51–60 of 82 posts
If you can read French, I recommend reading Daniel Arasse's L'ambition de Vermeer. It's a detailed analysis of most paintings which aims at showing how deeply conceptual the paintings were. Sadly not translated into English.
If you wish to visit this exhibition, try to plan your visit well outside of the tourist season. The exhibition runs from February 10th 2023 to June 4th 2023, so my advice would be to aim for February, March, or early April at the latest. The Rijksmuseum is situated on a square in Amsterdam alongside the Van Gogh Museum and the Stedelijk and draws a crowd for its special exhibitions and top pieces. (Edit: Forgot to m…
And outside of the Covid crisis of course; nobody should be traveling unless absolutely necessary, and nobody should be visiting museums unless fully vaccinated (for their own safety), masked up, and there's a strict visitor limit. I'm not convinced ventilation would be good enough in a museum given they can't open windows.
For a while I worked at Kenwood House in Hampstead, London. Home of Vermeer's The Guitar Player. As you may know, Vermeers are so few and far between that it's entirely possible to see every one (~36) if you're able to travel the world. So, there exists a subculture of (often) wealthy Vermeer completeists who travel the world doing exactly that. Every month or so at Kenwood, we would be instructed to come in early to…
I'm talking all that trouble for 1-2 minutes in front of the Vermeer so they could check it off their list. And then they were off. Reminds me of people who (pre-pandemic) would compete for the most country stamps in their passports. They would never see many of the countries they visited, beyond the airport's passport control facility.
If you're a basic techie with little appreciation for the fine arts, watch a film called "Tim's Vermeer". It will make you want to go to this exhibition.
Tim's Vermeer was directed and produced by Penn and Teller. While I loved it, I can't shake the feeling the whole thing was a hoax.
> So what does it lack? The film implies anyone can make a beautiful work of art with the right application of science. There is no need for mystical ideas like genius.
> But the mysterious genius of Vermeer is exactly what's missing from Tim's Vermeer. It is arrogant to deny the enigmatic nature of Vermeer's art. If this art looks "optical", it can also look abstract. It is an act of seeing nature, not a work of copying it. Whether or not he made use of optical instruments, Vermeer looked at the world with a uniquely penetrating eye. He was able to paint what he saw with a delicate hand. If you can't see the astonishing nature of his talent when you are standing in front of his paintings you should walk away from them – not make a film about how easy they are to replicate.
> Tim's Vermeer is the equivalent of someone hanging a painting-by-numbers version of a masterpiece over the mantelpiece and claiming it's as good as the real thing. At last, an art film for philistines.
[0] https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/jonathanjonesblog/2...
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Given the state of Dutch COVID politics I’d suggest saving yourself the effort and planning a visit to an attraction in another country instead.
For those who don't know: other European countries have a similar state of COVID-19 policies, or worse (more discrimination between vaccinated and unvaccinated than The Netherlands). If you're properly vaccinated, it isn't a big nuisance to enter The Netherlands (or European Union for that matter) but ensure you do some research before you book (IMO you should get informed via your travel agency; it is their moral ob…
Surely it isn’t a big hassle to enter the Netherlands. But if you want to visit that museum, better make sure it’s before 5 o’clock, otherwise it’s closed due to lockdown. Or whatever rule happens to be active by the time you visit.
I’d instead just plan a visit to a country where the population when faced with a failing government isn’t cheering it on to take away even more rights and implement even more rules.
Remember a majority in the Netherlands still believes the ‘15 days to stop the spread’ theory, so whatever you plan in the Netherlands, it could be canceled at any moment and you have no recourse.
If you're a basic techie with little appreciation for the fine arts, watch a film called "Tim's Vermeer". It will make you want to go to this exhibition.
I appreciate the recommendation, but I don’t appreciate being called “basic”.
If it doesn't apply to you, what's the problem?
Parens with a year after the title is HN style for “written in this year”, which momentarily threw me. Anyway, much love to the Rijksmusuem for the amount of CC0 content they have. It’s a staple for covers for my productions for Standard Ebooks.
For a while I worked at Kenwood House in Hampstead, London. Home of Vermeer's The Guitar Player. As you may know, Vermeers are so few and far between that it's entirely possible to see every one (~36) if you're able to travel the world. So, there exists a subculture of (often) wealthy Vermeer completeists who travel the world doing exactly that. Every month or so at Kenwood, we would be instructed to come in early to…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
And outside of the Covid crisis of course; nobody should be traveling unless absolutely necessary, and nobody should be visiting museums unless fully vaccinated (for their own safety), masked up, and there's a strict visitor limit. I'm not convinced ventilation would be good enough in a museum given they can't open windows.
People are of course welcome to make their own risk assessments. And personally I'd hesitate to travel internationally (outside US) at this point given the potential for unexpected policy changes/disruption. But more generally I've certainly started traveling again and don't think people should not in general if they're comfortable doing so.