Cult of the Artist, Berlin
(2008 10 09 01:32)
Berlin is going to appreciate great artists with a series of exhibitions dedicated to the "Cult of the Artist". The National Museums of Berlin (SMB) will present 10 separate shows exploring the role of the artist in the world, which is situated somewhere between a celebrity and a prophet. The artists in discussion are, among others, Beuys, Warhol, Koons and Giacometti. The subject of each exhibition is the artist, not any specific period or style, comments SMB General Director Peter-Klaus Schuster, the initiator of the project.
The series started on October 1 with two openings at Berlin's Alte Nationalgalerie transformed into a "Temple of Art". The exhibitions present a 19th century German "myth of the artist" with images of "Valhalla", the warrior paradise. Then on October 3 other three exhibitions opened at the Hamburger Bahnhof, including big retrospectives of Joseph Beuys and Andy Warhol, "two most important art-prophets of recent times."
The exhibition "Beuys: We are the Revolution" presents his large-scale installations and situates his work in his pedagogic and political activities. "Celebrities: Andy Warhol and the Stars" invites spectators to walk along a red carpet among Hollywood stars photographs. Joachim Jäger, one of the exhibition's curators, points out Warhol "anticipated" the celebrity culture existing today.
The third exhibition at the Hamburger Bahnhof, consisting of the works by 15 authors: "I Can't Just Slice Off an Ear Every Day:' Deconstructing the Myth of the Artist" questions the whole "cult" series.
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