Types of Art in the Netherlands
Europe has historically been a hub for art and artists throughout the world, and the Netherlands have been especially significant for certain types of art throughout history. This artistic history continues into the present day with the many types of art currently happening in the Netherlands. Many different artistic practices can be found in the Netherlands even in the present day, such as painting, music, and fashion.
Painting
The Dutch are well known for their many famous paintings and painters. The Dutch Golden Age (which spanned the 17th century, both during and after the Eighty Years War for Dutch independence), produced many masterpieces still admired today. The Dutch Golden Age occurred during Europe’s Baroque period and does echo the Baroque tradition of dynamic movement and self-confident rhetoric; however, it disdains the overt emotion of other European Baroque pieces.
Dutch Golden Age paintings often avoid the idealization and love of splendor found elsewhere in Europe and instead incorporate the extremely detailed realism which can also be found in early Dutch artwork. Still life, landscape, portraiture, and genre painting were all very popular in the Dutch Golden Age, as were group portraits.
Music
The Netherlands has many musical traditions. One of the most popular genres of music in the Netherlands is techno (or “trance”) music. There are many music festivals in the Netherlands. One such event, held annually in the Netherlands in October, is called the Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE). During the Amsterdam Dance Event many DJs swarm the city for four to five days and there is nonstop music and dancing in the clubs. Some notable Dutch techno musicians include Armin van Buuren, a Dutch DJ who has been named number one in the prestigious DJ MAG Top 100 poll four times in a row. He played at the Museumplein in Amsterdam in July of 2010 to honor the Dutch national soccer team when they came back from South Africa after the FIFA World Cup. Even though the team lost, the crowd at the Museumplein listening to Armin van Buuren and cheering the team numbered in the two-hundred thousands.
More traditional Dutch music is known as "Levenslied," which in Dutch, literally translates to "life song" meaning "a song about the real life." Levenslied songs often contain themes such as love, death, and loneliness and incorporate traditional Dutch musical instruments like the accordion and the barrel organ.
Fashion
Fashion also has an artistic presence in the Netherlands, which can be felt in the many designer fashion boutiques in the cities of the Netherlands and in fashion museums, such as the Tassenmuseum Hendrikje (Museum of Bags and Purses).