Amsterdam Reflections: Van Gogh, Hockney and Rembrandt

Sara McKee reflects on her visit to Amsterdam to see works by a prolific contemporary artist and two of the most revered artists of all time.

Arrival: Back in the Zone.

I last worked in Holland in 1997, now here I am in central Amsterdam and it feels like yesterday. There’s the same laid back vibe, interesting scents emerging from side street cafes and so many cyclists with not a helmet in sight!

But I’m here for the ART.

Van Gogh, Hockney and Rembrandt to be precise. Sitting in Museumplein with a glass of wine watching the world go by, Rijksmuseum one side and Van Gogh the other, with the Bee Gees on permanent loop. The Dutch may be laid back but their music tastes are almost as out of date as my own.

Amsterdam is very much a walking city. You can rent a bike, hop on a tram or get in a taxi if you must. But this place is about canals, bridges and walkways. I was delighted to stumble across a bistro in a small square frequented by locals. That’s where you know the service will be friendly, the food good and the prices reasonable. And it was opposite a four-storey cheese shop. My kind of heaven.

It was a great place for people watching. Multi-generational, multi-cultural, multi-lingual and that’s just the Dutch. I sat and absorbed the atmosphere, reimagining the streets and squares in Rembrandt’s time. Well, perhaps without the Bee Gees.

A pilgrimage: The Joy of Nature – Van Gogh & Hockney

Any photo of the “Botel” I stayed in would simply not do it justice. The bar/breakfast deck is a riot of red, lime green/forest green and mustard yellow – it feels like being back at a student union bar thankfully without the sticky carpet. As I checked into my berth, the receptionist gleefully announced that the bar was open until 1am – whoopee! And this to a woman whose last encounter with late night clubs is at least a decade ago.

There’s a bit of a theme though. Instead of the Bee Gees, we have a Euro pop soundtrack that makes the Eurovision Song Contest sound like a serious musical affair. Of course, the accommodation is entirely secondary to the main event: ART. In fairness, having a derelict submarine covered in graffiti opposite my sea level porthole reminds me that I should make an effort to visit the Banksy show.

I made a specific decision to come to Amsterdam to experience the juxtaposition of David Hockney’s landscapes with Vincent Van Gogh’s work at the Van Gogh Museum. I wanted to see the exhibition for myself after reading some of the negative reviews, including one by art historian Brian Allen. In a review for The Art Newspaper, Allen said:

“Hockney-Van Gogh exhibition is a tame, though colourful, bit of fluff” and “the British artist dominates the Van Gogh Museum’s dubious doubleheader, which offers little to connect the pair.”

For me, the key to this show is the fact that we have a living artist, telling us in his own words what a massive influence Vincent Van Gogh has been in his working life. He describes in his opening video  that “You have to really look to see clearly all the colours,” and despite his mental health challenges there is, “Not misery in Van Gogh painting, there’s love. The first great colourist.” Van Gogh paintings are full of movement and gaiety, as Hockney says: “When nature has an erection.”

In short, Van Gogh saw more than other people. Clearly what others couldn’t.

On Painting…

Hockney’s work does dominate the exhibition and there are repetitions from previous shows with the use of his iPad paintings and four seasons video wall.

We see monumental, multi-panel Hockney in vibrant colours juxtaposed alongside small paintings of Van Gogh landscapes. Hockney reflects on the fact that landscape painting has fallen out of fashion, yet there is so much wonder to be seen in nature throughout the seasons.

Hockney is focused on a specific Yorkshire landscape so very different from Van Gogh’s viewpoint in 19^th Century France. But although a century separates them, they share a vision of bucolic joyful wonder of nature.

I find Hockney’s work reminiscent of Henri Rousseau’s jungle paintings with undergrowth, movement and vibrant colours.

A question for me: Will Hockney’s landscapes stand the test of time?

On Drawing…

What seems to have been overlooked by other critics is the range of drawings on display. Hockney’s drawings are a study on how to look closely and are definitely an homage to Van Gogh’s pen and chalk drawings.

