...Visit my page. 
Drs. Kees Kaldenbach is a gifted and charismatic public educator, fine public speaker and an innovative lecturer.
His fields of expertise include Dutch seventeenth century art (notably Vermeer and Rembrandt) and other more recent Dutch artists such as Vincent van Gogh. In a broader sense Kaldenbach writes and speaks about how the fabric of society and the fine arts interact.
Kaldenbach is a graduate of the Vrije Universiteit (Amsterdam) from which he received his art history degree in 1987. He has carried out extensive research into the 17th century Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675) and his hometown of Delft. Putting information in visual, text and spatial form is vital in understanding the fabric of society, and finding connections in the personal and professional lives of the artists, patrons and townspeople that once lived and worked there. Over the last ten years Drs Kaldenbach has worked on the topic of 17th century Delft and has developed visual forms for presenting these complicated networks of art history research. His ext extensive multimedia internet site on Delft and the 17th century Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer is located at: www.johannesvermeer.info
Having taught school before turning to art history, he is adept at explaining complex matters clearly and succinctly to laymen. In his Vermeer and Delft lectures Kaldenbach brings the information to life. Each single painter's name or address serves as starting point to lines that can be followed in the web of 17th century Delft social and artistic history.
His Rembrandt and Van Gogh lectures combine an overview of the painter's life and works as well as an in-depth analysis of visual elements, taking into consideration recent theories on human perception and brain functions, notably those by V.S. Ramachandran.
BBC television: The madness of Vermeer - Secret lives of the artists. Interviewer Andrew Graham -Dixon. Now on Youtube. At the exact time of 35 minutes, 39 seconds the interviewer interviewer Andrew Graham-Dixon parks the bike and enters my home… what you do not see in the image is the rest of the crew: lights, sound, cameraman, continuity, the director… and the item was surprisingly filmed at my home in one take. Thanks to Andrew's quality of asking the right questions at the right moment. Beforehand I had to clean up my desk, though.
Photo in red jacket: Fagel conference, Dublin, 2008.
Have research done for you in Dutch archives - in a paid commission.
July 2013: Ricardo N and his wife Francis S. live in New York City and are full-time NYC art aficianados, travelling the world and visiting most of the fine art centers in Europe.
In June-July 2013 they toured for three full days with Drs Kees Kaldenbach.
Ricardo: "I would rate you as terrific. It is a great treat being with you - You saved my life in showing me the Mauritshuis collection - I thought it was completely closed!"
Francis N.: "Kees is outstanding... he has a very rare gift among any the great number of professional tour guide we met in our lifetime... in presenting a deep and very specific art history knowledge, and in combining this with passion and and easy going presentation.
My husband and I have spent our lives in the art world of NYC and the West Coast. We have rarely met such a wonderful guide. Kees is an outstanding fountain of visual knowledge and historic insight. He truly is top class within the field of Western art history!"
Read Drs. Kaldenbach's biography.
Fields of interest
Art history, social history, general history, writing, editing, designing, holistic massage, bodywork, intuitive healing contact.
Currently he is a visiting member of the University of Amsterdam Gouden Eeuw Colloquium [Golden Age Colloquium] which meets once a month for lectures., supporting member of the Historians of Netherlandish Art (HNA), list member of Consortium for Art and Architectural Historians (CAAH), member of the Association for Art History (AAH) and finally member of the International Society For Mathematical And Computational Aesthetics (ISMCA).
Testimonials
Springtime, 2007.
Drs. Kaldenbach lectured in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
"We wanted to express our gratitude for the insightful lectures you gave on Rembrandt at Oglethorpe University Museum of Art in honor of our celebrating his 400th Birthday with the special exhibition, SORDID AND SACRED: THE BEGGARS IN REMBRANDT'S ETCHINGS.
Your skillful presentations captivated our record-breaking audience. These fine lectures were able to be appreciated on several levels from novice to professional. Your lectures have a rare quality of being soundly based on your thorough study of Rembrandt, mixed with your keen, first-hand observation and your quick, fluid creative assessments and solutions to visual questions.
Above all you are highly attentive to your audience by involving them in your lecture."
Lloyd Nick, Director
Oglethorpe University Museum of Art
4484 Peachtree Road NE
Atlanta, GA 30319, USA
(Photo by Stephen Germany. The etching in the background is Rembrandt's "Rat Catcher".)
My husband and I travel the world to stay alive -- to see with new eyes and stretch our minds. We love museums and fine food, sometimes stopping at out of the way Michelin-starred restaurants. With Drs. Kees Kaldenbach we had the best of both worlds. During the day we took a car trip to the Kröller-Möller sculpture garden and fine art museum, where we would certainly have missed the hidden staircase leading into the astonishing Jean Dubuffet's Jardin d'Email without him. Inside the museum, he gave us a humanities course on Impressionist painting, our favorite kind of art. Later that day we drove to a picture-perfect village between Utrecht and Amsterdam, boasting a fine restaurant with one Michelin star, and there the three of us enjoyed an exquisite meal to end a perfect day.
To fully enjoy Holland, you need a guide like Drs. Kaldenbach.
Ambassador
Julia Chang Bloch
President
US-China Education Trust
Washington, DC , USA
Drs. Kaldenbach's first lecture was witnessed by a journalist from CNN, ms. Ralitsa Vassileva. She invited him to the CNN studios in Atlanta, Georgia in order to record a TV interview.
It is a rare and unique privilege that the Rijksmuseum has linked from the main Rijksmuseum site to the Internet site of Drs. Kaldenbach. Start at www.rijksmuseum.nl and select Collection, after which you choose Digital Collaboration and the Digital Vermeer House.
Drs. Kaldenbach has recently been featured in television interviews broadcast on CNN, BBC2, BBC3, Dutch national TV, Danish national TV, Japanese TV and other TV and radio networks.
Drs. Kaldenbach has been vetted for and enrolled as a special interest speaker for several major cruise lines: Sixthstar, Cunard and Royal Carribean.
Read his biography.
List of publications.
Further information is available on his web site: www.johannesvermeer.info
Contact information:
Drs. Kees Kaldenbach , kalden@xs4all.nl
Haarlemmermeerstraat 83 hs
1058 JS Amsterdam
The Netherlands
telephone 020 - 669 8119
(from abroad NL +20 - 669 8119)
cell phone 06 - 2868 9775
(from abroad NL +6 - 2868 9775)
How to get there (after your booking confirmation!):
- by car: ring road exit S 106 towards the centre, then 1st to the right (paid parking)
- by trams 1 and 17; exit at Surinameplein
- by tram 2; exit Hoofddorpplein.
From the museum square it takes about a 10-minute tram ride.
Photo by Dick Martin.
Launched 2007. Update 17 juli 2016.
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