The remarkable work of art shown in this post is called “Jarden d’Email,” or “Enamel Garden” in English. It’s a 1974 creation by Jean Dubuffet, who clearly created it entirely as a site-specific work. Calling it a sculpture feels weak, because it feels like so much more. Even with all my wonderful experiences dating back the 1980s at Storm King, this particular, truly wonderful creation really took my imagination to new places. I visited it each of the three days on which I entered the museum & park.
Amsterdam’s Dutch National Holocaust Names memorial (which opened in September 2021, not long after I moved to A’dam) is heartbreaking, and also beautiful in its simplicity and symbolism. I went again with a visiting friend on, appropriately, the weekend of the 80th anniversary of the first Dutch national liberation day.
Biljoen castle & estate sit on the edge of Velp. Apparently first built and established in 1530 by one of Gelderland’s dukes or some such, it seems to have hosted Louis XIV and various other royals in the centuries since. Lovely park, too.
One thing I recall Sam and me both enjoying about Vlieland, on our short visit already four months ago, was how varied the terrain was for such a relatively small island. Above you see a fair amount of this variety, with forests and, yes, the hills created over ages of sand piling up and plants growing sufficiently to create enough soil for trees, and so on. In the distance I’m pretty sure you’re seeing Terschelling, the next island over. But it could possibly be the mainland instead. Below, more of the variety.
I’ve shared a few teaser glimpses of this lakeside residence built in the early 1900s for the Kroller-Muller family in two past posts, awaiting the right moment to share more images of this beautifully-situated building that’s quite impressive itself, too.
(so much world, so little time....) 