"Living stories, canal reflections and heading to the afterparty with fresh ink on her arms and a head full of art."
Fleur Bakker runs a tattoo studio in Amsterdam's Pijp neighbourhood. Her work draws on art history, folk traditions, and the natural world — the same sources that fill Amsterdam's museums. For Fleur, Museum Night is research: she comes looking for images, patterns, and stories that will eventually end up on someone's skin. Her route this year focuses on the visual arts and the decorative traditions that have always inspired her.
Images That Last
A route through the visual arts — the images, patterns, and decorative traditions that have inspired artists for centuries. Fleur's picks are for people who believe that images can carry meaning across time.
The Route
The Golden Age paintings are full of images that have been tattooed on skin for decades — the Night Watch, the Milkmaid, the tulips. I come here every year.
View museumVan Gogh's brushwork is the most tattooed painting style in the world. Seeing the originals under special lighting is a reminder of why.
View museumThe design collection at the Stedelijk is full of images that have shaped visual culture. Mondrian's grids, Rietveld's colours — all of it lives on skin.
View museumBanksy is the most tattooed street artist in the world. The Moco's collection is a reminder of how images move from walls to skin to culture.
View museumPhotography as image-making. The current exhibition at Foam includes work by photographers who think deeply about what an image is and what it does.
View museumPrintmaking and tattooing share the same basic logic — pressing ink into a surface to make a mark that lasts. I always feel at home here.
View museumThe natural history collections here are full of the animals, plants, and patterns that fill my sketchbooks. The whale skeleton at night is extraordinary.
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