#boijmans van beuningen

[analogwormsattack]

[jurjenkvanderhoek]

ONDERZOEK NAAR KUNST IN HET VERWOESTE ROTTERDAM

Donderdag 14 mei 1940 - 13.27 uur. De lucht trilt, de aarde beeft, het geluid is oorverdovend. Duitse vliegtuigen bombarderen Rotterdam. Het onheil davert een kwartier kort en vernietigt bijna de hele historische binnenstad. De stad is heeft het hart verloren. Het openbare leven lijkt opeens, na die 15 minuten, helemaal stil te liggen. Maar amper bekomen van de schrik slaat de feniks zijn vleugels uit en stijgt uit boven de puinhopen. Meteen al worden plannen gesmeed voor vernieuwing en herbouw. Men zit niet bij de pakken neer, maar denkt meteen aan een wedergeboorte van de deels verwoeste stad. Kunnen kunstenaars in een dergelijk armageddon overleven? Zijn zij door de apocalyptische puinhopen hun inspiratie kwijt geraakt? Of leeft de kunst door deze tegenslag juist energiek op. Van een afstand schijnt de kunstwereld weggevaagd, maar binnen de stadsmuren leeft en werkt deze als ooit tevoren.

De uitgave 'De Vuurvogelgeneratie' doet daar verslag van; hoe kunstenaars in een verwoeste stad hun hoofd boven water hebben gehouden, wisten te houden. Het verhaalt over de onwaarschijnlijke bloei van een kunstwereld tijdens de bezetting. Doet verslag van hoe die donkere jaren ingrepen in de levens van een aantal bij naam genoemde kunstenaars. Kunsthistoricus en journalist Sandra Smets heeft jarenlang diepgaand onderzoek gedaan naar deze welhaast vergeten periode in de kunstgeschiedenis. In het boek verkent zij het werk en leven van een tiental kunstenaars en andere personen tijdens de bezettingsjaren in Rotterdam. Het schetst een beeld van een stad in puin. En kunstenaars die de brokstukken weer mee aan elkaar lijmden.

Het boek volgt de handel en wandel van Rotterdamse kunstenaars tijdens en vlak na de oorlog. In een verwoeste stad die zichzelf uit de puinhopen weer opricht. Een interessant gegeven dat meeslepend is beschreven. Schilders documenteerden de geschiedenis door het kapotte centrum in tekeningen en schilderijen vast te leggen. Beeldhouwers kregen opdrachten voor monumentale gedenktekens om de 14e mei van het jaar 1940 niet te vergeten. Er was volop leven in de brouwerij. De in de haast gebouwde barakken om de middenstand tijdelijk in onder te brengen werden door kunstenaars van muurschilderingen voorzien. Er bleken in de aanloop tot herbouw van de stad voldoende gelegenheden om kunst in te zetten. Om aldus aan de buitenwereld te laten zien dat Rotterdam zich ondanks het noodlot niet uit het veld liet slaan.

De Vuurvogelgeneratie gaat uiteraard welhaast in het geheel over die kunstenaars in deze verwoeste stad. Vele daarvan waren door het bombardement alles kwijt geraakt. Het atelier, materialen en het oeuvre tot aan die onheilsdag toe. Ondanks dat deze kunstenaars terug waren bij af en van nul af aan moesten beginnen rees de kunstwereld in Rotterdam fier uit de as. Smets doet daar met haar boek nauwgezet verslag van. Ze gaat diep en breedvoerig op de zaken in. Daarmee is het verslag echter geen droge kost, want ze heeft een plezierige hand van schrijven. De materie is zo interessant dat het resultaat van onderzoek zich makkelijk laat lezen.

De kunstenaars worden gevolgd in hun doen en laten tijdens de bezetting. Wat de beknotting van de oorlog met hen doet. Hoe ze trachten te overleven in hun kunst, door hun kunst. Van het bombardement zelf zijn geen beelden of tekeningen. Pas dagen later worden de puinhopen vastgelegd. Voor kunstenaars worden tijdelijk werkruimten en ateliers gerealiseerd. Kunst krijgt zo plaats in de verwoesting. Eerst kan de kunst nog een tijd zelfstandig opbloeien, later komt het onder invloed van de bezetter. Is het om te kunnen functioneren afhankelijk van de bezetter. Op enkele dwarskoppen na, die met hun entartete kunst de eigen weg willen vervolgen. Zij conformeren zich niet aan wat volgens de Duitse macht juiste kunst hoort te zijn. Ondanks de moeiten die hen dat kost zetten ze volhardend door. Met alle gevolgen van dien.

