Comments on: Cultural Amnesia in Berlin

By: Matthias Wivel

Matthias Wivel — Fri, 23 Aug 2013 19:26:45 +0000

Great news: the paintings are staying. In the end, it (naturally) came down to money.

By: Matthias Wivel

Matthias Wivel — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 20:45:57 +0000

Mike, I don’t think it’s happening just yet, though I’m unsure what the status of the plan is. But you should be ok! Enjoy!

By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 11:25:26 +0000

Matthias, as luck would have it, it seems I will be in Berlin later this year. And the Gemäldegalerie is number one on my list of places to go. Do you know when this change is likely to happen? Not before October, I hope.

By: Matthias Wivel

Matthias Wivel — Sun, 19 Aug 2012 06:45:35 +0000

Yeah, it’s an incredible collection — I highly recommend visiting it!

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 12:09:50 +0000

My, my, my. Talk about an embarrassment of riches. Most galleries would be built on a collection of painters like that. Half that.

Wow. Arrogance.

By: Matthias Wivel

Matthias Wivel — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 07:08:13 +0000

Oh, you’re probably right in the long term, but this tendency has been going for a while now and I think it’s quite counterproductive. Also, there are issues of conservation and preservation that may have more permanent consequences if underprioritised.

By: Andreas Geisler

Andreas Geisler — Sun, 12 Aug 2012 20:05:36 +0000

I wonder about the schism between the display of pre-20th century art and 20th century art… now, I know this is not my field, I’m a total street man on this, but I am reminded of natural processes, of equilibriums heaving back and forth as they gravitate towards a new resting point – when a new reagent has just been added.
Perhaps this current trend is just one heave towards normalizing the art of _last_ century? After all, it used to be the present thing, the thing that’s happening, but now it’s not that anymore. Now it has to start it’s march towards historical art, to find its place in that domain. And it has to nudge at the stuff that’s already there, the older history. And then the older history nudges back, and then eventually a natural state is achieved… just in time for the art of this century to become non-current and then it all starts over again.

Not that it means that one shouldn’t react to these heavings and waves, but that perhaps one should make up one’s mind about where the natural state is, and try to dampen the motions that go away from there… the waves may do some damage as they go too far, after all. Art is lost all the time, after all.

And now I’ll go sign that petition 😀