Alphonse Mucha's Slav Epic

From Making Light, co-workers Patrick & Teresa Nielsen Hayden's blog, I was directed to Mucha's Slav Epic.

Anyone who knows me knows that I have a deep, deep love of Mucha's ouvre. His figure work, his linework, and his sense of space are only surpassed by his skill as a master draughtsman. Throughout the years, Mucha has informed my personal artwork –in one way or another, and in varying degrees of intensity– more than any other artist, hands-down.

I wasn't aware that this body of work existed- much less that Mucha himself considered it his masterpiece. The above link has a great historical background on the series, as well as detailed analysis of each painting. While a far cry from the stylistic mannerisms of his poster work, this series of paintings are beautiful in and of themselves. I hope to be able to see them one day, if I ever make it to the former Czech Republic.

The Rijksmuseum, or: The early bird don't stand in no queue.

Woke up very early this morning, and hopped on the tram down to the Rijksmuseum. Like the Stedelijk, it is undergoing major renovations. I took the tram more out of curiosity (or laziness), as the museum is walking distance from my hotel. Their ticketing system is strange: a long strip of paper, which you feed into a punch-system on the tram car. Theoretically, you could get by without purchasing or punching your ticket, but for the ever-present conductor walking up and down the tram car looking at people's tickets. Sure makes me pine for the Metrocard.

Due to the temporary accomodations at the Rijksmuseum, very few works out on display, mostly Rembrandts, Vermeers, etc. Most of the temporary exhibit focused on paintings by lesser-known artists which give a historical context to the Dutch Golden Age, which was fine by me, as I'm currently riding a post-Barroque Cycle 17th & 18th century kick. Some interesting paintings by Fredrick Boll caught my eye (until recently, some of these had been mistakenly attributed to Rembrandt, as Boll was one of his pupils). I was surprised at the small scale of the Vermeers in general, they always felt like they would be much larger, particularly 'The Love Letter'. That being said, it was amazing to be standing up close and personal with these works, and due to the fact that I got there early, it wasn't too crowded yet. 'The Nightwatch' was on display, of course, at the end of the exhibit. Again, it's not as imposing a painting as I supposed– I was expecting something physically larger (not that the actual 'Nightwatch' is not large, in and of itself, but I guess I've picked apart this painting so many times in dark art history classes as a huge projection on a lecture hall wall, that seeing it in person was a bit anti-climactic (I'm sure this has to do with the way it was hung, too. The museum has been relegated to a tiny corner of the building while renovations are in full effect). Regardless, seeing all the paintings up close was definitely worth it. It's such a different experience when you can appreciate the painting up close, and get a feel for the artist's hand, the quality of the brushstroke, etc.

I was lucky to arrive at the museum early, and by the time I got to 'The Nightwatch', it was starting to get a bit crowded. Once outside, I said a little "Hellz yeah" at having gotten there so early– the line to get into the museum was now snaking around the block.

I walked around for a while, taking in this more upscale part of the city. Many high-end shops around the Museumsplein area, hoping to reel in the more 'cultured' –and affluent– tourists, as opposed to the hippies, stoners, college students, and general plebe of the more kitschy and souvenir shop–infested Centruum. I briefly toyed with the idea of going into the Van Gogh museum, but after taking a look at the long-ass line to get in, I reconsidered: Van Gogh isn't really one of my favourites, certainly not enough to stand in line for two hours waiting to get into a crowded museum, only to be jostled around inside by boorish tourists wielding cameras of all shapes and sizes. If I had one more day, and could get there early, as I did for the Rijksmuseum, then it would be fine. As it stands, van Gogh can wait for me until I come back.

Tonight, I'm gonna roll by the Vankrijk, a squatter bar recommended by my friend Ben. They don't open until 22:00, so in the meantime I'm going to go check out the opening of a small gallery exhibit at Artis, entitled 'Rembrandt Re-mixed'. As the name implies, the show consists of contemporary Dutch artists' taking imagery by Rembrandt and re-mixing it into new work. Should be interesting.

More VOC detritus.

This is the only windmill in sight, so far. It's actually an old Dutch East India Company (VOC) saw-mill, just chillin' there. This area used to be VOC warehouses, and the city has grown around the saw-mill. There seems to be a bar or café connected to it, but there didn't seem to be a way to go inside the mill itself, even though it looks like it's kept up.

De Hortus and its environs.

After the museum I meandered my way down south, through Jodenbuurt and into the Plantage, to check out de Hortus, the Dutch botanical gardens. "Botanical gardens, in winter?" you ask? Yep, it was almost a big dissapointment, if it hadn't been for the bigger butterflies. Very big butterflies. Wings as big as my open hand, and right in your face, munchin' on an orange slice. Unfortunately, this is where my camera crapped out (see previous post), so again, frakk Sony.

After de Hortus, I walked around for a while. It is virtually impossible to get lost in Amsterdam. Since most of the center of the city is a series of concentric rings, sooner or later you end up on the river again. I walked back through Jodenbuurt, and ran into a street market full of old middle eastern ladies, which morphed into hippie/stoner/tourist market the more I walked in the direction of the Dam. So down and into the old side of Centruum I went, and found myself hanging out around the University of Amsterdam. Quiet, since I assume they're on break, but full of –wait for it– bookstores! I spent a good hour and a half perusing the shelves. A lot of american imports (as opposed to british editions, which is interesting), but some real gems, particularly in this one store which specializes in art-related books.