In het boek passeren vele kunstenaars de revue die een legio aan werken hebben nagelaten. Het museum Boijmans neemt in het onderzoek een bijzondere plek in. Ook al omdat de toenmalige directeur in de oorlog een dubieuze rol speelde. Aan de ene kant heeft hij veel ten voordele van de kunsten gedaan, terwijl het wel leek alsof hij naar de pijpen van de bezetter danste. Zo waren er ook diverse kunstenaars die eieren voor hun geld kozen en collaboreerden met de vijand. Om toch maar te kunnen blijven werken en aan tentoonstellingen te mogen deelnemen. Want wie geen lid was van de door de Duitsers ingestelde Kunstkamer kon het wel vergeten. En sowieso was er geen plaats meer voor Joodse kunstenaars.

Het huidige Museum Boijmans van Beuningen heeft de smet van het verleden weggepoetst en kan met geheven hoofd de kunstwerken die in het boek worden genoemd tentoon stellen. Dat is ook gebeurd. Een speciale tentoonstelling, kunst tussen de ruïnes, waarvoor het boek de aanleiding was is nu inmiddels afgelopen. Nog daarna kan het museum putten uit de rijke collectie die de uitgave omschrijft. Een beeldenroute door de stad Rotterdam wijst de bezoeker op de kunst in de openbare ruimte die mee door het bombardement of ondanks de oorlog is ontstaan. Het boek kan echter uitstekend zelfstandig de wereld in en door. De talloze afgedrukte foto's en schilderijen illustreren het verhaal evengoed als het museum dat heeft gedaan in een live-opstelling. En Sandra Smets is zo gedetailleerd te werk gegaan, dat in woorden de beelden als vanzelf beginnen te leven. Niet alleen beschrijft zij de kunst en de kunstenaars in een verwoeste stad, ook doet zij verslag van de handelingen van de bezetter. Zo is “De Vuurvogel” niet alleen een boek over kunst op de voorgrond, maar wordt tevens op de achtergrond verslag gedaan van de oorlog in Rotterdam en omgeving. Een uitgave derhalve die past zowel in de afdeling kunstboeken als onder de kop historie.

De Vuurvogelgeneratie, kunstenaars in een verwoeste stad. Sandra Smets. Uitgave Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, 2023.

[lionofchaeronea]

All Saints, Peter Paul Rubens, ca. 1614

[nupaintings]

[internationalemeteorologie]

Kees Timmer

Felis onca. ca. 1953 

[garadinervi]

Benno Wissing, Permeke, (poster), Museum Boymans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, 1957 [NAGO – Nederlands Archief Grafisch Ontwerpers]

Text: J. Van Lerberghe

[beljar]

The Towel of Babel (1568) by Pieter Bruegel the Elder

[arthistoryanimalia]

Influential Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer was born #OTD (21 May 1471 – 6 April 1528). Lots of posts today with his most famous animals like the rhino, stag beetle, hare, etc., but he illustrated lots of other cool critters too, like this cute crab! 🦀

Crab, 1495 watercolor & gouache, 2.63 x 3.55 cm Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen

Here are some book recommendations from my library to learn more about his many works focused on animals:

1. Dürer's Animals

2. Nature's Artist: Plants and Animals by Albrecht Dürer

3. Albrecht Dürer and the Animal and Plant Studies of the Renaissance

[festivalists]

[ph-dm]

[toosvanholstein]

De Pot, een toekomstig Rotterdams monument en waarom Frank Gehry nu wel de pot op kan

Een nieuw icoon vanjewelste, dat Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen. Overdonderend in het kwadraat. Gaat dat zien! Hier al vast een voorproefje in TOOS&ART van deze week #kunst #art #expositie #Boijmans

Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen Voordat iets op de lijst van Rijksmonumenten kan worden geplaatst, moet het natuurlijk eerst wel zijn gebouwd. Een tikje bejaard worden is daarna ook een pluspuntje en dan is het maar afwachten of het ooit tot erfgoed wordt verklaard. Zoals bijvoorbeeld mijn pakhuis ´Holstein´ uit 1738. Vorige week schreef ik erover vanwege mijn deelname aan de nationale Open…

[thedaveandkimmershow]

It's occurring to me that these days are long. These days are packed. And while it may seem that these days are also full-throttle, there's so much one-on-one with my family that each day feels like more than one day.

Each day.

Feels.

Like more than one day.

And that's a straight-up miracle given the last-minute nature of this visit.

This time, my cousin from the dutch town of Gorinchem is our tour guide for the day, picking us up a little after 11, and pulling up to the Rotterdam city hall an hour later.

We get out of the car, find our way to and through an archway into a courtyard, and suddenly we're in a statue garden.

It's a very Pinterest-y opportunity so we take photographs of, well, everything we see including the statues, the light and ornament-decorated plants, as well as the historical architecture all around us.

After that, into the city hall building itself we go where we get a tour primarily on the second floor, along the stone balcony overlooking the domed gallery, down halls adorned with paintings of each former mayor, various public information displays, committee rooms, and one giant ballroom with maybe a four-story sized Christmas tree commanding the room. We wander this magnificent space as well as the adjoining room that features paintings of people from ancient Greece appearing to look down into the room.

After the tour, we make our way back to the ground floor down a tight spiral staircase.

1pm we're at Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen.

It's an art depot.

An art depot?

Yeah. Here's the official description:

"Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen is the world’s first publicly accessible art storage facility. The depot is located next to Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Museumpark in Rotterdam. Visitors can see the result of 174 years of collecting. More than 154,000 objects housed together, arranged in fourteen storage compartments with five different climates. Next to the objects, all the activities that go into preserving and managing a collection are on open view in the building."

That explanation didn't exactly land for me so I did a little digging. It turns out that most museums are curated, that is, the museum carefully chooses and thoughtfully organizes and presents a fraction of its collection it presents to the public.

According to artnet.com...

"Most museums can show only 10 percent of their holdings at a time, and changes to what is on display can take years to implement. But the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam has found a novel solution: unlocking its storage vaults for the public ... offering them a unique behind-the-scenes experience and the chance to learn how a world-renowned museum maintains and cares for its art collection."

From the ground floor, purchasing tickets and figuring out the locker tech where we're supposed to temporarily stash our coats and Kimmer's bag... to the top floor restaurant and open-air forest, we are on a unique adventure, a wonderful emotional and intellectual exploration that sometimes involves all three of us, sometimes each of us as individuals, and sometimes various pairings. Sometimes Kimmer 'n I. Sometimes my cousin 'n I. Sometimes my cousin 'n Kimmer.

The museum provides an app that can help guide the experience as well as provide a way at some later time to read and learn more about the specific items that catch our imaginations when we're in the depot.

By the time we hit the roof six floors later, we're pretty hungry. I'm totally down for cookies in the restaurant to tide us over but my cousin makes a compelling argument for lunch at the Markthal, not that far away.

230 we're on our way away from the art depot, finding ourselves parked by the Markthal building.

We're here for lunch, obviously, but the interior of the building is an artistic meal of its own. The windows we see up either massive wall of art reflect condos, living spaces built into the long sides of the market.

And the windows built into the curved roof?

Well, I figure the room windows must, at some point up there, become skylights.

We're on a mission, however, so we have to see every food stand and restaurant first in order to know what we want.

Almost immediately we run across De Snoepkont - Rotterdam, a serious candy store featuring every kind of candy or chocolate a child could want that's bad for you.

My candy, of course, is obvious.

Noticing my interest, my cousin tells me a little history about this confection and then buys one for me. It's incredibly light because it's a large marshmallow covered in chocolate sitting on a thin layer of waffle cone.

