This non-American Life

Checking in on Munich’s art students

My there was a lot going on in Munich this weekend. Drag queens were racing through Marienplatz. Anime aficionados were living it up in the English Garden. I managed to sleep through the Kocherlball for the third year in a row.

Sunday’s cool weather lured me out to see the student art show at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste. Munich’s art academy consists of two main buildings, one old and one new, and getting to wander around in them was half of the fun to me.

As expected for a student show, there was definitely a fair number of duds on display, but a lot of delightful pieces could be found amongst the various exhibition rooms. I was especially impressed with how many works really made me laugh (with them, not at them). Modern German art isn’t exactly known for displaying a sense of humor.

The lawn of the Old Building was spotted with boards for one to poke one’s head through and be photographed. (Do you know what I’m talking about? Why is there no actual word for these things?) Collectively titled “Extreme Situations of Human Existence,” these particular head-cutout-boardy-thingies allowed you to try on the role of combat soldier, 1000-pound man, or crucified Jesus, among other fun stuff. » Read the full post

Tags: akademie der bildenden künste, art, cheap things to do in Munich, german art, Germany, Munich, news

London keeps calling

Let’s see, where was I? From Italy I’ll skip ahead a few months to March, when I went back to London for another week of BritFun. This was the trip where a charming old chap tried to pick up my friend Em and I. Naturally, there are other trip highlights to report, too, so let me get on that.

The timing of this trip was designed to coincide with a David Sedaris* reading. Did you know he recently moved to London? Not that I’m stalking him or anything. It was fun to finally learn what Hugh looks like, though. Dapper.

That wasn’t even our only trip to the theater district; we also took in a (very affordable) matinee showing of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof starring James Earl Jones. Oh, that voice. TKTS won’t tell you this, but some theaters release some half-price tickets at the box office shortly before a performance.

We visited a couple of London’s amazing museums, including the National Portrait Gallery (which I love so much I want to marry it – Judi Dench and the Tudors all under one roof); the Tate Britain (where we intended to see a special exhibit involving elephant dung but we got lost in the joys of the permanent collection instead – especially the John Singer Sargent and Francis Bacon rooms); and the Victoria & Albert (for a small but interesting exhibit on high-tech art). We also did plenty of gallery hopping. London oozes art.

And of course we ate some delicious things, including giant thalis at Masala Zone and sushi at about a dozen places. Alas, my note-taking was a little lax when it came to all the great restaurants and pubs. There was also tea at Sketch, whose waitresses were decidedly unfriendly but I am going to go back soon anyway because 1) they have a staircase covered in blood and 2) I didn’t get to use the pod toilets yet. Plus I am hoping their macaroni and cheese is good.

Besides all that, we took some wonderful walks. Em has a deck of cards, each one featuring a different fun walk through London, and they came in quite handy for coaxing us into new, different neighborhoods. One walk was through the hipster and sex shop district; another was through the judicial area, where the barristers buy their wigs. Alas, we didn’t see anyone wearing one. There’s a goal for my next trip.

—-

* If you are unfamiliar with David Sedaris, go get yourself one of his books right now. Preferably an audiobook. Me Talk Pretty One Day is a good one to start with. You will pee your pants.

Tags: art, David Sedaris, England, Europe, London, museums, restaurants, theater, travel, UK

Christmas in Rome, part 1

I’m a bit behind on my travel blogging. I’ll skip over a couple trips all together, but our winter adventures in Italy deserve a little more attention than they have received so far.

We arrived in Rome on Christmas Day to find the metro closed. No signs, no information, just a big metal gate closing off the entrance. Luckily our hotel was within easy walking distance of the train station.

Speaking of our accommodations, Albergo Ottocento is a nice, well-located boutique hotel within walking distance of many places of interest in Rome. And walk we did. The Christmas tree on the Spanish steps was a bit of a disappointment, but the sunset view from the top wasn’t.

The next day we headed over to the Vatican to see their tree and giant nativity scene*, and happened to catch a glimpse of the pope speaking to the crowd from a comically far-off window. I think he was discussing his new plan to get child molestation down to acceptable levels.

We saw a lovely art exhibit at the Chiostro del Bramante and then did some more wandering, including through the Christmas market at Piazza Navona. It was giant and loud and bright and tacky; nothing at all like a German Christmas market but fun anyway. A passing tourist’s remark about the “Panthanon” sent me into a giggling fit that could only be cured by a Campari-laden cocktail at the oh-so-charming Caffè della Pace.

