Morning with Van Gogh, Gauguin, and other Tokyoites...

Finally, I got to visit the Van Gogh and Gauguin exhibit at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum.

A friend and I agreed to meet before the museum's opening time hoping that most of Tokyo would still be asleep since today is a holiday.

It was a good idea! When we reached the museum, the ticket queue was short and the queue to get in to the gallery was also short. There were 62 art pieces on display. I spent about an hour and a half walking around the galleries. It was a bit crowded but it wasn't as crowded as the Monet exhibit I visited in the same museum last year.

I still remember the first time I saw a Van Gogh (and a Monet and the works of other Impressionists). The National Museum of Singapore had a collaboration with the Musee D'Orsay and a few Van Gogh pieces were brought in. Be still my heart. I never imagine I would ever see a Van Gogh in my life. Like I usually say, I'm a guy with simple dreams. Lol!

Van Gogh, Gauguin and the other artists during their time prolly didn't have any idea that a hundred years later or so, they would become some of the world's most celebrated artists. So, today was another experience to be grateful for.

By the time we exited from the gallery, there was already a long queue of people waiting to get in. Good thing Singapore taught me to be kiasu (sometimes). Haha!

There are still a few museums on my bucket list - The Louvre, Musee D'Orsay, British Museum, the Met, MoMa, The Cloisters (Met), Frick Museum. Oh wait, those aren't a few. Those are a lot! Gotta work work work to be able to fly fly fly! Haha!

Some photos from the Singapore Night Festival...

Some photos from the Singapore Night Festival...

It was a tiring but enjoyable experience. I enjoyed the presentation at the National Museum whereby the facade came to life with a group of cute and adorable inuits turning the museum into their playground.

Hmm, we only got to visit the following: National Museum, Peranakan Museum, Armenian Church, and Singapore Art Museum.

There are still a number of other installations to be visited but I'm not sure if I have the time for it. Today and next weekend will be very busy.

Anyway, it was a good Saturday night spent with Richie, Ann Marie, Ana, and Alex. Mon was not able to join because he had another commitment. The rest of the gang also had their own activities. Hehe.

Vermeer and Rembrandt at the Rijks...

"You probably 'died' so many times during your trip," said one of my friends to me.

This friend was commenting on my photo with a Van Gogh painting and how I said that I just died seeing the painting in real life.

I have to agree with my friend. I died over and over again so many times during the trip.

One of the highlights of the trip was getting to see the works of great artists mankind has ever known.

As a kid, and I've said this so many times in previous posts, I've been exposed to the art world at a young age being the son of an artist.

I remember being an admirer of Filipino artists like Carlos "Botong" Francisco, H. R. Ocampo, Guillermo Tolentino, Napoleon Abueva, and of course, Fernando Amorsolo. I was surrounded by art growing up. My father painted. Our next door neighbour was a father-and-son tandem of gifted sculptors - Anastacio Caedo and his son Boy Caedo.

Eventually, I got to know about the artists from Europe such as Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Van Gogh, and so on. In UP, I excelled in my Humanities II class. It was a class I always looked forward to because we talked about art and art history. For one of my midterm exams, I did an oral analysis of a Degas painting of ballerinas. For my final grade (and if I remember correctly), I got a 1.25.

Here's a confession though: I never thought that I would one day come face to face with the works of these artists.

It's not because I didn't have dreams. It was because I was brought up to be content with what we have. It had its good side and it had its not-so-good side. Looking back now, I am glad to have been exposed to individuals who believe that life is what we make of it, that we should dream and dream big. Otherwise, I wouldn't be aiming for bigger things.

My first Van Gogh was at the National Museum of Singapore a few years back. It was during the Dreams & Reality exhibit that featured pieces from the Musée d'Orsay. Seeing the works of Impressionists and Post-Impressionists was a dream that became a reality.

Some time last year, I visited the Pinacotheque exhibit at Fort Canning Hill twice. Again, I came face-to-face with the works of Monet, Van Gogh, Warhol, Picasso and so on.

So, it was only natural that the Europe trip will be packed with visits to the museum. All in all, I visited a total of 11 museums in a span of 12 days. Of these 11 museums, 5 were the homes of great artworks.

Above are 8 of the awesome paintings from the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. The first four are by Johannes Vermeer, while the last four are by Rembrandt van Rijn.

Vermeer's The Milkmaid was one of the pieces we discussed in Humanities II. He has always been a great master of lighting and composition. It is awesome how Vermeer was able to transform a daily routine into something that can be read as either poetic, iconographic or just simply practical.

The other Vermeer I really adored was Woman in Blue Reading A Letter. Again, his skill in lighting and composition can be seen in this work.

The four Rembrandt portraits are a few of the many Rembrandts on display at the Rijksmuseum. To be honest, I prefer these over The NightWatch. I feel that Rembrandt was able to show more of his skill in the portraits. But that's just me. Haha!

These are just eight of the I dunno how many paintings that I marvelled at during the trip. The Rijksmuseum was the second museum we visited in Amsterdam, and this was just during the second day of the trip.

I thought I'd be museum-ed out but I wasn't when it came to viewing art pieces. In fact, I wished I had more time to spend in the museums to just admire the pieces.

More art pieces to be posted soon...

About Amsterdam: Part 2...

Cont'd...

The following day was allotted for the big guns - the Rijksmuseum (which just re-opened in 2013 after 10 years of extensive restoration) and the Van Gogh Museum. Being the son of late unknown but talented artist, visiting museums to marvel at the works of great artists was something instilled in me since I was a little boy. The Rijksmuseum is a Dutch national museum dedicated to arts and history. Among the treasures it holds are Rembrandt van Rijn’s The Night Watch and Johannes Vermeer’s The Milkmaid.

On the day we were flying out to Rome, we managed to visit three more museums. Though not as huge as the Rijks or the Van Gogh Museum, the Museum Het Grachtenhuis, Museum Van Loon and Museum Geelvinck are still must-visits. The Museum Het Grachtenhuis tells the history of the canal rings and the canal houses in a very non-traditional way. The Museum Van Loon and Museum Geelvinck are patrician mansions of wealthy merchants during the Dutch Golden Age that were converted into museums by the descendants/new owners. The saying “Don’t judge a book by its cover” holds true for these two stately homes. Behind the simple facade are rooms and rooms of spectacular opulence and meticulously manicured gardens that reflect the wealth and luxurious lifestyle of the families who owned the homes.

To be continued...