CKV report about the museum Boijmans.

For this second report I have to make for the subject ckv, I went to a museum which is named Museum
Boijmans van Beuningen, the museum is in Rotterdam and I went with my father to look at some
pieces of art, culture, sculptures, paintings and other pieces of art. I have never been to a museum
like this. When I was walking through the museum, I looked around me to see what appeals to
me. There were some pieces of art I liked very much, but
there were also paintings or pieces of art
were I thought it has been painted or made
by a 5 year old child. Some things did not
make any sense at all, while other paintings
or pieces of art, were very interesting and
beautiful.

The name of the museum I went to is Museum Boijmans van

Beuningen. It stands in the city Rotterdam. They started to use the
museum in1939, but actually it was already build in 1841. They
started to use it again in 1939 and it was set by havenbaronnen D.G.
van Beuningen en W. van der Vorm in partnership with the manager
D. Hannema.
I went to this museum on the 20th of October in 2010 with my dad. The location of the museum is
Museumpark 18-20 and the postal code is 3015 CX in Rotterdam.
I went to this museum for I guess about two to three hours. I was there from a quarter to twelve and I
left about a quarter pas two. But at the end of the afternoon I already saw all the paintings, exhibitions,
pieces of art and other cultural pieces of art.

I went to this museum at a Wednesday and on every Wednesday it is free. I have my ticket, that is the
little dark blue picture above these two sentences of text. When I went there I did not took a catalogue
of a brochure with me. There were a lot of brochures but I did not took one with me, because all of
them did not appealed to me very much. And almost all the brochures were about painting is did not
saw because all brochures were about the exhibitions that still had to came to expose in the museum
Boijmans.
I saw almost every painting or piece of art from the whole museum, so I
was all different exhibitions.
The most viewed exhibition was from Kees van Dongen. When we came in
the room where his art was exposed, it was very busy, there were a lot of
other people. The most thing that was striking me, was that Kees van
Dongen drew women most of the time. His exhibition was called, All eyes
on Kees van Dongen.
Exhibition Kees van Dongen.
The building or the museum had always been used as a museum, nothing
else than that. In this museum are pieces of art like; modern painting art
and visual arts. The museum also has a sculpture park in the garden with a
lot of different pieces of art. The museum was build up by the accumulator Frans Jacob Otto
Boijmans. He lived from 1767 till 1847. The paintings and other pieces of art were first housed in the
historic Schielandshuis. In 1849 were all painting still in the Schielandshuis, but later on it started to
wear the name museum Boijmans.
With a fire in 1864, did a big part of the paintings lost. They were all burned up into the fire. In 1935
were all the paintings replaced by new ones and a new architect build a brand new construction at the
Boijmans museum.

The museum Boijmans van Beuningen is a very big museum, there are a lot of different things to see.
A lot of exhibitions but also other creative art. When you enter the museum, you have to go under a
kind of portal which seems very old. Than when you are in the building you have this big area of
space with a service desk. At that service desk they give information about what you can see in the
whole museum and you can get you entry carts or you tickets there. Before you go in the museum, you
have to put you bags in a locker and you have to hang up your coats. Literally everything in the
museum is art, so is the peg. It is a very strange way how to hang up your coats. When you hang up
your coat you can go into the museum. In front of the entrance there stand some people who will
check your tickets before you go in. In the museum
there is a lot of art of course, but there is also a little
espresso bar and a restaurant to have something to drink
or eat during a long day of art. In the restaurant there is
one of many ways to go to the sculpture park which in
the garden.
The peg in museum Boijmans.

In the museum they do not only treat and present one

piece of art. There are a lot of different pieces and ways
of art. The things that they show the most in Museum
Boijmans is that there are not just paintings in the museum but also photography, pottery, porcelain,
sculptures, ceramics, blown glass, architectural things and abstract art. There might be more types of
art, but I do not know them by head anymore. They show all that kind of art I just named in all
different halls, rooms and areas. The sculpture garden and some of the paintings I liked the most. But
at some pieces of art, I was not very interested or fascinated. But for everyone there is some piece of
art they would like. It is very cleverly that there are that many types of different art. Everyone can
come and look for the type of art that they are finding very interesting.

