A dialogue with art

How can you enter into a dialogue with art?

Do you also love looking at works of art or being creative yourself? Art can enrich your life in many ways. Of course you can simply enjoy it, but you can also try and understand its meaning. How do you start? How can you enter into a dialogue with a work of art? By asking the right questions! In order to have a real dialogue with a work of art, you need knowledge, knowledge of art. Knowledge of art is something Lèneke Knipscheer possesses and she loves sharing it with others. Not only in the Netherlands via "Kunst aan de Kust" (Art on the Coast), but also via Arti d´Azur in France (the Provence).

Guided Tours, Lectures, Courses and Art Tours

Lèneke Knipscheer presents lectures and courses on art history. She also conducts guided tours in various museums in the Netherlands and France (Provence). With her assistance you can also plan an art tour to the Provence, which is famous not only for its climate, picturesque villages and towns and beautiful scenery, but also for its interesting museums. Picasso, Monet, Yves Klein, Renoir, Cézanne, Van Gogh: they have all left their marks. For this reason this region offers enthusiasts an ideal mix of culture, nature and relaxation.

Made to measure

There is a great variety of guided tours, lectures and courses on offer, both in France and in the Netherlands. So you can ask Lèneke for a certain activity at a time convenient to you. Perhaps your favourite subject or museum is not on the list? No problem; Lèneke likes the challenge of meeting individual wishes and can usually satisfy your request for a special guided tour, lecture or course. Would you like to come with a group of friends and put together your own (art) itinerary? Would you- as an individual- like to join a group tour in which you become familiar with the best of Provence culture? In consultation many things are possible. The important thing is that you should be able add an extra dimension to your enjoyment of the beauty offered by art and culture.

Looking at art…

There are many ways to enjoy art. You can visit a museum or leaf through a beautiful art book. You can be open to art without wanting to know more about it. Its beauty immediately affects you. But what is beautiful? Aesthetic values change over time, along with the changing tastes of both artists and the public, standards shifting as a result of changes in society. Sometimes an almost exact copy of reality is beautiful, but often beauty in art depends on other things: emotion, expression; balance and harmony. Art need not always show reality, be lifelike, nor need it always be "beautiful" After all: what is beauty? Is it necessary for art to create beauty? Or is "truth" the core value? And what truth might that be?

….and understanding it

If you ask yourself such questions, art is more than a pleasant, fleeting pastime. You then want to know more. You want to understand art. What does a piece of art mean? How was it created, what is its origin? What does the artist want to express? How does it affect you?

No work of art can be seen as separate from its context. Man creates art as a reaction to the environment. This makes it a form of communication within its time and contemporary circumstances. Artists can depict, i.e. reproduce the visible figurative world around them; they can also imagine, create a world of their own. This can lead to abstractions.

The work of art then invites you to a sort of visual dialogue, to more active participation. In that case knowledge of art is needed to enable people to improve their understanding of the work of art and its underlying emotion.

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Lèneke Knipscheer-Hamburger, art historian

Lèneke Knipscheer (1952) studied clinical pedogogics, then worked in this field for years. In the nineties she decided to turn her passion for art into her profession. An art history course much later sparked off proper studies of art history at the University of Leyden. She obtained her Master´s degree in 1999, already working in various museum in the western part of the Netherlands, including Boijmans van Beuningen (Rotterdam) and the Municipal Museum in The Hague.
For years now she has held a regular position as a museum teacher in the latter museum, also teaching in Mesdag Museum and Panorama Mesdag, both in the Hague as well.

Lèneke also works freelance. She writes for and about artists and for museums, gives lectures and courses on art history, conducts guided tours in many museums in the Netherlands and abroad and organizes art tours to the Provence. She is also an examiner for the Dutch organization for guides Guidor.

Both her experience in the field of education and her knowledge of art history have made Lèneke a highly qualified guide who accompanies/leads her audience into the world of visual arts in a highly entertaining and most inspiring manner.


Contact Lèneke for more information.


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