Rembrand’s Nachtwacht is a big picture. It’s not my favourite Rembrand (yet?) despite the fact that every time I discover something new in the painting. This time it was the hand of the main figure (Frans Banning Cocq) that stood out: turning the flat picture almost into a 3D representation. So I spent a bit more time in front of the Staalmeesters, as most of the other visitors had other stuff to do or look at.

At the Stedelijk, I had the pleasure to see a small selection of works of one of my favorite painters: Jean Dubuffet.

Very enjoyable exhibit at the Leighton House in London showing works by Tadema. As the house is close to the Design Museum we decided to look what was on show there as well. It was great fun to spend a couple of hours at the California: Designing Freedom exhibition.

From the exhibition’s webpage:

“How did California come to have such a powerful influence on contemporary design? California: Designing Freedom explores how the ideals of the 1960s counterculture morphed into the tech culture of Silicon Valley, and how ‘Designed in California’ became a global phenomenon.

The central premise is that California has pioneered tools of personal liberation, from LSD to surfboards and iPhones. This ambitious survey brings together political posters and portable devices, but also looks beyond hardware to explore how user interface designers in the San Francisco Bay Area are shaping some of our most common daily experiences. By turns empowering, addictive and troubling, Californian products have affected our lives to such an extent that in some ways we are all now Californians.”

Susan Kare’s notebook

With great food in Fortnum and Mason, Portland, and the OXO tower restaurant and more art in the Royal Academy of Arts with the Summer Exhibition, it was another great weekend in London.

Summer Exhibition London

When I look outside my window at home I see trees across the dead end street that we live in. Currently I cannot see what is behind them. The foliage hides the view on the graves on  the first general cemetry of Utrecht, designed by Zocher in 1830, “Soestbergen“. It is not Pere Lachaise, it is small, but green and peaceful. Gerrit Rietveld (Stijl, designer, architect) is buried here. It is nice to visit  and find peace and quiet there once in a while.

There were some good reasons to get away for the weekend to London. Prime reason was to see the Hockney exhibition at the Tate

London weekend

but then of course there was food, Tate Modern with the magnificent Rauschenberg exhibition, the Shard, Design Museum and what proved to be the most interesting part: the Michelangelo and Sebastiano exhibition in the National Gallery. The Guardian had a nice review on it.

There were plenty of reasons to spend the weekend in Rotterdam. The Surrealist exhibition at Boijmans – with Paul van der Eerden as a nice extra – and then also, the Hyperrealists in the Kunsthal.

Man Ray

Paul van der Eerden

Hyperrealism

We had aimed to visit both the Magritte and Hergé exhibitions in Paris, but unfortunately we didn’t manage to book in advance for the Hergé one – so we missed that (standing outside for one and a half our in the cold didn’t appeal to us). Instead we went to the Orangerie and Jeu de Paume. It was a fabulous weekend of art, art and art (and a bit of food).

The Centre Pompidou did not only have the Magritte exposition on offer but also a retrospective of Cy Wombly’s work. It is always quite a different experience of seeing 50+ paintings of an artist in one exhibition instead of just one picture in a whole collection mixed with other artists. What happened at the Tate exhibition of Rothko some years ago, happened here as well. We discovered how to look at and read a Wombly painting. I can certainly also recommend Roland Barthes’ texts on Wombly.

One of the best parts of the Magritte exhibition was the interview with a journalist on the curtains that frequently appear in his work. The interview went a bit like this (check the audioguide app):

Journalist: there are certain themes that occur often in your work. Is it ok to talk about themes / Magritte: no I don’t like that word. I would rather use the word figures. Journalist: Curtains is one of the figures you often use. Why? Magritte: Because they exist. Journalist: But there are so many other things that exist. Magritte: Yes, but I have a limited repertoire.

Another fascinating exhibition was at the Orangerie. American Painting in the 1930s. Soon to be seen in London.

Fun to see Utrecht CS livened up by Belgian Cartoon Characters. With Le Chat (Geluck) being one of my favourites). HRH Mathilde from Belgium visits Utrecht Central Station.

(But why are not more Flemish cartoonists represented?)

Staying in Monterey at the Cannery row, we drove to Big Sur and visited the Henry Miller Memorial Library.