What’s on at Europe’s Museums
January 1, 1970
London in the 1920s
Museum of London
The Museum of London has opened its doors to a fantastic journey back in time to the London of the 1920s. In a panoramic look at this colorful decade of change and choice, the exhibition turns the spotlight on some less well-known aspects of the roaring '20s. With the use of period exhibits, the show illustrates the post-World War I trauma and subsequent transition into a lighter mood towards the end of the decade. Beside exhibits such as a typical red telephone box and classic flappers’ hats, are letters from Gandhi, posters of communist Russian propaganda and relics from the American jazz scene.
"1920s: the decade that changed London" runs until July 18, 2004 and is open Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. until 5:50 p.m. and Sunday from 12 p.m. to 5:50 p.m.
Contemporary Algeria comes to Paris
Espace EDF Electra, Paris
In a voyage into the politics, Mediterranean landscapes and southern sun of Algeria, 23 contemporary artists show their work in a unique collection of photographs, installations, videos and oil paintings entitled "Artists’ Journeys, Algeria 2003." The paintings by Bernard Rancillac are painfully impressive in their depiction the faces of tortured and raped women, while Philippe Cognée’s impressions of cities resembling deserts are utterly captivating. The exhibition is part of an official year of Algeria in France.
"Artists’ Journeys - Algeria 2003" runs until March 14, 2004. The exhibition is is open Tuesdays though Sundays from 12 p.m. to 7 p.m.
Anarchy in Art
Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin and Kunsthalle, Emden
"Art is the dunghill where kitsch grows. Kitsch is the daughter of art, the daughter is young and smells good, the mother is an age-old and stinking woman. All we want is this: to disseminate kitsch." Back in 1957, these provocative words embodied the mission statement of four young artists who formed the Munich Spur group. Drawing their inspiration from the Cobra group, they brashly rejected abstract art, which they deemed bereft of meaning. Munich gallery owner, Otto van de Loo avidly embraced art from both the Spur and Cobra groups as well as works by individual controversial artists such as Jean Dubuffet, Arnulf Rainer and Wolf Vostell. Now, for the first time van de Loo has loaned his collection of some 200 works for a double exhibition in Berlin and Emden.
"Anarchy in Art" runs through to January 11, 2004. Berlin's Neue Nationalgalerie is open Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Thursday 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. and weekends from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Kunsthalle Emden is open Tuesday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., Wednesday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and weekends from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Treble showing for Paul Klee
Sprengel Museum, Hannover, Kunsthalle Bremen, Hamburger Kunsthalle
In the first of three major exhibitions of the work of Paul Klee to be held in Germany this winter, the Sprengel Museum in Hannover is showing a collection of the artist’s work from 1933 to 1940. The work, which was created when he was forced to leave Germany, is characterized by melancholy and a reduction to the very essence of his art. Two further exhibitions, which will open within the next two weeks at the Kunsthalle Bremen and Hamburger Kunsthalle, will pay tribute to other phases of the artist’s working life. The Bremen show will focus on the role of Klee in the Bauhaus movement, while the Hamburg exhibition is dedicated to the wealth of work he produced during 1933, the year he left Germany forever, having been dismissed by the Nazis from his post as a professor at the Dusseldorf Academy of Art.
The exhibitions, collectively entitled ‘Paul Klee in the North’ are on at the Sprengel Museum in Hannover until Feb. 15, 2004, Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Wednesday to Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Kunsthalle Bremen from Nov. 30, 2003 to Feb. 29, 2004, Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. and Wednesday to Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Hamburg Kunsthalle from Dec. 12, 2003 to March 7, 2004, Tuesday to Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Thursday 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.