CHAPTER 2 - GOING FURTHER WITH MICHAEL WERNER


Am working backwards this time. The morning was spent in «Art in War» with Marielle and after lunch I went off alone and  backwards into the Michael Werner collection. There was no need to rush. Much to the surprise of the attendant I asked to go in at the end rather than start at the beginning - and thank goodness. 


Kirkeby in the 80's
Gianni and I had discovered the Danish Per Kirkeby in Brussels at the beginning of the year «Hidden Images» - 14th of February. Here without expecting it was one whole room dedicated to Kirkeby. A couple of people wandered through - fast - I stood in the centre of the gallery alone, turning around - and around before discovering each painting.Many of the paintings had been enormous in the Beaux Arts but with the exception of a few, most were around the same size. As there was a young girl attendant following every step I took and quite bemused by my interest, I forgot to try and take a photo. This is a picture I saw on Internet amongst many others and is the same period of Werner's collection. He is still "working" with Kirkeby and quite a few of the works have been donated to the MAM.
Don Van Vliet 1998


I then turned a corner and discovered this..... a Don Van Viliet had a whole gallery to herself but the size of the paintings really meant that he needed more space.
He was originally known as "Captain Beefheart" - an American musician - but retired from the music industry to work soley on his art.

Michel Werner seems to have quite another relationship with his artists. His choice of work appears to be be repetitious at times and then suddenly he breaks away and the label has to be checked twice to make sure it is the same artist. I found that to be the case with Jorg Immendorf. I can’t say that I will be following his work, nor do I know much about him,  but the gallery dedicated to his so called political paintings and sculptures is surprising.


Jörg Immendorff room

Jörg Immendorff - Position 1978
Jörg Immendorff


Penck I took time to wander around the gallery - and once again, alone.


The Penck gallery

A.R. Penck "Group "1961


For a while I sat on a bench and just looked at the bewildered faces as people wandered through each gallery - fast -. The Mark Lupertz gallery for instance.


Mark Lupertz Gallery

Mark Lupertz Gallery

 then toward the end, or the beginning of the exhibition, there was a group of my generation enjoying Gaston Chassiac. I can understand why.

There were many artists who I know little about. Tomas Schmit (amusing croquis)  Raymond Queneau (a French writer more than an artist)  Niele Toroni ( a Swiss minimalist ) and others I quite like but no more...

Eugene Leroy (Internet)

 .Eugene Leroy (I feel that I have seen his work elsewhere) -

 or Sigmar Polke (who died in 2010) I really don't understand, but try to....Sometimes one painting caught my eye but not more than that. However you look at this collection. It’s MIGHTY and unforgettable. I need to learn more. The catalogue must have weighed over 5 kilos. The quality of the reproductions was outstanding - I did not buy it.

Commentaires

Enregistrer un commentaire

Posts les plus consultés de ce blog

CONFLICTS AND ENCOUNTERS OF MULTIPLE HISTORIES

Image
Over the years, I have gone on discovering Wifredo Lam. He has been mentioned in different Blog chapters but always within permanent collections. I have to admit today that in the early years, I took one of his paintings for a Picasso….and seeing certain paintings of his today, it didn’t really surprise me. Especially as I learnt that he knew Picasso…This though was a retrospective of his work at the Beaubourg. Wifredo Lam (1902-1982) was a precursor of a cross-cultural style of painting, infusing Western modernism with African and Caribbean symbolism. He must have been one of the very rare artists who was in contact with all the movements of his time …and all those that I follow. Cubism, surrealism, CoBrA…but he never lost sight of the world around him and took on the struggle to paint the drama of his own country, Cuba. The above photo plunges us at once into the exhibition. Was he an attractive man? I think there are later photos which make him look less brutal….but in my book,
Lire la suite

MY BELOVED PICASSO -I WAS LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS -

Image
After 25 years as a museum, it was time to renovate the Picasso site. The « Hotel » as we call it, has quite a history. It is probably, as Bruno Foucart wrote in 1985,  (he is an art historian of 19th century architecture) “the grandest, most extraordinary, if not the most extravagant, of the Parisian houses of the 17th century”. Hotel Salé The Main stair case Another coming down "Picasso" would have liked these lights The building has seen many occupants come and go over the centuries. However, paradoxically, before the place was entrusted to the museum, it was rarely “inhabited”, but instead leased out to various private individuals, prestigious hosts and institutions. And so it became the Picasso museum. The renovations began in 2009 and quite obviously went well over budget and should have opened before the holidays started this year. The political arguments too had to be contended with not to mention the changes in Directors and the big question bei
Lire la suite

THE CHOICE OF ONE OF THE RICHEST WOMEN IN THE WORLD

Image
The exhibition season is very full between January and the French holiday period. I make less and less effort to go and see the « block-busters » and there are some museums which are not easy to get around. The Jacquemart André is one of them. The rooms are so small and when a couple of groups move in, it is virtually impossible to see a picture or move at all. Still I was interested to go and see the Alicia Koplowitz collection. Now I come to think of it, there have been quite a few private collections shown to the public since the end of last year.  Naturally I knew nothing about this woman.  Alicia Koplowitz is very well known in her home country, Spain. Thanks to her company, the Capital Omega Group  a comprehensive financial services company , she has become an important collect er Alicia is is a Spanish business magnate. When her father died, she and her sister inherited Construcciones y Contratas, S.A. (CYCSA), a company founded by her father. She  sold her part of the comp
Lire la suite