Kiefer's Hoffman von Fallersleben auf Helgoland

I first saw Anselm Kiefer's work in the downtown LA Museum of Modern Art. These huge, dense, dark heavy paintings sunk their hooks into me, so CS, I did know Kiefer before this week, but only through chance. In any case, I was pleased to see him again. I realize that the folks out there who need things to be very straightforward and obvious might not see the point of all this. But music doesn't have to be literal and usually isn't. Visual artists may want to create a mood rather than an object.

(Yes the jet is his too.)  Hoffman is the big work in the back.  I didn't say painting because it's much more than a painting as you can see below.

Hauseneptun helps us understand this title:  

The poet Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben stayed on Helgoland in the year 1841 and wrote here "Das Lied der Deutschen". This became first the national anthem of the "Weimarer Republik" and later those of the Federal Republik of Germany.

Here's Hoffman much closer.  In person, it does appear as though there is a boat on water and we're looking up at it from way below.  At least that's what I felt.

St. Paul's Cathedral from Tate Modern

We met some friends from Anchorage who've moved to London for drinks at the Tate Gallery bar that has this spectacular view across the Thames River to St. Paul's Cathedral.  The top picture is the bar with the Cathedral in the background.  The rest are pictures from where we were sitting as the sun went down.

The Worst Condition is to Pass Under a Sword that is Not Your Own - London Art Rabarama and Rakowitz

I've given up trying to say anything or give more than even a glimpse of what we're seeing. Don't have time. Papers today do say that Prime Minister Brown's calling a constituent a bigot when he didn't know his mic was still on means next week's election is the Conservatives' to lose, though the Liberal Democrats are a close second.

We saw these two Rabarama sculptures in the Moor House lobby as we passed by yesterday.

The Worst Condition in the title is the name of this exhibit below in the Level 2 Gallery at the Tate Modern.  It looks at the Iraq war and weapons and images both Western and non-Western. 

This exhibit is made up of text and pieces.  This text is for Tom Begich. (Turns out his blog suggests he's in London too.)[Update: Tom emailed to say he did get to see it and reminded me it was his brother Nick who's the HAARP expert, not Tom.] (You can double click this to enlarge and read it.  It's legible, but you have to work at it.)  The [Update: this is the post that got cut short when I lost my internet connection. This exhibit combined these drawings/stories and pieces like the masks and the swords to push the mindbarriers we have about war, Iraq, and literature.]

Who is Joseph Beuys? Berlin Brain Expansion

You walk into the Flick collection at the Hamburger Bahnhof Museum in Berlin and you are see these two pictures first.  The dark one caught my attention.  These are both by Andy Warhol. 

 So I took a closer image.  The colors are all wrong, but you get a sense of it.  It's of someone named Josephy Boueys .  

In the other wing there is a mind stretching exhibit and one of the artists is Joseph Beuys.  My understanding was that he made this video (below).  But is he also the person in the video.  Are the two pictures of the same man?  I'd say yes, but I wouldn't put big money on it. 

There's more of his stuff.  This is Strassenbahn (streetcar). 

Closer.

More Strassenbahn.

More Beuys work.

And more.

By now you are wondering about my sanity.  But those of you who come here regularly do so because you know I'm going to put up stuff that is totally out there.  I don't understand this stuff.  I'm embarrassed to say I never even heard of Beuys.  But I live in Alaska so I have some sort of excuse.  But this all got to me.  I need more time to digest it.  

I probably should have bought the book, but we're trying to pack light.  At the very least go to the link and read a bit more.  We're in London now and I want to go out and see London, so ciao.

Reichstag and Other Berlin Shots

Today was a great day at the Hamburger Banhof Museum and wandering around with M and J.  But those pics aren't coming off the sd card right now.  So here the ones I didn't get to put up Tuesday. 

 This is the Berliner Dom.  An old Cathedral on the Museum Island.

This is a memorial for the legislators who voted against Hitler and were killed for it.  Each stone has the name, party, and camp where they were killed. 

This is the Reichstag - the seat of the German Government.

The sky there was worth a shot.

The Dome at the Reichstag allows you to walk around the perimeter to get better and better views of Berlin.

Here's the skyline to the west as the sun sets.

