Today I went to the Kunstmuseum. I started in the cafe with breakfast. I knew it would be a long day with such an extensive collection. The museum quickly became one of my favorites, as they had works from as far back as the 1400's through contemporary, with beautiful rooms and consistent pacing. I particularly enjoyed their temporary exhibition of Piet Mondrian, Barnett Newman, and Dan Flavin. Each of these artists were involved in abstraction using vertical lines and limited colors. I was fascinated that Mondrian trained as a landscape painter before becoming farmiliar with the works of Paul Klee, Kandinsky, and the like. His abstractions are quite extreme. He uses black, white, gray, and the three primarys, in vertical and horizontal compositions. Barnett Newman was thirty years younger than him, but took influence from the limited palette and vertical compositions. He aslo made large monochrome paintings in line with Rothko, which I found moving. Barnett destroyed all of his work prior to the age of 39. Dan Flavin was thirty years younger than Barnett, so the time differences, being equal, created a profundity beyond direct aesthetic influence. Flavin's work involved light and space. He installed neon and flourescent lighting, in primary colors and white, directed at different focal points in the room. One piece for example, illuminated a corner from two vertical flourescents installed on the wall in blue light, creating the illusion that the corner was soft (breaking down components of space and architecture). From the same lighting rig, red light shot forward onto the walls of the gallery space, creating a warm/cool contrast. Last, yellow lights were directed at the viewer, transforming thde viewer as a part of the work. I found that Flavin's work, (perhaps because I saw its direct predecessors and influences) was stronger to me than works from similar light/space artists, (though, I suppose James Turrell's Guggenheim installation is hard to beat).
I also appreciated that the Kunstmuseum gave the Picasso works and the Braque works some space from each other, though this may have had more to do with thier collection than a distinctive ordering system.
The Giacommetti sculptures in the collection were beautiful. I'd never seen anything from him except his signature tall figures, and his portraits, but today I was quite pleased to see a sculpture titled Reclining Woman Who Dreams, and another called Suspended Ball.
I made a number of study drawings from Picasso, Durer, Holbein, and other earlier artists whom I cannot recall off the top of my head. ( I did document the artists names in my book). I enjoyed seeing works from Ferdinand Hodler, whom I'd never heard about prior .
I left the museum after close to seven hours. I thought I would have time to see the Tinguely Museum afterwards, but it was not the case. I will have to stay another day in Basel.
I had a great evening back at the hostel after accepting that I would be here for one more night. I did laundry and took a shower. I will not disclose exactly how long it had been since I'd last done these matters of hygene, but I will say it feels incredible to be of a neutral scent and in clean clothes.
I spent some time on a drawing that I'd begun a few days ago, a gift for a friend of mine. More work to go on it, but I'm enjoying the loose process using ink, and whiteout.
