Another Good Reason to Visit Amsterdam

h/t http://hyperallergic.com/63709/this-van-gogh-museum-cafe-ad-is-hilarious/

"From the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam comes this fantastic advertisement for their cafe. Do you get the joke? The quietly brilliant ad pictures a single coffee cup on a saucer, perfectly pristine except for the fact that its handle has been broken off. A mistake? To understand, it might help to take a look at one of van Gogh’s self portraits, namely, the 1889 “Self Portrait With Bandaged Ear.”"

As a frequent visitor to Europe and The Netherlands to friends and family, I always go to the Van Gogh Museum; it's an expensive outing at 18 euro a pop (unless you get one of those Amsterdam passes, which totally are a good deal), but it's always been magic to me to stand in front of "Wheatfield with Crows."  It is a fascinating, privileged moment for me as an artist to look at his painting and be able to say, "this is the one, this the one moment in which Van Gogh, in which he was totally transported to some undefinable spiritual realm of realization and depiction in total congruence." I have no other words for this.

Vincent Van Gogh, Wheatfield with Crows

Also take notice as follows, from the museum's website: From 24 September 2012 the Van Gogh Museum will be closed for seven months due to major construction work. During the renovation, part of the permanent collection will be shown in the Hermitage Amsterdam from 29 September 2012 until 25 April 2013.