We have an early flight to London tomorrow, so that's it for now. 

Berlin Spring, Superman Splats at Jewish Museum

Here are some pictures from the other day in Berlin.  The ones I couldn't post then.

View from upstairs of C's backyard.  C's out of town and we stayed at her place.  I first met her in 1964 when she was ten and I was a 19 year old student in Germany for a year.  Her mother was my step-father's cousin married to a gentile.  Both she and her mother, as I understand the story were able to avoid deportation because they were doing work needed during the war. 

I was told by a usually reliable source that these beetles are an invasive species.  This one is about an 3/4 inch long.

Not sure what these and some of the other flowers are.  Just that they were in C's backyard.

J is enjoying the sun with a book in C's backyard.

???

This was labeled a spinach/cheese Pide.  Here's the store below.

This restaurant is down the street aways from Checkpoint Charlie.

[UPDATE July 2, 2012:  I finally found my old (1964) Checkpoint Charlie photos.  You can see them here.]

And the Berlin Jewish Museum.

This was in front of the Jewish Museum.
[Update June 22:  I didn't take the time to look this up while traveling.  Here's the beginning of a Deutsche Welle article on this sculpture which was part of an exhibit on the Jewish origins of American superheroes:

On their way into the Jewish Museum, visitors these days will find themselves passing a sculpture entitled "Even Superheroes Have Bad Days." Superman appears to have crash-landed headfirst into the pavement. He might have ended up on a Berlin street, but where did Superman come from? It's a question the exhibition inside the museum sets out to answer.  (The rest is here.)]

Enjoying the warm weather at Victoria Park.

Enjoying the warm weather on Bergmanstrasse (I think.)

Pictures Via Generous Neighbor - Egyptian Art in Berlin

Harpboy made a perfectly good suggestion about using my hosts wifi connection directly to my computer, but it is a very old machine and I was afraid of messing it up for her and decided new disciplines are often mentally healthy.  But due to a generous neighbor who hasn't put a password on his wifi, I can give you some pictures.  (I'm sitting in the backyard again and fortunately, there is a plastic overhang because the neighbor is having his tile roof redone and bits and pieces are coming down.)

Museum Insel (Island) is four or five museums on an island of the Spree River in the middle of central Berlin, in what was East Berlin.  I didn't do my homework well enough, nor does my faulty brain remember all I was told, but some of the museums or parts of all of them were badly damaged during WWII.  These are the columns as you walk to the Neues (New) Museum.  It's new in the sense that it has been newly reconstructed and the old collections newly reunited.  It covers prehistory and then Egyptian and Greek works particularly.

As we walked along the columns I took this picture of the what I think is the Altes (old) Museum that has paintings and sculptures from more modern times.

We wanted to see, given the short time we had - we bought combined tickets that let you into all the museums for 14 Euros ($18) - the Egyptian exhibit and the building itself with its combination of the old original building and Chipperfield's design for the old parts.  So that's what you mostly get to see here.  No, I don't know what it says.

This statute was about 12 feet tall.  It's King Amenemhat III.

This is the Family Group Ptahmai.  Father, wife, and two daughters.

It was labeled 1840-1800 BC.  When I see things like this I am reminded that our modern inclination to believe that we are smarter and more developed than the people of the past is ridiculous.  While we do know what has happened in terms of what our culture says is history since then, as individuals we live lives with the same abilities to think, to create, to worry about how we look, about whether we have enough money, etc.  These people in the statue and the artist who created the statue could probably show up in Berlin and after the initial shocks of time travel, would probably fit in and understand our world. 

The Nefertiti bust - my key interest in this museum - is in the room at the end of this one.  Photos were not allowed.  But someone on Flicker has posted some and others of this museum that are much better than mine.  So you can see a lot more.

This Greek God, who I think was found in Egypt, stands at the other end of the hall and can see Nefertiti.

But this robed Goddess - like the God, about 12 feet tall - is standing next to him and probably does not approve of his view.

I thought this jewelery looked like things people do today.  It said 7th Century.

These are some mummy masks.  I thought this face and hair could be walking the streets of Berlin and not many would notice that she wasn't from now.

OK, enough for now.  I'll try to get some more up, but we want to go see some more things on our last day before heading for London.