When you are in Berlin, it is easy to visit Potsdam, the Hauptstadt of Brandenburg. Now it is a beautiful little town (184.154 inhabitants) - I write "now" because I have seen it before the turnaround/Wende - the beautiful old buildings were derelict and decayed, grey, and very depressing.
Now they almost overdid the renovation - so very colourful and sweetly pretty that you might think you are in a charming scenery of a theatre.
For me the most outstanding parts are the Castle Sanssouci of Frederic the Great, and his oh so wonderful park Sanssouci. I would go from Berlin on foot if it were the only chance to see it - but no: you can comfortably use the S-Bahn and be at the main station after a cheap, nice ride of 29 minutes.
Other views:
Red brick houses in the
Dutch quarter - King Frederic welcomed many
Huguenots. Another time I will show photos of the castle, park and town - this time we were there for the beautiful
museum Barberini: We wanted to visit the exhibition "Surrealism und Magie. Verzauberte Moderne" (Surrealism and Magic. Betwitched Modern Era").
I have to confess that we were neither bewitched nor enchanted nor spellbound. I quarrelled with myself, scolded me that maybe an impostor of dear Emmeline Lucas (Queen Lucia by E.F.Benson) had crept into myself...
"... while she herself, oblivious of the passage of time, was spending her last half-hour in contemplation of the Italian masterpieces at the National Gallery, or the Greek bronzes at the British Museum. Certainly she would not be at the Royal Academy, for the culture of Riseholme, led by herself, rejected as valueless all artistic efforts later than the death of Sir Joshua Reynolds, and a great deal of what went before."
No, I do love modern art and know that art doesn't have to be beautiful - but these pictures were mostly really bad, second or even third rate, often Kitsch.
Only some Yves Tanguys were accepted.
But we were very happy that there was the other exhibition in the same museum: "Impressionism. Masterpieces of the collection Hasso Plattner"
Beautiful pictures of winter.
The following one is from Alfred Sisley, "Snow Effect in Louveciennes" 1874 , from his participation in the First Impressionist Exhibition in Paris, which I loved so much:
I have never been to Berlin. I wonder if I ever will get there.
ReplyDeleteYou know what I said to you and HI, dear Tom! And I mean it.
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ReplyDeleteI wish I had been around in 1874 to see the First Impressionist Exhibition in Paris.The artists were treated very badly by the public and I could have told them in 20+ years they would be famous.
That is a noble gesture, dear Helen! My not so noble thought was: I would have bought some pictures :-) But the collection of Hasso Plattner is overwhelming, and well presented.
DeleteI love your Lucia reference! Such a poser in art and music and speaking Italian..
ReplyDeleteYes, dear Boud - and don't forget Georgie mio and later Miss Mapp - so much fun!
DeletePotsdam rebuilt sounds delightful. I find some modern art is very appealing and other pieces are not appealing at all. The YT pieces reminded me of Escher's work which always draw me in - almost like a puzzle. The landscapes are lovely.
ReplyDeleteWhen you were in Den Haag you might have visited the Escher Museum? He is fascinating. And by Tanguy I love the fragile moving sculptures. Some paintings of surrealists I do like - but here they were "easily painted", I don't know how to express that.
DeletePotsdam is worth a short trip - a garrison town as in Jane Austen novels.
I remember going to Potsdam once in the 1977 and I remember only an ugly town. Am I mistaken? I remember a place we visited in the GDR on a day across to the east and we returned to West Berlin in the evening. I always remember it as being Potsdam but perhaps I was mistaken.
ReplyDeleteI think that you are right, Rachel - it must have been Potsdam, which was a really depressing sight during GDR time - grey and derelict.
DeleteTo be fair: Berlin, which I often visited as a child (BRD and GDR) was grey too - now those houses wear a lot of make-up.
So beautiful. All of it.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Emma - the buildings now are imposant and the Museum Barberini is very beautiful renovated. And the Impressionist paintings I fell in love with - so great impressions of winter!
ReplyDeleteI find it quite thrilling to see buildings brought back to life, dear Britta, and Potsdam would be on The List if a visit to Germany was planned. Don't worry about things looking too pristine for time will take care of that and there will surely be a mellowness to Potsdam in a decade or so. When we see the almost shocking contrast of cities like London or Paris, as portrayed in film & telly, even up to the 80s and then to the present day, they appeared almost once dystopian! All grimy and drear. And yet all they needed was to be taken by the ear like a filthy urchin and popped into a tin bath and scrubbed with some hard soap and a brush. Pop a clean shirt and short trousers on them and tie a big bow under the chin and lo! ready to face the vicar at tea-time! ... Or somesuch hahahah!
ReplyDeleteSurrealist art, I sit on the fence there. I can't fathom the fascination with viscera - and when we play the game of Would we want this hanging about the casa? one cannot help to wonder if the artist is playing a big joke on the buyers. But some surrealist art is rather clever. Your gorgeous impressionistic snowy scenes are very appealing and soothing. Especially while it is so hot and sultry here right now that lounging about in one's smalls waving an oriental fan is the order of the day :)
Dear Pip, you made my day!
ReplyDeleteI read your comment this morning and laughed out loud - a good way to start the day!
Do you plan a visit to Germany? I would very much like to meet you. Here we have snow now, while you have summer. Some like it hot - me too!
Yes, buildings will get a nice patina soon - and in Potsdam they did a lot in very soft mellow yellow (in a Bavarian small town they used all pastel colours of the Sixties - that looked nice, though surprising.)
It's only that I do love the Japanese philosophy of Wabi-sabi (the beauty of imperfection) and Kintsugi - one can use gold to mend something broken, but it's nice to be able to see the traces of time.
Hahaha - the filthy urchin - and the vicar at teatime - that made me laugh, because at this moment I reread Barbara Pym.
I will sit on the fence beside you (and The Rolling Stones in their great song). I am quite clear that I would NOT hang the surrealists in my humble casa - clever or not. But may I snatch your phrase "to play the game of Would we want this hanging about the casa?" - I love it, especially the "about"!
(A colleague of mine had a picture over his dining table where the whole world was hanging on a shovel, going downhill - it somehow spoiled my appetite...:-)
I have still, to my shame, not been to Berlin - one day perhaps. Meanwhile my son is going there in three weeks on his college history trip!
ReplyDeleteI love that Sisley painting - he is perhaps one of the slightly lesser known impressionists but his winter paintings are out of this world.
Dear bike shed: sorry that your comment vanished into my spam - I found it today!
ReplyDeleteWell - Berlin changes very, very much - but is still worth a visit! I am quite sure that your son will like it - I often have young visitors who are fascinated (especially from the part that had been East Berlin - Kreuzberg, Friedrichshain etc)
The last painting is a stunner - I believe that I hear the snow crunch under my winter boots.