The taste and texture of it is an absolute revelation. 🤔☺️❤️

Eventually, for lunch (not dessert) Kimmer settles on a wrap from a Greek place, my cousin 'n I settle on fish & chips from a fish place, only once we look at the menu we decide on kibbeling.

Kibbeling?

Yeah. A Dutch seafood recipe made from battered chunks of fish. It's usually served with a mayonnaise-based garlic sauce or tartar sauce. Salt to taste.

The reason I immediately change my order from traditional fish to kibbeling's that I remember the food truck in my grandmother's village once upon a time in my childhood and teenhood. I remember the fryers. I remember the oven top. I remember this was once a week. An event. A very big deal.

A few days ago I couldn't remember the word "kibbeling" when we were hanging out with my aunt who still lives in that village. But then here it is: on the back of a menu.

So I had to order it.

Just had to. 😊

Our conversation over lunch is unique because it's a personal conversation happening in the midst of people in constant motion. Diners. Shoppers. Employees. All around us all the time. Which, interestingly, creates a private bubble in which we find ourselves comparing the ways in which different generations manage what's happening in their lives. How they process what's happened. How they deal. It's part of my own ongoing curiosity for answers.

Answers?

Sure. My own experience informs me that trauma is rampant in human life.

So.

How do we respond to that trauma?

How does it change us?

How does it change the trajectory of our lives?

And are we aware of what that trauma is doing to us, has done to us, across years? Across decades?

Because the larger conversation here is that the original trauma of my family is World War II. The original trauma of my family is the Japanese occupation of my parent's homeland, their towns, their neighborhoods, their homes while they were still in their teens.

While they were still teenagers.

The original trauma of my family is that it was exposed to the ravages of war and aggressive occupation for years.

The original trauma of my family is that each of our parents on my mom's side, two sisters, two brothers, lost their dad in the war. Executed by the Japanese military.

So yeah. I have questions. Not that they can answered by anyone still alive today...

But I have questions.

Four o'clock my cousin drives us away from the Markthal on our way to cheese, the third item on our agenda we worked out on the road to Rotterdam.

Cheese.

The name of the store is Alexanderhoeve Kaas & Noten at which we arrive a few minutes later. It's a cheese and nuts store where, interestingly, we're looking for picnic foods that are free from nuts and nut cross-contamination.

Good luck with that, right?

Well...

Definitely no luck on the chocolate, the second item on our agenda. The chocolate here contains nuts or is subject to cross-contamination.

We do score a tiny bit of luck with the cheese we end up buying, though.

Gotta love that.

😊

On the road again, we make our way to my cousin's home where we join his wife who's taking care of their granddaughter for the day and who, upon our arrival, hooks each of us up with tea or coffee.

Their granddaughter's a sweetheart, of course. We couldn't help ourselves randomly engaging with her off and on because it's impossible not to. 😊

By the way, one of the cool things about both my cousin's homes is that there's a simple, modern aesthetic at play. Very Pinterest-worthy. Of special note in this home is a complex web of LED lights, points of lights really, that, at night when there's no other light in the room, appear as stars in the sky. Appear as a constellation hovering above the living room.

Later in our visit, my cousin's second oldest son shows up after taking their dog, a Labradoodle of smaller size, for a hair trim. The dog joins us in her characteristically friendly and calm manner as my cousin's son follows behind and you know what?

He.

Is.

TALL.

Like basketball player tall.

Like NBA tall.

What's sweet, though, is that he and his dad are playful like boys are. Only these are very large boys. Playful. Joking. Challenging. Sweet. They wear their relationship right out in the open. 😊

During our time here, we talk family, of course. We talk travel strategy for an upcoming trip my cousin, his sister, and their parents are taking in a coupla weeks. After that it's time for my cousin's granddaughter to go home. She can't drive, of course 😉, so the job falls to my cousin's wife and his son.

The NBA-sized one.

So we're on the road again after an hour-long visit, returning to his parent's home, my aunt and uncle. It's a short (ish) drive. They're only a half hour away.

Six o'clock, we're the first ones to my aunt and uncle's home. So I take the opportunity to photograph some of my aunt's circus and ski slope Christmas displays because, as my cousin pointed out earlier in the day regarding the times I visited family before, I take pictures of everything.

