FROM THE BANK - Day 13

FROM THE BANK - Day 13 - Frankfurt
Thursday December 30th 2010

brisk

Today Marcel and I had planned on meeting up again but he also still had some university things to get done as well. We did not end up getting together until later in the day, which was okay because it game me time to get some of my more touristy things done.

the other side.

I started off with a nice brisk walk across the Main (river) to the Städel Gallery. I don’t actually know who Städel was, probably an artist; anyway, there was not any work by him in the gallery. Maybe he was just a founder, I really don’t know.

Stadel Gallery

The main floor of the museum was full of art. I don’t have many facts to throw out here because the guide they gave me was only in German, and no, they did not have any English audio-guides.

Tall City

I noticed that the majority of the art from 1000 to about the 1700s mainly depicted nude people, and people of some religious importance. I could tell because a lot of them had the golden halos over their heads. I felt that the large amount of religious works showed how important and influential the church was at the time.

Commerzbank Tower
in top 5 tallest buildings
in Europe
(for now...)

It was not until I got into the later 1500s that people got more clothes on as well as more into battle. I found this interesting, especially because I could not remember any major wars or such like events of the 1500s from my history class.

Kaiserdom (for St. Bartholomus)

My favourite time period was from the later 1500s t other late 1800s. This was when there started to be a lot more landscape paintings. I managed to fins a couple reoccurring artist that I rather liked, and of course, I have now forgotten their names. Although the large wall sized paintings are impressive in the grandeur, I found the smaller paintings to be more of my liking (mainly the small landscapes by those select artists). One artist would put so much detail into the whole scene. Now, I can not talk much, or at all, about technique, but there was always so much going on. So much life. You could look ‘”deep” into the depths of the painting, and wonder what is going on in the house, or over the hill. I absolutely loved the imaginative quality and experience for the viewer that came with his work. I really wish I could remember his name.

love that color

Portikus Gallery

I did not care much for any of the modern art. All of the extremely mixed media is well, creative, but sometimes I just, ok, honestly, I just did not like a lot of it. For some of the pieces, I had to wonder how much effort the artist really put into their creation. I felt like the ‘master’ of ‘masterpiece’ was missing. Then again, I’m not art expert, maybe I’m missing some great thing.

Daniel Richter
The Gaggle
2007

Here is a photo of a postcard I bought with my favourite artwork from the gallery. (I wrote the following comments on the back of it when I warmed up in a café)

This last piece of the current exhibition had the most impact on me.

You see a group of men, who look like police officers, maybe riot control.

Their faces slightly resemble clown faces, which may be mocking the Law, or ‘The Man’, but some also look like skeletons, a haunting sign of death and what these men may be capable of.

Also note, they are wearing protective gear, some of which looks like hockey equipment. If you are up to date with North American culture, homage to Jason?

A dog is also present, in my opinion, it supports the fact that these are dangerous cops.

You can’t tell, but the piece measures 2.8m x 4.5m, making it a rather large piece. These dimensions are indeed needed seeing as it is all done with spray paint. This really got to me: police officers all done up in spray paint.

Again, I feel like the artist is mocking the fuzz; recreating them out of something they work night and day against.

The Dog Show

from
The Dog Show

Just up the street, along the river as the Portikus Gallery. The building itself was quite interesting: it kind of looked like a grain elevator mixed with a boat. Plus, it was built on a tiny island and was accessible from the middle of the bridge.

Portikus

Gallery

With a free entry, and a rather expensive gift/book shop to make up for it, the gallery had two exhibitions. One was a bunch of pieces (of all sizes) of cloth that had been treated, weather, effected by anything in any way imaginable: cut, stained, twisted, shredded, glued, dyed, marked up by pencil and pen, stretched, sewn together, bleached, crumpled, and weathered in various ways by the sun, rain and wind. For some reason I do not remember any of them being burned or singed. This was a mixed media that catered more to my tastes. Maybe because I saw it more as a gallery of experiments than of art.

gnomes.



entering Altstadt



definitely altstadt

Around a wall barrier in the corner I found a collection of drawings, doodles, paintings, you name it, etc. all of dogs and aptly named The Dog Show. The main theme was dogs doing human things in a human setting, usually in human clothing or oddly resembling humans, then again, these may have been humans that resembled dogs… I really like these works and found them oddly amusing.

more or less the same photo as below, minus the Romerdom and the lampost

Romerberg Platz:
Romerdom (St. Bartholomus church) is in the sandwich,  the Platz, and Nikolaikirche
 (covered by the lampost)

Balcony on the Romer

Alte Oper
(opera house, the old one)

Continuing across the bridge, I wandered the Altstadt (old town). There I saw the Alte Nikolaikirche (Old Nicholas Church) and St. Bartholomus Cathedral. I came across a rather famous square; Paulsplatz, full of cafes and what not. If you haven’t heard of Paulsplatz, maybe you’ve heard of Romerbergplatz? The Romer or Rathaus (town hall) is there with it’s famous balcony. If you’re into football, the major winning teams of Germany usually go out onto the balcony and wave to the crowd of footy fans. For example, in 2003 when Germany won the FIFA WWC cup.

deliciousness:
tuna, shrimps, egg and wegetables
galore in my salad!!!

I then headed back to the shopping area for an hour or so of browsing and a lunch break, then went back to the hostel. Eventually I hopped on the S Bahn and made it to Marcel’s where we made a very delicious (and improvised) supper of something we apparently like to call Marcel Mix.

A woman rocking out hard on the drums

Later in the evening, and invitation had been extended to me to Marcel’s sister’s birthday celebrations. Not many people there spoke English, but the people that did were very friendly and very interested in my travels. It was an excellent finale to my day in Frankfurt (and Germany!)

Marcel & Marcel Mix

Messeturm

Marcel & I
oh we were tired



Neon right by my hostel..



a good area of town...