Tag: artists

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Hallucinations serious

There serious hallucinations by AI and there are funny hallucinations by AI. Do we want our various AI models, from time to time, to crack a serious or funny joke? Well, that’s a bit the spice of life. However, not knowing when the machine is joking and when it is serious, this is more likely to seriously disturb most of us. This reminds us of our school days were teachers were not amused some pupils not taking them seriously in their efforts to transmit information. Now we know that a good atmosphere is conducive for better learning progress. AI as teaching and learning assistance could well work best in a “fearless“ classroom. Repeating a lesson several times and at your own learning rhythm will help independent of the seriousness of your teacher. Self-directed learning with a little help by AI might do the trick for many to advance how and when they feel ready for it. Hallucinations rates are a standard test for AI models. They range from 1% to 25% of queries.  This is not in itself a problem. It has become tough to find out about the 1% -2% models because you no longer expect them to give wrong information. These are the 1-2 out of a hundred of cases where we are confronted with serious hallucinations, seriously.
(Image: extract from „cum Polaroids“ from Eva & Adele, Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin 2024-5-22)

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Satie Popular

Erik Satie has been quite involved with the surrealist and Dada movement of his time. He personally knew the main proponents ranging from Breton to Magritte. He became one of the major figures applying the ideas of surrealism to music. His early compositions like the Gnossienne (extract of Nr. 1 below) are admired for their simplicity. They became popular only years later and have entered popular music repertoire through many retakes of the original tune in various styles ranging from jazz to rap. Many of Satie’s formative years he spent playing and performing popular music in the animated cafés, bars and shows of Montmartre in Paris. The making of a living based on music can be a challenge. Satie had to bear the full risk of a life in poverty at times to reserve sufficient time for his creative work.
He remained very much connected to the working class as his later membership of the Communist party after the Great War testifies. Composing for children and transmitting music to the next generation was equally close to his heart and mind, especially in his later years.
For him, popular music constituted a fountain of original tunes and a test with an intuitive audience rather than the academic circles. Maybe, with this attitude, he followed the footsteps of Flotow, Offenbach, Ravel and many others later on until pop music became the vastly dominant music in the late 20th and 21st centuries.

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Erik Satie Satisfied

The collection of letters from Erik Satie contains more than 1000 letters amongst them some in exchange with the best artists of his time. The range is largely due to the circle of artists who met at Montmartre in Paris before and during the Great War. We discover letters to Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy, Pablo Picasso or Henri Matisse. For some artists there are 100+ letters preserved like to Jean Cocteau. In the 1920s he composed music for shows at Montmartre, where the scenario was painted by Pablo Picasso and costumes designed by Coco Chanel. The sculpture by Brancusi must have been familiar to him, just as much as the cubist paintings by Georges Braques, as there are also letters or references to such letters in the impressive 1000+ pages collection. Like Ravel he was rejected by the Conservatoire de Musique de Paris in his early days as student. Montmartre allowed to live and create at the same time while living on a minimal budget. Erik Satie signed his letters with ES. In German this denotes a “neutrum”, maybe, beyond male or female differentiation, but also a tonality in music (E flat). There is no trace that this was a conscious choice. It is just another unresolved puzzle about the self-declared “Gymnopédiste” and composer of the “Parade” and the popular piano music the “Gnossienne”. 100 years after his death on 1925-7-1 he (ES) could be rather satisfied with his impact on the course of music in the 20th century and beyond.

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Artist Development

For many artists it takes years before they find their idiosyncratic style. Testing different forms of art before zooming in on a particular style of art is the  common trajectory for most artists. Maybe the art marker and collectors of art are in search of a “defining style” for an artist so the uniqueness becomes more easily identifiable. Being part of a group of artists has been beneficial as well. The “Neue Nationalgalerie” in Berlin makes this development of an artist, in this case Lygia Clark transparent through the organization of a retrospective devoted to her evolution from abstract paintings towards participative and more organic forms of art. Berlin offers to interact with the pieces at the exhibition. You become part of the exhibition and the happening of art instantaneously. The form stays the same, the persons interacting change permanently. The piece of art is never the same. Just the idea of it thrives. In the Corpo Colletivo the performers wear an overall, all of them are linked to each other and movements happen organically as a group rather than individually. This is like a tutorial in sociology as individuals move as part of a collective body and feel the embeddedness and multiple links to other persons (Image: Corpo Collectivo 1970, exhibit in Berlin 2025)

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Odessa Berlin Odessa

With a sense of partnership, it is possible to travel between Odessa and Berlin in the “Gemäldegalerie” in Berlin 2025. Due to the war of Putin in Ukraine the “Museum of Western and Eastern Art” in Odessa had to relocate its treasures to safe places. The Gemäldegalerie offers a chance to view the splendid collection nevertheless. The curators’ team in a spirit of “art intelligence” propose, in a splendid way, most oeuvres from Odessa next to an example by the same painter from the Berlin collection. The visitor leaves the exhibition enriched by an experience of “jumelage” (engl. sister cities) of partnerships between museums, cities and their people.
In fact, we have shared the same imagery or visual heritage in Europe for centuries . The collections of paintings ranges from the 16th -19th century art  or from Frans Hals to impressionist influences.
We shall cherish the return of the collection to Ukrainian Odessa as soon as possible. The image below shows the places of origin (yellow dots) of the art works of the Odessa collection across centuries (map from the exhibition).

