Hi! I am posting live from Germany!
Well it is difficult to know where to start...perhaps to say that the sun has been shining since we arrived and all those warm winter cloaths that we brought with us are too too hot!! Today it was like a May summers day. Perfect for walking through the city of Duesseldorf and for eating an ice cream!! These German Museums are amazing, and I am beginning to feel a little dizzy with all that I have seen so far. I love the spacious way that they display the Art.
The first evening that we arrived we headed off to walk to the Cathedral. Well I am afraid it makes Canterbury look small! and full of sculptures, and paintings, and all the richness of ceremony, Art and tradition of the Catholic faith. No Cromwell invasion there! We then headed off to a wonderful 1920's style beer house 'Peters Kolsch' to have a very lady like sized glass of beer and a bite to eat.
On Tuesday here in Cologne, we saw some stunning Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns paintings in the Museum Ludwig. Well the Barbican was certainly a good introduction, and this was a fully blown takeoff. I now feel I know where I am going!! As if that was not enough there were upstairs galleries full of abstract expressionists and many other delights. I was wandering around in a daze when I came face to face with a french friend!! Well it is a small world! In the afternoon we went to the Wallraf Museum where I spent most of my time in the medieval/middle ages section. They have the most astonishing collection of Triptychs from the cologne masters and one of the oldest icons there. The colors and the extraordinary imagery kept me fascinated, and as I am going to do egg tempera with Mike next week I soaked up any tips I could detect from those great masters.
Today we went to Dusseldorf. The main art museum is spread over three sites. The first one had an exhibition of contemporary sculpture. Upstairs there was a superb permanent collection. Again amazing expressionists and some really interesting Picasso and Magritte works and a wonderful Cy Twomby, and of cause some Joseph Beuys!
We walked to the other site which was seriously impressive. There was an exhibition of Wolfgang Tillmans and upstairs were rooms, each with large installations in them. One artist to each room. Notably a room with a Hans-Peter Feldmann installation and a room with a Christian Boltanski installation. There was a remarkable video installation by Nam June Paik.
This was a vast building and these rooms were built around a central well or ground floor space. The interior architecture was Italian style in contrast to the imposing austere exterior. I have left my sketchbook upstairs in my room and I will have to add to this post at a later date with more details.
It has been good to take a break from college and I am sure that ideas and inspiration will feed back into our project. Nadja sent me a text and Rachael and myself are agreed that we must continue to do our project at Crate and hope that we have a booking for April.
Nadja I can see that you have been working at the visiting cards. I have not shown them to Rachael as she has gone out so we will get together as soon as we get back.
This computer does not have space for a memory card to photos will have to wait. There are many of inspiring art works to share.
So I am looking forward to sharing more of this exciting experience with you soon.
Tscheuss,
Jennie
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