The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
The dawn of a new Golden Age in the city of canals
The new train link to Amsterdam brings this hub of artistic creativity within easier reach. Go soon, says Rodney Bolt
Canals lined with decorative gabled houses; cosy woodpanelled cafés, flowers bursting from buckets on street corners, boats gently gliding on the waterways, flocks of cyclists and a famously easy-going populace all help create Amsterdam’s allure. But while it may be one of Europe’s most visually and temperamentally charming cities, it is also one of the most culturally rich. Its artistic abundance – painting, architecture and photography; opera, music, dance and a thriving contemporary arts scene – make an alchemical mix that only deepens the appeal. With a direct rail connection at last in place, now is the time to explore Amsterdam in depth – you may find it even rivals Paris.
The Old Masters from Holland’s 17th-century Golden Age are the mainstay of its artistic heritage, of course. You will find dozens of these paintings with their extraordinarily beautiful and poignant insights into the everyday life of the time, not only in the Rijksmuseum (rijksmuseum.nl) but in the richly stocked Amsterdam Museum (Amsterdam museum.nl), and several historic canalside mansions. Many of these, such as the splendid yet still somehow domestic Museum Van Loon (museumvanloon.nl), are open to the public. And it’s not just art that dazzles in the Rijksmuseum. The collection takes you on a journey far beyond grand old paintings, via exquisite artefacts in its Asian Pavilion to ornate 17thcentury dolls’ houses.
Across the way, the Van Gogh Museum (vangoghmuseum.nl) shows more of the tortured artist’s brilliant and most memorable paintings than anywhere else in the world, and next door to that, the Stedelijk (stedelijk.nl) not only has a strong and varied collection of modern art (especially Malevich, Mondrian and De Stijl) but also houses some prime 20th and 21stcentury design.
The Stedelijk’s changing exhibitions inspire, challenge and sometimes bewilder with work from the very forefront of contemporary art – as do a host of smaller galleries, many in the Jordaan quarter of town.
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The Stedelijk’s changing exhibitions inspire, challenge and bewilder
work. Photography is hottest of all in Amsterdam at the moment. For many visitors to town, the FOAM Museum of Photography (foam.org) tops the list of must-sees, for its shows uncovering lesser-known historical corners of the art, for blockbuster exhibitions of famous photographers and intriguing new work. Huis Marseille (huismarseille.nl) not only comes up with exhibitions of engaging and challenging contemporary work, but is housed in two monumental canal houses, one with a fine 18th-century ceiling painting.
The Amsterdam City Archive (amsterdam.nl/stadsarchief) adds a warming dash of nostalgia with frequent shows of old photos from its huge collection, and the Unseen Amsterdam festival (unseen amsterdam.com) brings the very latest photography from all over the world to town each September. Unseen marks the tail end of a busy
Aa summer festival programme, with such offerings as the annual Holland Festival (hollandfestival.nl; the Netherlands’ answer to Edinburgh), followed by Julidans ( julidans.nl; international contemporary dance) and De Parade (deparade.nl; zanier, more circus-like fare), along with many more.
The new kid on the block is rapidly becoming the most popular: each October, Amsterdam Dance Event (amsterdam-dance-event.nl), billed as