Kolorful. Kute. Kolossal. Koons

Hello,

Jeff Koons at the Fondation Beyeler in Basel. Of course I had to go. And good thing I did. It was an amazing exhibition.

The works by Koons always succeed in rendering the visitor happy and light, entertained and yet feeling the extraordinary quality of the art displayed. As Koons said:

"My work is a support system for people to feel good about themselves."

And it's clear why. The installations are colorful, huge and are very cute, to say the least. Koons' motives are sweet, almost trivial. Little kittens hanging in socks, smiling bears waving at you, piles of cute barnyard animals... you get the idea.

But the most famous pieces by Koons might be the huge Balloonanimal-Installations. From the 100 kilogramm heavy monography I purchased about Koons I learned that he was always fascinated by airfilled objects. The lightness was something that intrigued him and inspired him to create several Balloon-objects in the series "Celebration". The pieces look like huge Balloonfigures modelled by streetclowns but are infact massive stainless steel sculptures, glazed in transparent paint. They seem light as a feather, but in reality they weigh several tons. 

Of course there were other works that fascinated me. Especially one piece caught my eye, it seemed like I had seen it before. It seemed like a baroque mirror, an lavish golden frame but an odd form. There was no clear surface but alot of curves and edges. Then I saw the outlines of a face. I had seen that face before. I read the description in the guide and there it was. The solution. The weirdly shaped golden mirror was actually shaped like Baby-Jesus from a famous Da Vinci Painting (I went to see it in Paris, go check out my post about St. Anne http://www.miumiupow.blogspot.ch/2012/08/african-photographs.html). Marvelous!! Note how the media corresponds with the theme. 

And as you know, I love these kinds of things, where artists quote other pieces of art and use them as inspiration. I find it fascinating!

Apart from the huge installations and sculptures, paintings and collages there were also pieces of Koons' early works in the tradition of the ready-made, introduced by Duchamp in the early 20th century. In the series "The New" Koons displays new, unused vacuum cleaners and shampoo polishers. Here again we detect Koons' fascination with air, airfilled objects and machines., he even calls them "breathing machines". The lifelessness which is bestowed on objects like these dissappears and they appear to have some kind of biological, living quality. 

Koons' equally spectacular and subtle works are repeatedly concerend with themes such as innocence, beauty, sexuality and happiness. These reflect his conception of an art that is accesible to every viewer.

National Gallery of Zimbabwe in Bulawayo

Hello dear ones,

I did allready talk about Bulawayo, an artist from there and the National Gallery in Bulawayo. But I never took the time to actually talk about the building the museum is housed in.

It is one of the oldest original buildings still used in Bulawayo. It is called the Douslin House after its architect William Douslin.

After water and electricity became available in Bulawayo on June 1898 and the railway reached the city in 1897 an economical boom occured. Spaces for shops and offices were needed. The Douslin House, formerly known as the Willoughby's Building was finished in 1901 and then opened for business. The Bulawayo Art Gallery purchased the building in September 1980 when the museum officially opened. The history of the building is documented extraordinarily well through original plans, letters from involved people like landlords, architects and funders aswell through local newspapers like the Bulawayo Chronicle.

But now to the building itself. The imposing principal entrance to the building is in Main Street. There is a portico decorated with beautiful moulded cornices, pillars, an impressive pressed metal ceiling. The front doors have elaborate brass fingerplates. The entrance hall is similarly decorated. There, a magnificent staircase gives way to the first floor. The newel and banisters posts are of Burma teak and walnut, with the newel posts being beautifully carved. 

The skirting throughout the building is of generous proportions and the offices also have decorative moulded cornices. The doors are said to be of Burma teak. The handles are brass with brass fingerplates.

Like the National Gallery in Harare the Gallery in Bulawayo is a state institution. All the actions, events and exhibitions must be approved by the state which can sometimes lead to conflict. When I visited the Gallery the current exhibition was closed down, since it didn't agree with the "rules" of the state. I guess it was critical to the current state of the country or portrayed political issues very harshly. I can't tell, I didn't see it. I could only sneak a peak and id did seems pretty violent, mostly because of the red and black colors and the red walls. 

But the National Gallery in Bulawayo is an outstanding institution, no doubt about it. Here its statement released from the management:

"At the National Gallery in Bulawayo, we are tasked with the creative and intellectual discipline to select, to nurture and commend outstanding works of visual art, to select and display pivotal works, to generate and improve upon existing talent, to train and develop artistic skills, to educate, to empower, to mediate, and mostly to celebrate."

African Pastels.

Evening,

So, I‘ve mentioned Stanley Sibanda allready. He is a new and exciting visual artist, based in Bulawayo. I had the chance to take a look at his studio, which is located in the studio-building the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in Bulawayo provides for young and newcoming artists. 

I always love to see where artists create their work, their environment, their view out of the window. 

Stanley Sibanda, 37, is married and has two children. In 2007 he decided to focus his life entirely on art and painting.

