Fashion and porcelain…..

The Groningen Museum may be controversial on the outside. On the inside – collection and exhibitions – are not within the beaten track either. The policy of the Groningen museum considering the collection and exhibitions targets the borderland between art, design and fashion (photography). There is an outstanding collection of fashion and Chinese porcelain.

One floor down (the floors in the main block are empty – money trouble), along a turning staircase covered with colorful tiles, is a fantastic exhibition: Azzedine Alaïa in the 21st Century 

The Tunesian born Azzedine Alaïa, also named “the King of Cling” is one of the last active great, and "haute", couturiers.

The exhibition shows a choice of gowns, dresses, coats. His creations are worn by all sorts of celebrities (like Michelle Obama or Lady Gaga). 

The rooms in the Mendini pavilion are perfect in their coloring and lighting. The fantastic display is a joy to look at. Even though you know will never fit into these masterpieces….

On the same floor we pass a sculpture of stools by Ai Wei Wei.

In the information center we see more work of Ai Wei Wei. His famous porcelain watermelons rest in their special cupboards.

 

Vases are all around. Everything multiplied by mirrors. The information center sure is my favourite place in the museum. 

It is nice to see the contemporary porcelain of Ai Wei Wei and Studio Job and then go upstairs in the Philip Starck pavilion to the exposition of antique Chinese (green) porcelain. The “Green Family” (Famille Verte). It is a special kind of Chinese porcelain with green as main color. There are pieces brought together from many different Dutch museums.

The space, full of glass sheets and swishy white curtains, gives full credits to the porcelain objects.  

An architectural cluster ……

Welcome to Groningen a city in the most northern part of the Netherlands. They have this cheeky slogan “Nothing goes over Groningen”. In Dutch this has two meanings: Nothing is as good as Groningen or there is nothing north of Groningen; referring to the fact that the country ends there in the sea.




Coming out of the main train station you see the Groninger Museum right in front of you on a small island in the “Verbindingskanaal” (Connecting canal). There is a blue gate to a bridge. 

What you see is a cluster of “buildings”. From some angles it looks like a ship, from others an Egyptian temple,or a round Roman tomb.  

Not surprisingly this cluster was build by a cluster of different architects: 

Alessandro Mendini  

Philip Starck  The round building made me think of the tomb of Caecilia Metella on the Via Appia in Rome. 

The group Coop Himmelb(l)au  

This group is responsible for the “treehouses” clinging on to the corners of the “ship”. Inside the “Treehouses” are even more fantastic. At the moment the large space on the top floor of the museum is completely empty.

Of course a controversial design like this, in an old city, means years of discussions and debates before you can even start building. Finally in 1994 is opened its doors to the public.

After the long trip by train “up north” the best thing is to go straight to the restaurant. The surprising furniture – look at the beautiful red lamps and the high chair for children - is by the Dutch designer Maarten Baas.

The museum was “revitalized” (as they call it) in 2010. They completely replaced the tiles on the outside. Compare the earlier picture (1996) of the tiles. 

I didn’t notice it at first, but they are indeed different. The top one is the old design, the bottom one the new

And yes, the information centre designed by the Spanish designer Jaime Hayon is gorgeous. It is an upside down mirror world where the porcelain watermelons of Ai Wei Wei shine in their cupboards. 

Information about the Groningen Museum building

It’s all about moving…..

 

The weather is finally good enough to take a look at the harbour of Scheveningen. And there is an interesting exhibition in the Gemeente Museum of The Hague, that is on the road. 

Getting out of the train at The Hague Central I notice there is something going on. Masses of people moving around, but no demonstration. It is the day of the City – Pier – City run. The youngest group is the first to go: One kilometer. Finally the last group will go for the half marathon.  All the way to the Gemeente Museum of The Hague I keep crossing the course.

The Gemeente Museum was build by the famous Dutch architect Hendrik Petrus Berlage (1856-1934). Berlage died just before the museum was finished in 1935. On a sunny day the reflection in the ponds is stunning.  Just a slight movement of the water.

Since 1985 there is a new part The Museon connected to the Gemeente Museum. Architect Wim Quist designed a building that perfectly matches the original building of Berlage.   

The Museon hosts educational and attractive exhibitions to communicate with a broad audience. “Room for know-how” 

This corridor between two large ponds leads the visitor away from the street to the main entrance of the museum; to the world of art. 

So there we are in the museum. There is an exhibition of the work of Alexander Calder (1898–1976) 

There is a lot written about Calder and I am not going to repeat that. The Gemeente Museum is known to house the largest collection of Mondriaan paintings in the world; culminating in his last work “Victory Boogie Woogie. Important is that Calder was influenced by just one visit to the studio of Mondriaan. It is clear why they chose to have this Calder exhibition. He redefined the course of modern sculpture by formalizing movement in art; “It was this visit to Mondrian’s studio […] that made me abstract.”  

I new Calder for his “mobiles”, but just look at this bright painting. “Pinwheel and flow” (1958) 

The Gemeente Museum is also known for its paintings from “The Hague School”. The collection contains paintings from Picasso, Kandinsky, Van Gogh, Monet and modern German painters like Daniel Richter and Georg Baselitz. 

Personally I admire the paintings of Anselm Kiefer. “The autumn’s whisper – for Paul Celan”

Cobra painter Constant is also intriguing. “Vague terrain II”

I am just in time in Scheveningen to see the runners of the half marathon pass.
Movement everywhere......