Félix Vallotton
You know that we love the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, right? Now in the museum (and partly online!) you can visit the Here to Stay exhibition, which includes more than just Van Gogh masterpieces. The museum has a vast collection of artworks created by other artists; the exhibition celebrates a decade of remarkable acquisitions.
Aside from the artworks themselves, the stories behind the acquisitions play a central role in the exhibition. Furthermore, a varied group of people, from storage facility staff to Amsterdam residents, introduce their personal stories accompanying their favorite acquisitions from the past decade. We hope you will find it interesting. Today we present the story written by Feliz Haverkamp, citizen of Amsterdam, of one of my favorite woodcuts ever, Laziness by Félix Vallotton.
"I see a girl reclining on a bed that required quite a lot of gouging, carving and plenty of ink. She lies here in peace and quiet, her thoughts coming and going, but she doesn't have to dwell on them much. The world around her slows down and gradually fades away. I myself have a chaotic mind and sometimes have difficulty finding peace. This image of the girl and her cat does give me that. Lots of stimuli and patterns, but it’s still very calming. There is so much time and patience behind all those lines and little squares. It almost feels like a kind of meditation. It makes me relax, because the rest of the world doesn't matter when I look at this work."
P.S. Some time ago we asked the staff of the Van Gogh Museum to show us their favorite works from their collection. Check here to see what they picked!