Blog 15.12.19 - Amsterdam's Horror Vacui and the purpose of art

Blog 15.12.19 - Amsterdam's Horror Vacui and the purpose of art

Horror Vacui - In visual art, Horror Vacui or "Fear of Emptiness" is the filling of an entire surface of an artwork with detail. 

The early tourist gets the birds.

This is how I would describe Amsterdam and its streets and stores. All space is brimming with detail. There is no empty space, only clutter.

In case it wasn't obvious, I went on another trip to Amsterdam this Sunday, which is a much more lovely city in the morning, by the way.
The main purpose of the trip was to visit the Rijksmuseum. It's located roughly half an hour away from Amsterdam Centraal. Makes for a nice walk through the city. Oh boy, is it full of stuff. Took me about four hours to comb through the place, and even then I don't think I saw everything. 

The most interesting exhibition was the currently ongoing Rembrandt - Velázquez: Dutch & Spanish Masters. Classical art from the countries of Netherlands and Spain was displayed in side-by-side comparison, both pieces of each set exploring similiar themes, but through a different cultural lens. This setup gave interesting insight to the individual paintings as well, very engaging. My personal favorite couple of paintings explored the ravages of time and the birth of something new. Interesting how both artists used the exact same visual of freshly baked bread to contrast their very different depictions of age and frailty. Fun stuff!

I spent a very long time staring at this one.

I have also discovered an apparent love for romanticism in art. My favorite individual pieces were almost all depictions of nature in the romantic style. Exaggerations of natural beauty and human architecture look very appealing to me. Perhaps because of the high fantasy-vibe I get from it. Disregarding reality in favor of a more "perfect" version of it is something I tend to look for in media, I've noticed. No wonder romanticism appeals to me so much.

From what little I know though, what appeals to me specifically is only a small part of the greater whole of romanticism. I'm very interested to learn more. 

The trip to Rijksmuseum was very inspiring to an aspiring artist, even if my own work has little in common with the pieces displayed. The primary purpose of art (to me, at least) is the expression of emotions and feelings that are difficult or impossible to express otherwise. The trip was very enlightening. 20€ well spent.

All of this exploration was hampered by the fact that I felt like... Expletive. The sickness of my fellow traveler may have caught me as well. A colossal headache makes for a poor reading buddy. Fiddlesticks.

My boy, Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
It's gonna be his birthday soon.

- An absolute, complete and total effin' NERD, Tuomo