Visions - Ludwig Collection

My first Carnival in Brazil was quite different from what I expected. Took some time off from work, and spent my days visiting São Paulo with my girlfriend. During one of those days I got to visit a new exhibition being held in Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil.

“Visions” is part of the Ludwig Collection which is spread all across the world. Back in 2010, during the Museums International Day I travelled to Cologne in Germany to visit the Ludwig Museum there, which is still one of my favorites, and now I had the chance of seeing another bit of the collection. Along 4 different floors you get to see works from Picasso, Andy Warhol, Basquiat, Roy Lichtenstein, Gerhard Richter and others, taking you from neo-expressionism to pop art or hyperrealism.

Among all the great artists and masterpieces displayed, two or three really caught my attention. Rudolf Hausner, described as a “psychic realist” and the first “psychoanalytical painter” was a total stranger to me and I absolutely loved his “Adams Three Selves”. I was also fascinated by the works from photo-realism artists like Robert Bechtle and Ralph Goings, which I never heard about before. Andy Warhol had 3 or 4 pieces there, one with a collaboration with Basquiat, but nothing that really marveled me. Picasso opens the exhibition with his “Big Heads”, but that’s basically it from him.

If you can find yourself some free time, I truly recommend this exhibition. It is not that big, you won’t take hours visiting it, and it offers a great diversity of styles and artists. It’s free entrance, and it’s very well located, making it perfect for a walk around the city center afterwards. The exhibition will be available until the 21^st of April.

John Dyer Baizley

Its guys like these that remind that I have a blog to post some stuff that I find interesting. This time it was the lead singer from Baroness that really got my attention with his artworks. I knew some of his illustrations from Kylesa and Baroness, which by the way were pretty awesome, but I had no idea of how good this guy was. I dug some information on him, and I was amazed at the number of projects with which he has already been involved. Besides the already mentioned Kylesa and Baroness, Baizley has already contributed with some sick artwork for bands like Pig Destroyer, Darkest Hour, Kvelertak or Vitamin X.
I’ll leave you with some examples of his artwork but don’t hesitate to look the internet for some more. It’s really worth it.

Museums Fest - Cologne

Even though the International Museum Day is usually celebrated on the 18th of May, in Cologne they do it on the 16th. The Museums Fest, as they call it, means that you don’t have to pay to see their collections and you can even take part in several events such as conferences, workshops, etc. Taking this into account I had no excuse not to get my ass to Cologne and visit the Ludwig Museum. I was amazed by the diversity of styles and the amount of well known artists in their collection. From Expressionism to Surrealism or even Pop Art, there was always something from one world class artist. Picasso, Kirchner, Salvador Dali, Andy Warhol… You name it! I’ll leave you with some works that I got to see over there. Museum highly recommended.