"The press," local and international or I should say selected members of same--a mere 600 of us--were invited to the preview April 4. The museum was closed for 10 years for a complete overhaul -- a project that cost 350 million euros. Would it all have been worth it? I arrived at 9:30 am and left when we were asked to decamp at 3:30 and was back the next morning for a few hours. And so to the verdict: The redo of the Rijksmuseum is a triumph.
All credit to Director- General Wim Pijbes (Above with the Queen) who arrived in 2008--five years into what seemed like an unending operation--for getting it moving and done and for raising an undisclosed amount of overall costs from private, corporate and institutional donors. But on the spot I wanted bugles to let rip in praise of Taco Dibbetts, the museum's Director of Collections and his 40 curators and their inspired collaborator Jean-Michel Wilmotte, the French interior architect responsible for the look of the 80 galleries and the display of the 8000 objects from the museum's million piece holdings. The arrangement is chronological and not thematic-thank heaven. It begins with the middle ages and ends with the end of the 20th century; the weakest part of the collections. The seventeenth century, the Dutch Golden Age--Rembrandt, Hals and every body's darling Vermeer, T
A day there would be just dandy. But here was the surprise for me:
Wilmotte chose to use a single color for all the galleries and the public furniture. Yup, that color is gray.Sounds boring, doesn't it? Even deadening. Nope. It is not. I don't know how many different shades of gray were used in all--(I will find out if I can, so click on again in a few days if you are a counter-- but they range from pale dove to rich deep slate with a blue caste that is only really visible in photographs. The benches (that heaven they have upholstered benches in the galleries where you can sit and contemplate or rest your tootsies), are covered in dark gray tweed. The result is that with all the different art--ranging from the middle ages to the late twentieth century, there is a feeling of harmony but no, not a chance here, no feeling of blandness.
The display cases (of a type said to have been used in only one other museum--the dazzling Green Vault in Dresden--are glued together with frames only at top and bottom so they appear to have no edges and the glass is non-distorting as well as non-reflective--you see right through to what is beyond and to the sides--aesthetic/historical context is provided for every object with no big deal made about the effort to do it. Oh and the lighting is terrific too.
More later about the art..The airplane and the glorious Renaissance jewels. And yes not everything in every area is magnificent. But where it counts --the greatest works in the collection and so many hundreds of objects of art from the middle ages through the 18th century--it is just great. So for now a little trumpet blowing for some great ideas of what to show and how to show it.
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