joosth223
So, here we were at the “Bonnefanten” Museum in Maastricht, “Bonnefanten” from the French "bons enfants" (good children), and in a way confirming the distinctive character not only of a museum but also of host-city Maastricht itself. One of my more thoughtful relatives, Marcel, a native of the region, had recommended we visit the Bonnefanten. Yes, discussing the Bonnefanten museum calls for a bit of a preface, calls for perspective. Bonnefanten is a museum in a very distinctive city. Maastricht comes with an intriguing split personality, and which is the special appeal of this city. On the one side, for sure, Maastricht is a Dutch city in many plain but also subtle ways, affirming its connections to the basic Calvinist impulses of Holland, long since the heart of the modern Netherlands. Alternatively, Maastricht equally fondly celebrates its specifically regional heritage, its very Catholic anchored own personality, celebrating local bonds which have little in common with the northern Dutch who continue to dominate the Netherlands, politically and economically. To understand Maastricht and the Bonnefanten Museum one needs to consider links of longer standing, among others, to Maastricht’s adjacent sibling sister cities of Aachen to the east on the German side, and to the south, the French-speaking city neighbor of Liège, all three cities closest kin in terms of long shared history, close physical proximity of some 25 kilometers in each direction, multiple family and commercial connections. The history they share is in the same pre-Roman origins, in the rich Roman Empire and Roman Catholic legacy left in their region; in a regional history in which one of the high points undoubtedly was the place of these three cities in perhaps one of the kinder remembered empires, that of Charlemagne. Aachen, Liège, Maastricht were at the very central imperial core of this empire. Again, this shared experience continued in one of Charlemagne’s successor states, the almost mythical Burgundy, but still prompting many people of long local roots to identify themselves proudly as Burgundians. In the south of the Netherlands, in adjacent Belgium and Germany, a “Burgundian lifestyle” still means 'enjoyment of life, good food, plenty of liquid to go along, and sometimes raucous spectacle, especially as in annual wildly popular Carnival celebrations so typical of this region. This - and more - is the cultural hinterland the Bonnefanten Museum could easily draw on. And is this what the Bonnefanten Museum is doing? No doubt, first impressions do count! The museum is housed in a pretty unique building, which immediately recalls some of Europe’s many cultural cross-roads. The museum was designed not by any of the many talented Dutch architects, but by the Italian architect Aldo Rossi. The latter managed to put in place a building with a character both New Age but also still subtly connected to the region’s religious soul - a high-towered front, capped by a cupola, and apart from modernity of design also recalling the almost industrial version of a church belfry fronting a straight lined main ship of clear functionality: the sober purpose of displaying the city’s, the region’s specific cultural heritage. Once inside the building, the visitor is struck by a generous broad staircase which almost splits the building in half and connects the buildings various floors, and almost uplifts the visitor.Incidentally, before heading up into the museum innards, we first decided to fortify our own innards at a ground-floor, little bistro-type café-restaurant, perhaps, surprisingly, in its name, “Ipanema”, recalling very different horizons, those of Brazil, of Rio de Janeiro beaches and lifestyles. As it turned out, unexpectedly, this Ipanema bistro became a foretaste for current Brazilian displays on the upper floors of the museum. What to expect? Little did we know! However, the Ipanema café itself, at the Bonnefanten, is worth to be tried. It’s a pleasant place of good food and cozy ambiance. Other people seemed to agree. Most tables were occupied while we were there taking care of bodily needs. But we hadn’t come to the Bonnefanten for Brazilian impulses, neither to explore one of the city’s many cuisine options, instead to feed our minds on local culture. Anyhow, leaving this Ipanema physically fortified, we headed up the stairs into the museum proper. The first floor up at the Bonnefanten begins telling the kind of local history we had expected at this museum. Yes, one does come with certain expectations to a leading museum in town. Opening the first floor’s main exhibit areas, one passes a gallery of photos recording the birth and construction of this unusual building. We lingered a bit, studied the individual and revealing photographs of black and white beauty. Anyhow, through this gallery we reached the museum area proper. It was a sequence of display rooms rich in art in clear fit with the region’s varied cultural wealth. Paintings from the still pious Catholic religious Middle Ages were followed by the contrast perspective in the more reckless colors and daring displays of Europe experiencing its secular Renaissance. Combined, it was a wide-ranging collection of mostly regional Dutch, Flemish, and German masters, including, among others, the works of Lucas Cranach, Anthony van Dyck, Hieronymous van der Elst, Pieter Brueghel the Younger, and Peter Paul Rubens. Maastricht, Aachen and Liège continue as the locale of famed and beautiful churches, cathedrals and