For the culture vultures amongst you, the Kunsthalle is currently exhibiting an apparantly rare and unrivalled collection of Mark Rothko paintings and other material gathered from around the world.
Its unrivalled because while he was alive, the Jewish Rothko refused to officially allow his paintings to be exhibited in germany and the only two exhibitions of his work to occur here previously were due to private collectors and galleries ignoring his wishes and putting together exhibitions anyway. The Kunsthalle event is the largest ever and first "official" (largely put together by and/or with his daughter) Rothko Retrospective to be shown here.
Although much of his work is quite extreme 'Abstract Expressionism' which may not be to everybodies taste, its a definite experience. Also, the setting is relatively compact which means its easier to see the whole thing in less than an hour (unlike the larger collections in munich).
Rothko himself protested violently against being called an abstract impressionist and if you experience this exhibition in real life its easy to see why, his work has a lot more life in it than that description (and various calendar prints) suggest.
I was at this two weeks ago and its breathtaking, as long as you dont expect your art to look like things ;-). If you dont believe a black square painted on a black background can be expressive, go to this exhibition. Ive always liked the Kunsthalle because its compact and even in its new, slightly larger re-built form you can get around the exhibition, even with an audio guide, in about an hour without feeling rushed.
andy M
