The Good, The Bad, and the WTF?

The Good, The Bad, and the …WTF?

Wonderful Poster from the Immigrant Show

Yesterday, we went to the Stedelijk Museum in the Museumkwartier of Amsterdam.  Guess where most of the major museums located? The Stedelijk is considered to be one of the most important collections of modern art in the world.  As a result, it has the least number or reviews on the web of the major collections.  People don't like modern art.  And I must say, I often feel like Naan from The Catherine Tate show when she refers to things as, "What a load of old shit!" We saw aliens wearing Crocs among the many wonders how someone gave these people funding to make this garbage.  I've given up on being angry; just laugh, taunt, and move along, nothing to see here unless I can melt it down for scrap.  If you can't explain it to me in 30 seconds, I ain't buying what you're selling sister.

HUH?

Upstairs was a show on immigrants working in Paris at the turn of the century including Chagall, Picasso, and Mondrian. The first two rooms were all Chagall. Chagall was an Eastern-European devout Jew living in Paris at a time where it wasn't easy to be an immigrant, let alone Ashkenazi.  His art puzzled the locals with its Belarusian-Hebrew themes.  He said love would transcend time and culture and he was right.  His works exudes color and happiness.  The fiddler, actually standing on a roof, is a scene from the Pale of Settlement in Russia.  Like all of his works, it is just intimate, regardless of faith.

There was another interesting show on a Dutchman who had been working on monospace typesets for the computer age starting in 1962—well before anyone imagined a commercial need for such a project.  He also designed and oversaw the implementation of many shows with great period artwork.

A Fidler...on A Roof

Typeset Experiment

Cool Exhibition Art

In the past we had each gone to the Stedelijk separately and each left baffled by museum's recognition.  It felt pretentious and an excuse for funding bad art.  I mean like shaky-8mm-backroom-bad-lighting-adult-film-quality art.  This time the museum had been renovated, expanded, and chose a new perspective; having artists explain why they loved certain pieces.  Instead of being the person in the room who wasn't in on the joke, you felt invited to share an experience.  I think our favorite example of this was a hideous Koon's piece.  The curation said essentially, Do you know why I love this piece?  Because I can't stand it, it's hideous, and that's what the artist was trying to convey. I laughed, Stu laughed, and we were able to get it instead of being left in the cold puzzled.

ICK!