basilicas, and the Bonnefanten in yet another wing decided to display - in respectful secular treatment - the varied and rich patrimony of ancient church art turned modern museum art, splendid, and bringing to life a very different era, of sometimes paintings, mostly wood carvings, sometimes triptych art panels, made by master artists and artisans with the proverbial patience of saints, and with their fixation still on saints, on heaven, and on the Christ and Virgin figures. Especially moving among these sculptured treasures, in this assessment, were the Christ representations in wood by Jan van Steffenswert (1465-1531), no doubt, one of the world’s and region’s great artists in wood carving, sculpting, and whose works continue proudly present in the art galleries also of Maastricht’s sibling sister cities.Thus impressed we headed up for the next floor. There, upon entrance, the displays were billed as contemporary. Personally, I might have preferred to explore more of specific regional art, and which comes in many forms... However, under the circumstances, while in a museum, why not open up to other perspectives, too? Surprisingly, we were suddenly back in the “Ipanema” type world of the casual ground-floor café-eatery. Initially, okay, I still could follow things. Both Marcel and I appreciated the more “primitive”, perhaps more “abstract” art of a young Brazilian painter, Jonathas de Andrade. With its hot bright colors, his paintings certainly reached the eye, sometimes even moved the deeper inner eye. Andrade’s “Nego Bom” (good black or “bom preto” in sometimes racist Brazil) shows art, but also tells the story of the “Banana Republic” phase in Brazil’s long colonial history, the bonded, enslaved people tied to the various plantation crops: coffee, sugar, rubber and, in this case, the banana plantations of the more tropical parts of Brazil. To someone who has lived in Brazil for many years, that period in Brazilian history was real and consequential enough, and lasted well into the 20th century. This history and reality has been well-captured also in Brazil’s literature, in the “Casa Grande e Senzala” plantation descriptions by the Brazilian author and sociologist Gilberto Freyre, by his contemporary great Bahian romanticist and social realist author Jorge Amado. All right, one can understand, the Bonnefanten curators may be eager to open up wider art horizons. However, sitting on a bountiful regional treasure - as they do - what should this “Bon Enfant”, this “Good Child” museum consider as perhaps more to the point? What point? Well, tell locals and visitors alike about what is so unique about this region? The next contemporary exhibit at the museum casts some real doubt on the choices by current museum management. Not having read about the museum’s latest promotions, we learned of yet another Brazilian artist, Laura Lima, only upon our arrival. Her name was plastered everywhere in the museums’ arrival area. May this reviewer be allowed to wonder why? By this time, we had reached that exhibit zone in the museum, we encountered especially empty display rooms. White wall emptiness all around - to tell the visitor what? One never knows nowadays… However, frankly, the Laura Lima exhibit leaves much to be desired. Some of the other exhibits on the contemporary floors were equally confusing. What to make of the display of some household and camping clutter? Or what about the lost yurt-like structure next to it? What’s going on? Are the museum managers merely trying to hoodwink the more gullible of the public? “Comment épater les pauvres petits bourgeois” has been a way to deceive the more timid and modest among us for a long time. Anyhow, the Laura Lima exhibit at the Bonnefanten is a big to-do about what? The same questions could be raised about a circular display of black covered empty beds in the tower area of the museum? What was being suggested here? Was it about a collective orgy in a circular arrangement or, perhaps, a siesta site for exhausted employees - having to explain some of these contemporary “art” displays? One can only wonder about some of these contemporary exhibits? What’s the problem? Is it the common problem of a lack of funds in much of the current museum world, or just a plain lack of imagination? The Bonnefanten Museum is in a region exceedingly rich in art, in artisanal industry, explaining a very particular local European history. Maastricht and her sibling cities were early players in the industrialization of Europe. Maastricht enjoyed the bounty and beauty of fame for its very own porcelain and pottery industries. Aachen was famous for the excellence of its “Tuch” or fabric weaving mills. There was the Liège Val Saint Lambert crystal - world famous for its purity and exceptional brilliance. There is the well-documented Roman past in the region. There's the wild imagination of Carnival traditions in the region, in the sister cities. Why not draw on these or other sources for a museum at the center of a region of rich pedigree? By this subjective evaluation of two random adult visitors of the region, in its current state - late anno 2014, the Bonnefanten Museum, its leading “lights”, deserve a disappointing note of mediocrity. Before visiting the museum, before going there, find out if anything has changed and how? Otherwise, just confine yourself to the chalk-board specials at the downstairs cozy, friendly Brazilian Ipanema-named eatery, which under the present circumstances is the better place to spend one’s money.
