Andy's Germany Adventure

Saturday, 29 January 2011

Day 19 (the last day) - A Break in Bruges

Friday 28 January 2011

Back home

4650km (just shy of 3000 miles) travelled altogether in 19 days.

I left Kamp-Lintfort in German North-Rhine-Westfalia (NRW) early, though I did not not sail from Dunkirk until 6pm. I love the open borders and with bright, dry weather I cruised non-stop from Germany across southern Holland and into Belgium at greater than the maximum speed allowed in the UK!

So I had time for one more museum on the way back. The Groeninge in Bruges (Brugge) has a block-buster show called "From Van Eyck to Dürer" based on research by the Museum curators over several years on how Northern and Central European artists influenced each other in the 15th century. The answer is: to a surprisingly large extent. The museum shows this with a great collection of masterpieces from the period hung by similarity, thus making very clear how compositions, figures or whole pictures by one artist were copied by another especially between Southern Germany (Bavaria, Swabia...) and the Bourgondian low countries, but also with paces in modern-day Poland and the Czech Republic. The extent of influence was partly due to printing but also direct contact or working for periods in the same studio. This was an excellently timed show for a student-to-be of renaissance art!

The ferry trip back went without hitch and I was home by bedtime. That is the end of this particular trip, but probably not the end of this blog. I will return with some reflections and more detailed comments on what I have seen. I am also very interested in anyone else's feedback, personal views or questions!

Brugge

Brugge - Groeningemuseum

Brugge

Brugge

Brugge

Dunkirk - Car Ferry

Day 18 - Roaming the Ruhrgebiet

Thursday 27 January 2011
4007 km (2504 miles) travelled

This was my last day in Germany, and I made the best of it! In my original plan I had all but ignored the Ruhr district of North-Rhine-Westfalia. It is perhaps easy to dismiss the industrial centre of Germany, much like the English Midlands. But (like the English Midlands) it is worth another look, particularly as the area was joint European City of Culture 2010.

In the morning I visited the Folkwang Museum in Essen, at the centre of the Ruhr. I had already seen the special exhibition "Pictures of a Metropolis - the Impressionists in Paris" on day 2 (part 4), and it was just as well: it is a real blockbuster and they were queuing down the street (in the freezing cold) to get in. I bypassed that queue as I had come this time to get a good look at the permanent collection.

From the 19th century they have a respectable collection of Romantics (Friedrich, Carus etc) and some realists (Courbet etc), but the emphasis is on the 20th century. There is an excellent selection of German expressionists from both the Blue Rider (Kandinsky, Marc et al) and Brücke (Kirchner, Nolde and many more) movements, shown alongside some French Fauves and other avant-garde work such as Matisse, Cezanne and Gaugin, so the influences can be sensed. From the later 20th century there are German artists such as Baselitz and Beuys shown alongside international names such as Judd and Flavin. Altogether it gives a very good view of the development of 20th century avant garde art.

As a bonus, there was also a special exhibition related to town planning in the Ruhr district since 1800. I am not particularly into town planning, but it was interesting to see the approach taken historically to planning industrial and living areas, green space and pollution control - and culture. It gives a context to the role the Folkwang Museum aspires to play in the cultural and social redevelopment of the Ruhr for the 21st Century.

A similar role is expected of the Ostwall Museum in Dortmund, at Eastern end of the Ruhr. The Ostwall has recently moved to a renovated former Union Brewery building, now dubbed the "U" and just opened in December. This is now a really cool place. The building hits you straight away if you arrive in the evening as the top floor is decked out on three sides of the building with digital light screens used to project moving images that can be seen several blocks away. The Ostwall permanent collection majors in art that goes against the mainstream: Fluxus and Happenings, Multiples, New Realism, Abstract and Informal, Kinetic and Op Art, Concrete. They have a section called "Classic Modern" art, with a respectable showing of 20th century German Impressionists; when you walk into that room after seeing the rest of the collection it is like going back a century and the "classic" tag seems appropriate.

As an extra treat, there was a visiting exhibition "Picture for Picture" from the Pompidou in Paris, of art grouped around cinematic themes such as "the ray of light", "the projection area", "rhythmn", "editing", "frames" and others, into which were fitted a variety of slide and video shows, installations and minimalist work. I found it an original, imaginative, and entertaining format.

The Dortmunder U top floor is occupied by The View restaurant, decorated and lit like a dance club. They have good food too, so it was the ideal place to get my 'last supper' in Germany for this trip.

Essen - Folkwang Museum

Dortmund - Das U

Dortmund - Das U

Dortmund - Das U

Dortmund - Das U - 'The View' restaurant

Wednesday, 26 January 2011

Day 17 - Back to the Modern in Cologne and Düsseldorf

Wednesday 26 January 2011

Kamp-Lintford, North Rhine - Westphalia
3,820 km (2390 miles) travelled

After the old Germans - Riemenschneider and friends - yesterday, I went modern today: first to the Ludwig Museum in Cologne (Köln), then to the Kunstsammlung NRW (Art collection of the free state of North-Rhine-Westphalia, or NRW for short). In both galleries I was saying "wow" to myself every time I turned a corner into another space.

The Ludwig is right in the centre of Cologne behind the cathedral (Dom) and next to the main station (Hauptbahnhof). It is a great site (what was there before?). The Roman-Germanic museum and the Phiharmonic hall are also on the same block, with parking underneath.

The Ludwig is all 20th century to the current day. I was particularly interested in the German expressionists, of which they have many examples. They are also strong on the Russian Avant Garde and when I was there, there was a very interesting temporary exhibition of modern Australian aboriginal work.

Of course, you cannot be in Cologne and not see the cathedral (Dom). A gothic goliath started in 1278 but not finished until the 19th century, it's size it stunning and it contains some marvellous works of devotional art (but it was too dark to get good photographs).

After lunch, I popped up the motorway to Düsseldorf, Rhine harbour town, the state capital of NRW and home to the NRW art collection. Here too, one can see a terrific selection of expressionist work, cubist, minimalist and everything in between. They have a lot of Kandinsky and It was great to see Leger's Adam and Eve, which I have studied only in reproduction before.

I am staying in Kamp-Lintfort tonight and planning to visit Essen (again) and Dortmund tomorrow. Friday I return to the UK.