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NRZ, 18.08.2010

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Days 4-7 in one

I'm back. Sorry for the lack of posting, but it's been crazy busy and we got here so late on Thursday that I didn't have the energy. We spent the day Thursday in Dusseldorf at two museums, K20, 20th century art, and K21, you guessed it, 21st century art. Both were amazing museums. K20 just reopened 2 weeks ago after a 2 year renovation. What a great space! Picture 1 is an installation of tire inner tubes floating above your head. The smell hits you the minute you walk in the door, so it is both a visual and sensory experience. The second pix is of the gallery with a Sol Lewitt wall drawing with the scrim that floats over all the galleries. Lets in daylight and uses flourescent lighting above it. Great overall light for the galleries.

K21 is a renovated villa that has been converted inside into a contemporary installation galleries. 4 floors of one different experience after the other.




We spent the day on Friday visiting commercial galleries in 2 different sections of Berlin. Saw some very interesting things; a very active art center it seems.
Spent Friday night out with Antje, one of the teachers involved in the Transatlantic Bridge. She invited us with some friends of hers to dinner at Bar 25, a bar restaurant on the river in west Berlin. It was, as she said, a place for young people, so we felt a bit old, but it was fun. Many buildings along the river were abandoned and taken over by people and made into these hip bars; a place for kids to go and a reuse of the buildings that were just sitting empty. No way that could happen in the US. Too many codes. Late night that night; then a full day on Saturday in Chemnitz with Rita Muller. She was great to spend a Saturday at the museum with us. She took us to a new collection that has just opened there; a private collector donated his entire collection to Chemnitz; it's housed in renovated bank building and is an amazing collection of German expressionists and Kandinsky and the Blaue Reiter group. Even Gabriele Munter, who I never see anywhere. Very exciting to see.

Today we went to the Bauhaus Archive and the Neue Nationalgalerie, with art from 1900 - 1945. Again a fabulous collection of german expressionists and so many others. It's hard to describe; a must visit if you come to Berlin. Tonight we squeezed in the Jewish Museum, designed by Daniel Liebskind. A building that is both difficult to look at and difficult to be inside. Too much to do with so little time.

I am sorry to report no shoes from this trip. My budget is happy but my feet are not. I was very close to a pair, but alas, no. I found 2 shoe stores today very near the hotel that I had not seen before, so I was lucky they were not open today.

So now I should try to sleep; we have a 7:15 am flight; will be picked up to go to the airport at 5:15 (ughhhhh). All my running around will definitely catch up to me tomorrow.
See you back in the states.
Auf Wiedersehen.
BJ

Day 4 Duisburg and Dusseldorf

A great day looking at art at a new Museum Kuppersmuhle of Modern Art on the inner harbor. The new modern part of the city. A private institution; shows contemporary art from around 1950 to the present. Some wonderful Anselm Kiefer and Gerhard Richter paintings; from the 1960s forward. Pictures attached. It's an old grain elevator building that has been recycled and converted to an art museum. They are under construction now, going to add a glass rectangle on the very top designed by architects Herzoz de Meuron. It will really be a distinctive building when that happens.


From Duisburg, took the train 15 minutes to Dusseldorf and will go to the old city tomorrow to the museum of modern art that has just re-opened after renovation and expansion; was closed for 2 years. Will report back. Ate in a Lebanese restaurant tonight; it is the neighborhood where our hotel (NH) is located. It was very good and I am looking forward to the pastries I brought back to the room with me (after my work here).

Some pictures of the past few days, so you can re-experience my experience.

The small village of Westerholt in Herten.

Day 3 Oberhausen

Back again. Another busy day. Will try not to ramble as much tonight. Had a lazy morning here; wandered the streets looking for shoes; no success. Will keep trying however. But we are learning our way around more and more.

Thomas picked us up at 2 and we went to the Folkwang Museum in Essen. Saw a Rock n' Roll Photography show entitled "A Star is Born: Photography and Rock since Elvis" so began with Elvis, Little Richard, Beatles, Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Queen, to Kiss, you get the picture (ha); lots of memories in those pictures. We missed the 1930s exhibition that showed many of the paintings and sculpture that were in the collection before the war and were forced to be sold; amazing they were able to bring them back. Some are now back in the permanent collection, so we were able to see them. They are reinstalling their permanent collection in a fabulous new building by English architect David Chipperfield. It is such an amazing transformation from when I saw the museum in its reduced state in 2007. Some exceptional details. And while much of the collection was not up, we saw some of the best.

From Essen we drove to Herten, a small village north of Oberhausen. There we met Mr. Buchtal and his wife Elizabeth; he is a math teacher and is involved in the Transatlantic Bridge project from the same school as Antje. They organized this visit to show us what the Ruhr was like before industry came, late 18th early 19th century. It is the site of a former castle that is now a golf resort that is surrounded by a charming village. Dates on some of the houses were from 1804; the church 1806. We ate in a Biergarten under a great tree. Good german food tonight; will need to go to the gym when I get home for sure.

I'll try to post some pictures soon. Off to Duisburg and/or Dusseldorf tomorrow. More to report then.
Good night.
BJ