Pinakothek der Moderne

OK - last museum post I promise!  After lunch we went to the Pinakothek der Moderne, which was across the street from the Alte Pinakothek.  I believe the Neues Pinakothek, which is also in the same spot, mostly had 19th century works and the Impressionists, so we skipped that and headed straight for the modern collection, which my guide book rated as better.  I'll spare you the art history blurbs on this post (for the most part) and let the pictures speak for themselves.  Interestingly, even though we spent the least amount of time in this museum, I took the most pictures here!  The modern works and architecture just made for better photography.

Ceiling above the main atrium.

Matisse...

Kirchner, Cirkus 1913 - remember this one from art history class...

Kirchner, Selbstbildnis als Kranker (Self-portrait while Sick) 1918

"C'moooooon, Papa."

Max Beckmann, 1927

Robert Delaunay, The Team from Cardiff, 1913

Georges Braque, Woman with Mandolin, 1910

Love these...

Kandinsky, Dreamy Improvisation, 1913

Klee, 1919

Didn't pay attention to the artist on this one, but it looks German ca. World War I.  Looks like the guy in the picture couldn't care less about the hat!!

Schlemmer, Dancer 1922/23

Klee, 1931

These photographs were interesting.  By a photographer named Ellen Auerbach (Karlsruhe 1906 - New York 2004.) They were a collection of portraits of different artists, including Willem de Kooning in 1944, below.

The photographer Eliot Porter in 1957.

And the dancer Renate Schottelius in 1953.

Luna was losing steam...

Max Beckmann, Self-Portrait in Black, 1944

Picasso, The Painter and His Model, 1963

Kat de Laat, Husband with Blackberry, 2011

Magritte, The Key of Dreams, 1930  Interesting, because another painting by Magritte, by the same name is better known.  But who can really figure out Magritte?

Do I even need to tell you?

Dali, The Enigma of Desire or My Mother, My Mother, My Mother, 1929  Very famous.

Deserves a close up of the (strange) details.

Max Ernst, The Bird People, 1919/20  - Glad they're not my neighbors...

Liked the way the tub in the foreground looked like a Fedora from this angle...

Joseph Beuys, 7 Evolutions of Swelling,  1985

Andy Warhol, Joseph Beuys

Green was not added in Photoshop.  That's just how strong the green light coming from this Flavin installation was!

de Kooning, Untitled 1985

This was a special exhibit of Hans-Peter Feldmann, and a fun little collection of his works.  It's been done in conjunction with the "Edition 46" of the Southern German Times Magazine, which is put together every year by an international contemporary artist.  At first I thought that meant he was a very new artist, but then I realized that I recognized some of his work, so it was definitely a treat to see it all together like this!

This one was called, 1 Pound of Strawberries

These portraits with the clown noses are the ones which I remember seeing before.

This piece is called Shadowplay and was great fun.  Basically little toys and other junk sit on rotating discs in front of spot-lights, which then create dancing shadows interlaced across the wall.  Bas was rather put off by the fact that the artist left his trash and building supplies on the tables, but it was apparently done on purpose.

See the water bottle?

This one was funny.  The second girl has been physically cut out of the picture.  I should have done a close up of the look on the first girl's face...

See both shadows?

Stephan Melzl, Geheimnis (Secret),  2005 - Luna and I had a long discussion about this one.  I told her that when Mommy was in Kindergarten, if I did something bad, I had to put my nose in the corner, just like this little girl.

Neo Rauch, Kalimuna 2010 - liked the way the color and illustration styling were reminiscent of a faded newspaper from the 1950's, but if you look closely, you'll find it's definitely more abstract, perhaps even a bit disturbing!  It was very big.

Here's another...

Peter Doig, Metropolitain (House of Pictures) 2004

Thought this one was fun, too.  There were several of these which looked like the ink blot test pages, but when you got up close, they were knit intarsia panels.

Rosemarie Trockel, Mattress (Futon might be a better translation, I'm not sure) 1985

Palermo, Flipper 1965

Luna had definitely had her fill of modern art for the day...

Shot of the entrance to the design galleries.  Looked wonderful, but it was time to go... maybe next time!  I know you can't wait for the post!

Alte Pinakothek

Again - if you don't like art history... look away!! This is gonna be long... But I have to do this, because I love it.  Sunday was so much fun for me.  I think I owe my husband a big thank you for hanging in there...  we spent the morning at the Alte Pinakothek, and the afternoon at the Pinakothek Moderne.  Both of which were really well worth a stop for any art lover or art history student.  Especially the Alte Pinakothek.  They had some really rare pieces' some very notable ones, which I remember studying in school' as well as a fabulous Rubens collection.  Not my favorite artist, but an impressive collection, nonetheless.

First painting we see as we walk into the Early Netherlandish galleries is this Hieronymus Bosch.  Whoa - what a way to start the day!  I love Bosch, probably because my father had a book on his work, which I loved to look at when I was a kid.  And with only 25 authenticated paintings of his surviving, seeing one, especially an obscure one, is  a thrill!  The subject matter is pretty gory and graphic, if not downright creepy, but it certainly conveys the orthodox and somewhat folkloric aspect of Christianity during the dark ages.  This is a fragment of what was likely a triptych, and the attribution is questioned.

Remember you can click on these to see them in more detail.

Bosch didn't "mince words" as you would say, in his depictions of damnation and the retribution for sin...

