Dear Sophie -
Grace, compassion, wit, sorrow, irony, courage, insight, soft, determination, vision, beauty, gentle, turbulent, athletic, transcendent PINA BAUSCH. How can one individual be so exceptionally special?
Thank you Pina. You are sorely missed.
With love,
Mom
"the ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak".
Dear Sophie -
HANS HOFFMAN was a dedicated teacher as well as an artist with his own practice. His influence was a catalyst for a range of students including JOAN MITCHELL, LEE KRASNER, HELEN FRANKENTHALER and RAY EAMES.
KURT SCHWITTERS was a typographer, a poet and collage artist transforming random bits of found objects into new meanings. His Merzbau construct may well be the first installation art.
We have to give thanks to all of these brilliant German artists whose lives were disrupted by politics and war. They came to our shores having to create new lives and communities as refugees. The culture and erudition they brought to America was formidable. They changed and informed our physical and intellectual landscape.
With love,
Mom
Dear Sophie -
GEORGE GROSZ illustrated life in Berlin Germany in the 1920's. He documented his criticism of the bourgeosie, the corruption of the church and his hatred for the arrogance and brutality of the military.
His visual attacks were accompanied by equally damning captions in three languages.
Fortunately he safely got out of dodge and settled in Bayside, Queens.
Dear Sophie -
BERTOLT BRECHT was an innovative avant garde German playwright who often collaborated with the composer KURT WEILL and Weill's wife, the singer/actress LOTTE LENYA. Brecht believed that theater could be an effective forum for political ideas and social change.
His most famous production was THE THREEPENNY OPERA with the memorable song MACK THE KNIFE, a Marxist critique of the capitalist world. Told from Berlin in the 1920's where there was corruption among the rich, and deprivation among the poor.
Mack the Knife Sung by Lotte Lenya - YouTube
He would probably roll in his grave if he knew that his masterpiece was now on youtube with a hotel.com ad as a trailer.
Lotte Lenya sings Kurt Weill (vaimusic.com) - YouTube
Brecht escaped the Nazi's by coming to America, only to be challenged by McCarthy and The House Committee on Un-American Activities.
With love,
Mom
Dear Sophie -
His commissions included private homes in the northeast, a wing to the Cleveland Art Museum and perhaps his most important work, the Whitney Art Museum on Madison Avenue in New York.
Mom
Dear Sophie
OSKAR SCHLEMMER was the celebrated theater teacher at the BAUHAUS from 1922-1929 before departing for another teaching post in Berlin.
The Nazi's later included his work in an exhibition they had organized titled "Degenerate Art." Humiliated, he retreated in hiding in the countryside and his spirit didn't survive the war.
Dear Sophie -
One of the great architects of the 20th century is ERICH MELDELSON. His Einstein Tower outside of Berlin is likely his most iconic work and an enduring example of Expressionist architecture.
Upon the arrival of Hitler in Germany, Mendelsohn moved first to London, Israel and utimately settling in San Francisco teaching at U.C. Berkeley.
Luise Maas was his adored wife, an accomplished cellist. A multitude of love letters to her are archived among his papers, documenting how in partnership they weathered the upheavals of the 20th century together.
With love,
Mom
"less is more"
"god is in the details"
Dear Sophie -
MIES VAN DER ROHE is the man.
Among his masterpieces are the Barcelona Pavilion, the Farnsworth House in Illinois, the Seagrams building in New York and the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, Germany. Mies was the last director or the Bauhaus upon request by his friend and collegaue Gropius, and had the devastating task of closing the school as the Nazis took control.
With love,
Mom
Dear Sophie -
THOMAS RUFF is a really interesting artist who uses the photographic medium for conceptual works.
With love,
Mom
btw... Beyond Torino is an amazing unfinished castle called Castello di Rivoli that was transformed to an art museum. They have an very long exhibition hall that was filled with Ruff's that was a spectacular installation. I went on Peter's recommendation and it is worthy of the trek. The Italians really know how to mix modern design with their treasured past.
<<< Castello di Rivoli - Museo d'Arte Contemporanea >>>
Dear Sophie -
These gorgeous slick images of urban banality are breathtaking abstractions like technical Agnes Martins.
ANDREAS GURSKY has Becher-like structured imagery, (yes, another student!) with painterly color and some humor on top.
With love,
Mom
Dear Sophie -
Well, you don't want to mix up your STRUTH with RUFF, but these Thomases were both students studying under the Bechers in Germany along with Gursky and Hofer, .
The museum series is his STRUTH'S iconic work. (He photographed viewers at major museum collections around the world, including the LOUVRE in Paris, and the PRADO in Madrid).
With love,
Mom
... I just came across this Struth image of the downtown I grew up with. You can imagine the continual pang of absence.
Dear Sophie -
A student of the Bechers, along with THOMAS STRUTH AND THOMAS RUFF, CANDIDA HOFER aims her formal sennsibilities at unoccupied interiors, with multiple elements such as libraries and auditoriums.
She has a beautiful awareness of palette..
and goes from the grand to the funky.
With love,
Mom
KARL BLOSSFELT was a German Photographer in the 1920's who did these beautiful graphic studies of plant life.
You have known these images since I carried you in a backpack and they hung in the hall. You were mesmerized.
With love,
Mom
Dear Sophie -
RICHTER published a book titled "Atlas" which is a compilation of the various newspaper clippings, photos and sketches which are source materials for his work. His content ranges from the political to the personal. His paintings defy classification as they are at times abstract, photographic, and often blend photography with paint.
You saw a beautiful Richter at The Cleveland Museum of Art yesterday. (that warranted a better installation than the hallway!).
With love,
Mom
