Rain Day

The weather was certifiably filthy today: high winds and pelting rain for most of the morning. We had early tickets for the Van Gogh Museum, so we hopped on the BGV, where Amsterdammers greet their tram conductor like an old friend, and spent the morning indoors enjoying the show before the hordes arrived.

The original plan for the day was to go to Hermitage Amsterdam after the Van Gogh, but the transit connections weren't great, so there'd be a lot of walking to get there, and the weather was still just awful. Bruce had the bright idea to go instead to the Stedelijk Museum of Modern Art, which was literally right next door. 

There we found an on-the-nose artwork on display:

That's a neon sculpture, made in 1969 by a man named Bruce, entitled "My Name If It Were On The Moon." 

My lower back was getting sore by the time we started our third hour of museum viewing at the Stedelijk, which may be why I felt disengaged from the pieces on display. Or it could be that visual art after 1950 just makes me angry.

Doesn't make me angry: Mondrian circa 1929

After lunch, the weather cleared up so it was safe to go outdoors. It was not, however, safe to walk too close to puddles on the street, which passing vehicles turned into spectacular ten-foot-high plumes of filthy water. 

We walked for about an hour to go see the "Het Schip" - an "Amsterdam School" designed workers' housing project - so-called by the locals because, well, it looks like a ship.

The Amsterdam School is a little bit Arts and Crafts movement, a little bit Art Deco, and a little socialist sentimental. They designed buildings and things so as to elevate common objects and make them beautiful for working folks. Some of these pretty objects were on display in the Het Schip Museum. 

So you can see why it got called a ship.

Decorated glass lamp, from below and from the side.

A clock.

A Fireplace screen.

 Another clock.

It's just one of life's little ironies that most of the beautiful things the Amsterdam School made were too intricate to mass produce, so it was mostly only rich people who could have the stuff they made. But, Het Schip itself is still a low income housing project and regular people live there even now.

Exterior: Het Schip.

Detail: Het Schip decoration

Thanks for reading!

Karen

PS - A note on the Van Gogh Museum - it is exceptionally fine.  Its focus is on Van Gogh as an artist - not just the multi-million-dollar canvases, not just the guy who cut off his ear ... I consider myself to be pretty knowledgeable about Van Gogh, but I learned a lot today ... and when the story got to where he descended into madness, it was inexpressibly sad.