Filed under: Art, Photo | Tags: Art, Centre Pompidou, Photo, Vivan Sundaram, Waste & Consumption
Visiting the Centre Pompidou in Paris I discovered the indian artist Vivan Sundaram who has created a series of photographs called “Trash”.The artist comments on contemporary politics through his radical art works. “Trash” has been shown in its entirety as a multimedia exhibition of installations, photographs and videos at Sepia in New York. The works address the aesthetics and social implications of urban waste and global consumption.
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The photographs show landscapes built of discarded objects which seem both familiar and strange. I found them to evoke an unsettling feeling of looking at something that I should recognize, without actually being able to. After a while I recognize fragments, but still I can´t really navigate through the landscape. I think the artist visualizes in a great way how objects transform to a different state when being discarded, but still stay the same. It is the context, state and location which make them difficult to recognize as the objects they once were. They exist in limbo between usefulness and end of life.
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The transition between the categories of useful objects (for example brick, tire, circuit board) and the collective category “trash” is decided by a complex combination of routines, social norms, material characteristics, state and function, technological and political development, but in the end it is the context and location that makes something “trash”.
Photo borrowed from Walsh Gallery
Photographed at Centre Pompidou
Photographed at Centre Pompidou
Photo borrowed from artnet
After posting the old childhood drawing, my book with Pushwagners Soft City came to mind. Obviously I was subconsciously inspired by great artists already in my early youth! My drawing is not dated, but mid/late 80´s would be a fair guess. Soft City which is a cartoon made by Hariton Pushwagner (Terje Brofoss, 1940), is, as it seems to me, about ordinary mass produced life with a touch of the 50´s.
I have discovered an artist I had not heard of before. Anna-Eva Bergman. I find her compositions very interesting. The contruction and philigran lines, the metallic surfaces embedded appeal to me.
Anna-Eva Bergman (1909 – 1987). Married to the painter Hans Hartung and frequenting the same circles as Picasso and Braque, she was better known abroad than in Norway. For the first time Anna-Eva Bergman’s unknown surrealist works are presented together in a major exhibition at the Henie-Onstad senter in Oslo.
Filed under: Architecture, Art, Photo, Travel | Tags: Architecture, Art, Gerhard Richter, Munich, Photo
I went on a little trip to Munich this weekend visiting a friend. I think Munich is a very nice example of the German sense of perfection, neatness and cleanliness. Everything seems so organized and well tended. The people as well, not a wrinkle in their shirt. There is a lot of cool perfection and a quite conservative “stiffness” combined by the contrasting warm welcoming Bavarian atmosphere. In about two weeks the fun begins with the annual Oktoberfest! I was there for it in 2005 with my friend Heidi. After getting a couple of Dirndl (Traditional dresses), we were partying just like the local girls. Such great fun. Well, none of that this year. Good fun still; walking around the city, going to a little party and…
…on Saturday I went to Pinakothek der Moderne (Contemporary art museum). The architecture of the museum appeals to me. It is quite industrial, with sleek lines contrasted by curves inside. The collection holds some art by german painters from the 19th century up to the present, pieces by Andy Warhol, just now an architectural exhibit by Jabornegg & Pállfy, lighting installation by Dan Flavin, New York, and I discovered a painting that I didn´t know, by my faourite artist Gerhard Richter as well.
On my journey through the Musée d´Orsay this July I stopped by this painting by the Danish artist Vilhelm Hammershøi. I looked at it for quite some time, as I enjoyed its quietness, minimalism and the unsaid. It reminded me of a American-Norwegian artist I had discovered some time ago called Ida Lorentzen. 
I am very fond of her work. When I got home and did some research on them both, I discovered that Vilhelm Hammershøi, who lived from 1864-1916, ofcourse is the main inspiration of Ida Lorentzen (born 1951). She describes her first experience of his art like this: “When I first saw the art of Hammershøi, I felt like i had come home”.
Look at some of the paintings by Hammershøi HERE
Look at some of the paintings by Lorentzen HERE
In both their work I see silence, not a dull silence of nothingness, but a silence of past events, of atmosphere. I feel like the objects in the paintings are witnesses unable to speak their story, but able nevertheless, because of the thoughts they put in our minds to what might have occurred in the room that they are placed in. A room without people also has a loneliness to it I think, an anticipation and a tension. As if it´s only really there when someone uses it. 
