the Grand Tour blog

Understanding Contemporary Art

Before leaving Weimar for Leipzig yesterday, I took the short trip down the hill from the station – where I'd left my suitcase – to the splendid Neues Museum, to see their small permanent collection of contemporary art, and a temporary exhibition called 'D-206: Die Thüringer Sezession' (the Thuringian Secession, I think). I was the only visitor. I tried, very hard, to understand.

Arriving in Leipzig I visited the two sections of the Galerie für Zeitgenössiche Kunst (GfZK), the Museum of Contemporary Art. In GfZK-1, an exhibition about mounting and publicising an exhibition, showing blown up emails and other documentation, which was an interesting idea. Nearly all of it text, in German, so sadly I missed a lot. In GfZK-2, projects from about 10 artists, all now working in Leipzig, influenced by trips abroad or because the artists came from abroad. Again, the only visitor. And again, I tried.

Looking for Answers

A difficult start to the day with a visit to the Buchenwald Memorial. Virtually all of the original concentration camp has been flattened, but the outlines of the huts remain. I found the memorial to the 'Little Camp', which I didn't know about, where inmates were kept in indescribable conditions: far far worse - if we can even imagine that - than those of the main camp.

And I visited the art gallery, titled 'Means of Survival'. Much of the work is of outstanding quality, and was very moving. The more so because to record the actual conditions would have been to invite trouble. So there were portraits: dignified, caring. Inevitably some inmate artists were professionals, but many were not; some learned to draw or paint while they were in the camp. And there were pictures produced after liberation, as a way of trying to come to terms with the artist's experience, or to provide evidence.

Not much need to take photos this morning.

From Liszt to Bauhaus in Weimar

I started today at an excellent Liszt exhibition in the modern exhibition space at the back of the Schillerhaus: 'Franz Liszt: a European in Weimar', this being his 200th anniversary. Whilst I enjoy his music I know little of his history, so I was taking copious notes. An excellent free audio guide. Interesting to hear of the background of Hummel and Czerny in his performances and compositions, his 1823 tour when he was hailed as the 'New Mozart', his father Adam's management expertise (like Leopold Mozart's), and his Diabelli variations (I only know Beethoven's) which were his first published composition at the age of 11. Well, I was there for an hour and a half.

After a break in the Herderkirche – the Stadtkirche St Peter and St Paul – where I went to see Lucas Cranach's final painting over the altar, I moved on to another Liszt-related exhibition in the Schloss, where a dozen pianos spanning 1792 to 1825 were on display among the regular galleries. One that the London maker Broadwood gave to Beethoven passed on to Liszt on Beethoven's death, and was highly valued by Liszt for the rest of his life. Also in the Schloss their small permanent exhibition of exquisite paintings by Lucas Cranach and Albrecht Dürer.

Then a late picnic lunch in the sun in the delightful Park an der Ilm, looking across to Goethe's summer house, on the way to the Haus am Horn, a somewhat experimental house based on Bauhaus principles, designed by the artist Georg Muche and built during the Bauhaus exhibition in 1923. I thought my visit would be brief, but the curator gave me – and a few other visitors who joined us on the way – a most interesting tour of the small house, and I ended up staying an hour and a half there as well.

Bright light in the sky over Erfurt

Today was my planned trip to Erfurt and Arnstadt, despite many hours on trains in the last two days, so after a hasty breakfast I walked the short distance to the station and was on the platform with my ticket in five minutes. The weather was as dull as yesterday, and all the commuters were wearing coats. As we approached Erfurt I noticed a huge Ikea distribution centre, painted off-white to match the sky.

Erfurt turned out to be much larger and more commercial than I'd expected from the guide book. I walked through the attractive, clean and mostly pedestrianised streets to the Dom and Severikirche. The huge Mediaeval square - the Domplatz - over which they tower is ringed now by the inevitable market stalls, white vans and bratwurst kiosks, with a helping of tour buses on the side. So a good view and photos of the two churches on top of their hill is difficult.

Inside, the Dom is in two halves: a huge, open and relatively light hall, with a small but exquisite painting of the Madonna with Saints Catherine and Barbara by Lucas Cranach; and a very dark and more conventional chancel with heavy woodwork and superb full length stained glass windows. The Severikirche next door is also a 'hall church', so open that you hardly notice its five aisle. A pink sandstone tomb of St Severus from about 1365, and an interesting pulpit.

When I came our of the church there was a distinct feeling of warmth from the sky, and by the time I'd walked to the Krämerbrücke - the longest inhabited bridge in Europe - the sky was blue and the sun was shining. Had I even thought of bringing sunglasses and sunscreen? At least the camera had work to do.

My plan was to move on to Arnstadt, home of various members of the Bach family for many years, at around 12:30, returning to Erfurt late in the afternoon, but I decided to take a train an hour earlier as I'd seen as much as I wanted to in Erfurt for now. So a brisk walk back to the busy station.