blog: museum

gerhard richter

There's much to say about Gerhard Richter, there's a long life full of interesting and always zeitgeisty works to cover. But this is not an essay, these are just 500 words to give you a quick of the kind of works he became so famous for. Gerhard Richter is an icon, a landmark in the world of visual arts. I guess this is true not just for Germany, but for the global art industry as a whole. His pieces successfully create record prices in the art circle. Whatever he does seems to become an almost unreal success.

I guess what makes him unique in many ways is his ability to recognize trends and moods within current societies. His works always seem to be fresh and up to date. Whenever one technique seems to age, he shifts his efforts away to the next one and creates something remarkable out of it. Every single time. He seems to be able to invent himself anew whenever a new innovation seem to be necessary. It would be misleading to call him trendy, though. His analysis of the world often goes much deeper than that. read more…

play

What would civilization be without play? Would it even exist? Indeed one could argue that play is older than civilization, that it's even older than culture itself. Long before we became settlers and started developing rites and cultures to built up our societies play was already there. Children are playing without ever being taught how to play. Even animals are playing. But why? Why is there a play instinct rooted so deeply inside of our human biology? read more…

turner

Joseph Mallord William Turner. How grand. How sovereign. I'm deeply impressed and honestly moved. Born 1775 in an age of purest romanticism he started painting like an impressionist. Out of nowhere he was chasing for color, for light and nothing more than that. Objects, people, scenes, historical events quickly became just bystanders for him. At least that's the private Mr. Turner. His public appearance held on to more traditional concepts and approaches for a little longer. Young Turner entered the Royal Academy at the age of only 14. His first paintings were accepted for the Royal Academy summer exhibition only a year later. Even at that young age Joseph Mallord William Turner was already a star, today we would call him a superhero. read more…

marlene dumas

During my recent stay in Venice while the Biennale Arte 2022 was still taking place, I also had the chance to visit Marlene Dumas' solo exhibition "open-end" in the Palazzo Grassi. Certainly I recognized Dumas' name when preparing my trip to Italy, but so far I never had a clear picture of her work, of her personality or her artistic expression. So I stumbled into this exhibition without any major preparation. I didn't expect getting so excited about the paintings I saw there and realized her incredible craftsmanship for the very first time. Dumas' work is incredibly captivating and precise while staying rather loose in the actual execution. At the beginning of the exhibition there's a very good introduction video in the form of an interview to introduce Marlene Dumas and her story to the visitors. read more…

making van gogh

I‘ve been visiting the Städel Museum in Frankfurt last week. Currently there‘s a great exhibition about Vincent van Gogh called Making Van Gogh. So it‘s not just the images but also the stories behind the images that make this exhibition so interesting. And I thought that this is an excellent topic for this blog which is precisely about telling the stories behind the images. read more…