November 17, 2011
The Dutch verb ‘wildbreien’ (literally ‘wild knitting’, but really meaning ‘knitting graffiti’) was chosen as the neologism (new word) of 2011. Instead of something negative or lowbrow, knitting graffiti should makes us all feel warm and fuzzy inside. I know I did when I snapped pictures of it in Amsterdam’s Jordaan district. It is also referred to as ‘straatbreien’ (‘street knitting’) because it livens up the streets.
If only it could keep them warm.
(Link: inl.nl)
October 31, 2011
Robin Grasmeijer is painting Princes Máxima in a hangar at Twente Airport, and it is to be the largest painting ever made in the Netherlands.
The painting will be 10 x 15 metres in size. Grasmeijer expects to have his painting finished in the summer of 2012. He is still looking for a building to attach the painting to.
A complicating factor is that Grasmeijer has to paint from his wheelchair. Working in an ill-ventilated factory in which he had to handle polyurethane originally left him paralysed from the neck down in 1997. Later he regained 90% of his strength in his arms and hands.
(Link: Trendbeheer. Video: Youtube / Robin Grasmeijer.)
Tags: Princess Máxima
October 24, 2011
The Amsterdam Museum has managed to raise 12,500 euro for the restoration of the huge painting ‘The Entry of Napoleon in Amsterdam’ (pic), representing the submission of Amsterdam by the French 200 years ago. They need 30,000 euro to complete the restoration and the money so far has come from crowd funding.
The ‘battered’ painting can currently be seen for free at the museum’s Schuttersgalerij (Civic Guards Gallery), along with a collection of portraits of prominent Amsterdam people, something to do if you’re downtown Amsterdam and you need a break from the tourists and your shopping.
“Each year, the citizens involved in the Civic Guard would pay a high price to have their portraits painted. Only the wealthy could afford such a luxury and so developed this portrait collection of wealthy Amsterdam citizens. Many of the famous artists from the 17th century were commissioned to paint these artworks, including Rembrandt.”
The general view seems to be ‘leave the painting alone’. The cracks and wear are part of the painting’s history and the faded colours have their charm. If anyone wants to see the painting in its current state, visit the museum before the end of the year.
(Links: www.nieuwsuitamsterdam.nl, cityscouter)
Tags: Amsterdam, Amsterdam Museum, Napoleon
October 18, 2011
Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith just published a new biography of Vincent van Gogh in which they claim that the Dutch 19th century painter did not shoot himself, as is generally believed.
[The authors] say that, contrary to popular belief, it was more likely he was shot accidentally by two boys he knew who had “a malfunctioning gun”.
The authors came to their conclusion after 10 years of study with more than 20 translators and researchers.
[…] [Stephen Naifeh] said that renowned art historian John Rewald had recorded that version of events when he visited Auvers in the 1930s and other details were found that corroborated the theory.
They include the assertion that the bullet entered Van Gogh’s upper abdomen from an oblique angle – not straight on as might be expected from a suicide.
Last Monday the Van Gogh Museum launched a biographical app on the life of the painter that presumably does not include this fresh light on his life and death. Museum manager Frank van den Eijnden nevertheless sees the book’s publication as a positive development according to De Pers: “Because of the news, the app is more current than ever.”
Earlier today the museum’s conservator, Leo Jansen, called the new theory about Van Gogh’s death insufficiently supported by the evidence: “Many questions remain unanswered.” Nevertheless he feels the authors—for which he reviewed a first draft—did a good job: “They looked at everything that was already known, and came up with many new insights and connections.”
(Illustration: the Van Gogh that was ‘discovered’ last year)
October 3, 2011
Last year Guido Derksen, Martin van Mousch and Jop Mijwaard published a book about how different cultures and religions view the hereafter.
Rather than limiting themselves to a dry summing up of various theories, the authors actually made an illustrated atlas: eighteen drop dead gorgeous maps! There are maps of Dante’s hell, the Egyptian Duat, the Islamic, Jewish and Hindu heavens, and many more (shown here: Valhalla). The book drew positive reviews from both the religious and secular press.
Reformatorisch Dagblad (protestant) wrote:
The chapter about the medieaval folk tale of Cockaigne is a welcome change of tone, being comical in nature. The map contains a Tokkelroom Dale with a town called Advocaat. We also find a mountain range called Top Fermenting with a peak called Two Fingers. […] In conclusion it is an original, fascinating and informative book.
