings. My work fits well in modern interiors.'

A museum with impact. How museums can raise historical awareness and offer people comfort, perspective and connection

More than a million Dutch people feel very lonely, according to the Health Monitor 2012. Among them are an increasing number of young people - all social media notwithstanding. Perhaps we could stop this 'loneliness epidemic' if we realised that none of us is really alone. What we so often forget is that we are directly connected to thousands of others: the people... 

Read More "A museum with impact. How museums can raise historical awareness and offer people comfort, perspective and connection

Where is Norman Rockwell when you need him? Ode to The Grumpy Hallkeeper, the Peanut Butter Floor and Ms Koons

Classic joke about the attendant: "Proudly, the Rijksmuseum's new attendant reports to the museum management at the end of his first working day. 'Mr director, I think you will be pleased with me. I have already sold two Picassos and one Apple today!' " (Source: www.debestemoppen.nl) Thus illustrating the supposed relationship of the traditional attendant to the modern... 

Read More "Where is Norman Rockwell when you need him? Ode to The Grumpy Hallkeeper, the Peanut Butter Floor and Ms Koons

'World famous outside the Netherlands'. Top piece of 'veduta painting' to Amersfoort

Amersfoort's Museum Flehite has purchased the gouache (a painting made with opaque watercolour) View of Amersfoort by 17th-century painter Caspar van Wittel at Christie's in London. The purchase price for this Amersfoort masterpiece, including taxes, was over 200,000 euros. Van Wittel was born in Amersfoort and, after an apprenticeship with Withoos, left for Italy at the age of 21, where he worked as a... 

Read More "'World famous outside the Netherlands'. Top piece of 'veduta painting' to Amersfoort

Gerard de Kleijn makes Museum Gouda more accessible

Gerard de Kleijn is leaving on 1 February after six years as director at Museum Gouda. The flamboyant, eloquent and erudite director leaves behind a financially and artistically healthy Museum for his successor Marc de Beyer. De Kleijn made the museum more accessible to Gouda residents and art lovers from outside the historic city. In 2016, the museum attracted around 40,000... 

Read More "Gerard de Kleijn makes Museum Gouda more accessible

Seven shows you wish you had seen in 2016 (but don't give up hope)

In The Hague, they think it's a waste of money. Let them. Here are seven performances that were more than worth 'that sin'. Mona, Ariadne, Mariken, but also breathtaking circus theatre, a secret marriage, genre-transcending satire and the biggest set ever. 1. Mona, NTJong (youth theatre/drama). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uk3cqHU0gBo It is the biggest pitfall of the age indication for theatre performances. Put in 6+ and... 

Read More "Seven shows you wish you had seen in 2016 (but don't give up hope)

Fernando Botero: 'Almost everything around us is art'

A major retrospective of the work of Fernando Botero (1932) is on show at the Kunsthal in Rotterdam, entitled Botero: Celebrate Life! The rush of opening such an exhibition takes energy out of him, but strangely enough painting never exhausts him, he says in his studio in Monaco. 'I have never experienced anything more fulfilling than painting or sculpting. Painting takes you out of everyday reality. You forget your body - even your existence. It's intense, but while painting I don't feel any fatigue, even after working for seven or eight hours. Whereas at a cocktail party I'm exhausted after only half an hour.'

Read More "Fernando Botero: 'Almost everything around us is art'

Vik Muniz 'faked' Mona Lisa's buttocks

Once, Johan Maurits van Nassau-Siegen had the Mauritshuis built with money earned in Brazil, including in the slave trade. Now a Brazilian is exhibiting in that same Mauritshuis with perfect 3D replicas of the backs of famous paintings. He made five new ones especially for this exhibition. Four well-known masterpieces from the Mauritshuis, but also a painting relating to the Brazilian adventures of the time.

Vik Muniz is an amiable, extremely lively man who...

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Eavesdropping mandatory

Once in a while it resurfaces, the next idea. An ideal of the future: if some public talker were to eavesdrop a little more on musicians. What would take place? In the clay The same thing that has been audible in the Dutch musical landscape for a while now would happen: shuffling cultures. Taking inspiration from the rest of the... 

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Rembrandt in the mirror

Selfies from the Golden Age. The Mauritshuis gives this subtitle with a wink to its new exhibition Dutch self-portraits. With it, the museum seeks a new connection between 17th-century art and today's world. And that attempt has succeeded, thanks in part to the ingenious exhibition design by Jelena Stefanovic of Studio OTW. Since the 2012-2014 renovation and expansion, the... 

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Feeling the 3d scan (photo author)

Rembrandt expert in an hour thanks to the Mauritshuis

For eight years, the Mauritshuis researched and restored his painting 'Saul and David'. As a result, it can now be definitively attributed to Rembrandt. But the small exhibition 'Rembrandt? The Case of Saul and David' mainly shows how the museum collaborated with all kinds of different scientists and laboratories to unravel the numerous mysteries surrounding the canvas. As a visitor, you will be taken through the... 

Read More "Rembrandt expert in an hour thanks to the Mauritshuis

Encounters with Matisse at successful exhibition at Stedelijk

With 'The oasis of Matisse', the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam has put on a magnificent exhibition. Sixty years after there was last a major retrospective of Matisse in the Netherlands, his work is back on display in all its glory. So alongside 'Late Rembrandt' at the Rijksmuseum, there is another blockbuster in the capital. The thousands of visitors who attended the... 

Read More "Encounters with Matisse at successful exhibition at Stedelijk

Five questions to Willem Jeths, Composer of the Fatherland

Willem Jeths (1959) is one of the most successful Dutch composers. Through his enormous craftsmanship and drive, he manages to create his own sound world, which is surprising yet accessible. His work is regularly performed at home and abroad and has appeared on many CDs. In 2014, he received the Amsterdam Prize for the Arts and later that year he was appointed 

Read More "Five questions to Willem Jeths, Composer of the Fatherland

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