June 21, 2011

By Mary Rozell

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Rooms with a View

While The Art Newspaper reported that many used the time gap between the Biennale’s opening and the start of Art Basel to head to Berlin (particularly, to take in the based in berlin survey exhibition), I took advantage of a longer European sojourn to rove the Basel countryside and see things that had long been on my list.  First was a train ride to Colmar to at last take in Matthias Gruenewald’s Isenheim Altarpiece (1506-1515) – a must for anyone interested in German Expressionism and its late Gothic-style antecedents.  The gruesome details and masterful execution did not disappoint.  (Nor did the opportunity of crossing the border into France, with Michelin star lunch possibilities and Le Bon Marché eye shadow pastels suddenly in play).

Isenheim Altarpiece

Alsace-Lorraine For Lunch

 

Next on the agenda was a hike to the nearby Goetheanum, an early feat of Rudolf Steiner concrete Expressionist architecture which has to be seen to be believed.

Goetheanum

And lastly, it was lovely just to stop and smell the roses (literally!) at the monastery where I usually stay, to dine solo in the garden with a view of the mountains on provisions picked just a few feet away, and to take a deep breath before the art fair madness began

Monastery View

Sometimes the highlights of an art trip lie beyond the main event, the best works of art being the place where you are sitting.  For me, this was certainly true this year of Basel where Art Parcours provided endless nocturnal mystery, and of Venice where the empty Giardini on Monday morning (yes, I actually took a train into Venice to find the Biennale closed) was a tranquil haven in a tourist-stuffed town.

Art Parcours: Federico Herrero's fishing hut by night.

 

Kris Martin's bronze confetti on the floor St. Alban's.

 

Art Parcours: Ugo Rondinone at the St. Alban churchyard

Most edifying of all was going nowhere – or rather staying put in the 16th-century villa discovered during our first biennale road trip from Berlin  in 1999 and home base for every biennale since.

 

 

Afternoon at the villa.