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Van Gogh, De Kooning: moving into nature

29/6/2017

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Throughout April, May and June the Van Gogh Museum displayed an exceptional piece by Willem de Kooning, Montauk IV (1969), on loan from its Amsterdam neighbour, the Stedelijk Museum. The Van Gogh Museum asked me and my colleague Natalie Kuijk to develop a tour on De Kooning and Van Gogh. What do these two artists have in common?
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Photo by Unknown - Willem de Kooning in His Studio, Smithsonian Institution Archives. Local Number SIA2011-2241. Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19990417
Like Vincent van Gogh, Willem de Kooning was a Dutch artist who aspired an international life. As a young man, he moved from the Netherlands to New York in 1926. Later, in the 1960s, he moved to the American countryside, the Hamptons, where he enjoyed cycling and taking in Montauk's beautiful views. De Kooning made a similar move to Van Gogh in his thirties. Van Gogh had started painting in Holland but moved via Paris to the South of France in the 1880s, attracted by the Provence's beautiful light and colour.

Natalie and I decided to take Van Gogh's and De Kooning's love of nature as a starting point for the programme (Verhaal op Zaal). We told stories and engaged visitors in conversations about abstract art and figurative art, based on what they saw in Van Gogh's and De Kooning's paintings. We also discussed expressing emotions in nature, through line, colour and gesture: what emotional responses do you have when you see Van Gogh's Reaper? And what about this De Kooning? Most visitors came to the museum to see Van Gogh and left with a new appreciation of De Kooning's art.

Have a look at Montauk IV in the Stedelijk Museum collection: what do you think you see yourself? Would you call this work 'expressive'? And why? Would you call it 'abstract'?

Natalie and I delivered the tours weekly, in both English and Dutch, throughout May and June.
You can join the Verhaal op Zaal tours in the Van Gogh Museum every Thursday. (De Kooning's Montauk IV ​is back home, at the Stedelijk Museum, however.)
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Have I told you I love teaching in museums?

25/6/2017

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I work, among others, for the Van Gogh Museum, the Rembrandthuis, Thinking Museum and the Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam.
I enjoy working with all age groups. As a museumdocent, I don't believe you need to keep talking all the time. Visitors can see and analyse artworks for themselves, they often find out a lot of interesting stuff, just by looking, drawing and thinking about art. I accommodate this process, asking questions and adding information where needed.
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Primary school drawings in the Van Gogh Museum. Portraits of Vincent... and can you find me?
Here are some sweet comments on my work as a docent in museums:

‘Stefanie was magical and energetic and so much fun. We were all fascinated and interested and time flew by […] drawing attention to so many details we would never have seen, connecting works to artists’ lives, really helping us appreciate the intricacies of each piece of art’
   Katherine (with husband and two daughters, 10 and 12), June 2017

’I was extremely fortunate to have the most wonderful and knowledgeable guide - Stefanie van Gemert. [She] gave me so much more than a visit to the museum. She also gave me a profound insight into Van Gogh’s life and his art’
   Susan, May 2017

‘Stefanie […] was interesting, made us all think outside the box and gave us so much more information than we came with. The kids loved her and were engaged the entire time. After the tour we stayed for an extra hour and a half to go over what we learned from the tour!!’
   Jen (with husband and two daughters, 7 and 9) on Tripadvisor (Thinking Museum), February 2017

‘Hartelijk dank voor je zeer interessante rondleiding in het Tropenmuseum over Buddha :). Je deed het ontzettend boeiend! Was er met mijn ouders, complimenten, heel leuk en blij dat we gegaan zijn!!’
   Roel, December 2016

‘De rondleiding [over Buddha] was super leuk en leerzaam. We zijn helemaal ZEN nu!’
   Visitor book Tropenmuseum, December 2016

Many museum visitors don’t email the docent or write in museum visitor books: often simply because they’re too small to do so (school classes) or, perhaps, because they have already thanked the teacher in person.
In those cases, pictures may say more than enough…
Drawing in the Van Gogh Museum, Aug 2017
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    What makes me tick?

    I am interested in the links between art and society. I never doubted that art can help us gain insight into societal issues. I like to work on projects that confirm this. 
    That art is for everybody. And if art makes your head crunch, if it makes you laugh out loud or shed a tear, it is definitely good stuff.

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