His work is similar to alot of other Zimbabwean artist. The themes he pics are mostly based on rural life scenes such as busstations, farming men and women but also landscapes and animalportraits, which are the common themes. I know it sounds a little touristy, but the way he paints is very different from the others. For some reason african artist or pictures with an african background always use vibrant glowing colors. The continent seems to have this image of an almost violent colorscheme, which is in fact only true at sundown, when the sun turns everything into a flaring red. Breathtaking, But most of the time, the countryside is dusty and almost colored in pastel tones.

Sibanda takes on this colorscheme of pastels and the feeling of dust and sand in the air and paints the most lovely pictures. Sure, it‘s still the same themes, but they feel much more realistic and honest and not as mainstream and as i said before, not touristy. I really hope Sibanda evolves over time and finds a way to cut loose from traditional imgarey and find a more individual way to express his extraordinary talent in painting. 

African Photographs

Magadi Magadi,

Like every time when I'm in Harare I have to visit the National Gallery of Zimbabwe (NGZ) at least once! This time I was really impressed with all the improvements in all the areas of the museum. But most of all, I was impressed with the really great exhibition on display.

It was a photograph-exposition with photographs from different southern african photographers from the 1950's to present time. Most of them were portraits, mostly in black and white. The pictures show the process of how the photographers as newly independent citizens percieve the new and modern world they live in.

The show was separated in three different time-eras, so the viewer could really see the progress not only in technique, but also how people percieved themselves differently and started to find their own identities.

Here are my two favorite photographs of the 1950s-1960s.

The first one is a portrait of "Belle devant l'afro-negro club" from 1965 by Jean Depara. Depara is an internationally known talent and a pioneer in depicting modern african life. In this picture of a beautiful young woman, it is shown that, for example, western fashion and even hair, in the 60s was part of everyday life in Kinshasa. Depara lived and worked in the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo and captured its citizens and an Africa stripped of conventional social codes.

This portrait was taken by Ricardo Rangel, a photjournalist and photographer from Mozambique. "Doorkeeper at the Moulin Rouge" from 1970 shows, as many works by Rangel do, the fusion of the african/mozambican culture with its colonial ancestors, the Portuguese.

The second part of the exposition covered the timeperiod between the 1970s and 1990s. The photographs showed the aftermaths of the different revolutions, pacific or armed. Change was fragile and complicated, but very much fought for. While the northern part of Africa allready started to rebuild, the southern part still used photography as a method to raise awareness and to bring the movements foreward. 

This picture was taken by Jodi Bieber from South Africa in 1997. "Sunday School Nababeep Northern Cape". It was one of my favorite pictures in the entire exhibition. The children seemed so happy and fierce to show off their talent in a controled and safe environment. Bieber focused her early work on the place she grew up - South Africa. After over two decades of work she won the Premier World Press Photo of the Year Award 2011.

Lastly, the third part of the expo was focused on the 2000s. Photography isn't just a form of narration anymore, it has emancipated to an independent artform. Much like the people of Africa themselves. The struggle is over and after years of independence a new identity was finally found. 

Here you can see "Hloni" in 2006 and "Sibu I." in 2005, photographed by Nontskikelelo "Lolo" Veleko, from her series "Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder". In that series she portrays young Southafricans on the street, much like the wester trend of street-style-photography. The portrayed people are strong and confident and are proud to show off their individual style. The new generation of a new Africa.

Scrambled.

Good morning reader,

So, as you probably noticed, I haven't been keeping you updated very much lately. I and my interest for art have been traveling all over the place for the last month, even moving again!

I have some amazing posts prepared for you guys, they will soon be uploaded!

To not keep you hanging I'll share some city-surprises that I found on my routes. I did a streetart-post before, so you might know, that it is a passion of mine. I just think it's wonderful, if someone uses their surroundings not only as an inspiration, but also as a canvas. It makes you feel like suddenly your in a different world. A world someone else created and most of the time streetart accentuates things you wouldn't even notice.

So, to all of you out there. Keep your eyes open, you'll see your city through someone elses eyes for once.

Okay, here's stuff that caught my eye from four countries and five cities in a month.

On my last night in Paris I saw this brilliant paste-up/grafitti. And it was exactly what I felt like doing. Just draw a huge heart onto the most magnificent city in the entire world. 

(Maybe by Leo&Pipo...? Not sure.)

In Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, I came across a to me formerly unknown artist who does beautiful work. As far as I understood Stanley Sibanda mostly paints rural scenes and landscapes with oil on canvans. I'll do a seperate post on him later, so I?m not going to spill all the beans.

Berlin, Kreuzberg. This huge astronaut-stencil is a real eyecatcher and you really wonder how someone did that. I mean, it's huge. And it's on a wall. Really high up there...  

Thun, Boardwalk. Don't let the pacmen get you. Amazing.

And back in Berne, finally. Not much changed, but I did discover a new decoration in a rather public space. This little dinosaur made me smile. Plus, also a political statement, because, you know, it's Berne, the capital.