For the past two years, since the pandemic has started, I haven’t set foot in a museum or a concert hall. But now, being vaccinated and hopefully more protected, I think it’s time to go back. The need to return to the “normal” life is big, and I am determined to slowly go back to activities that I used to enjoy very much “before”. The Netherlands was in the third (or the one hundredth?!) lockdown until recently, but from 25 January all culture venues have opened their doors again. My top priorities are visiting museums and attending dance shows again. Amsterdam museums are eager to receive visits and they have prepared many cool exhibitions for us! I’ve made a list of the exhibitions I look forward to and I thought I should share it with you, for inspiration.

Museum exhibitions in Amsterdam, 2022

• Van Gogh and the Olive Groves, at Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam (11 March-12 June 2022). More than a dozen paintings of olive groves by Vincent van Gogh will be together for the first time. This exhibition will explore why were the olive trees so special to him and the circumstances around these paintings — Vincent van Gogh spent a year at the asylum in Saint-Rémy, in the South of France, and he painted these olive groves during his time there.

• Healing Power at the Tropenmuseum (until 28 August 2022). This one is at the top of my list! It presents healing traditions and rituals from all over the world, from ayahuasca to shamans and witches. Object used in these rituals are brought together with modern art by artists such as Marina Abramović and Damien Hirst.

• Our Inheritance — also at the Tropenmuseum. From June 2022 the museum will open its new permanent exhibition, Our Inheritance, which looks at the Dutch colonial past and the relationship between everyday life and the legacies of colonialism and slavery. The exhibition includes around 500 objects and art objects from the collection of Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen.

• Revolusi! at the Rijksmuseum (11 Febr – 5 June 2022). An exhibition offering an international perspective on the struggle for independence of Indonesia from the Dutch Colonial Empire (1945 – ’49), seen through 20 different stories, through the eyes of the people who lived through it. The focus is on people: artists, fighters, journalists etc.

• At the same time, the Rijksmuseum gardens, which are always a pleasure to visit, will be the setting for a sculpture exhibition by Barbara Hepworth, so you can rest after visiting the museum, surrounded by flowers and art.

• Karolina Wojtas – “We can’t live without each other” at Foam Museum Amsterdam (until 3 April). An intimate view into the complex love-hate relationship between the photographer and her brother (she was an only child until the age of 13 and she wanted to keep it that way). Karolina is the winner of the Florentine Riem Vis Grant, which has the goal to support young artists, and her almost surrealistic pictures seem just amazing.

• Also at Foam, Bill Brandt – The Beautiful and the Sinister (February 2022 – May 2022). According to Foam “Bill Brandt’s work of the nineteen-thirties is characterised by its emphasis on social inequality in England during that time. By using his family contacts, he was able to visualise the extreme contrasts of wealth in British society.” The exhibition demonstrates the close relationship between the work of the British photographer and the art of the European avant-garde, in particular Surrealism.

• Russian Avant-Garde | Revolution in Arts at Hermitage (January 2022- January 2023). This exhibition tells an intriguing story of Russian avant-garde art, from the final years of Imperial Russia, through the turbulent times surrounding the Revolution of 1917, to its end in the Stalin era. There are about 500 works of art on canvas, paper, textiles and porcelain, and includes art by Kazimir Malevich and Wassily Kandinsky.

• The Tale of the Whale at the Scheepvaart Museum. This interactive exhibition tells the story of how we viewed the whales throughout history, and how the whaling has made them an endangered species. It is advertised as “suited for families with children under six years old” but I’m sure it’s very informative for adults as well (and I love whales, so, why not?!).

• Clandestine- the Human Body in Focus at Cobra Museum (Amstelveen – until 27 March 2022). More than 100 black and white photographs from the collection of photographer and collector Pedro slim. The human body in all its manifestations — perfect, imperfect, elegant, erotic, proud or, on the contrary, very vulnerable, is the central theme of this exhibition.

I hope this list has inspired you to plan a visit to one of the museums, and let me know in a comment which one is the first on your list!

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