More art at the Villa Borghese, which is a nightmare of rules (reservations required, you get kicked out after two hours, the required bag check refuses to take coats) but they get away with it since their art collection is so wonderful. Bernini statues, I will never get tired of looking at you. There was a special Carravagio Bacon exhibit going on; while I enjoyed the paintings I came out still having no clue what the justification was for putting those two artists together.

I get to the important stuff in part 2 of this post – coming soon.

—-

* My husband was surprised to see that one of the wise men was black. Guess it’s not like that in Montana.

Tags: art, Christmas, Europe, holidays, Italy, museums, Rome, travel, winter

A long night of Berlin’s museums

Our recent trip to Berlin included the Lange Nacht der Museen. Long museum nights are popular in many cities around Europe (we’ve also been to them in Zurich and Munich). Berlin has two a year, with 100 museums around the city opening their doors from 6pm to 2am. Special events for the evening include concerts, demonstrations, and things like the opportunity to destroy your evil things with a special machine (after first attending the Dinge-Sprechstunde, during which an expert will evaluate your thing for evilness).*

The festivities were centered on Museum Island. The big light show entertained us while we were milling around waiting for buses to take us to the more far-flung locations. There were so many interesting-sounding things to do that we had a lot of trouble choosing.

The DDR Museum was serving up ‘typical East-German cocktails’. I was worried that drinking one might make my hair curl up into a mullet.

Several museums had the added bonus of letting visitors participate in The Big Draw Berlin. We doodled at the Museum of Communication and at the Sammlung Scharf Gerstenberg (which has an amazing ‘Surreal Worlds’ collection, by the way).

The big Bauhaus exhibit at the Martin-Gropius-Bau was also part of Museum Night, but we wanted to spend more time there, so we went the next day instead. It’s a fabulous exhibit, probably the most comprehensive presentation of the Bauhaus that I’ve ever seen in one place.

The dance show at the Schwules Museum was quite colorful.

We also hit a fabulous photography show at the Akademie der Künste (right next door to the Adlon hotel, featuring the Blanket Jackson Balcony). I’m sure we visited a couple other museums that night, too, but that’s all I can remember at the moment.

—
* I didn’t even make this part up. It happened at the Museum of Things.

Tags: art, Berlin, German culture, Germany, musems

Drag queens, Jesus freaks, and lots and lots of artists

It’s been just another wonderful summer weekend in Munich. I’m really happy to be spending some time at home these days.

The first super fabulous event that occupied my weekend was Kunst im Karrée. For two days over 70 artist studios were open for visitors in and around the neighborhood of Schwabing. It was an excellent opportunity not only to see great work and talk to some very interesting artists, but also to peek inside some beautiful, beautiful private studios and apartments in one of Munich’s most sought-after neighborhoods. The artists were definitely more friendly and talkative the first day than the second, understandably so when you think about how long their days lasted.

The second event of the weekend was the Christopher Street Day celebration that took over central Munich, delighting locals and confusing tourists. Today we caught the tail end of the high heel competition, featuring local drag queens at their fiercest.

Oh yeah, and apparently there is some sort of gigantic conference of Jehovah’s Witnesses going on in Munich. There were scores of them all over the city. I wonder how they liked the drag queens.

Tags: art, Munich, summer

Museum Brandhorst: Munich’s newest stop for contemporary art

I still live in Munich, I swear. Never mind the fact that I’ve neglected to write a single post about this city in the last two months.

This weekend we decided to check out Munich’s new museum, the Museum Brandhorst. I’ve been marveling over the building’s stripey exterior for months now. The colorful ceramic bars are certainly… different. The interior is quite lovely and houses the collection well.

Cy Twombly is the star of the Brandhorst collection. I’ve never been a particular fan of his paintings, but I really liked the Lepanto series (which ocupies the museum’s central gallery). Plus it reminded me of my favorite iphone game, Trace.

My personal favorites in the exhibit were the large figurative paintings by Eric Fischl. I’ve always had a preference for paintings, but the museum has plenty of art made out of giant cardboard boxes, neon lights, and human hair, if that’s your thing.

