long night of the museums - frankfurt edition

this week found me lodged (like a crab in the gullet of an albatross) outside frankfurt in the humble village of neu-isenburg. thoroughly unremarkable - like most of the landscape around that most dull of german cities. the most exciting event was a power failure in the middle of my meal at a balkan steakhouse named el paso. i had initially decided against the joint - why enter a steakhouse if one doesn't eat steak? - but as i roamed those mean neu-isenburgian streets i found no other eatery - only a few globing orbs hinting at a future full of clones sporting track suits - and so retraced my steps to this oasis of meat. actually the plunge into darkness added a frisson of danger and romanticism to an otherwise negligible meal of potatoes and putenbrust.
   determined to make the most of my forced exile in Hesse the next evening i made my way downtown. Frankfurt's museums are open late on wednesdays and so i arranged an itinerary of forced marches. first off - the german film museum for an exhibition tracing the history of anime. while my delight in anime didn't make it past puberty i was touched by scenes from Astro Boy and Speed Racer with whom i spent many a cookie filled afternoon. most of the exhibition was made up of cels from popular genres and series, following the history of the medium from its roots in post war japan. unfortunately there seemed to be no hentai in the house....
   then next door to the german architecture museum to revisit the Poelzig exhibition recently arrived from the adk in berlin. i was thrilled to see the architectural models and drawings in their new arrangement but, while many of the items now had english descriptions, the exhibition was spread over three floors with poelzig's painting and film work definitely given short shrift. the end result was a fractured and less powerful exhibition.
   leaving Poelzig behind i had to hoof it quickly over the slow flowing main to the museum of modern art. i arrived with mere minutes to spare and threw myself at their exhibtion of sculptures by Hans Josephsohn. Adolf and Joe would not have liked Herr Josephson's barely representative work - heavy clumps of textured dreams in plaster. i took them in quickly i raced around the museum to check out the greatest hits of modern art in this oddly over architected space. i pity the poor suckers that have to clean this joint with its way-too.many stairways and oddly placed pillars. lots of warhol, liechstenstein, as well as other popart stars (with the velvet underground playing gently in the background) and a bueys and richter or two. unfortunately i was a bit early to catch the exhibition of photos by miroslav tichy - an old hairy czech lecher with a pinhole camera - though i was able to see a handful of his smudged prints of girls in bathing suits. a photo of him shows him every bit the cliche of the obsessive outsider artist...bearded, ill kempt and vaguely threatening... stepping out as they locked the door behind me i was pleased to come across the exhibition of katherina fritsch's tischgesellschaft at the zollamt across the street. she always makes me laugh and her sculpture of two dozen clones at dinner was no exception.
   a pitstop in a bad chinese restaurant to fill my belly with some not-spicy-enough kung pao chicken and rest my weary bones. then it was back up and at 'em. into the schirn - truly the best of frankfurt's museums - to check out All Inclusive, an examination of modern tourism and its malcontents. lots of cibachrome prints, hawaiian shirts and clever collage. and then across the hall to their exhibition of four female impressionists - that is - four women painters of the 19th century - Berthe Morisot, Mary Cassatt, Eva Gonzalès und Marie Bracquemond. The similarity of the subject matter - mostly portraits, garden landscapes or interiors was set off by the contrasting use of colors and brushstrokes. having long been a fan of Mary Cassat (not to be confused with Mary Surratt - conspirator in the Lincoln assassination) i enjoyed seeing her luminous paintings - well set off by the dark violet walls upon which they were hung. then as the museum closed its doors it was into the cool night air and back to neu-isenburg to rest my overworked eyeballs....