What's On at Europe's Museums
June 1, 2004
Another cultural landmark for Berlin
Museum for Photography, Berlin
The brand new Museum for Photography in Berlin opens this week with two exhibitions of the late Helmut Newton's photography, "Us and Them" and "Sex and Landscapes." Berlin's latest cultural attraction is the result of a collaboration between the Helmut Newton Foundation and the Prussian Cultural Property Foundation. The two organizations enshrined their cooperation in a contract signed in 2003, when Helmut Newton was still alive. The document governs the permanent loan of over 1,000 works by Helmut Newton and his wife June. A must for photography enthusiasts.
The museum is open Tues - Sun 10.00 - 18.00 and Thur. 10.00 - 22.00
An unusual friendship
Nicolai House Museum, Berlin
An exhibition documenting the close friendship between Bertolt Brecht and artist Hans Tombrock gives Brecht fans a glimpse of a previously unknown side of the prolific dramatist, while art lovers can enjoy the first extensive exhibition of Tombrock's work in seventy years. The show explores the creative relationship between the playwright and the painter, which began when they met in exile in Stockholm in 1938 after both had been deemed "degenerate" by the Nazis.
Bertolt Brecht and Hans Tombrock: An Artistic Friendship in Scandinavian Exile runs from June 6 to Sept. 12 and is open from Tuesday through Sunday from 10.00 to 18.00
A mirror of the American soul
Tate Modern, London
Some 80 paintings make up the first retrospective of Edward Hopper in Britain for 20 years, perfectly demonstrating the primary themes of this quintessentially American artist's ouvre. One of the most significant artists of the 20th century, Hopper has been cited as an inspiration by painters, writers and film-makers including Norman Mailer and Francis Ford Coppola. Spellbinding in their stillness, Edward Hopper's paintings are icons of 20th-century American life.
Edward Hopper runs from May 27 through Sept. 5 and is open Sunday to Thursday 10.00 - 18.00, Friday and Saturday 10.00 - 22.00
Tribute to a pioneer
Barbican, London
The first major retrospective of Helen Chadwick, one of the founders of modern British art, features all her most significant work and underlines her importance as one of the most influential artists of the last twenty years. Chadwick's reputation was overshadowed by the generation of young British artists which emerged soon after her early death in 1996 -- a disservice the exhibition will hopefully put right.
Helen Chadwick: A Retrospective runs through Aug. 1 and is open Mon, Tues, Thurs, Fri, Sat, Sun 10.00 - 18.00 and Wednesday 10.00 - 21.00
Four takes on a theme
Art Affairs Gallery, Amsterdam
Amsterdam's Art Affairs Gallery has put together a show by four very different artists who have one thing in common: They've all visualized a concept based on nature and the idea of man as part of that nature. The show features work by Lilian Cooper, Katrin Korfmann (picture), Herman de Vries and the Japanese artist Shuzo Azuchi Gulliver, famous for selling the rights to single parts of his body.
4 POSITIONS - group exhibition through 26 June and is open Tue, Fr, Sat 13.00-18.00 and by appointment