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.

Meeting Bach's family in Arnstadt

Tuesday: One of the best things about arriving in Arnstadt was to walk into the Bachkirche – so called since 1935 but originally the 'Neue Kirche' (New Church) – to hear the sound of the organ as someone practiced. Playing Bach, of course. I sat for about ten minutes to listen until they'd finished, with a couple of other visitors. The church was built in 1683 to replace an earlier church that had burnt down in 1581.

In 1703, at the age of 18, Johann Sebastian Bach was called to the church to test the new organ, and soon was appointed organist, until he moved to Mülhausen in 1707. He lived at the time with his aunt Martha Elizabeth in what is now the Bachhaus; it has only recently been rescued and renovated, and opened to the public in 2004. Only a couple of rooms on the ground floor are open, and to be honest the renovations have necessarily been so extensive that I didn't really feel the spirits of the Bach family.

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.

Weimar: first stop Bauhaus Museum

Yesterday was the day for the nearly five-hour journey from Bonn to Weimar. I started with an hour's meandering walk around the very overcast city before heading back to the station, where I'd left my case, to catch the 10:14 ICE (InterCity Express). Certainly no chance of improving on the pics of the Beethoven statue in Münsterplatz that I took on the Grand Tour.

The journey was without incident, although there was a long slow stretch at one point when I watched the freight train on the other side of the Rhine rush past and disappear into the distance, while our express crawled past the cyclists enjoying the cycle path beside the river. I changed trains at Frankfurt Flughafen, but noted that the ICE went on all the way to Vienna, a nine hour journey from Bonn.

After checking in to my hotel, where I've stayed before and which is only a few minutes from the station, I headed straight to the centre of Weimar and the Bauhaus Museum, diverting only slightly to look in the Jakobskirche to see whether the building works have finished that were there when I last visited (they have, and the church looks superb).

A film was just starting in the Bauhaus Museum – in German with English subtitles – describing the formation of the Bauhaus school in Weimar in the poor and troubled times immediately after the first World War. They were caught in the crossfire between opposing political views, and there seems to have been much "robust discussion" internally as well, especially between Gropius and Johannes Itten who eventually parted company in 1923. Dessau made the best offer for the school when it was forced to close in 1925 after a change in local politics, and I shall be heading there next week to pick up the story.

There are many original drawings and other graphics on display, some of them familiar from books and articles, and a small number of articles such as pottery and silverware. I hadn't realised how many toys and performance pieces they designed and made as part of the all-inclusive workshops.

After the Bauhaus Museum a stroll around the rest of the city centre under a very grey sky to reorientate myself. A proper visit on Wednesday; today I head for Erfurt.