Cobra

Because I have Museum Year Card I can visit over 400 museums in Holland for free.

Here in Haarlem I've been to a few old ones, Frans Hals and Teylers are my favourites. The Hermitage in Amsterdam is nice and the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in Leiden is a good place if you love history!
I love the silence, the smell of the past, the beautiful old frames around the -not allways beautiful- paintings. It's like time stands still when I'm walking around. No distractions from outside because I allways put my coat and bag in a safety deposit. No phone. Just me and my eyes, my thoughts.....it makes me calm...I can spend hours being there with myself and art.

It's like a gift to myself...

So today I went to Amstelveen, a 40 min busride from home. My destination was the Cobra Museum of modern art. The first time to a modern museum. But I was very dissapointed, the building looks cold from the outside en feels cold on the inside. A lot of glass and whiteness surrounds you...a big hallway downstairs and a room upstairs with roomdividers....It's like a maze.....
The art on display didn't touch me at all, paintings by Klee, Appel,Corneille....big names I know but the paintings are all to abstract, surreal....

So after a cappucino in the museumcafe - again all glass and white - I left with an empty feeling...

But that's not a bad thing, I have also learnt what I do like.
I like old buildings, historic tales, realistic paintings and I know now that my favourite painters are Breitner and Israel. Breitners painting : girl in kimono is one of the special paintings because the girl looks like my girl.
And I can see them every day if I want to, just 10 min on my bike for some calm moments...