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If you are ever in Amsterdam and you only have time for one cultural excursion I would highly, highly recommend that you book a few extra days and make time for more; the city has just so much to offer. If, however, this is completely impossible, I recommend you invest your brief time in a trip to the Van Gogh Museum, like I did on October 16th, 2014.
(The Reiksmuseum is very comprehensive but fairly boring, the vodka museum is more of a store than a museum, and while Anne Frank’s house is definitely worth a stop there’s a fair chance that it will make you cry, and who wants that if you have to rush back to the airport?)
A brief history on Vincent Van Gogh: He was born in The Netherlands and studied to be a priest before turning to art as an adult, at which time he put all of his time (quite literally) and all of his resources (most of which came courtesy of his loving brother, who was one of the most successful art dealers in the country) into being an artist. Despite being widely criticized, regularly ridiculed and selling only a single, solitary piece of art in his life he never gave up, living amongst the poorest of the poor and so in love with paint that he started eating the stuff, which ultimately made him a bit nutty (though admittedly the situation invites a robust chicken-or-the-egg sort of debate). He died of a gunshot to the belly (probably suicide) in a mental hospital and in the 125 or so ensuing years he has gone on to be celebrated as quite possibly the greatest artist who ever lived and his work (of which there is tons and tons) regularly sells for tens of millions of dollars apiece.
And yet at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam you can gape at hundreds of his swirling masterpieces for hours on end for a mere $20 or so. Art fan or not you’ll see plenty of pieces you recognize, absolutely iconic works like The Potato Eaters, any number of his famous Sunflower paintings, his amazing self-portraits (again, of which there are many, both two-eared and single), Irises, Starry Night…so many unmistakeable works of sheer genius. How did the world not see it in his lifetime!?!? Every single piece in the museum could easily command one’s attention for an entire afternoon, but there is just so much to see.
In places like this I often find myself speeding through the last half of the exhibit; as appreciative as I am of the art, after a certain amount of exposure my eyes often get desensitized to the greatness and I find myself giving astounding works just a passing glance.
Not at the Van Gogh Museum. For some reason the guy keeps me enthralled even after several hours. I guess that’s why he’s the greatest artist who ever lived.
And I guess that’s why I go there every time I’m in Amsterdam.
Todd Man Out 