8/10 Kröller-Müller

We started the day by traveling to the Kröller-Müller Museum by charter bus. The ride was around 90 minutes in length and rather uneventful. Unfortunately, the ride began much too early in the morning (I slept through it) and was unable to appreciate the rustic Dutch landscape we were traveling through.

According to its website, The Kröller-Müller Museum “is located in the centre of National Park the Hoge Veluwe. The park consists of 5.500 hecare woodland, heathland, grassy plains and sand drifts, and the natural habitat of deer, mouflons and wild boars.”

The museum is “A magnificent amalgamation of art, architecture and nature. Amidst unspoilt natural surroundings, the Kröller-Müller Museums collection centres on the extensive collection of works by Vincent van Gogh and the world famous sculpture garden.”

Many of us began the museum visit by checking out the refreshment stand getting some much needed coffee and snacks!

I began my art perusal by meandering through the upper-right wing of the museum. I was surprised at the amount of newer and and nontraditional art pieces. I had read online that "The Kröller-Müller Museum is named after Helene Kröller-Müller (1869-1939). Helene Kröller-Müller collected almost 11,500 art objects with the help of her advisor, H.P. Bremmer,” so I expected to see a traditional museum layout comprising hundreds of paintings solely from the 1930s and earlier. Instead, the museum came off as a very unconventional museum focusing on contemporary artists. The exhibits included not only paintings and sculptures, but sound, video, and even some interactive elements. The museum was very open and I got the feeling that great care was spent in organizing the exhibit spaces.

Honestly, I was moderately unimpressed with the newer, more abstract art pieces in the first few rooms. I felt that they were too conceptual and not very inspired. Perhaps I have been spoiled by the art at the van Gogh and Rijksmusuem.

Next, I checked out what must have been the 'Nature as Artifice: new Dutch landscape in photography and video art' exhibit, described on the website as “Worldwide, ‘Dutch landscape’ still evokes an immediate mental picture: the picture of the idyllic agrarian landscape that is rooted in the tradition of Dutch landscape painting. However, the Netherlands, like many other countries, has changed radically in its function over the last century, and has thus also altered in its appearance. Affected by a global reordering of production and industry, the agrarian function of the landscape is making way for suburbanisation, recreation, industrial and business parks and infrastructure for transportation. Today it is precisely the planning, the artificial manner in which the Dutch manipulate their landscape and nature in a continual and far-reaching way, for which The Netherlands is internationally famed. Since the end of the 1980s a number of Dutch photographers and filmmakers have been taking exactly this artificial character of the Dutch landscape and nature as their point of departure. In the framework of the international Triennial Apeldoorn on gardens and landscape architecture, Nature as Artifice shows work by a number of them.”

I found this exhibit to be much more intriguing. The art pieces were more straightforward but also pleasant to look at.

Afterward I viewed the collection of older material. I was surprised to see pieces by both Picasso and Monet.


At 1:00 the group rode over to another area of the park and had lunch and recess (just like elementary school). The playground had some nice equipment, including a zip line. Then, each group shared the status of their projects. After the presentations, we had around 50 minutes to explore the park. I chose to ride along a bike path through the forest.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to see the sculpture garden, which apparently is a world class area with over a hundred sculptures. From what I've seen online, this juxtaposition of art and nature looks pretty amazing.

At 4:30 we headed back to Prinsengracht.

The music on this video is owned by Jimi Hendrix/Bob Dylan (I would assume)
I don't know the laws about putting music in personal videos, so let me know and I'll remove the sound ASAP.