Art and About

I had visitors last week and thought that was the perfect opportunity and excuse to indulge in a bit of gallery and museum hopping.

I hit enough exhibitions to make my head spin. Amongst the highlights were the Neue Nationalgalerie with it's collection of controversial 20th Century art. The controversy here is not so controversial from a 21st century perspective, but refers to the fact that each work created a huge stir upon its initial production - breaking in some way from all that had gone before and boldly striking off in new directions.

Controversial in another way is the Bettina Rheims exhibition at the Postfuhramt on Oranienburger Straße in Berlin-Mitte. For the first time in Berlin, 95 of Rheims' photographs from eight different series are on display - and they are stunning. From Chirac's first official portrait, to Kate Moss, Madonna, Salma Hayek and the recent Oscar winner Marion Cotillard, each of Rheims' portraits is meticulously posed with deeply symbolic props, colour schemes and positioning. There is some nudity on display here, but open-minded adults will be blown away.



Rheims portrays strong women, damaged women, sexually aggressive women, tender women, playful women, objectified women and aroused women. She plays with classical symbolism and religious iconography and the shallow sexualised images seen across the media, but she never becomes lewd or pornographic - her statements are too strong for that.