Dark and empty the narrow streets of Berlin Mitte gallery area may be, but they are stuffed, even cluttered with art galleries, one next to the other. To visit them all would take more time than any sane person could contemplate. However I am with stout heart, boots on, going to give it a try. Meanwhile Manfred came to see how I was getting on. Looking at the canvases he declared that they must have sold me ‘Russian' linen because it is so loose and rough. ‘Russian' being a disparaging adjective here now that East Berlin has rejoined the West. I am inclined to agree but am working with it. The roughness of the canvas as equivalent to the smashed then concrete patched together feel of the area, in spite of the buzz of youth hip-ness and cafes.
Yesterday the final priming coat was applied to the canvases, and today a lot of preliminary measuring, taping and colour decisions took up the whole day. I am going to have to return to Boesner and buy other colours as I've changed my mind on some after doing samples, certainly I will have to get the (expensive) Cadmium yellow, as it is the best one. At least I'll get out and get some fresh air and daylight. I have been working through the days lately.
11/02/2007 Having ‘done' not much more than a block of galleries yesterday, today I did part of Auguststrasse and bits of Linienstrasse and Gartenstrasse. Exhausting but absorbing. Inevitably the galleries are completely empty except for their own staff, but friendly and lots of varied art to peruse. The Neo Rauch, Liepzig school style of painting is the trend, although the gallerists seem to rather disparage that, maybe because they personally haven't got their hands on any of the original bunch. They talk the same old story: that there is a lack of collectors; galleries only make money at international art fairs where the buyers are American or Japanese, not in their galleries. Probably the number worldwide of collectors spending vast sums is actually quite small, and all the dealers chase them with also a relatively small handful of ‘big name' artists. The kudos and hullabaloo about Berlin as the new Art centre is apparently about enthusiasm, numbers and focus of participants, rather than as art market, so far at this moment. But a beguiling place to be an artist in spite of or because of, that. The buzz is that top New York Galleries will open offshoots here soon
