Holidays 2013, Netherlands and Belgium pt 9 : Amsterdam - The Arts (pt 1).

Continuing on my irregular blog posts about my holiday late last year to the Netherlands and Belgium are a couple of posts on the art I saw. During my visit to Amsterdam, I went to a handful of beautiful galleries and museums. The Rijksmuseum, which is the State Museum, was one such museum. It is such a beautiful building and has a huge and varied collection. As I love modern art, I was a little disappointed with it's small modern art collection, but that is ok, as I later visited the Stedelijk Museum. This was a favourite of mine, as it is a museum of modern art and had a lovely collection. I could have stayed there forever! In fact, if I ever visit Amsterdam again, I will definitely revisit the Stedelijk Museum.

 Being in Amsterdam, of course I had to visit the Van Gogh Museum! Unfortunately, I was a little disappointed with the pieces on show. I much preferred my visit to the Musée d'Orsay in Paris in 2010 and the beautiful Van Gogh paintings I had seen there. On that same trip overseas, on my way back home, I stopped off at New York and went to the  Museum of Modern Art, where I saw some more beautiful Van Gogh's!  As such, I shouldn't really complain. It wasn't all art museum's though, I also visited Anne Frank's house and yes, I became emotional! 

In the next blog post I will talk about some of the photographic galleries/museums I visited.  Below are some photos from some of my visit's to the museum's mentioned above. I was too overwhelmed at the Frank House to take any photographs and from memory, you may not have been allowed to.


Images from the Rijksmuseum:

Looking through the coloured glass panels at some structural part of the building.. yes I know, I should have been looking at the art that surrounded me, But I can't help myself:

Some famous painting everyone wanted to see...something about Night Watchmen. I can never understand the queues for certain images (which we are all told are 'masterpieces' and we must see them), while so many other beautiful images are left with no one appreciating them...

I was drawn to something  that caught my eye in the stairwell, but I can't recall what it was I photographed:

Images from the Stedelijk Museum:

I have posted this image on my tumblr account and titled it:
 'The moment the viewer of art, becomes art.'

This next one was also recently shared on my tumblr account: 'Above us, around us, within us'

Images from the Van Gogh Museum.

I was taking photos of the details of the building, the lighting, corners, parts of the framing that held the paintings/exhibits and was told by security to stop because it was not allowed. I explained what I was doing, but to no avail. Still I managed to snap a few things before they had spoken to me.

All photographs copyright matthew schiavello 2014

My current cafe exhibition at APTE.

I currently have an exhibition on until June the 3rd. It is titled 'Amsterdam and Abstracts' and is at APTE cafe. The cafe is open 7 days a week during the day. The hours are: 8am-4pm Monday to Saturday and 8am- 3.30pm Sundays. The address is: 538 Heidelberg rd, Alphington!
If you are in the area, please pop in. If you know of someone whom you think would enjoy the exhibition, please let them know about it.

I usually exhibit abstract work, but felt that this cafe exhibition was an opportunity to show another side of my photography.

regards,
matthew.

One of two versions of the flyer:

Some images of me hanging the framed prints:

A sneak peak:

All photographs copyright 2014 Matthew Schiavello and Tomboy Bill

Holidays 2013, Netherlands and Belgium pt 8: The Bicycles of Amsterdam

It has been a while since I posted about my holiday to the  Netherlands and Belgium late last year. Here is the next installment, a short pictorial post about the bicycles of Amsterdam.

Everywhere you go in the Netherlands you will find bicycles. In Amsterdam the city has special bike paths that put Melbourne's to shame. Visitors to the city need to quickly get their heads around these paths, otherwise you will be run over by a bicycle and I kid you not.

Graffiti above a bicycle reminding me which city I was in.

 

Even the posher suburbs have bicycles chained to their lovely faux period lamp posts!

Somewhere in Jordaan:

Did I incorrectly give you the impression that bicycles are neatly chained up one per post?:

Less cluttered:

So many places have signs stating not to leave or chain your bicycle near or against walls/windows.. This person ignored the sign and the neighbourhood cat was not impressed!

The thing that struck me about Amsterdam was the variety of styles of bike:

Using a milk crate on your bike as storage must be a universal idea?

When I arrived back home I was inspired to buy a dutch style bike. The bike shop I went to was run by a Dutch man..what are the odds? He advised that the heavy frames on these bikes are fine for the flat Netherlands, but not so good for bike riding in Melbourne...So I left empty handed, what a shame!
Maybe I will simply have to move to the Netherlands?
For now,

Vaarwel!

All photographs copyright matthew schiavello 2013-2014