erwin heerich, insel hombroich
stiftung insel hombroich, neuss, germany
artist/architect: erwin heerich, 1922-2004.
this german bid for a european MARFA was photogenic no end but frustrating in proportion.
all copenhagen architects have been to the place which is lauded for its successful marriage of art, architecture and landscape and for the authenticity of the experience, whatever that means. a number of people had even mentioned the rustic lunch you are offered as being particularly wonderful.
all of this made me highly sceptical and in that sense, I was not disappointed.
artist erwin heerich's pavilions on a river island, the insel hombroich, get off to a head start by being clad in the recycled bricks, I have shown already. the textures and the allusions of this age-old masonry - recycled and reinvested with meaning without entirely erasing its history - is moving. a great beginning.
but unlike donald judd, whose criticism of established art institutions he tried to emulate, heerich was not a successful critic of his own work. and so, the lauded relationship between buildings and landscape turns out to be very simple as in nature/not-nature, and the square columns turn out to be gypsum board placed to satisfy arbitrary symmetries, and worse: the artworks crumble in the humid air of a wet october day because climate control is...well, remind me why they couldn't have climate control.
thankfully, the collection is not that important, the architectural concept most likely being the real attraction as it was to us. busloads of architects and students of architecture come here and eat the rustic lunch - the fact that the buildings are actively contributing to the destruction of the art they hold should not in itself jeopardize the future of insel hombroich. after all, architects don't go to museums for the art, they go there for the frames, so to speak.
there is a market for authenticity and insel humbug is on it, but I would like to suggest that a market for authenticity is a contradiction in terms.
I realize that this is one we won't all agree on, but in the end, the only thing I would have liked to take with me were the tiny sketches by klimt and only because it pained me to see them disintegrate.
erwin heerich, insel hombroich
stiftung insel hombroich, neuss, germany
artist/architect: erwin heerich, 1922-2004.
this german bid for a european MARFA was photogenic no end but frustrating in proportion.
all copenhagen architects have been to the place which is lauded for its successful marriage of art, architecture and landscape and for the authenticity of the experience, whatever that means. a number of people had even mentioned the rustic lunch you are offered as being particularly wonderful.
all of this made me highly sceptical and in that sense, I was not disappointed.
artist erwin heerich's pavilions on a river island, the insel hombroich, get off to a head start by being clad in the recycled bricks, I have shown already. the textures and the allusions of this age-old masonry - recycled and reinvested with meaning without entirely erasing its history - is moving. a great beginning.
but unlike donald judd, whose criticism of established art institutions he tried to emulate, heerich was not a successful critic of his own work. and so, the lauded relationship between buildings and landscape turns out to be very simple as in nature/not-nature, and the square columns turn out to be gypsum board placed to satisfy arbitrary symmetries, and worse: the artworks crumble in the humid air of a wet october day because climate control is...well, remind me why they couldn't have climate control.
thankfully, the collection is not that important, the architectural concept most likely being the real attraction as it was to us. busloads of architects and students of architecture come here and eat the rustic lunch - the fact that the buildings are actively contributing to the destruction of the art they hold should not in itself jeopardize the future of insel hombroich. after all, architects don't go to museums for the art, they go there for the frames, so to speak.
there is a market for authenticity and insel humbug is on it, but I would like to suggest that a market for authenticity is a contradiction in terms.
I realize that this is one we won't all agree on, but in the end, the only thing I would have liked to take with me were the tiny sketches by klimt and only because it pained me to see them disintegrate.