I don’t like snakes and I am horrible with art (creating or interpreting), so when I had the opportunity to visit the CoBrA museum, I wasn’t sure if I should be terrified or just nervous.
As it turns out, the CoBrA museum has nothing to do with snakes – well not live ones anyway. Located in the city of Amstelveen, the museum focuses on the European avant-garde movement, named CoBrA, which was active from 1948 – 1951. The word CoBrA is actually made up of the initials of the member’s home cities – Co for Copenhagen, Br for Brussels and A for Amsterdam – and a curled snake became their symbol.
As we moved through the gallery looking at different paintings made by famous artists including Karel Appel, Constant and Asger Jorn the inevitable question that makes my heart beat faster and my palms begin to sweat was asked.
“What do you see in the painting?”
As I looked at the blobs of primary colours mixed together with the grace of a two-year old finger painter I started to squirm. And then, off to the right of the painting, my eyes latched onto my saving grace – a pair of eyes looking back at me. Or at least, I hoped that’s what they were.
“A face! I see a face just here,” I announced as I pointed to the side of the painting.
At another painting I showed how the circles and lines made up bicycles and at another I highlighted the expanse of ocean and the bright moon in the sky. And when I looked back for a second glance I pointed out the sinister faces looking down at the boat battling the waves.
Each and every time I was able to find something in the paintings that at first approach didn’t always look like a whole lot. And each and every time, my tour guide didn’t laugh at my answers. This wasn’t because I was brilliant nor because she was trying to be nice but because this is exactly what CoBrA art is supposed to do. As the museum explains on its website:
“The CoBrA artists painted directly and spontaneously. Just like children, they wanted to work expressively without a preconceived plan, using their fantasy and much colour. They rebelled against the rules of the art academies and aimed at a form of art without constraint.”
To CoBrA, anyone can make art and anyone can interpret it. Gone are the ideas that you need formal training, a worked out plan and years of effort to make a painting. You just show up, do the job based on your thoughts at the moment and then you move on. And it is equally true when it comes to looking at the art. What to you is a dog is to me a cat and is to both of us a tree tomorrow. No hard feelings, no artists getting upset because you missed the point and no need for sweating hands when someone asks you “what do you see?”
I left the CoBrA museum feeling quite inspired, maybe even tempted to make a little art myself. At the very least I had a new foundation for approaching art and a greater respect for the group that was the cause of my change in perspective.
[box] The museum is located at Sandbergplein 1 in Amstelveen and is open Tuesday to Sunday, 11am – 17:00.[/box]
I visited the CoBrA museum as part of my role as a Holland Ambassador with the Netherlands Board of Tourism & Conventions.
Heather is a writer, photographer and explorer of the world with bylines in Porthole Cruise Magazine, Taste&Travel International, Holland.com, and ACCESS Magazine, amongst others. She is addicted to pen, paper, hotels, organisation and hippos. In addition to Cloggie Central, you can find her over at Travel Gluttons.
I too saw eyes looking back at me in the first picture. The picture with the eyes changing to battling waves after thinking it through I saw the same thing. I got seasick one time and I never intentionally wanted to take the lead on a trip or be the captain. I would rather be the follower. It is hard as I have no experience on storms. I would much prefer not to be in a storm. I get lost a lot and rely on others for directions. I don't consider myself aggressive to even want to go through a storm...it would never be my intention. Hard to predict what do I see..sometimes taking a lot of time to study and look at a picture gives you a clearer perspective. I try to think within normal boundaries and might go up for a closer look, but always thinking about the broader perspective. I'm constantly learning about art.