This van der Weyden is one of the highlights of the Pinakothek collection.  It depicts the Annunciation, the Adoration of the Magi, and the Presentation in the Temple.  The color absolutely glowed, and the fineness of detail was remarkable.

Luna thought so, too.  This shot, however, reminds me of a Rockwell...

Albrecht Dürer's self-portrait.  Their collection of early German art was, not surprisingly, most impressive.  Much of it wasn't even on display.  Dürer, shown below, is one of the only really notable painters from this period.  He was also from Nürnberg.  It is notable, first as such an early example of portraiture, period.  Second because he assumes such a frontal position, and appears almost Christ-like or Iconographic.  Dürer was Germany's Renaissance Man, much like da Vinci, and was obsessed with studying human proportion, which was probably more his focus.

A couple of ladies I just liked...

I really enjoyed the painting below, as it is perfect for showing the progression of painting "style" in many ways. The composition, being off-center, and with a pillar in the foreground, front and center - are definitely a departure from what would have been considered normal at the time.  The use of light, with the Christ-child himself, seemingly the source; and the light positioned in the foreground, illuminating the rest of the party from below, seem quite unusual as well.

Loved this de' Barbari - a good example of early still-life, interestingly combined with trompe l'oeil techniques.  If you look at this one close up, the objects hanging on the wall should almost pop off the canvas at you.

A Botticelli, known for his lovely Madonnas, unusual to the artist for it's frank brutality.  The vibrancy of these colors just does not come through in the photos...

And... tada!  A Leonardo da Vinci...  an early example, from prior to his "mastery" period, but nonetheless exquisite.

Raphaels... two of several which were there.

Detail showing the delicacy in hair, transparent fabric, and gold-leaf halo.  Amazing.

Fra Angelico... kind of speaks for itself.

Lost, bored, tired?  Maybe... dancing? 

Titian - a rather strikingly brutal Christ Crowned with Thorns

Apparently still life painting has now arrived in it's full glory...  this one was like 20 feet wide!  OK, maybe 15.

van Dyck

And now, the Rubens Hall.  Which was quite literally the largest, and grandest space in the building.  Almost all of the pieces in this room were Rubens, too. 

I included this picture for context, to show you just how big this one is, and just how big this gallery is.  I think my book described this painting as "the most overwhelming depiction of the end of the world since Michelangelo," and the Sistine Chapel...

Definitely remember studying this one... The Rape of the Daughters of Leucippus. These gals don't look like their protesting too much.  Famous for his use of the picture plane and his composition.

Another one I remember... The Death of Seneca. 

And how "Rubens" is this???

The Fall of the Damned Into Hell also Rubens.  Oh, the drama...  His use of shifting light was genius.

My book describes the twisted bodies as "corpulent."  Apt.  But I thought it was "Rubenesque?"

Rembrandt, himself.

Rembrandt was extremely prolific in his production of self-portraits.  This one from age 23.

Loved this one for its almost absence of color, and its use of line.  Definitely not your Grnadmother's still-life... Think they would notice if it ended up over my couch?

Dutch genre painting begins...

Rembrandt - Christ Risen

The Deposition - Rembrandt.  Isaiah 53:2 "neither form nor beauty" is left in the corpse.  Compare this to Rubens idealized visions of Christ!  The figure in blue is a self-portrait of the artist.

The Sacrifice of Isaac - Rembrandt.  Talk about drama!  The painting is presumably that of his student, worked over by the artist.

Tiepolo's The Adoration of the Magi -  another giant masterpiece.  My book says "regarded as the greatest achievement of 18th century Italian painting..."  You can really see how his mastery of composition stages the scene here! Tiepolo also worked in the Residenz in Würzburg (If you've been there, the turbaned King in the foreground may remind you of the frescoes in the Treppenhaus there.)

The lovely lady seen below is none other than Mme de Pompadour.  Mistress to King Louis XV, and Lady in Waiting to the Queen.  The portrait is by Boucher - a favorite of the Versailles court.

Francesco Gardi - Regatta on the Canale della Giudecca.  Gardi started out working in the manner of Canaletto''s vedute (real cityscapes) which were very popular with upper-class English on the "Grand Tour" of the continent.  But Gardi preferred freedom of handling over topographical accuracy.  His contemporaries criticized the license he took with his style, and he was forgotten soon after his death.  But in the early 20th century, following the success of Impressionism, he again won the appreciation he deserved.

The detail of his brush-strokes make that story clear.

El Greco - Christ Stripped of His Garments

And to finish our morning with the Old Masters, here is a rather superfluous piece, but a great example of the little side road French painting went down in the 18th century.  Jean Honore' Fragonards Girl With Lap-Dog shocked even hardened contemporaries, and during the Revolution, Fragonard, and his works were banned.

Another example of the excesses during this frivolous age, Reclining Girl by Boucher.  The girl depicted here is probably Louise O'Murphy at 15, who worked for the artist as a model.  After Louis the XV saw a miniature of her, he took her as his mistress.  She bore a child and was subsequently married to a noble.

We decided to skip the "Neues" which must have housed the Pinakothek 19th century and Impressionist collections  (overexposed in my opinion, :) ) and opted instead for the Moderne in the afternoon.  The picture below shows the Moderne on the left, and the Alte on the right.  It shows the profile of the Alte, the building stretched on to show it's full width from a right angle to this view.  Point being, this picture doesn't accurately depict how huge the Alte is!