The Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam is one of my favourite art museums. I visited it on a sunny, but cold Monday morning. It is located on the Museum square, with two other famous museums, the Van Gogh museum and the Rijksmuseum (picture).

The New Wing of the Stedelijk (2012), nicknamed the Badkuip (Bathtub).

I started with the old building, walking up the monumental stairs to the mail hall, which was barren and very white.

The old building houses the “collection 1980-now”, with the exception of the huge Parakeet and the Mermaid (1952) by Matisse, because this huge work of art needs a big hall. I took a few pictures, but most of the modern works didn’t really impress me. A sign that I am getting old?

The new wing houses the “old” collection. The way the works of art are exhibited is quite nice.

Here is a selection of what appealed to me. It was of course a feast of recognition, I had seen all these works of art many times before.

But something was missing. I was not in the right mood, Strange.. I stayed in the museum less than one hour..

The first floor of the new wing is dominated by this modern artwork of Barbara Kruger,

Was I missing Aric? It was good that outside the sun was shining.

One week later I visited the Stedelijk Museum again!

This time not alone, but in the company of Nellie. We first met as freshmen at the Free University in 1961, more than sixty year ago. When I am in the Netherlands we try to meet for a cultural activity. This time we wanted to visit the Cobra Museum in Amstelveen but noticed that it had a timeslot system which was not suitable for us. Instead we decided to visit the Stedelijk. This time I was in a much more positive mood.

Just some pictures I took during our visit