A poem from Frankfurt

We visited the Museum of Modern Art in Frankfurt (the National Museum of Art was closed for renovations) and came across this very unusual sculpture by Katharina Fritsch. It haunted me so much I had to write a poem about it. Though you might not be able to tell from the photo, it is huge. All the figures are life size. And if you have any idea about what it means, please post a comment.


http://www.mmk-frankfurt.de/

Katharina Fritsch's Tischgesellschaft (Table Society), 1988  

at the Frankfurt Museum of Modern Art

Sitting in Black and White

Katharina Fritsch sculpted thirty-two men

sitting at a long narrow table

covered with a red and white

print oil-cloth tablecloth

Half of the men sit on one side

half on the other,

each looking exactly alike

dressed in black

shirt, pants, shoes.

Each has black hair,

only their faces and hands

are chalk white.

They sit sort of hunched over

looking their opposite in the eye,

their hands on the table

with fingers turned inward

and slightly spread out.

And if you look

under the table

just beneath the edge of the tablecloth

you’ll see each has his knees together

his feet together

in straight, precise alignment

but not placed

quite close enough

to touch those

of his companion

on the other side.

But, no amount of looking

will tell you what

these men sitting precisely so

are doing there.

Gustav Vigeland in Oslo - you have to be there

While on a cruise about a year ago we stopped in Oslo for all of four hours and it was raining ice water. Still our tour guide insisted we go to Vigeland Park to see sculptures we would never get a chance to see anywhere else. Well, we saw them briefly with rain pouring down our necks, so we couldn't wait to get back on the bus.


While on our recent trip I insisted we go back to see Vigeland's bronze and granite life-size sculptures - 214 sculptures with more than 758 figures standing on 80 acres of public park - open 24 hours everyday of the year and free of charge.


Well our first day in Oslo it rained - seems to be a constant there. But thankfully the clouds cleared up for us on day two - In fact, it even got sunny, and we were able to enjoy this amazing sight. Vigeland modeled every sculpture in the park himself, without the assistance of pupils or other artists,


I also saw a few other Vigeland sculptures around Oslo and in its National Gallery. But the ones in Vigeland park - all nudes depicting the life cycle of birth to death  - are the most impressive. Here are a few photos. 

http://www.visitoslo.com/en/faq-vigeland-park.52113.en.html

Whimsy in Stockholm

I love the whimsy of French sculptor, Niki de Saint Phalle, whose work I first saw in Paris. So it was a great surprise to see her sculptures in front of the Modern Art Museum in Stockholm with the machine-like scuptures of Jean Tinguely. Their exhibit is called Le Paradis Fantastique, and it surely is.


Here are a few examples:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3tXznHsG7I