Art Excursion

On this rather cloudy bank holiday Thursday we decided to make a new visit to Museum Voorlinden, just north of The Hague. We try to go there a couple of times a year, because the museum changes its exhibitions of modern art every three months or so. The museum is housed in a modern building on the grounds of a country home in the English style, which itself houses offices and the restaurant while a large tent on the other side of the museum offers drinks and a few snacks.

I'm not going to show every picture we took, but here's a few works that give an idea. Most of these are made from found objects, simply because I like that kind of thing. There were plenty of original paintings and sculptures to be seen as well.

"Famished Road" by Ibrahim Mahana, a wall made from shoemakers' boxes

"Horizon" by Hans-Peter Feldmann, a row of collected existing paintings lined up on their horizons

"Enclosed content chatting away in the colour invisibility" by Anouk Kruithof,
made from books

"Grapes" by Ai Weiwei, made from stools

"Minster" by Tony Cragg, made from gears and other round machine parts

One room was filled with "Untitled Conversations" by Joseph Grigely, who became deaf when he was ten years old and collected and combined notes and drawings from conversations with friends (displayed on the walls around a garden table and chairs replete with snacks and cans of Budweiser and lots of written notes)

"Inherited Wounds" by He Xiangyou, consisting of 24 school chairs which the artist replicated in miniature, down to every scratched name and text

Four numbered paintings by Gabriel Orezco which really struck me with their exquisite beauty (I've made this image larger than the others if you click on it)

Simone Post recreated all the furniture and fittings from her parents' house out of candy, mostly various types of marshmallow popular in the Netherlands. This had been on the national TV news as well as a few talk shows so (together with the cloudy weather) ensured the museum was full of visitors with a queue lasting an hour to see this exhibit.

Outside the garden design by Piet Oudolf is always striking and a beautiful addition to the grounds

Have a look at voorlinden.nl and we recommend it wholeheartedly!