Host suggested we go to the tunnel at the Rijksmuseum to catch one of his favourite buskers playing.
In the morning there was time for me to do a little bit of my own stuff, which was mostly walking around looking for coffee and something to have for Sunday breakfast. After being distracted for some photographs of bikes and walls, I had lovely French toast and coffee in a fun little lunchroom a few minutes’ walk from the Zeilbrug, which I got to see do its party piece for a self-proclaimed Magnifique luxury hotel boat. I was a little bit late back because the French toast was lovely but a labour of love that absolutely merited the wait, but so too was Host – late, that is, not a labour of love – but we still managed to be mostly on time for walking off the calories and having a day full of culture.
We started by walking, as planned, to the Rijksmuseum tunnel just to catch the end of the first half of the act as the Argentinian mezzo-soprano gave up her place to the Romanian accordionist. People wandered past amusing themselves with the echo. Angry bicycles rushed back and forth behind us, chastising them.
Some other friends of mine were recently in Amsterdam and had been thrilled to find space to get into the Rijksmuseum to see the Vermeer exhibition. Another two were here recently and were unimpressed that they’d not got to see any Van Gogh. Host, however, was on the ball and suggested that the Stedelijk – which has limited space available but a great propensity for rotating their exhibits – would have something interesting on that we’d both probably enjoy. It’s also, apparently, the museum you can always get into because everybody else wants to see the flowers in pots or ladies doing the washing up. This appealed to me because I am, for the most part, a card-holding philistine.
Neither of us had heard of General Idea, the subject of the current exhibition which runs until 16h July. To quote shamelessy the Stedelijk Museum web site, General Idea is “a groundbreaking Canadian artist group that in the 70’s and 80’s was renowned for their satirical approach to the deconstruction of the media and the art world.” Cue some yawns. “The exhibition is the largest-ever survey of their oeuvre, comprised of large sculptures and installations, paintings, videos and publications, archival material – and their signature wallpapers.”
As Wikipedia puts it, General Idea “was a collective of three Canadian artists, Felix Partz, Jorge Zontal and AA Bronson, who were active from 1967 to 1994. As pioneers of early conceptual and media-based art, their collaboration became a model for artist-initiated activities and continues to be a prominent influence on subsequent generations of artists.”
Host liked it because it was art and put him in mind of the Situationists. I liked it because they were clearly having an absolute hoot despite living in the eighties. There is a lot to take in but my favourite, because of the context, was the Infected Mondrian series from the nineties. Mondrian – windmills, killer trees, bathroom windows – apparently hated green with a passion. General Idea, as a collective actively implicated at the height of the Aids epidemic, enjoyed representing his works with the occasional presence of green, to highlight their plight. The Mondo Cane paintings – “featuring orgiastic fluorescent poodles in various sexual positions” – were also great fun.
The collective dissolved when the throuple that formed it fell foul of the health crisis that fuelled it.
I enjoyed the Stedelijk Museum very much.
Greek food followed — no falafels, hummus, yummy roasted veg — with ice cream from a proper ice cream shop for afters. Host went obscene in his multi-scoop pot of chocolatey excess, I had E113 flavour, which was blue and officially labelled “Smurf”. I’m not sure what blue tasted like but one scoop was sufficient. I’m not sure they used the most natural flavours for that one; I suspect it really was just sugar and “blue”. I should probably have asked for sprinkles to complete the rush.
After a leisurely return stroll via the Vondelpark, some snoozing occurred.