All the pieces of art are all standing in separate rooms. They do mark all different paintings and other
forms of art. Everything stands in a good order. With the paintings it is so that they hang in the right
order, so all same painters and techniques are all together. And that order is with every type of art.
They place all things that belong to each other or which have the same characterize together, so you
immediately know where you have to go to if you want to see something special.

The organizers used a lot of different ways to present the pieces of art in the best way they could. All
the pieces of art who are standing or hanging in a room with almost no windows or daily light, have a
lot of bright lights. So you still can admire the paintings on their best side. They use different height
levels so it is not just one straight line, because that is boring to look at. Spotlights make the pieces of
art more clearly, this is how the paintings look more beautiful than when there is no light. In each
room hang about approximately 7 to 9 paintings. The organizers did not hang too much on every
room, otherwise the visitors would not know where to watch.

The organizers did organize the rooms very clear and in the right order. In the old section of the
building, there are the older paintings the most. There they are in a very structural way, all the
paintings hang in the right order. On every wall in every room you come, stands what the painting in
the room presents or what the room will show you. So every painting in that room has a technique or a
painter in common. The part which they build later, so the latest or better said new sector of the
building, presents most of the time the temporarily exhibitions. In the new sector hang all the new
paintings, exhibitions or sculptures. Often is the new sector the most area people come, because it is
the most interesting part, well I thought it was the most interesting part, because that was almost the
only art which was from this time and this environment. In that new sector, was the exhibition All eyes
on Kees van Dongen from the painter Kees van Dongen.

I think that the way how you are walking around in the museum along all the different paintings or
other types of art is very clear and in the right order. The series of paintings start very early, for
example around the time of the middle ages or even earlier. And how further you walk in the museum
along all the paintings, how more the paintings will show up from the time that it is now. So at
approximately at the end of the whole exhibition, you are watching at paintings who are painted in the
years which are the more close to this yeas we are living in now.

The museum does not shows one particularly exhibition, it has a lot of different ways of expressing the
name art. You can admire a lot of different types of art. There is one things that appeals to me, that is
that there are a lot of rooms or halls with paintings, almost all painted by different artists or painters.

Because I did not went to a particularly exhibition, I can’t tell what the name of ‘that particularly
exhibition’ means. Because I know that there was a little exhibition in about 2 or 3 rooms or halls, I
can tell something about that. It was just a little exhibition compared to all the other halls with
paintings, because this exhibition had just 2 to 3 halls with paintings. The name of the exhibition
where I talked about, was All eyes on Kees van Dongen. The name of the exhibitions stands for I
guess all the attention to Kees van Dongen. You can see it in his exhibition, because he has a lot
paintings about his work studio. But to be honest, I do not know another reason why it could have that
name.

I think that the rooms is decorated this way, so it would not had packed feeling. It is nicer to look at a
wall where hang 3 big paintings than to look at a wall where you have to look at 10 big paintings.
Because when there hang 10 big paintings you would driving crazy because you would not know
where to look at. It would be just too much.
I do not think that the organizing has something to do with the function of the of the paintings.

I think that they way how they order the pieces of art, has a special structure. The paintings or other
pieces of art in the older part of the building, is most of the time very chronological. They place most
of the paintings in order of years.
The organizers put the oldest ones in the beginning, and every time you walk further and further you
realize that the paintings get more from this time. In the
latest part of the building (the part who is build later) are
the paintings especially organized at themes. Also the
way how the paintings are painted is very important to
the great order, that is also a point where the organizers
are looking at.
The organizers try very hard their best to give as many information about any piece
of art or other forms of art .
a with the right amount of paintings.
At all different pieces of art, stands or hangs a little plate with
a little bit information about it.
On that information plate stands for example when the piece of art was/is made, by who the piece of
art was/is made, by what technique the piece of art was/is made and there stand a little story next to
explain the story behind the piece of art.
Most of the time there also stands a little piece of history about the artist, why the artist made it and
what the piece of art means.
When I read some stories which belong to some paintings, I would never had the conclusion about
what I read at the painting.

