After a serene weekend in and around Düsseldorf where I visited some fresh and old local art sites the new presention of a private collection held by Arthur de Ganay made up a suitable end.
Düsseldorf is the capital of North-Rhine Westphalia and along with the city of Weimar and Leipzig, home of the most prominent art school in Germany. The list of landscape painters that belong to the Düsseldorf school of painting (comparable to the Hudson River School and the Barbizon School) is endless. The list of artists from all parts of the country who have passed the art academy in the 20th century makes up a who is who of almost every influential German artist of modern times. And last but not least the academy has been the site of the photography school of Bernd and Hilla Becher, that has been introduced in U.S. through the genius Ileana Sonnabend, whose gallery is still recognized as one of the most remarkable ones in New York.
The current presention of the collection features a dozen of exemplary works of Becher students (Elger Esser, Candida Höfer, Thomas Ruff, Thomas Struth) along with works of Hiroshi Sugimoto and Arwed Messmer in an intimate, truely "Berlin-style" location - an old factory site where you get the feeling of overviewing the cityscape and where the television tower is mirrored in the picture frames... The pictures are mostly large format and colorful; partly landscape and partly architecture. They convey absolute, almost surreal silence and invite the viewer to contemplate long about time and past, spaces and dimensions. After all, the viewer might be puzzled about the people and human stories that have been omitted. An exquisite personal collection that you can feel is sorted with affinity and endurance.
Sammlung Arthur de Ganay, Köpenicker Str. 10 A, Kreuzberg. Guided tour every first Saturday after registration.
Btw another highly recommendable art collection in a spectacular private home:
Sammlung Hoffmann, Sophienstr. 21, Mitte. Guided tour every saturday after registration.
As widely perceived, this city makes you constantly run, bustle and lavish money until you get dizzy. And if you aren't attentive enough and miss to be faster than others, you will somehow get punished with double the time of delay.
However, if you struggle you will get so much to see in reward, that you end up being more obsessed with rushing. A vicious circle that visitors won't escape until they are back home where clocks run regularly.
9:00 a.m.: going to Kmart to return empty water bottles and to buy water for the upcoming week. After some trial and error this works out quite well now. What a pleasure. 1 pack Poland Spring Water: 9.8 $.
10:00 a.m.: the E-line doesn't work. Neither does the F nor all other west-east connections that you had in mind... ok, now running from Columbus Circle to Lexington Ave to take the green line is the only way. In this second, it starts raining more vigorously. You just knew it. Vanity expressed through ballerina flats would screw your day.
11:00 a.m.: this is the time when pay-as-you-wish admission starts and before which I planned to stand in the museum line.
11:10 a.m.: I get off the wrong station at 86. st. That would have been perfect for Neue Galerie. Instead, my destination is Frick at 7o. st. So I run back south and blame myself for having taken the subway at all, since now the walking distance got much longer.
11:30 a.m.: The museum is of course full by now, so waiting in line requires half an hour. At least: entrance is almost free.
12:40 p.m.: after ridiculously short half an hour watch I run out to the next ATM and to get something to eat. It rains bloodily and the next destination is at the Hudson. American franchise scone: 2.2 $.
1.30 -4:00 p.m.: an even more ridiculously short time to rush through 300 booths at the Armory Show. In a flurry of excitement I miss Koenig, Templon, Meile and Galerie Naechst. Entrance fee: 10 $.
4:10 - 4:30 p.m.: together with my companions we err with the exit, the shuttle bus station and the cab line. Since the deluge comes with a storm, we aren't the only people who wants to make headway. Taxi sum on this day: 21 $.
- 4:45 p.m.: After having told her to come later, then to come earlier, we keep the friend with the tightest schedule waiting for us way too long.
4:45 -6 p.m.: favorite coffee and lemon tarte at Stumptown. 7.5 $.
6-7 p.m.: after strolling around, undecided what to do in an one hour gap, I enter a hairdresser in K-Town. These guys shouldn't let me down. Alas, the haircut is too expensive so I just get the bangs. Meanwhile the lady sitting next to me gets such a smashing hair-do that I change my mind. 58 $.
7-9 p.m.: Korean BBQ, seafood pancake and bibimbap shared by three. 23 $.
At the end of the day you are happily dizzy because in 12 hours, you have seen them all - the Kmart teller, the museum tourist, the gallery owner, the Jamaican taxi driver, the English style barrista, the Korean hairdresser. A Korean-American friend explaining how to make Brazilian cheesebread. German friends getting crazy about Ssam Bab.
You start thinking of next Sunday which, without the rain, should be more efficient... :)
ne
Some encounters are more touching and memorable than others.
On a crisp day in January I had the honor to meet Korean artist Sook Jin Jo. Actually it were two days, a Saturday afternoon and a Sunday morning.
New York citizen for over 20 years, she is a big fish in the art scene here as well as in Korea. Seldom did I met such a philosophically and theoretically profound person in the creative profession (being not a theory expert I deem myself competent to say it ;)). And such a humble.
In her peaceful studio and home in the heart of Chelsea, with her kitties and to some Edward Elgar, we talked about being an immigrant, of women's status in Korea of the 80ies and of today, about how her neighbourhood in NYC has changed its face over the years.
She must have a bold spirit as she has grown beyond the conditions set down by her biography - which basically were not a bed of roses: being an Asian female artist, in none of the conventional art disciplines, being progressive in a then very backward society, facing financial difficulties when settling down in this city.
And the food? We had a lot.
Bagels with salmon tatar, black kaviar, goat cream cheese and Roumanian eggplant salad that I brought from Russ & Daughters.
Steemed yam. Peanut butter ice cream with berries and biscotti.
TTeokguk, Japchae, Kimchi Jeon and of course Kimchi.
