The Hague has a number of world renowned art galleries
and museums. The Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis, home to many works by
Vermeer, Rembrandt, Hals, Holbein, et al, was closed for renovation.
Fortunately, the magnificent Escher Museum in the former Royal Winter Palace
was open. Ingrid has always been a great fan of his work because of its
mathematical connections, so this was a must-do on our itinerary. One is able to
see his entire oeuvre and witness the development of his style from the
original simple woodcuts to his mesmerising optical illusions and
“Metamorphose” series. We highly recommend a visit.
Ingrid’s favourite was “Reptiles”, as she did a
university paper on the mathematics involved in this. My favourite was a carpet
woven in the image of the lithograph “Rimpeling”.
There was an interesting additional exhibition of
“Seeing the world through Escher’s eyes” with some classic optical illusions.
As well, there was a room of optical art. As often happens, the exhibits were
either pretentious or spectacular.
Battling
the unhelpful public transport system of The Hague, we then visited the
Gemeentemuseum. It was built in 1931-35 to the design of popular Dutch architect
H P Berlage in the modern style of that era. Whilst the exterior is linear and
solid, the interior is pretty funky. It houses a very impressive, temporary
exhibition of the old masters’ paintings from the Mauritshuis – no photos
allowed, unfortunately. Vermeer’s “The Girl with the Pearl Earring” was apparently
on holidays in Japan.
In its De Stijl Art Movement section, the Gemeentemuseum houses the
world’s most complete collection of Piet Mondrian’s works. As well as the iconic minimalist geometric
works, there were many examples of his earlier styles including my favourite
cubist style “The Flowering Apple Tree”.
The museum featured many of the “Neo-Plasticism”
works for which Mondrian is best known, including his last painting “Victory
Boogie-Woogie”. My favourite is the “Composition with Lines and Colour: III” below. In
fact, I am toying with the idea of creating an homage to this for our living
room.
As we have often found, the rest of the
exhibits were, let’s say, not to our taste. It is always a mistake to read the
accompanying descriptive texts – hyperbole is a polite description. Ingrid was
particularly affected by a large installation of apparently scrap plastic
hanging from the ceiling. Fortunately, the decoration of the building itself
went some way to compensate.
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