Museum Brandhorst is in the same area as Munich’s three Pinakotheken, and can be visited along with them on a €12 day pass. Like the Pinakotheken, Museum Branhorst only costs €1 on Sundays, but that price attracts a lot of folks. If you like to get audioguides, the total price difference (a couple euros) isn’t worth the Sunday crowd.

Tags: art, Germany, Munich, museums

Stockholm. Bork bork bork.

Whenever we visit a city, Scott and I both instinctively size it up based on whether we would want to live there someday. Stockholm gets a big “yes” from both of us. It’s big, beautiful, and full of stuff to see, do, and eat. Guess I have a thing for cities built on islands. The Swedish-Chefiness of the language is another added bonus (and given its similarity to German, it wouldn’t be too hard to learn).

There was so much going on all around the city. Gamla Stan (the touristy but adorable old town) was hosting a music festival. A Taste of Stockholm offered up culinary delights and live music in a downtown park. On the other end of the city we stumbled upon a small free concert to bring attention to climate change and related issues. Recent graduates were joy-riding in trucks all over the place (wearing fancier sailor hats than their Finnish counterparts).

Vegetarian delights
I don’t know about reindeer mousse and pickled fish bits, but Stockholm’s vegetarian offerings are pretty yummy, not to mention extensive. Hermitage is located in Gamla Stan and offers a great lunch buffet (the vegetable balls were my favorite) for a reasonable price. Lao Wai is a vegetarian Chinese restaurant in a fun northern neighborhood. I wasn’t so sure about the vegetarian ’shrimp’, but everything else was quite tasty.

Museums
The Nationalmuseum covers the history of Swedish design (yes, including IKEA) as well as a variety of art (Swedish and other, mostly pillaged from other lands according to the audioguide). On a previous trip to Stockholm, I fell in love with the Vasa Museum, which is (literally) built around a ship which sank in Stockholm’s harbor in 1628. It is a tribute to how a well-crafted museum can make me interested in almost anything. I also have fond memories of the Skansen open-air museum, for both its architectural structures and its animals (reindeer!).

We might not ever get a chance to live in Stockholm, but we’ll definitely be back for a few more visits.

Tags: art, Europe, restaurants, travel

Kandinsky in Munich

If you haven’t already, go see the amazing Kandinsky exhibit at the Lenbachhaus. It’s only in Munich through February 22nd, after which it travels to Paris and New York (but without the Blaue Reiter show that’s here in Munich with it). Give yourself plenty of time to see both buildings.

Tags: art, Germany, Munich, museums

November is for being creative

This month I’ve been busy over at my art blog, participating in Art Every Day Month. AEDM was started by artist Leah Piken Kolidas several years ago, and I’ve wanted to participate ever since I first heard about it. So far I’ve found it a great motivation and also a nice way to ‘meet’ other artists online.

Given that I’ve decided to blog about my AEDM creations daily, I’m also participating in NaBloPoMo, or National Blog Posting Month. The idea of this, you guessed it, is to post every day for a month. Just because.

I think both of the aforementioned November events were inspired by NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, in which I participated two years ago. Participants aim to write at least 50,000 words of a novel during the month of November. That’s a lot of words.

What creative stuff are you doing this November?

—-
Photo: Munich – Theatinerkirche, acrylic on canvas, 45 x 45cm, by me.

Tags: art

Late night art in Munich

So I’m back in Munich. Oktoberfest may be long over, but there’s still stuff going on in this lovely city. There’s always something going on, I tell you. Yesterday evening it was the Lange Nacht der Münchner Museen (Long Night of Munich Museums), which, as its name implies, is a evening where many of Munich’s museums stay open until late in the night. For a 15-euro ticket, one could visit them all. Many locations had special events going on such as live music or readings.

Using the same modus operandi as we did for Zurich’s museum night last year, we skipped our favorite museums and used the evening as an excuse to explore some locales we may have never made it to otherwise. We saw a fairytale reading at the Alpine Museum, some a cappella at the Staatliches Museum für Völkerkunde (Ethnology Museum), and some fancy roof restorations at the Galerie Handwerk. My favorite part of the evening was the introduction to lithography session we attended at the Münchner Künstlerhaus.

We didn’t make it to even half of the museums and galleries that were on my list of interesting-looking stuff, but it was a lovely evening nonetheless. Looking forward to going again next year.

Tags: art, Germany, Munich, museums