Good afternoon everyone, it is that time to present my experience in Hamburg, Germany. To start with, I want to make some reflections on the city. Hamburg is Germany's largest port and commercial center. From my small experiences, I would say this city is easily walkable and transportation is not hard to come by. Our location was in downtown Hamburg, close to five art galleries and museums and I felt like it was very easy to navigate between areas. There were many people walking and on bikes or scooters. The five galleries and museums we visited were only a small part of many in Hamburg. As someone who did not grow up in a place with easy access to art galleries or museums, I feel like this opportunity really emphasizes art in the lives of the people of Hamburg. I took field trips to caves, but children there were attending the museums. One is not better than the other, but I certainly feel like this provides an educational opportunity that enriches the lives of the citizens of Hamburg.
Our first museum was Kunsthalle, this was an excellent start to our trip. This museum had artworks across many different periods and centuries. I was actually fond of how it is really just two buildings coupled together with another building, the cube, further down the courtyard. I really feel like this design supported how diverse the collection was, whether it was intentional or not. One of my favorite pieces was Moonlit Night by Paul Kayser in 1899. Kayser was a German painter and graphic artist who began his career as an apprentice decorative painter. His style was greatly influenced by Albert Marquet. In this painting, Kayser combines romantic introspection with impressionistic painting to try and capture the peace of a summer night, but also manages to add impressions of solitude. I really enjoy this painting, I am particularly drawn to the dark blues used in place of total blacks, and the longer one looks at this painting, the more details they seem to find. It is much like sitting out on a moonlit night and looking out, your eyes catching more details that can either be truth, or a trick of the low light.
Our next stop was Museum Für Kunst und Gewerbe. This museum was a combination of ancient art and more contemporary pieces. I personally found this museum to be the most interesting, I enjoyed exploring different eras, cultures, and civilizations both historically and in modernity. A piece I really enjoyed was Summer Mountains-Wide and Far by Huang Ding during the Qing dynasty in 1722. This large painting is a great example of Shan Shui, which is a form of Chinese painting that has three elements, paths, the threshold, and the heart. Huang Ding was greatly inspired by two famous masters, Wu Zhen and Dong Yuan. This work utilizes the composition of the landscape as well as the calligraphy on top to convey the introspection of the journey. In fact, this composition was designed to indicate the harmonious and stable reign of the dynasty. Paintings such as this one were often displayed in reception halls. I find Shan Shui paintings to be very intriguing but I am also a fan of ink painting. Using one color in all of its tones is really impressive to me.
The next place we visited was Kunstverein which was a gallery that focused more on the styles of teaching art, while including some artworks from current students. The Kunstverein hosts symposiums where artists, theorists, and educators gather to orate about the politics of education aesthetic today. This building had a few areas where the students gather, including a large beanbag space, a carpeted area with pillows, and plastic chairs affixed to wooden risers. Each space had its own personality, I liked the large bean bags that could fit an entire person reclining. The student works were also interesting, I enjoyed the small paintings made on the top and bottom of a wall in the room as well as the video describing a trip that students went on, but as the video progressed the listener realized that it was not as simple as it seemed. This was the smallest gallery we visited, but I found that it wasn't uninteresting, it was the first to have so many video and sound presentations.
The final place we visited was Deichtorhallen, this building was formerly market halls for the Berlin-Hamburg railway. Now, it contains contemporary art and photography. I enjoyed Angel (Origami) by Sarah Morris, this painting is household gloss paint on canvas made in 2009. I really like the strong lines and geometric shapes. I like how I saw it from across the very large hall and said "that looks like origami," and it turned out to be true. Morris is an American born in 1967, she currently lives in New York. Something really interesting about this piece that I found out in my research is that the painter, Morris, actually had a lawsuit pressed for appropriating designs from origami works. This lawsuit was settled, because Morris had a slim chance of winning against 6 origami artists under 25 copyright violations across around 40 of her own works. It doesn't make me dislike the painting, it is still appealing, but the information definitely contextualizes it and I find it a little funny.
Overall, I found my experience in Hamburg, Germany to be very beneficial. I really appreciated being able to visit so many galleries and museums in a short time. I also enjoyed the breadth of artworks found, from ancient world to modern day. I think both the accessibility and amount of museums and art galleries is culturally enriching and the people of Hamburg are benefiting greatly from these institutions. I have found that this experience, though over three and a half days, has felt much longer in the best of ways. I continue to be excited and hopeful that every other city we visit during our study abroad will also be as memorable and educational as Hamburg, Germany.
