Berlin: Beginnings

We've been residents of Berlin for a month now, and the following post details some new works, observations, books, the new studio, recent adventures, exhibitions, and updates.

I thought I'd start with works on paper made at home while I've been acquiring all the materials needed to get my studio up and running for making oil paintings.  So these are recent watercolor/gouaches:

Venn Kreuzung, 8" x 12"

Vereinigung von zwei Mengen, 8" x 12"

Dunkel Universum, 10" x 13"

Dunkle Universum des Gartens, 10" x 13"

Sonne auf Feuer, 10" x 13"

Zentrale Kohle 1, 10" x 13"

Zentrale Kohle 2, 10" x 13"

Zentrale Kohle 3, 10" x 13"

We've also been enjoying the wildlife living in our neighborhood whose wily antics are so much fun to watch.

The Magpie and the Hooded Crow.

Over the past couple of weeks (after receiving our boxes of books and winter clothes), I've been reading some texts of interest.  I've been combing through the catalog of Elsheimer's work, deepening my familiarity to the narrative subject matter and thinking about the approach I'll take for making paintings inspired by my contact with his work.  

And, I've finally read two books that I've been meaning to for the longest time:  Roland Barthes' Camera Lucida and Susan Sontag's On Photography.  I'm not sure how it's taken me this long to read either of these seminal works, but I found both to be thought-provoking in the best way and extremely pertinent to making paintings.  A couple of my favorite quotes from Camera Lucida have to do with the contrast between studium and punctum: Pg. 27  “The studium is of the order of liking, not of loving; it mobilizes a half desire, a demi-volition; it is the same sort of vague, slippery, irresponsible interest one takes in the people, the entertainments, the books, the clothes one finds ‘all right.’"  And then: Pg. 59  “The punctum, then, is a kind of subtle beyond—as if the image launched desire beyond what it permits us to see: not only toward “the rest” of the nakedness, not only toward the fantasy of a praxis, but toward the absolute excellence of a being, body and soul together.”

Sontag's text especially, opened so many cans of worms for thinking about the function of images that my thoughts keep returning at unexpected times to key concepts that I agree or disagree with.  Sontag's discussion of the social possibilities from the ubiquity and pervasiveness of the photographic image, and by implication, images of all kinds, is really interesting, and has a keen prescience for systems of images such as Facebook. In a more ominous statement, Sontag speaks to the internet and our current socio-political situation with the declaration: Pg. 178 "Cameras define reality in the two ways essential to the workings of an advanced industrial society: as a spectacle (for the masses) and as an object of surveillance (for the rulers).  The production of images also furnishes a ruling ideology.  Social change is replaced by a change in images.  The freedom to consume a plurality of images and goods is equated with freedom itself.  The narrowing of the free political choice to free economic consumption requires the unlimited production and consumption of images."

 

 Finally, I'm reading Mira Schor's Wet (thank you for the recommendation Eileen!).  Schor maintains the importance and relevance of painting by examining specific examples through lenses of criticism and feminism.  While I have differing views on some of the points she raises, this lively compilation of articles is very accessible and refreshing, and I appreciate her dedication to the cause.

Now on to the neighborhood where my studio will be located until March of 2012. 

This is Kreuzberg, and the street where my studio is located.

Here's an interior shot of my studio.  This week I've finally gotten into a regular painting routine now that I have materials.  Images of oil paintings coming soon...

Recently Tyson and went on a little trip to Berlin's equivolent of Home Depot, called OBI.  Along the way, we came across this...has it really been 20 years???

I like the friendly tone.

Looking up at OBI.

OBI.  A couple times I forgot I wasn't at a Home Depot.

A very popular and fun thing to do is see Berlin by water.  Fellow Fulbrighter and artist Imran Shafi invited me to join him for a ship tour as part of his orientation activities for UdK.  Here are some images from this fun adventure:

Schiff Ahoy!!!

Imran and the Fernsehturm.  You're awesome Imran!

 

Recently we met up with my former classmate from Rutgers, Marketa!  We went to a philosophy lecture with Boyan Manchev at the Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (n.b.k.).  The lecture content was a bit obscure and presented in a fairly unorganized format, but some interesting tidbits squeaked into clarity here and there.  And it was great to see Marketa!

Installation by Thomas Hirschhorn at n.b.k. - I think it's interesting as a photo, but the installation in person seemed cliched and poorly executed / The image on the right is taken from part of Berlin Festival of Lights, and yes, that's Tetris being played on the side of the building!

The following are more images from the Festival of Lights:

The Berliner Dom completely illuminated with projected light.

 

 

The pedestrian walkway in the median on Unter den Linden.

And our own little permanent light show in Charlottenburg, spot-lighting of the Rathaus.

The following are more images taken recently:

 

Painting at home...

The Schloss at sunset... (photo by Tyson Washburn)

der Wand und die Welt

We've also visited some amazing museum exhibitions lately.  The Hokusai retrospective at the Martin-Gropius-Bau was really great and very comprehensive:

We also saw Helmut Newton: Polaroids at the Photography Museum:

Newton's prolific vision was really inspiring to see.

And the Gesichter der Renaissance at the Bode Museum was incredibly good, and very hard to get into due to its popularity.  Here are three of my favs, although there were many, many other works in the show that were fascinating, existing so peculiarly within and without of the time-frame in which they were painted:

Luca Signorelli (1445/50 – 1523), Portrait of an Elderly Man, Medium Tempera on poplar Place of Origin Siena (?) Date ca. 1490

Andrea d'Assisi called L'Ingegno (doc. ca. 1484 – ca. 1521), Portrait of a Boy, Material Oil and tempera on wood Dimensions 50 x 35,5 cm Date ca. 1495 – 1500

Leonardo da Vinci (1452 – 1519), Lady with an Ermine, (Portrait of Cecilia Gallerani) Medium Oil and tempera on wood Dimensions 54,7 x 40,5 cm Date 1489/90

Some other works from the Bode collection: a carving with an interesting format, and an Egyptian gravestone from the 5-6th century

Two dragon details from carvings depicting St. George and the Dragon

Two building scenes in marquetry

On the left: a bas-relief in marble, seemingly a tribute to painting; on the right, a late 16th century diorama with a painted backdrop, carved figures and painted found branches

I keep getting caught off-guard by the colors of the sunsets here.

In other news, I was an “Alumna Spotlight,” and Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers featured a piece on my project: http://www.masongross.rutgers.edu/visual-arts/caetlynn-booth-fulbright

Lastly, I put in my bid to be considered for a second year of funding to stay here in Berlin by applying for a DAAD scholarship.  Wish me luck!

XO Caetlynn

P.S.  More images can be viewed here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/caetlynn/sets/72157628003424620/http://www.flickr.com/photos/caetlynn/sets/72157628003424620/