die Kunstmuseen (The Art Museums)
Wandered around three art museums today (the fourth was closed, so I'm thinking of going tomorrow).
Alte Pinakothek (14th to 18th century art)
I'm not generally drawn to artwork before the 18th century. While the religious iconography can be beautiful, it can get to be a bit repetitive after many rooms of it, so I ended up stumbling into this museum by mistake. I'm glad I did though, because one of the first painting I saw was "Eines Jüngsten Gerichts (A Recent Court)" by Hieronymus Bosch. His work is delightfully bizarre and surreal with creative fantastical creatures. So, I was rather happy about that.
I was also able to see a rather lovely rendition of Mary Magdelene. In many cases in this museum, the old ornate wood frames impressed me as much as the pieces they housed. There was some amazing woodwork wrapped around those paintings.
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Pinakothek der Moderne (20th and 21st Century Art)
Ah, modern art, much more my cup of tea. This museum had a lot of famous artists in their collection, included Picasso (with works from both his blue and cubist periods), Salvador Dali, Andy Warhol, and others. It's always interesting to see different renditions from the more well known artists, but I love discovering fabulous work by artists I haven't heard of before.
The Moderne had a collection of photographs by Karl Blossfedt (1865-1932) displayed, in which he took close-up photographs of plants with plain backgrounds. The photos show the graphical and architectural beauty of nature. It's hard sometimes to make photography unique and captivating, and these were really captivating. I didn't take any photos of his work, because I feel weird about taking a photo of a photo in a museum, but you can find the photos I'm referring to here under "Das Werk" and "Wundergarten der Natur."
Another section was devoted to Max Weiler. I think I may have heard of him before, but this was the first time I saw his work and paid attention. The works on display were mostly black and white, graphical displays of paint drip stye painting. Some I passed over quickly, but others I found myself lingering over, the patterns drawing me into the painting.
I also sat down for a moment and did a sketch in my journal of Alexej von Jawlensky's painting "Grosser Frauenkopf auf Rot" (don't know the English translation). Here's the original and my sketch.
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Museum Brandhorst (20th and 21st century art)
This collection included mostly abstract and pop art. The top floor was entirely dedicated to works by Cy Twombly. I've seen some of his paintings before. They were of the scratchy kind of abstract art that normally doesn't attract me, but seeing a large chunk of his work back to back created a new impression on me. One work, called "Lepanto" was made up of seven or so giant paintings with backgrounds of cool aquamarine and bright yellows and reds dripping down the front. The background talks about the paintings being created in reference to an ancient war, and the reds being in reference to that. Regardless, the dripped paint was done in such a way as to cause incredible depth in the piece.
Another series of paintings included giant abstract impressions of roses. Again, lots of dripping paint, but what I rather liked about these was how he incorporated poetry (by Emily Dickinson and others) into the work, which created a new level of dept than if it had just been paint alone.
The other artist that was featured quite extensively was Andy Warhol. Many paintings were in place by him. He's another one that I'm not normally drawn to; the pop culture aspect of his work is kind of cool, but not compelling beyond a vague emotional level. But one piece on display was "The Last Supper" (of which there are many versions). This version had black and white image of Jesus Christ, which had been repeated numerous times (looks similar to this version). The size and scale of the piece combined with the multitudinous repetitions cause the Christ images to blend together, so that the eye stopped focusing on Christ and began to find patterns of its own. It is a very cool painting, which has a definite erasure of religious significance, and it's an effect, which gets lost on smaller scale of a poster or computer screen.
There were several audio visual installations, too, and other artists that were interesting, but I'm exhausted at this point. So, I'm off to bed.
Alte Pinakothek (14th to 18th century art)
I'm not generally drawn to artwork before the 18th century. While the religious iconography can be beautiful, it can get to be a bit repetitive after many rooms of it, so I ended up stumbling into this museum by mistake. I'm glad I did though, because one of the first painting I saw was "Eines Jüngsten Gerichts (A Recent Court)" by Hieronymus Bosch. His work is delightfully bizarre and surreal with creative fantastical creatures. So, I was rather happy about that.
I was also able to see a rather lovely rendition of Mary Magdelene. In many cases in this museum, the old ornate wood frames impressed me as much as the pieces they housed. There was some amazing woodwork wrapped around those paintings.
.
Pinakothek der Moderne (20th and 21st Century Art)
Ah, modern art, much more my cup of tea. This museum had a lot of famous artists in their collection, included Picasso (with works from both his blue and cubist periods), Salvador Dali, Andy Warhol, and others. It's always interesting to see different renditions from the more well known artists, but I love discovering fabulous work by artists I haven't heard of before.
The Moderne had a collection of photographs by Karl Blossfedt (1865-1932) displayed, in which he took close-up photographs of plants with plain backgrounds. The photos show the graphical and architectural beauty of nature. It's hard sometimes to make photography unique and captivating, and these were really captivating. I didn't take any photos of his work, because I feel weird about taking a photo of a photo in a museum, but you can find the photos I'm referring to here under "Das Werk" and "Wundergarten der Natur."
Another section was devoted to Max Weiler. I think I may have heard of him before, but this was the first time I saw his work and paid attention. The works on display were mostly black and white, graphical displays of paint drip stye painting. Some I passed over quickly, but others I found myself lingering over, the patterns drawing me into the painting.
I also sat down for a moment and did a sketch in my journal of Alexej von Jawlensky's painting "Grosser Frauenkopf auf Rot" (don't know the English translation). Here's the original and my sketch.
.
Museum Brandhorst (20th and 21st century art)
This collection included mostly abstract and pop art. The top floor was entirely dedicated to works by Cy Twombly. I've seen some of his paintings before. They were of the scratchy kind of abstract art that normally doesn't attract me, but seeing a large chunk of his work back to back created a new impression on me. One work, called "Lepanto" was made up of seven or so giant paintings with backgrounds of cool aquamarine and bright yellows and reds dripping down the front. The background talks about the paintings being created in reference to an ancient war, and the reds being in reference to that. Regardless, the dripped paint was done in such a way as to cause incredible depth in the piece.
Another series of paintings included giant abstract impressions of roses. Again, lots of dripping paint, but what I rather liked about these was how he incorporated poetry (by Emily Dickinson and others) into the work, which created a new level of dept than if it had just been paint alone.
The other artist that was featured quite extensively was Andy Warhol. Many paintings were in place by him. He's another one that I'm not normally drawn to; the pop culture aspect of his work is kind of cool, but not compelling beyond a vague emotional level. But one piece on display was "The Last Supper" (of which there are many versions). This version had black and white image of Jesus Christ, which had been repeated numerous times (looks similar to this version). The size and scale of the piece combined with the multitudinous repetitions cause the Christ images to blend together, so that the eye stopped focusing on Christ and began to find patterns of its own. It is a very cool painting, which has a definite erasure of religious significance, and it's an effect, which gets lost on smaller scale of a poster or computer screen.
There were several audio visual installations, too, and other artists that were interesting, but I'm exhausted at this point. So, I'm off to bed.