This picture is of a very clever table in the hotel lobby.
I started walking to the Kunstsammlung NRW (Northwest Rhein/Westphalia Art Collection). It’s housed in two buildings named K21 and K20; I went to K21 first. here are some pictures along the way:
I got in to the museum for free; apparently there was a “family weekend,” part of which involved letting kids move boxes around on the floor to create geometric forms.
Here are a few more shots of the interior of the building.
The main display on the upper floors was Minimal Art, much of which was very clever and pleasing to the eye.
My favorite was this installation, which had four turntables with small figurines on them; as they rotated, they created a marvelous pattern of overlapping shadows.
Then there were the “you call this art?” pieces:
This room was just weird, but I liked it. The walls had art that looked like it came from some old newspaper; the art is by Katharina Frisch.
At the very top level of the museum was an exhibit called In Orbit by Tomás Saraceno; it had large spheroids in nets. One of them was mirrored, and, of course, I could not resist the temptation to use the zoom on my camera to get a picture of myself. Apparently you can climb out in the netting after you get safety instruction, but nobody was there when I visited. I probably wouldn’t have gone climbing out there anyway. The first picture is a model for the project.
A couple more pictures from the top floor.
This is from the area in the back exterior. I don’t know if the painted utility box is graffitti or on purpose, but I liked it.
The other part of the collection (K20) is far enough away that they provide a shuttle bus, but it seemed a nice enough day to just walk over there. I passed by the Königs-allee, which is a very trendy shopping area. As far as I was concerned, it was just a bunch of high-price big name stores one after the other. There was more interesting stuff on the side streets. Apparently Luxembourg has a consulate in the area as well.
Outside of K20 there’s part of the original city walls dating back to the 1300s or so, as well as this geometric patterned wall. The first picture is of the Kunstverein, which was closed in preparation for an upcoming exhibition.
The collection in K20 didn’t do much for me. Compared to K21, this museum seemed stodgy and sterile. It does have art by Picasso, Chagall, Kandinsky Mondrian, Max Ernst, and Magritte however, so that makes it worthwhile.
Some other abstract art that I either liked or I just didn’t get. The first one is titled Venus in Rags, and the last one is a picture of the ceiling.
After I got out of the museum, I found myself in the Altstadt (Old City) section; I hadn’t intended to visit it today, but as long as I was there, well why not.
This is on the side of a bank building. The German reads: “This fairy tale will never come true. Life teaches us to be clever and save money.”
My last museum stop for the day was the Hetjens Museum (site is in German), which has a huge collection of ceramics. Mixed in with the old stuff was some new stuff that I thought was pretty ugly, but then again, not all of the old stuff was that great. I would not, for example, permit this one in my house, under any circumstances:
Here is one installation showing broken pottery. A video in the background showed the pottery being broken. Wow. That’s art.
Herewith, a sampling of the collection, in no particular order. Interspersed are a couple of shots I got through the windows of the museum. The picture that looks like a wood plate is really ceramic with a faux wood grain.
These pictures are from an installation titled Sometimes life is just too funny by Lisa Gruetjen.
And these are from the more modern part of the collection. The first one, Minotaur and Venus of Willendorf, is just wonderful.
On the way out of the museum back to the hotel, I saw this planter, and a parking garage with large objects attached to it:
This rather odd set of plastic-looking figures, and a very elegant sculpture:
I passed by a shopping center on Königs-Allee, with many upscale stores.
And that pretty much took care of the day.
This is the TV Magazine Hör Zu (Check it out); the umlaut O is very cleverly done as RGB circles.
The German says “The best döner is closer than you think” but the English doesn’t have the effect that I think they were going for.
I don’t speak Turkish, so I have no idea what this sign says, but the juxtaposition of the images is just bizarre.
Several signs I liked; the last is the logo for a German hockey team.
This is the logo for the art museums (K20 and K21).
Various signs from restaurants
And finally, these two stickers. The first one reads Drinking helps.; I saw it on the door of a vegetarian restaurant.
