Art through the Keyhole

Viewing art through a keyhole: the "Bilderträume" exhibition of Surrealist art at the Neue Nationalgalerie plays with this motif, and posters across the city depict a keyhole against a black backdrop through which your eye glimpses a tantalizing sliver of a Max Ernst, Magritte or Delvaux painting.

Leonor Fini, "Two Women"(1939). ⓒ VG Bild-Kunst Bonn 2009

In the exhibition's publicity materials, the painting chosen to represent its theme, especially its preoccupation with dreams and fantasies, is this one by Leonor Fini, where the viewer's eye is drawn directly to the act of looking through the keyhole. 


The image resonates with viewers because the "Bilderträume" exhibition reveals the private collection of Ulla and Heiner Pietzsch to a museum public in Berlin for the very first time. The Pietzsches, both long-time residents of Berlin, lovingly collected these works over a period of 30 years, focusing on Surrealist artists. They acquired the works not only of the great Surrealists such as Dali and Magritte, but also lesser known artists such as Fini or Kurt Seligmann.


Besides paintings, the collection includes sculptures, photographs, documents and books. Till now, these  were only to be seen in the spectacular Dahlem home of Ulla and Heiner Pietzsch, which the couple planned and built around their beloved collection. Only once before had there been a public viewing: in Dresden, the city where Heiner Pietzsch was born. 


This is an outstanding collection. We see, for instance that Dripping-Painting, a technique we have come to associate with Jackson Pollock, was really the inspiration of Max Ernst, an artist whom the Pietzsches had met in Hannover in the 1970s, and whose works are represented here in greater number than any other single artist. We see, too, a self-portrait by Frida Kahlo, an artist whose works are not included in any major German collection. 


By drawing a line from the European Surrealists to the Abstract Expressionists in New York in the 1950s, the Pietzsch collection shows us how artists in the two traditions drew on each other's ideas. And by including the work of artists such as Leonor Fini, Dorothea Tanning and Meret Oppenheim, it brings to light the work of women artists in the genre, less frequently exhibited. 


In the end, by juxtaposing works from the Pietzsche collection with those in the museum's permanent collection, the exhibition highlights just how perfectly the one could complement and complete the other. 


Here, then, is yet another variation on the meaning of "Bilderträume" (literally, Dreams of Images): Now that the Neue Nationalgalerie might acquire more exhibition space in the Kulturforum once the Gemäldegalerie moves to the Museum Island, could it be dreaming of bringing the brilliant Pietzsche collection into its fold?

Rene Magritte, "The Magician's Apprentice" (1926). ⓒ VG Bild-Kunst Bonn 2009

"Bilderträume" runs till 22 November 2009 at the Neue Nationalgalerie,  Potsdamerstr. 50, 10785 Berlin.  Tickets are 10 EUR (5 Eur reduced price), and audio guides in German and English are available for 5 EUR (3.50 EUR reduced price).  Public transportation: U and S-Bahn: Potsdamer Platz, Bus M48 to Kulturforum or Bus 200 to Potsdamer Platz. More information is at: www.bildertraeume.org

Best of the Wurst

Berlin's newest museum, which opened on Saturday, August 15, is dedicated to the city's most iconic fast food: the currywurst.

Photo: dpa

Martin Löwe, curator of the German Currywurst Museum and initiator of the project, began developing the idea four years ago. In the meantime, five million Euros of private investment have gone into making this fast food icon into a cultural institution. The 1100 square-meter museum is located just next to another tourist magnet, Checkpoint Charlie.

For 60 years this favorite Berliner snack -- fried pork sausage chopped into bite-sized chunks, doused with ketchup , sprinkled with curry powder and dumped onto a paper plate -- has been consumed at the rate of 70 million a year in Berlin alone (800 million in Germany). 

The Secret behind Currywurst

Hamburg may contest Berlin's claim to being the first city to produce this sausage delicacy, but for Berliners the case is clear-cut. The inventor of currywurst was Herta Heuwer, a shop assistant who lived in Berlin's post-war British sector.

In a city still ravaged by the war, Heuwer bought a food stand for 35 Marks and converted it into a kiosk. On a rainy day in September 1949, when nary a customer showed up, she experimented with ingredients brought into the city by British soldiers: tomato puree, Worcestershire sauce and curry powder. The next day she sold the world's first currywurst. Heuwer (and Berlin) never looked back.

By the 50s and 60s the Berlin currywurst was so popular that Heuwer employed an entire staff and patented the recipe for the sauce (under the name "Chillup").  You can still see a  metal plaque at the corner of Kant and Kaiser-Friedrich-Strasse in Charlottenburg, marking the spot where Heuwer first put up her kiosk. The original recipe with its 12 different spices, though, remains a secret.

A Tribute to Currywurst

An entire section  is dedicated to Herta Heuwer and the origins of the currywurst. But there's more.

At the entrance, visitors can stand behind the counter of a make-believe currywurst stand and have their picture taken. Later, they can marvel at giant ketchup drops from the ceiling, plop down on a leather Wurst- sofa to watch TV-clips on the theme of currywurst, listen to pop songs featuring currywurst lyrics emanating from handsets in the shape of ketchup bottles, or study a map showing locations of Berlin's currywurst stands marked with little forks.

Photo: dpa

Currywurst Disneyland

You can also pick up trivia about currywurst sales around the world, learn about currywurst variations, follow the history of fast food, watch Grace Lee's documentary film "Best of the Wurst," prepare a virtual currywurst, or peek inside the refrigerators of various social "types" (the single twenty-something male, the two-children family, the gourmet foodie, etc.) to discover the role of Berlin's most famous fast food in each.

Photo: dpa

If the entrance price of 11 Euros hasn't been steep enough, (note that for one Euro more you can get a combination-ticket for all the fantastic exhibitions at the Museum Island) you can also buy currywurst junk at the exit: a T-Shirt that reads "Don't Worry --- be Curry" or a soft toy sausage (29.90 EUR).

"The museum is a tribute to a cultural phenomenon," said museum director Birgit Breloh. "Our aim is to highlight all the various dimensions of the currywurst." A lofty goal. But all this seems to me like a kind of Currywurst Disneyland. Me, I'd rather go down to Curry 36 in Kreuzberg and get the real thing.

Photo: dpa

The Currywurst Museum is at Schützenstr. 70, 10117 Berlin Mitte (U6 to Kochstr.) and is open daily from 10 am to 10 pm. Tickets are 11 Eur (reduced fee: 7 EUR). More information is at www.currywurstmuseum.de