Musings in the Museum

A visit to any museum usually results in at least one profound experience. For me, and hopefully for you if you are studying the work I'm going to share with you, you'll have that experience as well.

Probably the most famous work in the Neues Museum is the bust of Nefertiti. She is displayed all by herself in a fairly large gallery. It's not as crowded as the Mona Lisa room at the Louvre, but the work that most people come to see in the museum. You are not permitted to take pictures inside the gallery but actually, this was a bit more mysterious to photograph her from the next room.

This sunken relief of Akhenaten, Nefertiti and their children is in the gallery next door and no one is in there. To me it's a much more interesting work and if you are in Ancient Art History you've already learned about this work from 1350 BCE. It's one of my favorite pieces and was surprised to see how small it actually is (13 X 16") though the detail is spectacular.

Mosaic floor in front of the Market Gate of Miletus, Pergamon Museum. The detail in the figures and animals gives them so much dimension. It's an exquisite example of Roman mosaic from the 2nd century. It was the dining room floor from a villa in Miletus, Turkey.

In the same gallery I came across this stone fragment of a city scene from the same time period. Obviously this artist was playing with ideas of space and perspective but the angles go every which way. Kind of sweet in a way.

Moving to the opposite end of the spectrum, Double "Love" by Robert Indiana with Dan Flavin light sculpture behind. Have never seen a presentation like this of this work seen in many iterations around the world. This one is outside the Hamburger Bahnhof Museum.

How often does one get to see two Rembrandt self portraits in the same room let along with a spectacular painting of "Mennonite Preacher Anslo and his Wife" from 1641. These works were on one wall of a gallery filled with Rembrandts. The hand of the preacher is coming out towards us in Rembrandt's amazing technique that makes you want to reach out and shake it. We see that in the "Night Watch" with the soldier holding the spear in front. This room of Rembrandt's was at the Gemaldgalerie.

It's not often one gets to see the work of Joseph Beuys in person or at least not more than one at a time. If you don't know the work of this German artist you'll learn about his famous site specific performance where he lived in an art gallery with a live coyote for three days. The works in this exhibition at the Hamburger Bahnoff features a number of works from different series. This first work "End of the 20th Century" features nine basalt rocks strewn around the room like dead bodies. This work is from 1986 shortly before his death.

Beuys has deliberately made the work look unfinished by leaving one of the stones on a trolley. The green tint is from a Dan Flavin light piece between the windows on one wall. Each circle carved into the stone is lined with felt and mud, hallmark materials for Beuys.

"Tallow" is made from 20 tons of beef fat cast in the hollow of a pedestrian underpass in Munster, Germany. Beuys work is concerned with the potential of disregarded spaces from everyday life. I'd seen pictures before to actually seeing and being close to these tallow pieces one realizes their solidity and fragility at the same time.

Such beautiful texture and ugly at the same time when considering what the material is. This work looks indestructible but straps hold the pieces together and thermometers measure the heat as too much could melt them as solid as they appear. This work was created in 1977.

This work, "Directional Forces", 1974-76 is composed of blackboard slates with various writings and drawings that Beuys called social sculpture. He believed work such as this could "end social ills". The boards detail events from Beuys life, musings about art, current events, etc. One includes an epitaph for Holger Meins, a member of the Baader-Meinhof group who had just died in prison after a hinger strike. There are a total of 100 blackboards and this is an active performance work with various boards shifting position or being displayed at any given time.

Finally, one of Joseph Beuys' felt suits that he often wore during performances.