As Hockney says: “I think Van Gogh was one of the great, great draughtsmen.”  It reminds me of the seminal work by John Berger, Ways of Seeing, where he explains: “how images have layers of deeper meaning beyond what they show on the surface: they can offer a valuable document of how their creator saw the world”.

I love Hockney’s energy and enthusiasm, his ability to graft, swapping the sunshine of LA for the seasons of Yorkshire to explore landscape and nature. His volume of work over 60-years and fearlessness in embracing new media to create monumental paper panels of landscape is inspiring. His view: “If Van Gogh were alive today he’d be experimenting with iPad and sending images direct to Theo.”

I wonder who will influence the artists of our next generation and will landscapes come back into fashion?

My particular favourite of David Hockney’s is The Road to York through Sledmere (1997) for the outrageous red.

Tropical Forest with Monkeys (1910), Henry Rousseau

All the Rembrandts

It’s the 350th anniversary of Rembrandt’s death and the Rijksmuseum is celebrating the work of this remarkable artist with an exhibition of every Rembrandt the museum owns.

My first impressions: what diligence, what practice, what draughtsmanship. Close up, even a magnifying glass doesn’t do justice to the hundreds of tiny marks made on paper by Rembrandt. He’s drawing shadows and spotlights on areas of his image that we would never hope to see and yet they’re important enough for Rembrandt to include them.

I love the fact that he created so many self-portraits to practise the human face and to perfect his drawing technique; much cheaper than hiring a model of course! Many of his drawings are the size of playing cards, yet Rembrandt’s detail strikes shade, expressions and funny faces: angry, horrified, smiling plus lots of hat changes. He creates narrative through the use of costume like Titian and Raphael before him.  This is referred to as “Tronie”, not the identity of a real person but the picturesque quality is key; a popular 17th Century genre.

The volume of his drawing emphasises his desire to experiment, which doesn’t always come off successfully!

Throughout his career, even in New Testament etchings of Christ descending from the Cross, he includes his own face in the group.  He encouraged students to study classical statues and then turn to life drawing using their own faces and bodies instead of models. Look in the mirror, look around you, look again and then look some more – he seems to be saying.

The overwhelming quantities of images clearly require several visits. It reminds me of my undergraduate days working in the Walker Art Gallery and Lady Lever Gallery in Liverpool when I discovered how many sketches, watercolours and other artworks are kept below stairs due to lack of exhibition space. Opportunities like the 350th anniversary of Rembrandt’s death provides  a reason to open up everything in his oeuvre.

What is truly marvellous about Rembrandt’s drawing is how it feels so human and familiar as he practices using his family and domestic settings. Did he have a dog too? I hope so. I kept spotting little dogs in both domestic, Old & New Testament stories even in Presentation in the Temple. His constant practice to create magic, looking out to others in Italy, France and fellow Dutch artists and the quantity of work surviving is testament to the value and influence we still place on Rembrandt.

My only wish in this exhibition was that more folk trusted their own eyes to see images rather than rely on the multimedia commentary. Many people seem to be too preoccupied by the technology to take time to really look and see the brilliance of each cross-hatch mark.

If you can get to the Rijksmuseum this year, do it – it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity.

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Hockney – Van Gogh: Joy of Nature

The “Hockney – Van Gogh: Joy of Nature” exhibition is on at the Van Gogh Museum until 26 May 2019. It features Van Gogh’s masterpieces alongside works by Hockney. Watch the exhibition trailer to hear from David Hockney.

Book your tickets here:

https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/whats-on/exhibitions/exhibition-hockney-van-gogh

All the Rembrants

Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam marks the 350th anniversary of Rembrandt’s death in 2019 with ‘Year of Rembrandt’. The year-long celebration opens with ‘All the Rembrandts’, in which the Rijksmuseum presents for the first time an exhibition of all 22 paintings, 60 drawings and more than 300 best examples of Rembrandt’s prints in its collection.

The exhibition runs from February 15 2019 to June 10 2019 and tickets are available here:

https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/all-the-rembrandts-exhibition