Boooom!!! Dijkstra and Dumas at the Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam)

The Rijksmuseum is definitely one of the best museums I have visited so far, it has an inmense collection, distributed in 4 stages, which goes from the 1100's until today, going through ancient asian and indian art, ceramics, javanese paintings, of course the dutch masters from the 1600 and 1700's, Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Art Nouveau, Expressionism ... meaning it can take up to one week to see it all.

When I went in that room with its walls all covered in Dijkstra, it felt like when you go to a concert, or when you meet someone you really admired. She has been a huge inspiration for me for quite a while now.

Rineke Dijkstra (1959, Sittard) is a dutch photographer who lives and works in Amsterdam. since the 90's she has been working on portraits, mainly single portraits of young people. What is striking about her work is the purity and honesty transmitted through her photographs, there is no fiction and she manages to look through people's real self and snap a picture. she has also worked on video, exploring teenage anxieties in different social circles.

http://www.guggenheim.org/new-york/exhibitions/past/exhibit/4424

http://www.mariangoodman.com/artists/rineke-dijkstra/

Marlene Dumas (1953, Cape Town) Is a South African artist  who also lives and works in Amsterdam. 
She uses the human body image as a metaphor for a lot of humanity's crisis, violence, racism, birth, death, apartheid, social identity. Always in a very critical and subtle manner.

Oil, canvas, ink and paper are her main materials, and her dark colours and watery, sometimes almost abstract figures with dark and strong face expressions demonstrate extreme confidence in  her labour, it is very simple yet very strong. 

http://www.marlenedumas.nl