Yeah, slightly deceptive title. It’ll get more clear soon enough. Today (yesterday, actually) I enjoyed one of the pleasures of being an Art History student: I got to visit the Stiftung Insel Hombroich Museum near Dusseldorf, Germany. It was a wonderful experience, I can recommend it to everyone. The museum is actually a set of separate buildings, in a lovely nature park. It being autumn here in Europe, the colors of the vegetation were most artistic… Insel Hombroich is special because unlike most other museums it has no climate control, no nameplates with artist and title, no fences to keep you at safe distance from the artworks at all cost… Artwork of all ages and styles gets confronted without extra explanation in clean white spaces, leaving you with nothing to do but wander around and breathe in the atmosphere. As I already said, it was wonderful and most relaxing, especially since I was having a bit of a hangover from the night before.
Now… To the title. When I entered the first pavilion, my eye fell on this:
Now, look at these and tell me they DON’T remind you of spanking implements! Of course, since the museum’s no-name-plates-policy I have no clue what these actually are (I doubt that if it were paddles, such a collection of antique implements would be on exhibit… although in Germany you never know) Despite doubts, I like to think that what you’re seeing here are the ancestors of my dear Trickster…
The painting here shown on the left is physics inspired, quite clearly. It was love at first sight. Of the same artist is the painting below, again physics-inspired…
Always I have found that there is an incredible beauty in scientific diagrams (think of the Feynman Diagrams, drawing those is like an art form in itself)… and this painting shows in a most simple way how there is beauty in the mathematical, even for those who do not understand the deeper meaning of the diagrams. If I had to choose a favorite work in this museum, it would be the above mentioned particle diagram painting…
Now, because there is so much beauty in the museum, I will simply give you some photos to enjoy of works that caught my eye. Since I have no clue of their origin or maker, please let me know if you recognize something!
This Museum is so full of things… I made more than three hundred photographs. If you really want to understand it completely, you will have to visit it yourself!
We're All Mad Inhere 