Moving on from Christmas themed decor, there's a family photo collage that was either given to my aunt and uncle or made by my aunt or my uncle. There's a lot of photos I haven't seen here before so I capture them with the intent of asking about them later when I'm back in the states.

And the two photos hanging by the front door?

I capture those just for fun. My cousin's sister and her husband look adorable the day they were married.

And they still do. ☺️

Now it's time for dinner and, if I haven't mentioned it already, these dinners are all home-cooked dutch or Indonesian fare. Sometimes a little of both.

Tonight's straight-up Dutch featuring seasoned mashed potatoes mixed with chopped vegetables, sauerkraut with sliced kielbasa, sausages, and meatballs in sauce.

Around the table are my aunt, my cousin, his sister and her daughter, plus Kimmer 'n I.

Toward the end of dinner, my cousin (our tour guide for the day) gets up to leave because his work team might have to pull an overnighter. So I walk with him down to his car.

Why?

Sure there's stuff to talk about, discuss. Always that. But in this case there's another reason. Given his schedule, you see, I might not see him before we leave Sunday. So I'm inclined to draw out this last moment as long as I possibly can without necessarily saying goodbye. Don't wanna jinx anything in case there's a chance we will see him before we leave.

At his car, we catch his sister's husband drive up and park. Hello's all around and he's on his way to dinner.

By 'n by, I make my way back inside. Everyone's pretty much finished their meals and my sister's husband's well into finishing his own.

Since he's at the table anyway, his daughter volunteers him to join her, her mom, Kimmer, and myself for a round or two of Friends trivia.

He reluctantly agrees and, even though he's a super Friends fan and his daughter's a super Friends fan and Kimmer 'n I are run-of-the-mill Friends fans who brag that we saw the series back when it first aired... yeah. Regardless of all that advantage the game does not go super well.

For some reason, none of us can answer the questions. Maybe one or two... but this gets embarrassing real quick. So we stop the game and switch over to Potter trivia.

I don't know if I mentioned this before, but these games belong to my niece.

So why is she playing them with us?

I'm not sure about the Friends game, but definitely she's the only one among her friends who likes and has seen the Harry Potter movies or read the Harry Potter books.

She's the only one of them who can play the game.

So the moment she discovers we're fans of the franchise she's like yeah.

We're playin' this. 😉

This second time around we're killin' it. We're keeping score from the very first round unlike the night before when we were just warming up until we decided to keep score. Even my cousin who slaughtered Hermione's name that night in all the possible ways there are to slaughter that name in two different languages...

Even my cousin killed it the second night.

"HERRRMIIIIINEE" she would declare with specific emphasis and confidence each time the name came up.

Of course.

Because no lie. We gave her a wicked bad time each and every time she mangled the name. 🤣🤣🤣

In the end, Kimmer won huuuuge with seventeen cards to Jordan's twelve to my eight.

Woulda been nine but no one at the table would accept "deer" in the place of "doe".

Yeah.

I got robbed. 😑

Anyway, it was another full-throttle evening. Food, games, conversation, often all at the same time. Kimmer 'n I were pretty wiped out by the time we hit our hotel room quarter after 11. And while there are, in fact, 24 and only 24 hours in each day, our hours from noon to midnight are dense. They're wall-to-wall relational across every day of the week. They're relentlessly welcome conversations. And we are fully, personally engaged.

It's lovely, though, to be in bed. And, after a bit of marveling at our day and setting an early alarm...

We nod off to sleep.

☺️

[jacqwess]

Rembrandt, maître dessinateur

[lionofchaeronea]

Soldier Lighting His Pipe from an Oil Lamp, unknown Dutch artist (formerly attributed to Gerard van Honthorst), ca. 1625

[dlyarchitecture]

[cooltivarte]

El flamante edificio que alberga parte de la colección del Museo Boijmans Van Beuningen, logra más protagonismo que las obras de arte, que por cierto prácticamente no se ven pues tampoco están exhibidas. El nombre de dicha colección deriva de los dos coleccionistas más importantes de Holanda, Frans Jacob Otto Boijmans (1768-1847) y Daniël George van Beuningen (1877-1955).