Pilgrimage...

March 27th, 2014

At the end of january, I went on a little pilgrimage. And only just rediscovered I had pictures. When we had art history in high school (it was my best subject, by miles), the thing that stuck with me was Modernism. I was also really into Post-Modernism, but the whole thing about Manifesto's and trying to keep up with an ever-changing world that's too different to capture in a traditional way, I get that. And Post-Modernism to me always felt like what happens when we give that up and just accept that we can never ever ever catch up anymore. Which is equally important, but I loved the ambition of having one outspoken vision and then striving to get there.

So I went to the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam to pay respect to the artist who got me interested in art history in the first place. I saw a quote from Malevich at the exhibition that really spoke to me.
"I have transformed myself in the zero of form and have fished myself out of the rubbish slough of academic art." Kazimir Malevich, Suprematist Manifesto, 1915.

If you ever get the chance to see Malevich's work in real life, you should. I was surprised to find that the paintings actually moved me, it was more a tribute to my love for his ideas that made me decide to visit the Stedelijk. And I thought that black square on white canvas would be great to see. It was. What I hadn't expected was being moved by white cross on white canvas. Like, being moved to tears by it. And there was work by other Suprematists, and that was lovely.

There were a lot of older people, probably pensioners, making lots of noise and standing for incredibly long times in front of pictures. It's why I don't always like going to museums, when there's that many people on a Tuesday morning. And then there were tubby old bald men talking self-importantly about art to way less tubby, decidedly not bald groups of women. This seemed to be a kind of deal that the women had to endure this now the men could no longer feel self-important because of their jobs. And also, the men claimed to understand the art and then proceeded to explain it to the women, and this was ridiculous and sexist. Because why were only the men being self-important, and how can you ever decide that art is something you can analyse and then it's just true. Stop talking, and look at it!

Posts bewaard in: Art,Philosophy,Review