Amsterdam, with over 400 museums, boasts more culture per square inch than any other city in the world. Tourists have a dazzling choice of options. Must-see museums are the Rijksmuseum, the Van Gogh museum and the CoBrA museum, all of which have recently undergone major refurbishments, hence the need for this update. Let’s hope this guide helps you make a choice in case you can’t see the wood for the trees.
Rijksmuseum
The Rijksmuseum has been closed for ten years and opened only in 2013, to the great relief of both the locals and many people from far removed corners of the globe. The museum and its outdoor gardens are accessible daily between 9am and 6pm. At the moment, the Rijks hosts the largest ever exhibition of works by Alexander Calder, the American artist. The pieces on display are selected by none other than the former Centre Pompidou director, the Parisien Alfred Pacquement. This expert had access to Calder’s trademark three dimensional, mobile artworks in a series of international museums and private collections. The exhibition is the second in the museum’s five annual sculptural shows with an international flavor and includes fourteen garden works as well as four works displayed inside the confines of the museum.
CoBrA
Amsterdam’s CoBrA museum is a 15-minute metro ride away from the centre of town, but very much worth the journey, as it currently hosts the exhibition ‘From the Guggenheim Collection to the Cobra Museum Amstelveen’. Don’t let that clumsy title put you off. An art lover will realise that what’s on show here is going to be spectacular, as this is one of those rare collaborations in the art world that is going to be hyped for decades to come. When you enter the museum you might as well pretend you’ve landed in early Sixties’ New York, when the Guggenheim had just opened its doors, because the majority of works stem from this period. There are around 50 paintings which the Guggenheim has never before lent out to any other entity. The likes of Pollock, De Kooning (Dutch born), Rothko, Bourgeois, Mathieu, Dubuffet and Capogrossi are all generously represented. The CoBrA museum’s permanent exhibition is pretty much a seamless extension of
this type of genius, as CoBrA artists including Corneille, Jorn and Appel had a similar way of abstracting life, and hail pretty much from the same era. Expect a lot of joyful colours. The show ends at the onset of Autumn, on August 31st, so there’s ample time yet.
Van Gogh museum
The Van Gogh Museum was entirely refurbished in 2013, so if you are among the more than 1.4 million tourists admiring the Sunflowers annually, chances are you will see the cutting-edge exhibition space for the first time. Expect the scene to have livened up somewhat. The museum shows both Van Gogh works and temporary exhibitions and also boasts exceptional research facilities. It stays open until 10pm every Friday, when musicians and DJs are performing in the same space. The museum hosts more than 200 authentic Van Gogh paintings as well as 500 of his drawings and 700 letters.
Van Gogh museum
The Van Gogh Museum was entirely refurbished in 2013, so if you are among the more than 1.4 million tourists admiring the Sunflowers annually, chances are you will see the cutting-edge exhibition space for the first time. Expect the scene to have livened up somewhat. The museum shows both Van Gogh works and temporary exhibitions and also boasts exceptional research facilities. It stays open until 10pm every Friday, when musicians and DJs are performing in the same space. The museum hosts more than 200 authentic Van Gogh paintings as well as 500 of his drawings and 700 letters.
