Ex Bibliotheca

The life and times of Zack Weinberg.

Saturday, 15 November 2003

# 3 AM (GMT+1)

Nathan didn't want to go museum hopping today so Dara and I went by ourselves. We visited the Ägyptisches Museum, which is across the street from the Schloß Charlottenburg (a palace built by Friedrich I of Prussia for his wife Sophie-Charlotte). This has one of the best collections of Egyptian archaeological finds in the world, and it could be made into a thoughtful exploration and exegesis of the ancient Egyptian culture. Instead, though, it's just a context-free gallery of items taken from various people's graves. As these items include numerous well-executed statues of these people's heads, the total effect was both creepy and disappointing.

The weather was too cold to walk around in the gardens of the Schloß so instead we got back on the U-bahn and went to the Neue Nationalgalerie which was supposed to be Berlin's collection of modern art. [It isn't. More on this later.] But that was closed for exhibit changes. Fortunately, next door we found the Kunstgewerbemuseum (Museum of Arts and Crafts) which was having an exhibit on the late-20th-century practical design tradition in Scandinavia. Titled "Scandinavian Design: Beyond the Myth", it suffered from a lot of dubious art criticism intending to explain why this style is popular. Also from glaring white fluorescent display tables. However, the exhibited objects themselves were fascinating. I'd never have thought one could do so much with the basic chair concept while remaining true to its function.

(For the record, my personal, much shorter, theory: lots of late 20th designers aimed at simplicity, but only the Scandinavians reliably achieved it without also achieving ugliness. Which is not to say that all of the stuff in the exhibit was simple, pleasant, or both, but most of it was.)

This museum's permanent collection is a historical progression of furniture and other practical items. I'd have liked to see more isochronic, cross-cultural comparisons, — it's very Eurocentric, — but one can't have everything.

We called it an early night; I am still a little jet lagged and Dara is still recovering from the directing gig.