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Dépaysé in gallery

The installation ar the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin entitled „Fog Sculpture“ takes us from the sculpture garden of the Gallery into a tropical forest atmosphere. Just changing the humidity and visibility through the artificial production of fog transforms the perception of the artworks. A kind of Asian flair surrounds the western sculptures in the garden. The fog installs also a mystification whoch we know in art from the romantic painters like Caspar David Friedrich for example. All long-term followers shall appreciate the new perception of the artworks thanks to Fujiko Nakayo. It’s definitely more than old wine in new bottles. The artwork brings a more global twist to the preexisting sculptures and reminds us in Berlin even of the wrapping and unwrapping of the  Reichstag building by Jeanne-Claude Christo. We see the sculptures or architecture differently after they disappeared temporarily and reappear again.

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Dream together

„Dream together“ is the title of the exhibition of Yoko Ono at the „Neue Nationalgalerie“ in Berlin 2025. The title is an invitation or even an incitement to dream jointly with others. We need to dream of peace on all sides or parties in a war. Start with the dream and then move on to working together on it. The participatory art projects of Yoko Ono are a recurring event in Berlin and at the Neue Nationalgalerie (Cut piece). The installation „Wish Tree for Berlin“ in front of the gallery is popular with visitors who leave hundreds of written wishes to the windy spring days. Origami folding, stone assembling or a simultaneous chessboard playing with all white pieces and fields encourage to imagine a world differently, beyond the treaded belligerent paths. For more inspiration and imagination just continue to the Martin Gropiusbau for more artworks from Ono or just watch the clouds pass by changing the lighting of the olive tree carrying lots of wishes.

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Lviv Ukraine

Small galleries can make a real difference. In Berlin the gallery “streulicht” has a selection of photos in an exhibition that portraits artist from Lviv in Ukraine. Hans Hugo Hoffmann manages in his photographs to depict the extraordinary resilience of Ukrainian creative persons who live through a protracted war of their country against the Russian aggressor. The persons embody the strength of resisting through their art work despite the wounds inflicted on their families or the people of Lviv and the whole of Ukraine due to the war. The persons portrayed try to continue their normal day to day work, knowing that nothing is normal anymore in Ukraine. “Bizarre Normality” characterizes our perspective on these artists, who are thrown into a world of events that we no longer thought might be possible in Europe. Bucha and other crimes by Russian soldiers in this Russian aggression leave traces in the faces of Ukrainian people and even beyond. We all wish that the people of Ukraine can return to “normality” as soon as possible, although we know that nothing will be normal as it was before the Russian invasion.

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Tchaikovsky home

During the time before the “Zeitenwende” it was easy to visit the home of the composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in St. Petersburg. Therefore, we refer to our memory of the visit and the already 10 years ago restrained liking and appreciation of the Russian officials for the aristocratic composer, even accused to not be sufficiently Russian in his music compared other Russian composers. The composer had diverse love affairs, which were also not conform to official doctrines. The world wide success of his compositions, mostly known for his ballet music, remains popular in the 21st century. Similar to Beethoven, the biography by Malte Korff (Tschaikowsky, in German), highlights the final symphony as his masterpiece. The seems to be a reason to study “the last works” of composers specifically. The mature compositions appear to reflect on previous work and build or comment on previous work. The 6. symphony “Pathétique” was completed in his last year of his life, only at age 53. The final IV-th piece of it is entitled “Adagio lamentoso” and ends in very calm tempo and almost silence like a withering away heart beat. To my surprise I found a similarly very quiet ending in one of his early piano composition when he was only 28 years old “Romance Opus 5, Andante cantabile”. This early piece also ended “più lento” and from pp to ppp. (compare extract of image of notes below).

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Beethoven Home

The home of Beethoven in Bonn is nicely preserved and full of objects related to his life and his creative work. For the musician and composer musical instruments have accompanied him throughout his life. The visit of his home of birth offers a chance to dive into the extraordinary accomplishments of this great figure of the late 18th and early 19th century. His 9th symphony is strong as ever and the European anthem has just more than 200 years since the first performance now. The visit of the museum is still the highlight of Bonn and the App of the Beethoven House offers unique insights into and listening of his manifold compositions. Handwritten notes and a pocketbook of preparations for the symphony demonstrate the all encompassing nature of music for Beethoven. From romantic letters to the romantic music pieces, the museum has it all. Even it is a rather tiny house from the outside the inner life is as huge as it can be. It is advisable to take at least half a day for the visit much more than you would usually take for visit of a museum. The link between the biographical information and listening to linked musical pieces with a chronological context are a unique experience. This spurs the interest to listen or listen again to some of the romantic masterpieces. The App is great also to listen directly to some of the music.