Cologne-ialism
Artmag editor Ian Sclater recently hit the streets of Germany's fourth largest city to get an overview for art-lovers on a city break.
Will you too be
fooled by
Duane
Hanson's
Woman with a
Purse?
(Museum
Ludwig)
Best known for its soaring Gothic cathedral, Cologne was arguably the world's leading art centre after New York in the 1980s.
That all changed after the reunification of Germany in 1990, when many Colognebased galleries relocated to the new capital, Berlin.
Although less active than in its artistic heyday, Cologne still boasts a number of major institutional galleries as well as dozens of independent art spaces showcasing some of the best German and international contemporary art.
Put the Museum Ludwig at the top of the list on your art tour of Cologne. Housing the biggest collection of Pop Art outside the USA and the world's third largest collection of Picassos (after the museums in Paris and Barcelona dedicated to his work), the Ludwig is one of the world's most important museums of modern and contemporary art. Nearly 500 works by over 80 artists tell the history of 20th century art, from Expressionism, Modernism, the Russian avant-garde, Cubism, Surrealism, Bauhaus and Dadaism to abstract art, graphic art, sculpture, installation, photography and, of course, Pop Art.
Wallraf-Richartz Museum
The list of featured artists reads like a 'Who's Who' of modern masters, from Warhol, Kienhoz, Johns, Rauschenberg and Lichtenstein to Picasso, Matisse, Ernst, Man Ray, Magritte, Kokoschka and Klee. The permanent collection is augmented by a series of special exhibitions. A 'must see'. www.museum-ludwig.de
A walk through the Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne's oldest established museum (relocated to its modern home in 2001), takes you through seven centuries of European art history, with paintings from the 13th to the early 20th century. The Wallraf's main attraction is one of the world's largest collections of medieval painting. Alongside this are works by the Baroque masters (Rubens, Murillo, Boucher), Flemish and Dutch masters (Frans Hals, Albert Cuyp, Rembrandt) and German Romantics.
The largest collection of Impressionist and neo-Impressionist art in Germany includes outstanding works by Manet, Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, Sisley, Morisot, Signac, Seurat and others, while works by Gauguin, Toulouse- Lautrec, Van Gogh, Cézanne, Gauguin, Bonnard, Ensor and Munch herald the way to Modernism. www.wallraf.museum
Museum of Applied Art
Spanning the history of applied arts from the Middle Ages to the present, the Museum of Applied Art shows how the development of design and the influence of art movements such as Art Deco, Cubism, abstract art and Expressionism has infiltrated virtually every aspect of our lives.
Particularly fascinating is how in the 20th century, under one designer's mantra that “ugliness doesn't sell”, marketing in relation to design grew in importance and it became the designer's task to create both attractive and mass marketable products.
In the upper floors a tour of decorated rooms takes in various early periods and styles, including Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque, as seen in furniture, tapestries, dining culture, textiles, small sculpture and decorative objects.
Artstrasse!
Kirsten van den Bogaard, Beobachtung (Observation) 11 08 25 h, acrylic on dibond, 150 x 75cm (Art Galerie 7)
For a quick overview of contemporary German and international art in Cologne, head about half a mile west of the city centre to St-Apern Strasse, where you'll find a clutch of galleries within a few minutes' walk of each other on St-Apren Strasse.
Established in 2003 by a former art historian with the nearby Sotheby's auction house, Art Galerie 7 shows mainly artists from the Düsseldorfer Akademie, with an emphasis on photography, painting and sculpture. June 8-July 23 Joanna Jesse & Kirsten van den Bogaard: 'Streetlife'. www.artgalerie7.de
Tremezza von Brentano, Panoramabild mit rotem Himmel
(Panorama View with Red Sky), 2005, oil on canvas, 150 x
140cm (Galerie Reitz)
Established in Basel, Switzerland in 1984 and in Cologne since 2006, Galerie Reitz presents six to eight exhibitions a year, including sculpture, painting, photography, video and installation. Until July 2 Tremezza von Brentano: 'Realistisch gesehen' (Realistically speaking), July 8-Sep 9 'Summer Hanging: Greet Helsen, Joachim Hiller, Wolfram Scheffel & Jörg W. Schirmer'.
Galerie Stefan Roepke presents a roster of international artists in painting, sculpture and photography who push their boundaries with innovative concepts and techniques. The gallery also presents the works of contemporary masters to give context to the works of the gallery artists. It has a sister gallery in Madrid. June 1-July 9 Robert Mapplethorpe; 'En plein air'. www.galerieroepke.de
Galerie Klaus Benden presents local and international emerging artists. It also shows the work of Pop Art artists, especially that of Tom Wesselmann, a close friend of the gallery until his death in 2004. June 10-July 30 Tom Wesselmann, 'Grafiken' (Graphics). www.galerie-klaus-benden.de
Last year Galerie Ucher celebrated its twentieth year presenting middle-European art from the late 1980s onwards in solo and themed exhibitions with an emphasis on colourful, abstract works. Until June 11 Sybille Pattscheck, 'Strange Light'. www.galerieucher.de
Galerie Gisela Capitain specialises in contemporary German and American art of the 1980s and '90s. Until June 25 Laura Owens. www.galeriecapitain.de
Look out for the banana!
Kirsten van den Bogaard, Beobachtung (Observation) 11 08 25 h, acrylic on dibond, 150 x 75cm (Art Galerie 7)
Local artist and art critic Thomas Baumgaertel has taken it upon himself to identify his favourite galleries by slapping a Warhol-like banana sticker on their windows. Cologne gallery owners consider it an honour.
Annual events Düsseldorf Cologne Open Galleries 2011, Fri-Sun Sep 9-11 www.dc-open.de; Art Cologne, Wed-Sun April 11-15 2012, www.artcologne.com
HOW TO GET THERE German Wings fly year round between Cologne and Edinburgh. www.germanwings.com
FURTHER INFO www.museenkoeln.de
