In this ongoing series of interviews and talks the Alte Nationalgalerie, a museum on the Berlin “Museum Island” which shows mainly 19th century German art and a few Impressionists, is visited by artists and writers of different nationalities. With Ulrike Kuschel we didn’t get past the museum shop;
Rajeev Balasubramanyam finds its portraits of white men repulsive; Sylvia Sleigh fondly discovers parallels to her own work; while Neal Tait and Mathilde Rosier talk about painting and the vanity of all things. I tried as much as possible not to interfere with the choice of paintings my guests felt like talking about. Böcklin reappears frequently, being a quite impressive and very narrative painter.
As a prelude I also included my visit to the Art Nouveau Bröhan Museum in Berlin with Ingo Niermann. All of these texts were published in Neue Review, a Berlin art magazine edited by Raimar Stange and Dave Allen.