having a look at vincent’s pictures
the kunstmuseum in basel is hosting an exhibition of vincent van gogh’s landscape pictures and we had been planning on going up to basel and having a look at them. so, as this sunday had more or less non-stop rain forecast, we had an early sunday breakfast, skipped church, grabbed our rail network cards and hopped on the train from einsiedeln to wädenswil, and changed into the IR train to basel. after about a bit over 2 hours we got to basel main station, changed to the tram and got to the kunstmuseum in just about 5min or so.
yesterday evening i had tried to figure out how much the tickets would cost us — and had found out that entry was timed: you could only buy tickets for a specific entry time period. not fully trusting SBB to be as reliable as we wished it to be1 we had decided to “risk it” and not bought any tickets in advance. guess, we were lucky: just 10 persons in front of us in the queue for a ticket and we don’t have to wait long either. getting in is a 3-step-process (not counting the ticket purchase):
- london underground style barriers where you have to insert your newly purchased ticket (supervised by no less than 2 security ladies)
- we are now in the main entrance hall where we can let go of all our belongings (no cameras, no mobile phone, no clothing…ok, made that last one up), at the end of which is check #2, where you have to show your tickets once more (and again 2 security persons)
- in front of us is now a huge staircase that would do any temple proud, climbing that we finally end up on the second floor2 where our tickets are checked once again.
we queue once more to rent an ipod each as the guided tours are already booked out for all of sunday. then we finally (ticket check #4) get to see vincent’s landscape pictures!
…and i’m really impressed by them. i especially like the ones where van gogh starts experimenting with complementing colours (the flower beds one), pictures from his paris period (like restaurant de la sirene, which unfortunately the kunstmuseum didn’t have as a poster) —
— but also the picture of the sailing boats in the mediterranean sea.
as usual with these kind of art exhibits i’m a bit irritated by the whole hoopla and “oh, this is so important” kind of affected behaviour, by the church of art exhibitions — very aptly summarized by mrs d: “the pictures are beautiful, the whole shebang surrounding it just gets on your nerves.”
we purchase three posters along with proper poster rails to hang them3 and after a late lunch sitting outside on the banks of the rhine are on our way back home. well worth the visit if you ignore all that high-priests-of-art stuff.
