Illustrations, photographs, object information and relflection notes
Fieldsite: Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam)
Date: Monday 20th of April, 2026
Time of arrival: 10.10
S1: Beyisima by Norva Sling (1978)
no results found: https://www.stedelijk.nl/en/search?query=norva+sling&filter%5B%5D=collection_work
S2: waterketel by Peter Behrens (1908-1909)
Object number 1987.1.0840(1-2)
https://www.stedelijk.nl/en/collection/38816-peter-behrens-waterketel
S3: armstoel by Ida Falkenberg-Liefrinck (1939-1946)
no results found: https://www.stedelijk.nl/en/search?query=Ida+Falkenberg-Liefrinck&filter%5B%5D=collection_work
S4: Broken Column by Steve McQueen (2014)
Object number 2016.1.0001(1-6)
https://www.stedelijk.nl/en/collection/97978-steve-mcqueen-broken-column
S5: Office Chair uit de serie Black Beauties by Ineke Hans (2000)
Object number 2002.1.0573
https://www.stedelijk.nl/en/collection/17092-ineke-hans-office-chair-uit-de-serie-black-beauties#content
S6: Office Desk uit de serie Black Beauties by Ineke Hans (2001)
Object numbe 2002.1.0574
https://www.stedelijk.nl/en/collection/17093-ineke-hans-office-desk#content
Reflection:
As I went to Stedelijk right around opening, there were relatively few people, particularly upstairs (which makes sense). This was obviously a major benefit, and it will be interesting to see how the project is affected whenever I find myself in crowded spaces.
I would like to test how the observational drawings develop in crowded spaces, and to simply continue drawing every time I move/change angles, to see if the illustration will sort of “map out” my movements also.
I very quickly experienced a sense of “getting closer” to the object, through forcing myself to look (I am certain there is a connection here to draw to Berger’s Ways of Seeing or About Looking) more closely, incorporating more or different details as I discovered new things or changed my angle. Beyisima was a particularly good example of this, starting off with how the angle of the eyes changed the sculpture’s expression/emotion, to “finding” the limp at the back off the head when changing my angle, coming to realise that the “marks” on the chest were probably two (right) hands, noticing the carve lines around the circles, and lastly the almost hatch-like texture of the clay (?). (I should have taken more detailed photos, in particular as the sculpture was not confined behind glass. I would also like to experiment with drawing details and not necessarily the entire object every time.)
Only the small column and the kettle were confined behind glass, and in the case of the kettle, angles were limited as it was part of a collection display.
Illustrating the object forces you to linger, to take in details and try to understand what you are seeing in order to translate it into lines on a page. This is much easier with sufficient space, and also when there are less or no people. (I felt people looking at me as they passed, and also slightly in the way when I had previously been alone and taken the best vantage point.) Taking a photograph is quicker, and renders the object “perfectly” (at least if it isn’t confined behind glass), but the familiarity is less intimate.
My illustrations were far from perfect, partially because I need to practice more life drawing, but interestingly I do not necessarily think they always “improve” the longer I stay, they just get more detailed. I would like to continue drawing the objects just based on my sketches (and perhaps photos), and seeing what comes of them if I continue rendering them after my initial viewing, potentially coming back later on.
What are the best drawing materials? The one that works best to imitate texture? Those that can render more details, do hard lines and shadows? How can you sharpen a pencil in a museum without feeling like a nuisance?
I really feel what our teachers talked about so often, the limitations of a sketchbook compared to a blank sheet. Maybe I should get a clipboard? Then again, they are big and may not be allowed in - are there A5 clipboards?
Also, sometimes it’s not easy to draw when the book is a bit floppy, small, and I am always standing. Another interesting thing of seeing how this would evolve at home.
Note to self: Bring a clip next time, see if it helps to keep the sketchbook flat and stiff, maybe it helps. Also, need to buy a new sketchbook.
Also, I don’t think I’ve mentioned before, but I wear the same vest every time I’ve gone to a museum visit, because it has pockets big enough for my sketchbook, meaning I don’t have to carry it all the time, the fluffy vest that makes me feel like a farmer and Cinderella at the same time, even though it’s not farming-partical nor made of fur.
A few hours later:
This is probably also why my mind went to Berger; “Unlike photography, which stops time, field note drawings can ‘encompass’ time, as Taussig writes, it is a ‘two-way movement’.27 Taussig refers to John Berger when examining the process of looking that is used when drawing; a line drawn brings you ‘closer to the object, until finally you are, as it were, inside it: the contours you have drawn no longer marking the edge of what you have seen, but the edge of what you become’.28 A drawing, then, becomes a form of ‘sympathetic magic’29 – a type of magic based on imitation and contact30 – in which the drawing allows for an embodied understanding of the subject through the physical act of making the image.” (Rachel Emily Taylor, Illustration and Heritage, (Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2024), 137)