Dutch masters

Today is Columbus Day and an unusual one at that as the observed holiday coincides with the actual historical date.

In the spirit of exploration that Christopher Columbus typified, the Arts Muse has rounded up a number of Dutch-themed exhibits and events commemorating Henry Hudson's encounter 400 years ago with the region that now bears his name.

This is a holiday Monday for The Metropolitian Museum of Art in Manhattan, meaning that the museum is open until 5:30 p.m. There you'll find "Vermeer's Masterpiece 'The Milkmaid'" (through Nov. 29).

The presentation of this creamy, luminous work by the 17th-century painter is one of those "Pietà" moments in New York: Indeed, the last time "The Milkmaid," owned by the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, was seen here was at the 1939 World's Fair. (Photo courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.)

One of the great strengths of The Met is that it educates its public without being didactic. For this show, the museum has placed Johannes Vermeer's masterwork in the context of the 35-some paintings he created. These are reproduced as small images in the introduction to the exhibit. Also on display are the five Vermeers in The Met's collection. (Three more are at the neighboring Frick Collection.) You begin to understand the importance of light, color, character and domestic interiors in Vermeer's work. But you also see how mood shifts with subject matter and how Vermeer's religious works differ from his domestic scenes.

To these, The Met has added paintings by such Vermeer contemporaries as Pieter de Hooch, and Gabriël Metsu. You get a sense that while the Dutch loved their homes, they were also at home in the world. 212-535-7710, www.metmuseum.org.

Don't forget that Hudson River Museum curator Bart Bland is also giving a tour of that museum's excellent "Dutch New York: The Roots of Hudson Valley Culture" at 2 p.m. today in Yonkers. 914-963-4550, www.hrm.org.

Continue your Dutch exploration at the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art in Peekskill, where "Double Dutch" is on view through July 26. The show spotlights 16 artists from the Netherlands — many of whom have never exhibited here before.

"This has been for us the most exciting show we've ever done," says Livia Straus, who founded HVCCA with her husband, Marc.

That's because it's the center's first exhibit made up of works from entirely outside the collection. Though the Strauses are well-known collectors, Livia Straus says it was never their intention to feature only their works.

The great appeal of "Double Dutch" is that it reveals its artists to be the true heirs of Vermeer and other Dutch masters. The passion for design and architecture; the love of homeland balanced by a global perspective; the ideal of religious tolerance (which does not mitigate the Dutch role in the slave trade) — they're evidenced here in Alon Levin's totemic constructions, Dylan Graham's ravishing astrological cutouts and Erik van Lieshout's humorous videos.

Among the most wholly satisfying works, shown at right, is "Human Behaviour," an installation by Armenian-born Karen Sargsyan, one of three artists in the show who was also an HVCCA artist-in-residence. Sargsyan does these life-size paper figures that capture the shamanistic aspect of theater. Here the figures and some smaller models illustrate the bewitching "Queen of the Night" aria from Mozart's "The Magic Flute," whose demonic coloratura runs play on a loop. (photo by Dale Leifeste courtesy of Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art)

Equally thrilling are Fendry Ekel's shimmering views of The Millennium Hilton and Century 21, in the shadow of Ground Zero, which link the Dutch gift for architecture with the cosmopolis that grew out of one of the Netherlands' colonies.

Other works require a great deal of explanation, too much to be successful as contained objects. (In a sense, art is like a joke: If you have to explain it, it doesn't work.)

Still other works need more critical thinking to go along with their superb craftsmanship.(It doesn't help that one of the themes of the show and of European artists — American imperialism — seems old-hat in the Age of Obama.)

Other easy targets prove just as slippery. One of Erik van Lieshout's videos — which finds him on an amusing tour of the stars' homes, or rather, the gates of the stars' homes, in Hollywood — contains a line about Marilyn Monroe being the Paris Hilton of her time. But surely Monroe — who read widely and studied at the Actors' Studio — was more aspirational than Hilton. Surely Hilton, whatever her limitations as a performer, has marketed herself brilliantly.

And surely, an artist of all people should realize that human beings are more complex than their images.

Then, too, Job Koelewjin's "Sanctuary" — a 46-foot gas station made out of 3,000 of the artist's own art books — is a terrific construction that will evoke for the viewer everything from Pop Art to family trips. Still, it's made out of real books with screws driven into them. (It reminds me of Martha Stewart's advice that you should rip out the pages of botanical books and frame them for your kitchen.) To a writer, you might as well be driving screws into a human being.

To be a great artist, it's not enough to plump the construction of a gas station. You must also plumb the construction of the mind.914.788.0100 or www.hvcca.org.

Finally, the Bard Graduate Center in Manhattan has "From East to West: The World of Margrieta van Varick" (through Jan. 3), considering the life and varied collection of the 17th-century textile merchant, who lived in Flatbush. I haven't seen this show, but if it's anything like the Bard's shows on the Shakers and the neoclassical designer Thomas Hope, it will be a feast of fine and decorative art — something Vermeer himself would've appreciated. 212-501-3000, www.bgc.bard.edu.