Gerhard Richter - Kunst zum Hören
Various - Weekly Playlists 44, 45 & 46
Fanger & Schönwälder - Analog Overdose 0.9
Kansas - Epic Kansas 1974-2000
Max Jury - All I Want
Max Richter - 24 Postcards in Full Colour
Up early and working on something or other then, out and drove to the dentist, whilst taking the opportunity (there and back) to listen to this German documentary on Gerhard Richter's exhibition of abstract paintings in Munich a couple of years ago...
Back home for breakfast while this wee chum enjoyed some of his/her own out in the garden...
Meanwhile, the moth remains in possible hibernation...
A drive to Kilmarnock, taking the slow route along the A71 and then losing ourselves in the town centre for around 40 minutes asking various passers by for directions to The Dick Institute...
These included one drunk man who ignored us and a drunk lady (this was around noon) who advised us in slurred words that it was "up at the top of this hill, there's a great big sign"...
Suffice to say it was not at the top of the hill, there was no sign and, in fact it was in completely the opposite direction...
We eventually arrived...
This is Kilmarnock's main museum and, for a couple of months, as part of the "Art Rooms" series, is home to a small number of works by the world's greatest living artist ((c) Mr CBQ), Gerhard Richter...
And some old school desks...
The Richter exhibition was split over the ground and first floors - up on the first floor was his piece "48 Portraits"...
These look like photographs but are, in fact, paintings, mainly of scientists, writers, philosophers and composers...
Politicians and artists are not represented...
The portraits were painted for the German pavilion of the 1972 Venice Biennale. He created 48 individual portraits of historical figures for the exhibition space...
Franz Kafka, Thomas Mann, Albert Einstein and Oscar Wilde are among the most famous, alongside some less-known individuals...
I also spotted Francois Mauriac, Paul Hindemith, Igor Stravinsky, Gustav Mahler and Tchaikovsky...
The 48 Portraits depict solely white central European and American males, born between 1824 and 1904....
Richter selected them from 270 portrait photographs that he had taken from encyclopaedias and lexicons and collected in his "Atlas"...
The paintings were directly based on source images from Richter's "Atlas"...
The choice of a standardised format (70 x 55 cm) and source images similar in form underlined the uniformity of the paintings...
Greyscale and soft rendering make the pictures appear homogeneous entities...
While the work is often interpreted in relation to Richter's personal history and beliefs, the individuality of the depicted people has limited significance due to this homogenisation of features during the process of painting...
"I am interested in the speechless language of these pictures. Heads, even if they are full of literature and philosophy, become quite unliterary. Literature is invalidated; the personalities become anonymous. That's what is important to me here."...
The German pavilion at the Venice Biennale was reconstructed in 1938 and therefore reflects the architecture of Nazi Germany...
In the framework of this unadorned monumental architecture, the choice of the portrait genre evoked associations of portraits of political leaders...
In opposition to this, Richter created a multiplicity of portraits, completely omitting politicians...
Hence the architecture and the work could be seen as complementing one another...
The fact that no women were included in the series of portraits was controversial but, years later, Richter explained the circumstances...
"you (...) have the psychological or subjective timeliness of the father problem. This affects all of society. I am not talking about myself because that would be rather uninteresting, but the absence of the father is a typical German problem. That is the reason for such agitation; that is why this work has such a disquieting effect."...
The work makes it difficult to conclude if Richter had any personal appreciation for particular individuals included...
"I didn't want to intimate any specific ideology or theme. I wanted pure pictures that wouldn't be subject to ideological interpretation"...
However, it needs to be regarded in relation to its time of origin and the space for which it was created...
It is therefore inevitably interwoven with the artist's own history...
In the downstairs gallery, there were a further dozen or so works...
After taking a couple of pics...
...including some interesting details...
...I was asked, fairly, to cease and desist, as the gallery does not own the copyright to the works...
These are some of the other works on display, taken from Herr Richter's own site (see links to the right)...
A beautiful building in the midst of a quite badly dilapidated and run down town which has seen far better days...
Out...
...and on to Glasgow...
Lunch at new discovery (re Avenue G being chocka bloc), Cup, on Byres Road, large tasty sandwiches not pictured...
Yum...
A look around the environs before taking the Subway into the centre...
Anne was looking for something for Xmas...
Especially for a watch...
What's wrong with the world?
Meanwhile, Anne was giving your correspondent some clues...
Off to Mono and a couple of other record shops - an Archie Shepp album from 1965 entered the collection for just two of your English pounds - I thought this was reasonable, given I'd just spent £18 on two sandwiches and two hot drinks, notwithstanding the general tastiness all round of said provisions...
Pre Theatre dinner was limited to one course due to the unexpected size of the earlier sandwiches...
La Pulcinella on Hope Street was our venue of choice - superb...
The pictures do not do justice...
On, past a strange office/hotel/restaurant type building, with many rooms like this, with windows onto the street...
...to the Theatre Royal and a long climb up to the (very steep) balcony...
Scary...
We had front row seats for Matthew Bourne's "Edward Scissorhands"...
People like using their phones while they wait for the show to start...
The girl next to me took one picture with hers during a particularly picturesque scene - but as it seemed to be her birthday night out with a couple of her chums, I refrained from passing comment...
This was the best ballet I think I've ever seen - for once there was no nodding off from Mr CBQ, who was entranced throughout the performance - which, I must admit, moved me to tears with its finale...
Quite brilliant and very much recommended....
These colourful flats entertained on our way back to the Subway...
...which delivered us back to the car...
An hour's drive home and some late night listening and deciding on tracks to feature in this week's playlist...
Sack hit around 1 am...
A packed, good day...
Highlight of the Day : Richter and Scissorhands...
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