Thursday, January 26, 2012

art moments in Munich



one week ago, this time, i was in Munich. it's a trip i am still processing, especially the visit to the museum of modern art: the Pinakothek der Moderne. i already blogged a bit about it in the Munich travelogue below (link), which then lead to two mail conversations and some more exploring. thought i add them here as own post, with quotes and pictures.

Rose:
Pinakothek is such an odd name(?) Where does it come from, do you know? I love that silver crinkly thing.

Dorothee
About the Pinakothek: i wondered about that, too, and just looked: "A pinacotheca (Greek: πινακοθήκη) was a picture gallery in either ancient Greece or ancient Rome." - The old Pinakothek dates back to 1826, and was one of the largest museums of the world at that time, hence the name.
_

The Pinakothek also has an area that is about design - and itself, is design: it is built in modern architecture. here's a photo from the view towards the design area: 



the museum offers a lot of open spaces, so when moving through it, you see the different paintings and sculptures speaking to each other in different angles. added to that, there are areas with large windows, to bring in the outside. which connects to one of the temporary exhitbitions that is on: “Durchs Fenster”  ("through the window"), by artist Sabine Hornig – she focuses on photography, especially on window reflections.

here’s one of her photographs that spoke to me especially:



and here, a photo from the first floor, with a second window installation in the background, and the "shiny crinkly thing", from the original blog post, and neon sculptures setting a light mode.
the thing about the neon scultpure is that when i tried to take a photo, it came out strange - i tried to adjust it with photoshop, that's how the collage on top came together, with none of them representing the real room color.



Dorothee:
The neon sculptures on the left and right side are from Dan Flavin - i read about him last year, he is included in the US landscape art book, together with Donald Judd and his home / museum.
i actually looked for the artist of the sculpture in the museum leaflet, but it’s not listed. will mail the museum and ask.

Rose:
Of course, Dan Flavin! Have been looking at a bit of his stuff, comes up all the time with reference to Judd....[Rose is hosting a Judd Box tumblr, hence the focus on this reference]

*
Dorothee:
surprise: the museum already wrote back with name and artwork. here's the answer:

Sehr geehrte Frau Lang,
bei der Skulptur handelt es sich um ein Werk von John Chamberlain (1927-2011): VENERABLEFRIENDSHIP (2008)
Mit freundlichen Grüßen | Yours sincerely

and the Pinakothek had an exhibit with Chamberlain's works last summer. sadly, he died in December. here's more:

i think i will put together a blog post tomorrow, also with the window reflection. still processing the visit. one thing about those huge museums is that they are great – but all overwhelming. since there, i 've been looking up some of the artists with google images:

and here, 2 more images from the visit: another view of the design area:



and a thought-provoking poster from the exhibition:
"Unplugged. Mirko Borsche. Design Works!"




some relating links:

3 comments:

Sandra Davies said...

It's so easy to get high on architecture isn't it?

Rose Hunter said...

I'm so impressed you emailed them, re the "crinkly thing!" I've now been looking at more crinkly things (from your links), and most enjoying.... And thanks for the mention re Judd boxes. Lovely photographs of yours here too. And the Sabine Hornig window of course, I love that. Lots here! Thank you! :)

Dorothee said...

yes, architecture! it's an own art, one that allows to walk right into it.

Rose: thanks to you for asking about the crinkly thing, which sparked my own curiousity. this actually was the first time for me to mail a museum with a question like that.