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Pre-Modernism and Post-Modernism in Europe: Two Contrasting Exhibitions
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13398 |
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Section : |
THE ARTS
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| Issue
Date : |
9 / 1987 |
4,197 Words |
| Author
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Michael Gibson
Michael Gibson, author of a number of books on art, is the
Paris art critic for the International Herald Tribune and a
frequent contributor to publications in Europe and the United
States. |
Documenta 8 in Kassel
Kassel is a fair-sized city with no airport, two hours north of Frankfurt, that still benefits from some extremely ambitious and enchantingly imaginative landscaping undertaken in the days of the Landgrafen. An eighteenth-century palace of reddish stone stands on the hill of Wilhelmshohe looking out over ancient trees and artificial lakes to the city far below. The palace grounds are the site of a complicated hydraulic spectacular that periodically releases an imposing quantity of water from a reservoir on the hilltop to produce a roaring torrent, a romantic waterfall, culminating in a fifty-meter high geyser that Sunday crowds come up to admire.
Today the palace is a museum with several excellent Rembrandts, including the deeply moving Jacob Blessing his Grandchildren, as well as a large selection of works by other artists.
During the eighteenth century, the plain along the Fulda river was turned into a spacious park, the Karlsaue, as a setting for the Orangerie - the Landgrafen's charming summer palace. The park's vast proportions clearly suggest that it was built for horseback riding, but it also allows for pleasant strolling.
In the twentieth century, Kassel has become the site of what many consider the foremost exhibition of contemporary art in Europe. Known as Documenta, the event was created in 1955 and became a symbol of the revival of West German culture after World War II. It enjoys a considerable budget - this year's event cost more that $6 million - supported largely by Kassel, the state of Hesse, and the government of West Germany. Every four years or so the art community of the industrial world converges on the city, investing it with the peculiar mood of random exhibitionism and anguished egomania that seems an inevitable aspect of such events. The show takes place jointly in the Fridericianum (the oldest museum in Europe, built in 1779), and in the Orangerie, but works of art are also sprinkled over the Karlsaue and in various spots around the town.
The ambition of Documenta, from the outset, was to give the latest events of contemporary art the sort of careful examination, in terms of art theory, that one has come to expect from German Grundlichkeit (thoroughness). This year's Documental was organized almost single-handedly by Manfred Schneckenburger. Showing the works of some 140 artists and presenting an untold number of temporary productions, it includes video, theater, and
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