Museums you've visited (or want to see)

[Wanderer]

I recall that in New York if you want to enter the Metropolitan Museum there is a "suggested donation." Somehow not calling it an admission fee has some favorable legal or tax implication. They depend on the fact that few have the nerve to decline to make the "suggested donation."

I believe this is no longer the case, as the "suggested donation" has now become a normal ticket for visitors from outside New York State. Residents of New York, I believe, still have the right to a number of free visits (per month?), provided they book a time slot on a special website.
The "suggested donation" system, although good in theory (it does work occasionally), also meant in this particular case that scores of cheap tourists, who otherwise had no financial qualms or difficulties engaging in marathon shopping sprees in the city, suddenly became paupers when it came to contribute a modest sum towards the maintenance of a world-renowned cultural institution they were visiting. If the institution of a ticket means less of those people and their selfie-obsessed determination inside the halls, then that's a good thing for everyone.

[ritter]

Visited a Picasso exhibition at CaixaForum (La Caixa Foundation--an old power substation in the city centre beautifully refurbished by Herzog & de Meuron--a smaller Tate Modern in a way  ), centred around the painter's years with his first wife Olga Khokhlova. This was the time Picasso abandoned cubism, launched himself into a neoclassical and neo-Renaissance period, was fully consecrated as a leading artist and became a member of the beau monde (gone was the squalor of the bateau-lavoir, Picasso having moved to the chic Rue de la Boétie, in a flat cum studio with cook, chauffeur and the whole shebang).

Most of the works on exhibit come from the Musée Picasso in Paris (where the exhibition was first given, before travelling to Málaga and now to Madrid). Some wonderful works on display, including the great surprise of seeing "in the flesh" one of Picasso's well known portraits of Stravinsky:



Also, some fantastic raphaelite female figures, as for instance the stunning drawing in the relatively unusual medium of crayon on canvas on the left of the photo:



At the end of the years covered (i.e., towards the mid-30s), Picasso once again moves on, to a style influenced by surrealism, and his depictions of Olga become sterner and bitterer, while a new muse (Marie-Thérèse Walter) entered his life.



And as an added bonus, it was great to see again what is probably Picasso's greatest achievement in the printed medium, and IMHO one of the most stunning etchings ever produced by any artist, Minotauromachie:



The exhibition runs through September 7, so I'm sure to visit it another couple of times this summer.

[pjme]

I was recently a couple of days in Leipzig and finally saw this :

[ritter]

I used to travel relatuively often to Leipzig some years ago on business, but never managed to go into the Gewandhaus and see that Beethoven monument.

Unfortunately, Richard Wagner is almost completely ignored in his native city. What I did visit every time, though, of course, was this:

[pjme]

I wasn't able to do and/or see all the musical hotspots in Leipzig. But I was lucky to witness (for some time) an organ lesson at the Thomaskirche.
The Beethoven monument by Max Klinger is now at the Museum für Bildende Künste:

https://www.leipzig.travel/en/culture/poi-detailseite/poi/infos/museum-der-bildenden-kuenste-beethoven/

Klinger isn't- understandably- to everyone's taste: German symbolism can be ...overwhelming and many of his works were very controversial!  One doesn't often see a fully naked Christ on the cross - par exemple!
Anyway, his etchings and drawings are a pure joy to see . His particular blend of symbolism and Art Nouveau hints at surrealism.
Apparently, Klinger was a talented pianist. Brahms was a friend.!





This canvas measures 251 × 465 cm!!

[ritter]

Most interesting, pjme! TBH, Klinger's work is definitely not my cup of tea.... And that huge crucifixion canvas is to my eyes really bizarre. What can that couple behind the Penitent Thief be up to? 

[pjme]

Most interesting, pjme! TBH, Klinger's work is definitely not my cup of tea.... And that huge crucifixion canvas is to my eyes really bizarre. What can that couple behind the Penitent Thief be up to? 

Hmmmm ... I checked the painting again and am fairly certain that they are just sturdy carpenters who took their clothes off because crucifying three men in the burning sun is such hard work...

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bb/Max_Klinger_-_Kreuzigung_Christi_%281890%29.jpg

[ritter]

Hmmmm ... I checked the painting again and am fairly certain that they are just sturdy carpenters who took their clothes off because crucifying three men in the burning sun is such hard work...

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bb/Max_Klinger_-_Kreuzigung_Christi_%281890%29.jpg

Hmmm indeed...   