To some people this may be a confrontational and sobering book, but it thought it was lovely. A piece of folkloric religion becomes pure literature again—back to the realm of Tolkien.
And VPRO radio: “Real maps […], so you’ll know exactly where you need to be.”
Moors has several samples of the maps, as does the authors’ blog, which discusses (in Dutch) how the maps were made.
De Geïllustreerde Atlas van het Hiernamaals, by Guido Derksen, Martin van Mousch and Jop Mijwaard, Nieuw Amsterdan, 2010.
Tags: afterlife, books, cartography, heaven, hell, maps, Religion
September 25, 2011
Delft based klezmer band L’Chaim uploaded a video of their song A Goet Vol Glezele to Youtube last month. The video was recorded at coffeehouse Uit de Kunst, which is also the site of the country’s smallest art gallery, Voor de Kunst, housed in an old phone booth.
Why a phone booth? Owner Tijn Noordenbos explains to Bright.nl: “The quay had collapsed, which caused a tunnel to the houses to be exposed. When it turned out that I had to pay for the repairs, I decided that I got to determine how those repairs were going to be executed. [There is now a hatch covering the tunnel.] You don’t throw a phone booth as easily into the canal as you do a flower box.”
(Video: Youtube / L’Chaim)
September 19, 2011
Well, it had to happen. Somebody had to take the famous stackable concrete blocks that are often used to create temporary barriers and paint them in the famous Lego colours.
That somebody was artist Filip Jonke who started building this temporary ‘church’ on the Grenswerk festival terrain in the centre of Enschede. The building is still being erected and you can follow that process at Jonker’s website.
The building will measure 25 by 10 metres with a 20 metre steeple and will serve as a pavilion for the festival.
(Link: Trendbeheer, Photo: Filip Jonker)
September 3, 2011
If you thought the story about the asylum seeker game show was bad, you may not wish to read on.
The mugs that photographer Raoul de Lange makes may seem rather pedestrian—a couple of cheerfully coloured pixels being the only adornment—but the pixels are based on photos of people that were shot down during the Arab Spring, and that did not even get to enjoy some privacy from prying photographers.
These mugs were De Lange’s senior project (called Mug Shots) at the Royal Academy of Art. He was the only photographer of his year who did not use his own photos, Bright reports.
De Lange writes: “In [this project] I try to make the dead and wounded of the Arab Spring a part of our daily lives in an acceptable manner.”
(Source photo: Raouldelange.nl. Warning: bloody photos behind the link.)
Tags: Arab Spring, violence
August 31, 2011
A project entitled ”Play Me, I’m Yours” by English artist Luke Jerram at Tilburg’s annual Incubate Festival will feature 101 pianos scattered around the city between September 12 and 18. Anybody can go and play the pianos in the parks, squares and at train stations. And they’ll surely be painted all kinds of pretty colours.
Some 200 musicians and music students have already showed a keen interest in giving concerts. And with so many people wanting to go and play the pianos, the city of Tilburg will surpass Jerram’s previous projects that took place in major cities such as New York and London.
Incubate donated the pianos and volunteer residents will babysit and care for the pianos during the event. Pet pianos, if you will. And with all this rain, that sounds like a good idea although all the rumours point to fantastic weather in September. And there will be music, too.
(Link: refdag.nl, Photo of piano keyboard by Adam Henning, some rights reserved)
August 27, 2011
The Freethinkers Room in the buildings of parliament has ceased to exist. The exhibition of endangered art was abandoned some time during the past months by government party VVD (People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy), Volkskrant reports.
The exhibition was founded in the party’s quarters in 2008, and was an initiative by VVD and PVV (Geert Wilders’ Freedom Party) who were both in opposition to the governing coalition at the time.
The room was used to display art of anti-Islamic xenophobes. When a left wing politician suggested that the room also host the “Wilders is an extremist” poster, PVV quit the initiative. Later prime minister Rutte banned further art critical of Wilders from the room, even though its makers had received “grievous threats“.
At the time one commentator surmised that Rutte built his Freethinkers Room mainly so that he “could have a photo opportunity with the parents of Theo van Gogh”. De Pers on the other hand states that the room was merely a cheap campaign trick to begin with.
(Photo: the poster by “Internationale Socialisten” that led to the arrest of three protesters, and to the beginning of the end of the Freethinkers Room. Text: “Geert Wilders. Extremist. Can cause damage to you and the society.”)
Tags: extremism, Geert Wilders, politics, PVV, VVD
