Hans van der Kamp

Andy Warhol’s Screen Tests from Plexifilm on Vimeo.

Loyal Ameanet friend Norski aka Normano sent me a link to the above video and it made my day.
About a year ago, I guess, a friend asked me to see the Andy Warhol exhibit in Amsterdam’s Stedelijk Museum. I never liked brick and mortar museums very much and in particular that museum, because of the atmosphere — that all too familiar look in the eyes of Museum curators and staff. “What are you doing here? This is *our* exhibit!”
I may very well misinterpret their attitude, but the least one has to admit is that few museums give their visitors a warm welcome. Instead you feel like being checked in by airport security people. Why is it, I often ask myself, that those people devote their entire lives to the arts? Most artists I know are quite modest — with the exception of the trend hoppers or those who create media hypes for a living, of course.

Opposites attract, I know, but there must be more to it than that.

Since my friend had already visited the Warhol exhibit we skipped the paintings and silk screens and immediately headed for the space where multiple screenings of Warhol movies took place. I was in awe. Although I had seen much of the material more than once I felt I was in paradise. This is was all so well done and so unlike the normal frigid atmosphere of the Stedelijk Museum. In my enthusiasm I got bold and tapped a man wearing a museum tag on the shoulder. “What happened?” I asked him. “Did they fire the entire museum staff?”

I immediately regretted my remark when I saw the look on his face. It took him a few seconds but he actually managed to control his initial anger to inform me that this particular show was curated by a German guest curator. A woman and I forgot her name, which is stupid because I like to see more shows curated by her. Or better, she should be the next managing director of the Stedelijk Museum.

With all my charm I tried to make up for my clumsy remark and the museum stiff actually melted a bit and managed to produce a smile. A very museum like smile of a person who had studied the Mona Lisa too often and too long. But I had a field day — despite the fact that he kept following me the rest of the afternoon with a quality poll and a questionnaire to be filled in — both longer than your average tax form.

Those poor, delicate guardian angels of the Arts living in a world where populism is unstoppable, I thought on my way home. They must suffer immensely. You can almost taste their bitterness when they kick off yet another uncalled for comment with the remark: “There is nothing wrong with populism, but…”