[André]

I used to travel relatuively often to Leipzig some years ago on business, but never managed to go into the Gewandhaus and see that Beethoven monument.

Unfortunately, Richard Wagner is almost completely ignored in his native city. What I did visit every time, though, of course, was this:

This beautiful and inspiring performance of the Goldberg Variations was filmed on location in St Thomas, with the pianist playing a few feet away from Bach's tombstone:

[Biffo]

Unfortunately, Richard Wagner is almost completely ignored in his native city. What I did visit every time, though, of course, was this:

Possibly because Wagner is more associated with Dresden where he grew up and later worked. To be honest, I had forgotten he was born in Leipzig. Surprised though there isn't at least a plaque of some kind.

[pjme]

In a park, close to the central station, and at the backside of the Opera,  there's a small Wagner statue:
https://www.leipzig.travel/en/culture/poi-detailseite/?eID=iotf&f=21430&hash=1763926993c2644895ee44f7ba0b37c4a4&ts=1537357494&w=800

In 2013 a new "Denkmal" has been erected:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c1/Wagner-Denkmal_Leipzig.jpg/800px-Wagner-Denkmal_Leipzig.jpg

There's also an unfinished Wagner statue designed by Max Klinger ...of which only the base was completed. Klinger died before he could work on the statue.


"...wegen der nackten Rheintöchter bisweilen auch als ,,Pornowürfel" bezeichnet." Ah, Klinger and nudity: " because these Rhine maidens are naked, also known as the "porn cube"...)

Klinger was married and (thus?) not gay. However, other artists in the Leipzig/Dresden artistic circles he knew and befriended, definitely were. The most "extravagant" was possibly Sascha Schneider.
"In 1903 he met best-selling author Karl May, and subsequently became the cover illustrator of a number of May's books including Winnetou, Old Surehand, Am Rio de la Plata ...but I'm sure you will be rather surprised as you actually see these book illustrations."

Many of the pictures are very, very bizarre for the way they juxtapose naked figures with angels, demons or monsters. The Winnetou illustrations, which should be depicting Native Americans, look more suited to the walls of a (male) brothel / salon in fin de siècle Paris than stories of the Wild West.
Art and artists never fail to surprise and fascinate me.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sascha_Schneider

[ritter]

And there's this plaque where the house RW was born in used to stand:



I read that the 2013 monument uses Klinger's "porn cube" base of 100 years earlier.

[pjme]

Indeed, it does.

[ritter]

Indeed, it does.

It all makes sense...RW as a wedding cake figurine on top of what actually looks like a piece of weeding cake....

[Wanderer]

Recent visits (+ temporary exhibitions in parentheses).


Munich, November 2019

Alte Pinakothek (Van Dyck, Wenn du an die Neue denkst...)
Pinakothek der Moderne (FEELINGS - Kunst und Emotion, GEORG BASELITZ. DIE SCHENKUNG, Franz Radziwill – Zwei Seiten eines Künstlers, Die Welt als Ganzes, ANSELM KIEFER – DIE MICHAEL & ELEONORE STOFFEL STIFTUNG ERWIRBT FÜNF ARBEITEN DES KÜNSTLERS FÜR DIE BAYERISCHEN STAATSGEMÄLDESAMMLUNGEN)
Museum Brandhorst (Forever Young - 10 Jahre Museum Brandhorst)
Residenz München
Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus (DAS MALERISCHE - Die Kunst, die richtige Farbe auf den richtigen Fleck zu setzen, Senga Nengudi - Topologien)
Kunstbau (Lebensmenschen - Alexej von Jawlensky und Marianne von Werefkin)
Haus der Kunst (Markus Lüpertz. Über die Kunst zum Bild)


Frankfurt, November 2019

Städel Museum (Making Van Gogh - Geschichte einer deutschen Liebe, ,,Große Realistik & Große Abstraktion" - Zeichnungen von Max Beckmann bis Gerhard Richter)
Schirn Kunsthalle (Lee Krasner)


Vienna, December 2019

Kunsthistorisches Museum (Caravaggio & Bernini. Entdeckung der Gefühle, Jan van Eyck - "Als Ich Kan")
Albertina (Albrecht Dürer, A Passion for Drawing. The Guerlain Collection from the Centre Pompidou Paris, Arnulf Rainer. Eine Hommage)
Leopold Museum (Richard Gerstl, Deutscher Expressionismus. Die Sammlungen Braglia und Johenning)
Kunstforum Wien (Pierre Bonnard - Die Farbe der Erinnerung, Alfredo Barsuglia: Take on me)
Ephesos Museum
Weltmuseum Wien


