Ask a curator day - vraag het de conservator
Hieronder een greep uit de vragen aan het Van Gogh Museum. Nederlandse en Engelse vragen staan door elkaar. De vragen werden beantwoord door onderzoeker Nienke Bakker en conservator schilderijen Leo Jansen.
Allemaal hartelijk dank voor jullie deelname!
Ook het Van Gogh Museum volgen op twitter? www.twitter.com/vangoghmuseum
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Is anything known about the family portrayed in The Potato Eaters?
Do you have the first names of the De Groots? Love to see if I can trace a connection to my grandmother, who was a De Groot
Questions by mcmvanbreeAnswers:
They're believed to be the De Groot family (at least some of them). VG painted them in their home.Antonie (‘Toon’) de Groot (1829-1909) and Gordina (‘Sien’) de Groot (1855-1927) are mentioned by Van Gogh. For information about the family, see http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let574/letter.html#n-15
- Wat was het meest verfrissende/vernieuwende inzicht volgens u dat voortkwam uit het brievenproject?
- Did Van Gogh use any underpainting technique in his paintings?
- How would you categorize Vincent's personality if we met him in the modern world?
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Do you have a specific item in your collection that you're most proud of?
Question asked by MarDixon
Answer:
Researcher Nienke Bakker's personal favorites: Van Gogh's painting The Harvest, and posters by Toulouse-Lautrec. -
What was Vincent van Gogh's favourite breakfast?
Question by GustonArt.
Answer:
Lots of coffee and a piece of bread: 'apart from that I had only bread and coffee' he wrote on 08.10.1888 -
Wat vindt u zelf het lelijkste schilderij in de collectie? en hangt u dat wel eens op?
Vraag van Marije
Antwoord van Nienke Bakker, onderzoeker:
de Aardappeleters, maar die hangt altijd, 't is een cruciaal schilderij. Smaken verschillen, gelukkig ;-)Antwoord van Leo Jansen, conservator schilderijen:
En dit is mijn gruwel. Soms te zien want sommigen vinden haar lief!? http://bit.ly/d02EoM -
Are there also exhibions curated by externals?
Question by JPBrunotte
Answer:
There are often curators from outside the VGM, i.e. Picasso specialist Marilyn McCully for our Picasso show in 2011. -
Heeft het museum ooit het in Cairo gestolen "Vaas met Pekanjers" in de collectie gehad of aankoop overwogen?
Vraag van MuseumFuture
Antwoord:
Nee. Het in Cairo gestolen werk was nooit deel van onze collectie. Is ook niet afkomstig uit de familiecollectie. -
Will you exhibit The Van Gogh Letters Project that won the EU/Europa Nostra Awards again? Will it tour?
Question by europanostra
Answer:
Due to fragility the letters can't be exhibited for a while. But shows at VGM & Royal Academy were a success! -
Vraag mij af hoe het onderzoek naar 'n nieuwe Van Gogh verloopt zoals bij De Molen Le blute-fin.
Vraag van JeannekeEtweets
Antwoord:
Onderzoek naar "nieuwe Van Gogh" is lange procedure waarbij specialisten hun mening geven (technisch en stylistisch). -
How much have the colors of Van Gogh's work been muted through time?
Question by PeterJochems
Answer:
Colours have changed considerably, especially some of the red pigments Van Gogh was using -
Zouden jullie, net als het Louvre, de naam van het museum laten leasen door een buitenlands museum?
Vraag van ErfoeDigitaal
Antwoord van Leo Jansen:
Gelukkig ben ik maar conservator en ga ik niet over het Grote Geld! -
How does the museum keep exhibitions fresh + exciting when showing the work of a single artist?
Question by emilyjmeyer
Answer:
A lot of research leads to new findings and consequently new ideas. Still a lot to dicsover about VG! -
What is your biggest painting measuring?
Question by MuseumSheffield
Answer:
That would be a painting by Lhermitte, Haymaking, measuring 251 x 302 cm http://bit.ly/aPPIFp. -
Why do people whisper in museums, why's there no sound, music.. vincent had fun as well.. does humour belong in à museum?
Question by hvdk
Answer:
Museums are places for contemplation, so people tend to be quiet. We do have music and other activities on Friday nights -
Do communication and pressoffice take part in planning exhibitions?
Question by jbrunotte
Answer:
Communication and pressoffice just communicate the exhibitions. Exhibitions dept, directors &c plan the exhibits -
Which importance has Social Media for Your museum?
Question by jbrunotte
Answer:
that's very important because of the low treshold, direct responses & enthousiastic community both on twitter & FB - Has it already a relevance concerning the planning of exhibitions?
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In the VanGoghhuis, Zundert is an interesting exhibit, showing works of Anna and Eugene Boch. Something for your museum?
Question by PeterJochems
Answer:
Anna & Eugène Boch: interesting, perhaps as part of a larger exhibition about Van Gogh's friends -
How many paintings do you have, and how often do you circulate them? Assume you can't display them all.
Question by AKsArtCorner
Answer:
201 paintings by Van Gogh and around 450 by other artists including Museum Mesdag in The Hague. We're often lending works to other museums, which implies changes in the hanging of permanent collection -
How is it to curate for a museum thats focused on one artist? (how is it different)
Question by Aodt
Answer:
It is not so different, because we do not focus on just Van Gogh. Our collection also contains a lot of works by and we make exhibitions on Van Gogh and 19th century art. -
What is the most difficult challenge for a curator? How do new technologies influence the curatorship task?
Question by Museodata
Answer:
The challenge: taking the best possible care of the art works and allowing as many people as possible to see them.
New technologies can help us to learn more about the art works and facilitate the research. See for example http://bit.ly/d37iJC -
Is kneeling figure Vincent in this photo? He holds palette/brushes like him
Photo: http://bit.ly/9R6gGA.
Question by John A KarrAnswer:
According to Frédéric Destremau who wrote a study on Cormon's studio in 1996 the figure is Géraud Culan.
