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Art comes from ability, commerce - and clicking
Art is a lie - a lie which shows us the truth, said Picasso. If that statement applies in Germany, then there are lots of lies. For starters there is the Art Center in Hamburg, the Old and New Pinakothek in Munich, the Picture Gallery in Berlin, and the Ludwig Museum in Cologne. The old masters and the young blood happily unite in Germany's world-famous museum temples. Works of art only hang, but if they happen to fall from the framework, Germany has a thriving alternative art scene. The one place you can't find German cosiness is in the art. This movement started with Joseph Beuys, and his art mixture of felt, fat and axes and ended the middle class art style. "Every person is an artist," wrote the Duesseldorfer out-of-the-box philosopher who with this statement, stepped on the polished shoes of nice romantics.
Bath tubs and the Reichstag
What Beuys forgot to say is that not everyone can make millions by covering bath tubs with fat. These days art also comes from commerce. The art market in Germany is enormous. Despite the low economic situation, record prices are reported with the auctioning of paintings, photographs, sculptures and sketches. Art comes from commerce and art still comes from ability, but how does one come to the art? By opening the eyes and not just to avoid stumbling. Art is everywhere: Sculptures in train stations, in city squares, paintings in banks, exhibitions in backyards, graffiti on houses, and "web-art" on another building site - the internet. Art conquered Germany's public areas long ago. The most public of public places happened in the summer 1995, when a fairly significant German building was completely wrapped in silver material. The wrapped-Reichstag work of art by Jeanne Claude and Christo lured over five million tourists from all over the world to Berlin.
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| Further Information
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The culture portal of the Federal Government
www.kulturportal-deutschland.de
The Institute for Foreign Relations (ifa) has information about contemporary Germany art abroad
www.ifa.de/...
The Goethe Institute gives an overview of when and where German art exhibitions are to be held, both nationally and internationally
www.goethe.de/...
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