Probably THE exhibition of the year, "Vermeer" in glorious Rijksmuseum had attracted huge international interest and the tickets were booked months in advance - there is something just so right about all this artwork coming back home where it started, after it has been scattered all over the world (many of these pieces have found their home in such various places as museums in Brunswick, London, New York, Vienna, Abu Dhabi and Dublin) - even more so, when considering that during his lifetime Johannes Vermeer very probably never went further than his provincial little town of Delft and now posthumously enjoys cult status of unprecedented proportions. Mind you, this is not the first ever exhibition of his collected works - there has been a similar 1996 exhibition in Mauritshuis (The Hague), a place that is home of his celebrated "Girl with a Pearl Earring" but this one actually managed to collect even more of his work than ever before. Still not complete - there are 28 pieces on display, several are still around the world (Vienna refused to send one particular painting) this exhibition is so far the biggest ever display of Vermeer's work under one roof and what is the better place than Rijksmuseum?
I would have probably never got the tickets if it hasn't been for a good friend who managed to book them back in January - appropriately it was me who gave her the annual museum card as a birthday present so it came back to me just nicely. We had a reserved time slot at 18:30 and believe me I have never experienced more enthusiastic and passionate audience EVER in my life before. This was not a tourist crowd, these were art lovers who have actually reserved their tickets in advance and the crowd was just ecstatic to be there, standing in line patiently in front of each painting, admiring all the little details and whispering to each other. The whole exhibition was displayed quite brilliantly, because naturally these 28 paintings could have been squeezed in one single room but were instead spread over 10 large rooms, often only one piece per wall and giving them a proper, regal space to be admired.
Naturally I was thrilled. And yes, many of the pieces were priceless and lovely. But afterwards I thought how big part of the thrill came also from the crowd - if I was alone in the building, I would probably stroll along and just glance at the paintings that mostly have (dare I say?) repetitive subjects and very much same persons all over again standing in the same corner of the same room, with even same floor and same background. Having all these excited people around me and being forced to wait in line before I could approach the paintings made everything somehow much bigger and more important. I even thought that having all these paintings together somehow works against them - one alone stands out in any museum, because Vermeer's touch is so delicate and lovely - when they are lumped together, suddenly one becomes aware how similar they are. Is there such thing as too much of a good thing? Or would I feel the same if facing ANY collected work by any other artist, after all I felt certain fatigue in Van Gogh museum. it made me even pondering about the nature of the art versus hype - how we react to certain art just naturally and spontaneously, while in other occasions (like this one) it becomes more as a validation of how cultured and informed we are. Or maybe I just feel a bit annoyed with a sheer number of little, white-haired ladies tottering around and breathing my air.
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