Down and Out in Amsterdam – Day 3

Misting rain this morning. Not much fun to walk around this afternoon. I’m trapped inside this seven foot square room. And there’s no bar in this hotel. One of the things I love best in Amsterdam is hanging out the hotel bar. One can sit in one place and meet people from everywhere and anywhere—most of them in a pretty good mood. War stories, laughter, lots of beer goes down. A good time had by all. Whatever. There was a Banksy exhibition within walking distance.

There was a line, about a dozen of us waiting to get in. Progress was slow. They prefer plastic in Amsterdam, people pay with cell phones even, god knows what, and it always seems complicated . . . slow. I finally make it to ticket counter and pay cash-takes about twenty seconds.
It was an experience to see the Banksys at their original scale which makes them even more impactful. I constant crowd of people milled around a labyrinth of halls with art work on both sides. I could hear these grunts from people, tiny little sounds with no attending thought of speech. A sort of muffled, “wow.”

 

I noticed people taking photos of the artwork and was shocked at first, until I thought about it. Yes. This is the beauty of his work – it’s on display. It’s on the streets. It’s free, and very good. Impactful. I’d never seen his oil paintings. They were interesting for a look or two. I’ve posted some photos below. Not very good shots, but I only had my cell phone.

I’d never seen his oil paintings before.

 

Or his sculpture.

Although Banksy is active world wide, his work has never appeared on walls or streets in the Netherlands.