Great museums often come in clusters, such as Berlin’s Museum Island and New York’s Museum Mile on 5th Avenue, and Amsterdam is no exception with the cluster of extraordinary institutions around the Museumplein.
While our visit to Amsterdam this spring was focused on visiting the exhibits at the Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh Museum, both significantly expanded and reorganized since our last visit, we were also impressed with the group as a whole, and the way in which the open spaces have become a public focus.
The Rijksmuseum, the largest and oldest, was our first goal, and we arrived just in time for the last day of an exhibit teasingly titled ‘High Society,’ featuring full-length portraits by master painters from the early 16th century up through more modern masters of the 19th and 20th centuries.
In addition to the temporary exhibitions, and its incredibly deep permanent collection of Dutch and Flemish masterworks, there’s the building itself, opened in 1885, and designed by Pierre Cuypers in a mixture of Gothic and Renaissance styles. Over the years, alterations and adjustments hid a lot of the original colorful decor.
During the 10-year (meant to be 5!) renovation that was finished in 2013, most of the original designs that had been painted over or hidden were restored, including the beautiful library. And the two courtyards of the building were roofed and became impressive indoor spaces.
Along the avenue that passes through the center of the building, and where the entrances are now located, buskers have found a home.
In the gift shop, we found a little humor; we couldn’t resist bringing it home, where it now shares a space with a postcard of the original.
The fun theme continues just down the block at the museum you’d be more likely to expect it from, the slightly roguish MOCO, a museum of contemporary art whose exterior reflects style of centuries past, but whose collection does not…including Mickey, with hands and feet reversed. The building was designed by a nephew of Pierre Cuypers.
The Museumplein area also includes the home of the Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Van Gogh Museum and the Stedelijk Museum.
The Stedelijk Museum, like MOCO, focuses on modern and contemporary art, and like MOCO can be full of surprises, depending on which direction you approach it from. Here are its 19th and 21st century facades.
Images of MOCO and Van Gogh Museums from c messier/Wikimedia; Stedelijk new building image by Editør/Wikimidia
