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Private Art Tours
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I am an academic tour guide, providing guided tailor-made Private Art Tours. I travel with my clients either by car or by public transport. With this message I would like to inform you about my travel and guide options in The Netherlands, also available in the upcoming Rembrandt year 2006.
I prefer to guide small and select groups to museum visits and to walks in historic Dutch towns.
Numerous TV and other media networks - among which BBC2 - have sought my expert assistance and TV appearance. Having an academic background, my presentation is very communicative and therefore open for a wide audience.
For the Dutch National Tourist Board I often take foreign journalists on walking tours of Amsterdam - to tell them about historic Amsterdam but also about present-day Amsterdam.
Contact:
Private Art Tours
Drs. Kees Kaldenbach
Haarlemmermeerstraat 83 hs
1058 JS Amsterdam
tel NL+20 - 669 8119
cell NL+6 - 2868 9775
http://www.xs4all.nl/~kalden/verm/Vermeer_lecturesENG.html
http://www.xs4all.nl/~kalden/verm/VanGogh_lecturesENG.html
http://www.xs4all.nl/~kalden/verm/rembr_lecturesENG.html
Lee Bridges, The Cannabis Poet
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Hip Profile: Lee Bridges,
The Cannabis Poet
by Skip Stone 
No one believes Amsterdam
Will ever stop swinging when
So much real freedom is truly
Felt, especially in the smoking
Coffeeshops where tensions and
Hostilities melt and
WWWHHHOOOoooeee!
What a beautiful scene
Copyright 2000 by Lee Bridges
Hip Trip: Philosopher, poet, cannabis activist, former soft drug smuggler.
Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669)
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The Night Watch, 1642 |
The Syndics of the Clothmaker's Guild (The Staalmeesters) 1662 |
Rembrandt's Eyes by Simon Schama |
Perhaps the greatest of the Dutch Masters, Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn is justly remembered for his innovative work and for his marketing savvy (a true Dutchman). He was a master of etching and chiaroscuro (light and shadow). Unlike most artists, Rembrandt was very successful during his lifetime, having a bevy of patrons amongst the wealthy burghers of Amsterdam. His house is a popular tourist attraction. His famous huge painting, "The Night Watch", hangs in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. |
Johannes Vermeer
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The Milkmaid, 1658-60 |
View of Delft, c. 1660-61 |
Girl with a Pearl Earring, 1665 |
| Not nearly as prolific as Rembrandt, Vermeer's 35 known paintings are scattered around the world. His relatively small paintings depict everyday people going about their business in indoor settings. |
Vermeer : The Complete Works by Arthur K., Jr Wheelock |
Piet Mondrian (1872-1944)
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This pioneer and icon of the abstract art world is noted for his geometric paintings of lines and boxes using mostly primary colors. These simplistic cubist works, some consisting of as little as three horizontal or vertical black lines on a white background, influenced many abstractionists. My best friends in Holland have done their entire apartment Mondrian style with the bright colors everywhere. Mondrian cabinets, refrigerator, chairs, desk, coffee mugs, etc., etc. Sorta reminds me of a preschool. Unlike Bosch, Mondrian is highly regarded in Holland, perhaps reflecting the Dutch penchant for orderliness, cleanliness, and simplicity. Mondrian's last, unfinished painting,
Hieronymous Bosch (1450-1516)
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The Garden of Earthly Delights , Hell, 1504 (right wing detail) |
The Garden of Earthly Delights , Hell, 1504 (right wing detail) |
The Garden of Earthly Delights, 1504 |
| For some strange reason (which
I'll try to fathom), Hieronymous Bosch is not so highly regarded in his
homeland. In fact a visit to the Rijksmuseum in search of one single
Bosch painting is an exercise in futility. I recently visited the
museum's excellent website,
and alas, he is left off the list of hundreds of Dutch artists! This
flemish painter whose magnificient yet eeire landscapes filled with bizarre
creatures, horrific demons and blasphemies (Garden of Earthly Delights)
influenced many artists including the surrealists, is almost a non-entity
in Holland. My guess is his religious themed works didn't play too
well during the golden age, when the Dutch were pursuing pleasure, not
piousness. Bosch's hellish message of paying grotesquely for sins
in one's lifetime was probably as much a turnoff to the existential Dutch
(then and now) as the Spanish Inquisition was during it's heyday in Holland.
Perhaps another reason is that much of his work has been spirited off to Spain and France, hanging in the Louvre and Prado museums. It seems the Catholic countries can better appreciate the evils of sin and the price to be paid in hell. Update: I recently got to see the excellent Bosch exhibition at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, in Rotterdam and learned that his paintings were so prized that they were taken as war booty and thus were spirited out of Holland and ended up in the museums above and others around the world. The exhibit was marvelous but crowded, which contrary to my earlier statement shows that the Dutch DO appreciate Bosch after all! |
Hieronymus Bosch (Masters of Art) by Carl Linfert |