Lunch overlooking Sweden with Alexander Calder.
Spent the entire day at the Louisiana Museum north of Kobenhavn. This is arguably the most beautiful museum I’ve ever been to anywhere. And, it held up in my memories from 1977 except this time it was filled with people. Most of whom, thank god, spoke languages I didn’t understand and didn’t carry selfie sticks. I did see a gaggle of little old ladies one of which had a Bernie button on her baseball cap.
The main exhibition was a survey of very contemporary art and most of the art, as in any survey show, was not my cup of tea. There were two outstanding works. One was an installation by Yayoi Kusama.
Yayoi Kusama video clip 18 sec.
Click on this link to see a video of the piece. It’s worth the download!
It was a mirrored room lit only by tiny colored balls hanging from the ceiling. They slowly changed colors and made you feel you were floating in infinity. The room was small and only allowed 2 people at a time. Thankfully most weren’t interested or only stayed for a moment or two. I stayed quite a while and enjoyed the feeling of floating in space surrounded by an infinite universe.
The second, by Adria Paci, was a twenty minute video that kept me riveted to the bench. Very rare to find something that wouldn’t let me go after a few minutes. The narrative which had sound but no dialog follows a piece of marble from its quarrying to completion as a Corinthian column. After the rough block was quarried by Chinese labororers it was loaded onto a large open top vessel and put to sea going who knows where. During the journey it was transformed from a rough block to its final form, mostly by small power tools and chisels. Again, all of the work was done without dialog with many close ups on faces and hands. It was a beautiful, poetic examination of labor and the transformation of material. All of this performed moving at sea to an unknown destination. The perfection of the work is shown at the end when a cover is placed over the hold. This cover had slits and holes that let light shine on the column. The light and shadows move over the surface and proclaims the perfection of the workmanship. It was only after that I realized that they must have steered the vessel left and right, again and again, to get the light to play over the piece. All of this kept me on the edge of my seat. What a nice piece of film making!
After that, the highlight of the museum was its collection of Giacomettis. They even had an entire room dedicated to some large works that held my attention even tho there was an entire wall of glass overlooking a ponds with a hillside garden behind. Landscape perfection! However, it was amazing to be in the presence of these large statues by a master. One was a 9 or 10 foot high bronze of a standing woman done in his classic style. The surfaces gouged and roughened but still portraying the form of a female.
9 foot high standing woman by Giacometti.
There was also a large head with an elongated neck. The whole piece maybe 3 feet tall.
Bronze by Giacometti.
There was also a large striding man and a glass case with a table work of six or seven figures and small bust. Up the stairs Behind the head was a hallway of glass cases filled with heads and some figures, most attached to large bases. The smallest piece was the size of a matchbox. The largest less than 18 inches high. Just past the cases was a small room overlooking the large room with a stone platform filled with seven “Women from Venice” they were all the same height and style but each was unique. Each one was clearly from his hand but each was a reexamination of the standing female form. Each one strongly felt. None of this seemed to interest most of the other museum visitors who streamed by with hardly a glance on their way to the cafe. Fine with me. It was just me and Alberto all to myself. I’ve always loved his work but this is the only place I’ve ever seen a real collection of it. This was the highlight of the day!
A whole section of the museum turns on this tree.
The image above might look like a piece but it was just the view along a corridor. What a magnificent beech tree and what a brilliant design decision to bend the corridor around it. It must be at least two hundred years old and yet the construction 50 years ago didn’t damage it. Beeches have very shallow root systems so construction near one can really hurt or kill the tree. This one seems to be flourishing. Maybe it being so close to the Giacomettis.
The other star of the show are the grounds around the museum. They are filled with bronzes from the 50s and 60s which don’t really interest me but they were very nice decorative elements punctuating the grounds. There was a Richard Serra in a ravine that looked like tilted arc cut in half and this time blocking my view to the sea. Nice piece, but I still don’t like getting slapped in the face out in the landscape. Finally there was a wooden pyramid that was a big hit with the teenagers who raced to it the minute they saw it and climbed all over it. I liked it but preferred to remain a spectator.
Installation on the grounds of the museum. The teenagers went nuts over it.
The final room I loved was an entire space filled with the expressionist painter Askor Jorn. Excellent work, great painting! Again, I’ve always loved his work in the books but there isnt much of it in ther US. This was a real treat and made me wish I still painted.
Lunch with Calder (see the top of this post) was fabulous tho the conversation was a bit one sided. Food was great! This was a very good day!
PS There was a survey of OP art, which was horrid except for a documentary made at the opening of a huge OP show at MOMA in the 60s. This grainy black and white film was hilarious. It was mostly short interviews with the attendees all trying to sound “with it.” None of them were or outright didn’t get/hated the work but all tried to put a good face on the show even a big clothing designer standing in front of a painting carefully explaining how he was going to use it in a dress design. It was all, laugh out loud, funny and without trying expressed perfectly my thoughts and opinions about OP.
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