In a way that is the way we perceive rooms in our everyday life. In our mind it really just exists when we are in it, and is rarely on our minds when we are not. A big difference between Hammershøi and Lorentzen work I think is that many of her rooms seem like they are constructed, not viewed and “copied” as in his. Therefor I think that Lorentzen brings to mind a more mystical and dreamy sensation. The calm of the rooms feels soothing yet disturbing, because of the questions and curiosity that emerges.
The painting above is from Strandgade 30, which is Vilhelm Hammershøis´ home address in Copenhagen. His home is the motif of many of his paintings.
Underneath is Interiør fra Nyfossum, 2002 by Ida Lorentzen.
Biography of Vilhelm Hammershøi
Filed under: Architecture, Art, Photo, Travel | Tags: Architecture, Art, France, Musée d´Orsay, Paris, Photo
The Musée d´Orsay is also an obligatory visit when in Paris. A great collection of mainly French art dating from 1848 to 1915, including paintings, sculptures, furniture, and photography. The museum holds an extensive collection of impressionist masterpieces by painters such as Monet, Degas, Renoir, and Cezanne. The building is a former train station, and is amazingly beautiful. I would recommend not doing the Louvre and Musée d´Orsay on the same day as I did. Unfortunately the last hour of the visit was with out taking anything in. I guess there is a limit to the amount of input in one day, but I did enjoy it a lot. Especially the light and airy paintings by Monet.
Filed under: Architecture, Art, Photo, Travel | Tags: Architecture, Art, Centre Pompidou, France, Paris, Photo
On the first day in Paris we went to the Centre Georges Pompidou which accommodates the leading collection of modern and contemporary art in Europe. It also holds a large public reference library, performance spaces and cinemas as well as an institute for musical research and creation. The architecture of the place is quite interesting with most of the technical installations out in the open marked with different colors. It stands out though quite harshly in comparison to the surrounding historic architecture. In front of the building is a big square which is eagerly used by people sitting on the ground reading, talking, playing music and so on. From the upper floors you can observe the activity on the ground from a birds perspective. Here are some photos from the collection and the museum, and a few artworks by two of my favorite artists Mark Rothko and Gerhard Richter, that I got on post cards.
Filed under: Architecture, Art, Photo, Travel | Tags: Architecture, Art, France, Louvre, Paris, Photo
Early in the morning on wednesday 22.7, I went by metro to the station of Palais Royal Musée du Louvre. It was a tip in the Lonely Planet France to go to the museum trough the metro station to avoid the line at the main entrance by the pyramid. There was a bit of a line for tickets at the counter though there as well, but it went pretty fast, and I could by tickets for the Musée d´Orsay at the same time.
Musée du Louvre is the national museum of France and is housed in the Palais du Louvre. It is an enormous museum where 35,000 objects from the 6th century BC to the 19th century are exhibited. The collection is divided among eight curatorial departments: Egyptian Antiquities; Near Eastern Antiquities; Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Antiquities; Islamic Art; Sculpture; Decorative Arts; Paintings; and Prints and Drawings.
It has been said that it would take nine months (!) to have look at every piece of art in the collection, so you just have to choose some part of the museum, and leave the rest for another visit. I decided to go for the Mona Lisa first, and went to the Denon wing on the 1st floor. On my way to the most famous painting in the world, I passed all the french and italian paintings from the 13th – 15th century. I must say the sight of these masterpieces hanging on the walls of this amazing palace is quite impressing. All though I was at the museum when it opened, the place was already packed with people. When I arrived at the Mona Lisa, there was a big crowd in front of it taking pictures. Pictures of Mona Lisa, of themselves with Mona Lisa, of their mother,sister, girlfriend with the Mona Lisa… puh… What a fuzz there is over this painting. It is quite small, and to be looked at from a bit of a distance since there is a rope holding you back. I think it is hard to point out the superior greatness of this painting to the others of the same time. I had a few other favourites.
From there I went on to the Napoleon III apartments in the Richilieu wing. The rooms are an explosion of gold, crystal and velvet. The Louvre was still being added to by Napoleon III. The new wing of 1852-1857, represents the Second Empire‘s version of Neo-baroque. Oh I wish I could close my eyes and when I´d open them I would see how people were moving around in these incredibly pompous surroundings. I am thinking the same thing walking around in the streets of Paris. The beauty of the architecture inevitably diminishes somewhat in combination with the signs, traffic and trash of the modern times.
