Yes, it’s the grumpy month of January once again. The new year will probably bring fresh awfulness around the globe, so why not micromanage your mood by focusing on some cultural comforts.
Take a dip
If this doesn’t chase away the blues, we don’t know what will. New Year’s Day Dips, or Nieuwjaarsduiken aka mad dashes into icy cold water, are being organised all over the country. January 1. Website
Lighten up at castle De Haar
There is just time to catch one of the Luminous Nights at Kasteel De Haar in Utrecht. It’s a magical nighttime walk in the grounds of the castle of just over two kilometres taking about an hour, with son et lumière effects explaining its history and flora and fauna along the way. Children from 4 welcome. Until January 4. Website
Don’t miss the Roulins
The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam has gathered 14 of the 23 portraits he painted of the Roulin family for Van Gogh and the Roulins. Together again at last. Van Gogh met postman Joseph Roulin in 1888 and spent the next year painting him and his family numerous times. They became fast friends.
“Roulin…has a silent gravity and a tenderness for me as an old soldier might have for a young one,” he wrote to his brother Theo. Van Gogh’s own affection for Roulin shines through in this wonderful, colourful series. Until January 11. Website
Actually see de Wallen
De Wallen, or red light district, comprise some of the prettiest medieval streets in Amsterdam. Lockdown made them reappear from under the layers of tourists and litter once more. Dana Lixenberg, who spent her early childhood there, took up her camera and photographed her old neighbourhood. At the Stadsarchief until February 15. Website
Hit the highlights
It takes just 75 minutes to experience all that the Netherlands is famous for at Highlights of Amsterdam, the recently opened immersive exhibition at the Magdalenakapel in the capital.
There are ten themed rooms, including, in no particular order, the golden age, cycling, DJs, the battle against the water and very, very large tulips, and that is whithout having smoked a joint. Every day. Website
Meet the women of the Amsterdamse School
The women who contributed to the Amsterdamse School, the movement that spawned this expressive, dynamic architectural style in 1916, have not been getting much of a look-in, either during or after.
Unseen: Women of the Amsterdamse School, at Museum Het Schip, is trying to make up for the neglect by including the stories and work of first female architect Margaret Kropholler, graphic artist Tine Baanders and sculptor Louise Beijerman, and other female artists belonging to the movement. Until June 26. Website
Say goodbye to the rainforest
Irish documentary artist Richard Mosse’s visualisation of the devastation of the Amazonian rainforest with its swooping, blood (infra)red images of the doomed and burned landscape and its equally doomed population documents man’s brutality to nature.
Shown on a wide screen its message is overwhelmingly bleak. Broken Spectre is part of the exhibition Getekend, de Natuur (Signed: Nature) at the Centraal Museum Utrecht until March 29. Website
Hop to it at the Groninger Museum
The Groninger Museum, always up for a bit of popular culture, is hosting an exhibition on the imagery of Dutch and international Hip Hop, represented by 840 record sleeves from the 1980s onward.
The genre spawned graffiti artists such as Dondi White and Phase 2, whose work is on show, as well as American artist Rammelzee, whose Gulf War is also featured. Video art and photos include work by Arthur Jafa and Dana Lixenberg. Hip Hop Is is on until May 10. Website
Mind the cat
Man and his relationship with his dog, cat, bird, snake or whatever other pet he chooses to share his life with, is the subject of Animal Therapy at the Museum of the Mind in Amsterdam. The exhibition features, for the first time in the Netherlands, the work of English illustrator Louis Wain (1860-1939) who was mad about cats and painted big-eyed and slightly sinister moggies to great acclaim.
After suffering a head injury, Wain ended up in a mental hospital where he continued to draw and paint. Other depictions of animals from the museum’s Outsider Art collection are also on show. Until March 1. Website
Swoon at the sight of a Regency buck
Fans of Georgian and Regency novels and tv series – here is your chance to see those tight breeches and form-fitting coats for yourselves. The Dutch Macaronis, or dandies, of the time strut their stuff at the Rijksmuseum, much of it wrapped up in silk, cotton and linen imported by the VOC.
Interestingly, the market for recycled second-hand finery began to flourish when machine-made cloth and clothing began to dominate the market. The museum has a gilet made from an 18th-century dress made from hand-painted Chinese silk. Suit yourself – 100 years of men’s wear is on until March 15. Website
Feel the love
The Catharijne Convent in Utrecht is all about love, from loving your neighbour to coveting her, from filial to spiritual love and from passion to passionate hate. Phew.
This heady mix includes 60 works of art old and modern, by Kenneth Aidoo, Marc Mulders, Paul Derrez, Jan Toorop, Joos van Cleve, Ossip Zadkine and Pieter Lastman, some of which have not been exhibited before. In the Name of Love is on until March 1. Website