The way how the organizers are writing down the information is very useful. At every painting they
tell exactly what you need to know. If you wonder who made the piece of art, you can read it of the
little plate with the information. If you wonder when the piece of art was made, you can also read that
of the little plate with information. If you wonder why the artist made this piece of art, just read the
little information plate to know the answer at your question.
The text that gives you the information about the pieces of art, is most of the time correct. In some
cases the information they give you about where the piece of stands for, is not always what you think
it would be. Sometimes I could not understand why they were explaining that information at the piece
of art I saw. In some cases of some different pieces of art, I could not place the information where it
was about next to the painting where it belonged to.
It than had a very strange agreement which I most of the time did not get. But in generally, I do think
that the way of presenting the information next to some piece of art, is very useful and very cleat to
understand.

I think that the purpose of the exhibitions and pieces of art mainly has to do with the history, well a
part of the exhibition and pieces of art. The pieces of art and exhibitions definitely have something to
do with showing the life’s work of all the different artists. Especially the exhibition from Kees van
Dongen is a very good example of an artist who is showing their life’s work.
His whole exhibition is about what he has painted his whole life. So literally his exhibition does
present his whole life’s work. I think that the exhibitions and other pieces of art, are also ment to let
the people enjoy their work. Some people love to watch at some particular piece of art. That will also
be a function of the preparation. Some pieces of art, will let the people think by their selfs of what the
meaning of the painting will be. A lot of people love to watch at different paintings and just say what
they think where the painting is about.
Some pieces of art also give the expression of any religion. When is was walking around and through
the museum, I definitely saw a lot of paintings which had something to do with the Christianity. At a
lot of paintings you will see Maria holding Jesus or just all the saints together. The different pieces of
art also have some emotions. Not all of them, but there are enough paintings which will show you a
determined emotion, sometimes it will be happiness, sometimes it will be sadness, in other cases it
will be love, it will be hate, anger, shame, fear or whatever. There is not a particularly emotion which
you see the most. But the emotions you see a lot are; happiness, sadness, fear and love.
The most important function of the different pieces if art to me is, that you can see of feel the different
emotions. I you have no feeling at a painting, or you just say what the hell, the painting will not have
any emotion and to me emotion is very important in every way of art.
When I went to the museum to watch at some art, I did not know what to expect. I knew I am going to
see paintings, but what I did not knew was that there are many ways off art. I would never say that
what I saw in the museum was all art. For example porcelain of pottery, I never thought that that
would be art. The thing that I did expacted were the paintings, and I was correct about that. But I
already knew that the museum Boijmans van Beuningen also showed paintings.

The piece of art that had the best impression to me was a white little house within all mirrors. When
we came in the next hall, there was no art, well that was what we thought. In the middle of the room
was a little white house. We wanted to know what was inside, so we opened the door and there were
all mirrors. When you walked inside the little white house, there was a little path which was maybe
two meters long. When you looked around you, there were all funny pluche toys. They were every and
they were white with red dots on it. Everywhere you looked, you
saw the red dots and when you looked into the mirrors, you saw
yourself infinitley times. There was a row with ten thousend times
yourself. When you walked out that little white houe again, you
were getting a little dizzy, it was a very funny feeling. The little
white house was made by a Japanese woman and her name was
Yayoi Kusama.
The mirror room by Yayoi Kusama

I had never been to a museum like this, so I thougt is was a great

opportunity for me to see all this types of art. To be honest It
seemed very boring to me, but when I came there, my opinion changed. Of course I did not liked all
the types of art, but there were some things I liked. And as you can see, the mirror house was the most
fun. I did not liked all the types of art, because some things were very boring or even very ugly. It is
fun to see this once, but the second time, I will see something else.

Review: http://www.vkblog.nl/bericht/352061/De_grote_ogen_van_Kees_van_Dongen
I took a revieuw about this exhibition, because there is not a review about the whole museum and
again it is in Dutch, I could not find it in English.