Athens

National Archaeological Museum
Byzantine & Christian Museum
Acropolis Museum
Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation, Athens

[Wanderer]

Before the lockdown:


Rome, February 2020

Palazzo Massimo alle Terme
Museo delle Terme di Diocleziano
Palazzo delle Esposizioni (Jim Dine, GABRIELE BASILICO | METROPOLI)
Palazzo Altemps
Musja (The Dark Side)
Real Academia de España en Roma
Musei Capitolini
Palazzo e Galleria Colonna
Palazzo Bonaparte (Impressionisti segreti)
Museo Nazionale Preistorico Etnografico "Luigi Pigorini" - Museo delle Civiltà
Palazzo Farnese
MAXXI - Museo Nazionale delle Arti del XXI Secolo
Musei Vaticani
Galleria Borghese (VALADIER. Splendore nella Roma del Settecento)


Florence, February 2020

Gallerie degli Uffizi
Galleria dell'Accademia
Museo Archaeologico Nazionale di Firenze






Athens

EMST - National Museum of Contemporary Art


Olympia

Archaeological Museum of Olympia
Museum of the History of the Olympic Games of Antiquity


Another Italian trip, planned for March, was not meant to be. I'd planned to see, among others, the 500th anniversary Raphael exhibition at the Scuderie del Quirinale in Rome and the Tomás Saraceno exhibition at Palazzo Strozzi in Florence.

[ritter]

After a hiatus of several years (two of them because of professional reasons, and the last two due to COVID restrictions), it was good to be back at the largest European trade fair  of my industry held in Cannes in March every year. As could be expected, I took advantage of some free time in the last day to visit some of the cultural landmarks on the Côte d'Azur. I returned briefly to the breathtaking Fondation Maeght in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, and this time I had the privilege of actually sleeping in La Colombe d'Or (and eat among the Picasso, Miró, Dufy, Calder, Braque, etc., etc., paintings hanging on the walls of the dining room).



New to me this time was the Chapelle du Rosaire in Vence, with stained-glass windows, murals, fixtures and decorations by Henri Matisse. Even the priests' cassocks —on display in the adjoining museum, along with designs, drawings, documents— are by Matisse. He referred to this project as 'his masterpiece". It is a building of supreme serenity and great beauty.







I then drove down to the Fernand Léger Museum in Biot near Antibes, which houses the largest collection of works by the artist, mainly donated by his widow Nadia (but also by other well-known names such as Michel and Louise Leiris). The building itself (by architect Andreï Svetchine) is unassuming, but the posthumously executed mosaics that cover the façades are quite impressive:



The collection covers all periods of Léger's career, interestingly including some of the few surviving —he destroyed most of them— works from his early post-impressionist phase. An example is this Les Fortifications d'Ajaccio from 1907 (59 x 108 cm):



Highlights include Le 14 juillet (1914, 65 x 58 cm):



Les Plongeurs polychromes from his years in America during WW2 (250 x 186 cm).



The "definitive" version of Les Constructeurs (1950, 300 x 228 cm):




And this stunning Les Loisirs sur fond rouge from 1949 (113 x 146 cm):



The collection also includes some works with musical associations (set designs fro Honegger's ballet Skating Rink and for Milhaud's opera Bolivar), but they don't seem to be on display.

Also on a five-year loan from a museum in Paris, there's the monumental (491 x 870 cm) Le Transport des forces, created by Léger and some of his students for the 1937 Paris World Fair. Despite the dire political climate of the time, what a show that must have been! That's where Picasso's Guernica and Raoul Dufy's mammoth and stunning La Fée Electricité were unveiled as well.



All in all, this museum is a tucked-away gem that is sure to yield great rewards to anyone interested in Léger or 20th century art in general.

[MusicTurner]

Great to see, ritter. Were there many restrictions, mask use etc.?

[ritter]

Great to see, ritter. Were there many restrictions, mask use etc.?

None, MusicTurner, none at all! No masks in France anymore (either indoors or outdoors), no vaccine certificate requested. Rien de rien!

Coming from Spain, where we still have an indoor mask mandate, it felt strange...

[MusicTurner]

None, MusicTurner, none at all! No masks in France anymore (either indoors or outdoors), no vaccine certificate requested. Rien de rien!

(...)

Thank you - enjoyable ...