I created Art. Capital A

I did it. I created Art with a capital A, and it hung in a museum. A dream come true. In the Belvedere museum in Vienna, Austria, amidst all grand names of art history.

In fact I completed the work Quasimodo of Franz West. “The title of the installation, “Quasimodo” by Franz West, can be translated as ‘the Incomplete’. Consisting of a forged iron hook and a video, this only becomes complete when the hook is hammered into a wall and objects – or in the worst case one’s self – are hung up on it at will, according to the artist…”

So I asked the attendant if I was allowed to hang up something there. He chuckled shyly, not really knowing how to react. “Oh dear… I just started working here. But I guess… if I you read what the artist says, the idea is to do just that…”

I smiled at him “I totally agree. You are so right, and I would really love to do it!”

While the other visitors watched in a bit of a shock, I hung up my camera. Like a statement: Look! I am temporarily pausing my photography as a tribute to the artist and his art.  Of course by hanging up the camera I prevented myself from taking professional high quality images. Thereby strengthening the incompleteness, as I was powerless and empty handed as a photographer. I could only take a snapshot with my mobile phone. For me, this snapshot now has become a piece of art in itself, mirroring different layers over the original work.

I call it: Sicut modo. So happy with it!

Art and adoration. I went to Vienna just to see this picture. Recently I visited the Klimt experience at the Fabrique de Lumières in Amsterdam. That raised a few memories: The shop in Amsterdam so many years ago when I was a high school teenager. The cards I found there – all about Jugendstil and fairies and so. And this one that I immediately loved.

So I decided to go and see it. No reproduction can give the feeling of the real thing. I tried to take pictures of the shimmering gold and silver particles, but it’s impossible. You have to see it for yourself. In the Belvedere museum in Vienna.

Art touches one´s sense of beauty. Museums always tickle my creativity and wake up my inner muse. There is so much beauty all around! Just a glimpse out of the window tells me there is a world full of splendor waiting to be transformed into masterpieces. And after leaving the building, I feel enlightened and ready to create the most stunning art myself. View of the Naturhistorisches Museum in Vienna through the blackout screen of the Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien.

View from the Albertina museum in Vienna. Wherever you look, the world will show beauty.

It’s definitely not only the paintings that you should see in the Museum of Art History in Vienna. This is a view of the restaurant…

You just cannot not look up here. Is to too much Baroque here in the lower Belvedere?

All that glitters is… yes, gold!

Savannah (en Beaufort)

Wat een prachtig stadje! Nu begrijp ik waarom iedereen aanraadde om eens te kijken in Savannah. Oude huizen in koloniale stijl wekken een Zuideuropese of Latijnsamerikaanse sfeer op. In tegenstelling tot veel andere plekken in de VS kun je uitstekend wandelen in de historische binnenstad. Talloze parkjes – bijna elk tweede blok is park –  nodigen uit tot aangenaam verpozen.

Het verleden van de slavenhandel druk een zwaar stempel op de stad. Dit was één van de belangrijkste havens waar schepen met slaven uit Afrika aanlegden. “Als ik de kelders zie, dan moet ik altijd denken aan de mensen die daar misschien opgesloten hebben gezeten,” zei iemand.

Kenmerkend voor deze kuststrook zijn de lang slierten korstmossen die van de bomen hangen, het Spanish moss. En ook dat draagt bij aan die enge sfeer: als ’s nachts de slierten in de wind wuiven, lijken het wel geesten die komen spoken.

“Overdag vind ik de stad mooi, maar ’s nachts vind ik het eng,” zei iemand. Als geen ander weten de Amerikanen ook daarvan een business te maken, want het aanbod van Ghost tours en spookverhalen is enorm.

Eén foto is gemaakt in Beaufort, en stadje op zo’n 30 mijl afstand. Ook prachtig, ook historisch en met een minder beladen verleden. Ik hoop snel nog eens terug te komen, en dan ook Charleston te bezoeken.