Modernism and Old Masters

Wednesday April 6 Berlin
My plan today was to go to the Potsdamer Place area and I decided to get the metro to the Tiergarten and walk through the gardens to the Bauhauz Museum.

The garden were all being prepared for spring and workmen were planting large bulb plants along the bordher of the gardens. The walk took me along the river Spree and I passed a lock for river shipping to pass. Spring forts were starting to appear and daffodils and a variety of small flowered plants were showing some colour. The track was heavily used by cyclists and I had to be very careful. It was a very pleasant interlude.

The Bauhaus Museum was extremely interesting. I was here to push my understanding of modernism. I found their description of the Bauhaus teaching methods very good. Students had first to learn how to use their respective media. To understand colour and how to mix oil paints. How to blow glass. How to work with metals. Form follows function and Jean Miro's idea of shape & colour. So many of the simplest household items and furniture were first conceived in the Bauhaus. Chairs and light fittings. Things that we today regard as ordinary. It was a great movement and other art centres should follow the example. Ku-ring-gai art centre has all the courses correct they could easily present them under a philosophical Bauhaus cover sheet. I'll have to talk to them. There are some great wordings they could use.

I walked towards Potsdamm to the Gemaldegalerie of old masters. This was a wonderful gallery and I stayed until it closed at 18:00. This ment that I could not go the the New National Gallery.

I check my guide and found that the Jewish museum was open until 20:00 and jumped on the M41 bus to get there fast. It was impressive architecture but the stories make me so sad and depressed about our humanity that I had to move quickly through some sections. I walked through the garden of concrete towers. The shape of the building made it very hard to navigate (maybe that is the main point - confusion - where do I go next - I'm not in control of myself). They have put little arrows on the floor as a guide.

The M41 bus took me straight back to the hostel (via a long tunnel ?). I had a simple meal as my meal last night will last me a number of days.