A review: The mad square: modernity in German art 1910–37

I thought I should say first and foremost that I am truly passionate about art; and it always amazes me how, when sitting in the mornings at my favourite Coffee shop in Manly, Three Beans, the subject of art pops up regularly.

Everyone has an opinion, whether it’s about the staggering price a Picasso fetched in New York or about the subject matter, Henson’s photos of young teens come to mind.

There is great debate at the moment whether people under 18 should be barred from exhibitions depicting nudity……These and many other topics shall be discussed, together with the all important “What’s on, and quite frankly, is it worth seeing?”

So, to begin, it must be stressed that the world of blogging is indeed a two-edged sword, a mouthpiece with which to disemminate my view of things, an often cathartic experience as it enables me to offer readers an opinion, and helps me focus on a topic that is indeed most dear to me. Conversley, what gives me the right to speak on such important topics?

Answer, we all have opinions, and I hope that readers will be able to figure out for themselves that I do have some idea of what I’m talking about. I hope to be informative and sometimes controversial.

The first exhibition I shall discuss is….

Wow, what a “Quite good” Exhibition, I feel a twinge of guilt saying that as I type, because I immediately think of the team behind the exhibition, curators, historians, the kind loans from individuals and institutions, not to forget the lighting people, and most importantly the guys that hung the exhibition… only two paintings were crooked.

Friends had told me that it was a very dark exhibition, I found the lighting subdued, oh sorry, you mean the naked women lying on a bed bleeding with massive lacerations to her limbs, or the fat lesbian staring up another woman’s bottom dark in subject matter, I don’t agree. I found the exhibition exciting and often exhilarating, standing in front of Paintings that expressed feelings that often only artists were able to encapsulate the mood and feeling of the day. One of my favourite paintings is of trapeze artists by Max Beckman, to me an uneasy glimpse into a child’s nightmarish world where people meld between puppets and dwarfs.

Wow, did I just say that?

There are approximately 200 works covering paintings, photos, film, and some decorative arts, namely furniture and some domestic wares. I feel the furniture were on the whole props, certainly not up to scratch with their counterparts being the art. I got the feeling that the furniture — what little there was — was almost an after thought, I may be wrong, but after 30 years dealing in antiques, I think the curator could have done a lot better….

A lot of the photographs are quite small, and as I said earlier, the lighting is very subdued, so make sure you bring your reading glasses…..

I feel this exhibition is almost a “Must See”, and if you are like me, you will need to see it at least twice.

Any thing else? Not really, just go and see it, talk soon.