Culture

New Modern Art Museum in Netherlands

What is art and what is natural? A question posed by the newest museum in the Netherlands

September 16th, 2016
Diana Radu, CD News
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The Rotterdam Industrial Joop van Caldenborgh built the "Museum Voorlinden", which will be opened on Saturday, September 10th, for its collection of contemporary art. In a 200-year-old estate in Wassenaar near The Hague, it presents itself emphatically as: "Museum and Gardens".

The pavilion of natural light stone blends smoothly into the dune landscape, the visitors walk through or can cycle - to the North Sea. The museum is surrounded by tall old trees and the gardens, beautifully designed by the Dutch landscape architect Piet Oudolf.

During the first selection he shows abstract but also figurative works of Pyke Koch to Andy Warhol, from Mondrian to Ai Weiwei. There are also cigarette burns listed by Damien Hirst, but also melancholy portraits of Dutch photographer Rineke Dijkstra.

In "Voorlinden" sensual art can and should be experienced: Since the giant steel "open-ended" by the American Richard Serra - a sculpture, through which you can pass. From the top you look at the visitors, running under the pool. Great fun not only for children. The large-scale abstract works with vivid colors and shapes are a great visual experience.

In the gleaming white halls nothing distracts from the art - not even signs for emergency exits. But they are hidden under the plaster and light up only in an emergency.

But above all: There are no spots on the ceiling. The Dutch Nordlicht falls by 115 000 obliquely cut tubes on the roof in the halls. Only on dark days LED Lamps give indirect light from the roof.

An artwork even survived only by natural light. "Skyspace", designed by the American light artist James Turrell, is a meditative space with a square opening in the roof, through which one sees the passing clouds.

The Netherlands is a world leader in the field of art and culture. There is a certain hunger for art. Enjoy an impressive variety of classical and contemporary art at the Van Gogh Museum, Rijksmuseum, Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis, Bonnefantenmuseum Maastricht and Kunsthal Rotterdam

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