Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam

Van Gogh Museum is the must see tourist destination of Amsterdam. The museum is located between Rijksmuseum and Stedelijk Museum in the Amsterdam’s Museum Quarter with an entrance at the Paulus Potterstraat. It’s a unique experience to visit this museum as it houses the unique collection of paintings made by the famous artist Vincent Van Gogh. His work is chronologically divided into five periods that represents different phases of his work and life. These are - The Netherlands, Paris, Arles, Saint- Remy and Auvers- Sur- Oise.

Van Gogh Museum was opened for the visitors in the year 1973. It consists of mainly two buildings. The museum houses the permanent collection as well as temporary exhibitions are also organized here. Although many of the architects have shared their contribution in rebuilding, remodeling and giving finishing touch to this building but Gerrit Rietveld was the one who designed the main structure of the building in 1963-64. The museum was renovated in 1998-1999 and as a result a new office wing was added in it. This wing was added by the Japanese Foundation. Kisho Kurokawa, a famous Japanese architect, further completed the exhibition wing in 1999. He is well known for his work that is characterized by geometrical forms. For this wing also he created such a design so as to concord perfectly with the existing building. This new wing was particularly constructed for exhibitions and is a beautiful symbiosis of western geometry and eastern asymmetry. Many other exhibitions that explore the talent of upcoming artists are often organized here.

The most attractive feature of the museum is the museum is the stair case in the central hall. The daylight enters here through a high atrium and flows into the museum galleries. The paintings in the galleries of this museum explore the often-troubled artistic career of just 10 years of this Dutch artist. During these years he was highly creative. In Van Gogh Museum the largest collection of Vincent Van Gogh work can be found. More than about 200 paintings, 437 drawings and 31 prints including “The Starry Night” are exhibited here. Many of the other drawings and paintings of Van Gogh collection can be found around the world including Netherlands, France, Germany, Paris and Japan.

The opening timings are -
       10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.    – Daily
       10:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m.  - Friday
       Closed                        - 1st January

Be awareof the ticket office as it closes before 30 minutes to museum. Reservations are not required if the group consist of less than 15 person. As weekends are the busiest days so to avoid crowd it is better to go early in the weekday morning or during the extended hours on Friday night. Although the line for tickets moves quickly yet to avoid any inconvenience tickets could be bought online or pre-booked from any Amsterdam Tourist Office.

Although plenty of information is provided on the walls of the museum yet Audio tour and Multimedia tour facilities are offered by the museum. Audio Tour in different languages as Dutch, English, German, Japanese, Spanish, Italian, Russian and Mandarin is available. Besides this Multimedia tour in Dutch and English is also at hand that offers photographs, letters, drawings, interviews, film clips, games, music on a handheld computer.

The facility of simple lunch as soups, salads, sandwiches and quiche in addition to drinks and snacks is present in the museum restaurant. Its opening time is 10 a.m. – 5: 30 p.m. For shopping stalls at Museumplein is available.

Transport facility as trams (2, 5 from Central Station), trains, and water boat and canal buses are easily available to reach the museum. It is easily accessible by the disabled visitors also as all rooms are wheelchair accessible. The facility of wheelchair is provided by the museum itself on request. Car parking is available at Museumplein in the Q park parking.