A Crow Flies from a Richard Serra ...

... just outside the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (the city's MoMA), within sight of the Rijksmuseum. A crow landed on the top of the piece, and I captured it as it flew off. The overhang on the left belongs to the new Stedelijk.

The huge sculpture is vintage Richard Serra--nothing but three rusted sheets of steel, 12 meters high and 6 centimeters (2.5 inches) thick; they lean against each other at the top and form an equilateral triangle at the bottom. You can see all three plates at the top (view them large).

Here is an excellent article on the sculpture's interesting history. It's called "Sight Point (for Leo Castelli" [Serra's New York dealer]); it was first installed 1975 in the Stedelijk's former sculpture garden, and removed in 1997 to permit the entire redesign of the Museumplein (the city's museum sector), including the extension of the Stedelijk itself. The huge work was finally reinstalled in September 2012 after most work was finished.

We spent the day at the Rijksmuseum (chiefly old master art--above all Dutch). It too has completed a multi-year renovation. The galleries are superb and we enjoyed them immensely. The enormous lobby, in the large atrium, is modern and mostly barren--only a tiny number of places to sit. Stairs to everwhere; there are a couple of elevators--wheelchair users seem to manage but I have no idea how. There's a large sit-down restaurant--the fairly long line climbs one of the stairs. For now it's the only place to eat, but we were told there'll be another eatery when the last remaining stage of the renovation is done.