Eventually I walked by a little antiques shop which was blasting Hector Lavoe, so I had to go in. The owner was a lady from Arecibo, my dad's home town! Not only that, but she had a considerably large collection of old Fania and salsa in general LPs, and she was selling lead type, by the case and as loose sorts! Needless to say, I had to see if I could find a Garamond 'p', but I didn't find one. Spent a good long time chillin' with this lady. She married a Dutchman when younger and opened the antiques shop with him. Small world, no?

After that I realized I'd basically made a full circle, so I headed back to the hotel to pick up my stash and write these posts. Now I'm headed out to a coffeeshop, in search of a nice quiet corner in which to sip some brew, smoke some herb, and read some more System of the World. Life is good.

Stedelijk Museum

I went to the Stedelijk Museum this morning, particularly to see the Pierre Bernard exhibit, celebrating his winning the Erasmus Prize for 2006. The Erasmus Prize is awarded annually to a person who, within the structure of European cultural traditions, has made an exceptionally important contribution in the realms of culture, society or the social sciences.

Most of the work on display was either posters or identity work. That being said, there were some gems on the poster wall (the exhibit was hung salon-style), particularly a poster entitled 'Apartheid Racisme'. The ID section featured work for the Louvre and the Parcs nationaux (the French national parks system). For both the Louvre and the Parcs they had all of the branding and identity work, which was comprehensive, particularly for the Parcs job. They had a standards manual for Parcs on display, which is fascinating to leaf through (if you're into that sort of thing).

The rest of the museum wasn't bad, keeping in mind that they're at a temporary location while renovating (similar to the MoMA until last year), and most of their big work is in storage. They had some contemporary stuff up, some of which was interesting, particularly 'Facts, Fictions and Stories: Two projects by Broomberg & Chanarin', a series of photo-essays on life after apartheid in South Africa, and another photo-essay about a training ground in Chicago for the Israeli Defense Forces. Yes, Chicago. I didn't know about it either. Go figure.

Rembrandt House

After the Maritime Museum, I walked over to the Rembrandt House museum. This is Rembrandt's home, which he bought in 1639 and had to sell in 1656 when he went bankrupt. The inventory that was compiled in 1656 because of Rembrandt’s bankruptcy enabled the museum to work out how the house was laid out during this period and how Rembrandt had used the different rooms. Some of Rembrandt’s drawings and etchings provided additional information.

In addition, the museum houses around 260 of the 290 print editions he made, including some original worked copper plates (!), which were great to see. I got to take a picture of the wooden press they have set up in what was Rembrandt's print shop (which is used by the museum to do etching demos! There were some prints drying when I looked in, but no demo today) before the guard told me that pictures were not allowed. No biggie; with the possible exception of the painter's pallete in the thrid-floor studio (in which the museum also holds paint mixing demos), the rest of the house is pretty ho-hum. Small, steep staircase. Very little furniture. People apparently slept in boxes with bedding in them, that they would close up during the day. Pretty interesting, actually.

On the third floor they had a temporary exhibit entitled Tour de France. It collects drawings by Rembrandt's student Lambert Doomer and his friend Willem Schellinks, made during a trip along the River Loire in 1646. The collection is considered one of the best visual records of the countryside at that time.

Maritime Museum

As 10AM rolled around, I headed towards a coffeeshop for some refreshment, and made my way over to the Maritime Museum. It houses a large collection of artifacts and documents from the golden age of Dutch maritime history, mostly centering around the VOC (Dutch East India Company). Unfortunately, it was dark as hell in there, and I couldn't get too many good shots, since I couldn't use my flash.

Some highlights, pictured at right:
• a split maquette for an Eastindiaman (one of the VOCs biggest and best ships)
• a Manual for Dutch Mariners (presumably given to VOC sailors)
• a collection of short muskets from the 1760's
and last but certainly not least
• a 'Firman', or a pass from the Sultan offering protection from North African pirates, c. 1775.

The Dutch can't roll a joint for shite, and other points of minor hedonism.

The coffeshops here sell you either grams or half-grams; or loose joints. So far, for convenience's sake, I've been dropping on the loose joints. No more, though. After two days, I've decided the following: the joints are too long for the paper type (rice-papery stuff, almost see-through) it buckles at the filter, since they're machine-rolled and the paper is just wide enough to touch and be glued. In cone style, but the thin end is too thin, so it makes for awkward smoking. Plus, they're made with shake, for the most part, so they're a disaster to smoke– they keep going out. The little plastic containers they come in, however, are nice.

I'll be rolling my own from now on, thankyouverymuch.

Oh, and there's nothing sweeter than the Red Light District on christmas night, for all y'all sinners out there. 'Nuff said.

Local time: 3.50AM

Preparations

So I've decided to go to Amsterdam for the holidays, and I figured it would be a good time to start this blog off right. So far, I've got my plane ticket, a hotel reservation, an international power adapter for my MacBook, the last volume of The Barroque Cycle, a couple of guidebooks, a big ol' honkin' map of the city (thanks, Ben!), and a jones for the etching collection at the Rembrandt House. We'll see how it goes in the land of tulips, calvinists, and quasi-legal soft drugs.