Episode 1: A Divided Land

German art reveals the complexity of German character. passion and precision, exact craftmanship and the impulsive gesture, a love of nature and a love of the machine, a need for escape and desire for control. dark story, humanity and renewal. 德国性格的复杂性：激情与严谨，精细与冲动，爱自然也爱机器，对控制的逃避与渴望 (对自由的捍卫与寻求理性的束缚)，黑历史里的人性与复兴 /想起一本书《德意志之魂》

Forestry in German Art The forest is the central image for many pieces of German art. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe believes German Gothic cathedrals encapsulate the essence of the forest. a sublimely towering tree of god, with its thousand branches and millions of twigs. 歌德认为日耳曼的哥特教堂封装着森林的精华

Cologne Cathedral, Cathedral of St. Peter 1248-1560, 1842-1880 Konrad von Hochstaden (1205-1261) pulls in the opposing directions, schizophrenic, contradictory. feels like it hasn't been build. it just grown. Hanseatic league, commerce, ideas from beyond its borders, many far flung influences to be absorbed and transformed. 科隆大教堂 /看完很久才想起来我去过，但是很明显太多细节都没看到。懊恼无知让我对丰富多样的表达视而不见，略感庆幸胆子足够大让我发现自己的无知，脸皮足够厚可以忍受自己的无知，无休止的追问与好奇心引领我走出无知，也许是走向下一个无知。但是无知与自知无知还是不一样。也幸好，无知的人还是有感知的，同样是高耸，仰望科隆大教堂的感觉和仰望帝国大厦的感觉很不一样。

Alte(old) Pinakothek(pinax-painted board tablet, theke-box chest) gallery in Munich 1836- crispy painted draperies, porcelain faces. no one does ghouls(gul,arabic) better than the Germans. legends of St. Anthony. the artist makes devils, demons, seem more real, more flesh and blood than ordinary human beings. grace and refinement of renaissance vs. superstitions of the Middle ages. black death, bubonic plague, famine. 画妖怪德国人最在行了

Matthias Grünewald (1470-1528) Colmar, Alsatian town The Isenheim Altarpiece, 1515 cryptic, sllipery 神秘的狡黠的表情

Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) wide, sad eyes. 忧伤的大眼睛 Graphische Sammlung in Munich expressing human emotion, cramming images full of feeling. the trees and roots, agonized form, as if nature itself is screaming out at the moment entombment. expressionistic language for art, northern europe art. 在图像中表达充沛的情感，树木与根扭曲痛苦的形式就好像大自然也在耶稣下葬的时候哀嚎，北部欧洲最早的表现性艺术语言

The Entombment c.1497 woodcut by Albrecht Dürer

Tilman Riemenschneider (1460-1531) Grosslangheim, Bavarian countryside, Antoniuskapelle style, subject, material. 风格 主题 材料 limewood tree sculpture 椴木木雕 Rothenburg ob der Tauber (red castle above the Tauber), Franconia region of Bavaria, St. Jakobskirche houses "Holy Blood Altar" co-opted /互动体验 Wallfahrtskirche Maria im Weingarten, Volkach Beguines (Lambert le Begue, the stammerer 结巴, 12th Belgium) "Madonna of the Rosary" 1521 work with light 木雕与光影

Lucas Cranach (1472-1553) Wittenberg, Luther's protestations, city church "Reformation Altar Piece" slightly cold, distant, calculated picture /有点冷淡 疏离 匠气，这个描述和我对希特勒的画的观感类似，只是希特勒的画更有一种退缩 隔绝 非人性的感觉 superstition past vs. faith and reason 妖魔鬼怪迷信的中世纪应该被信仰和理性取代 "The Vineyard." Cranach the younger

Albrecht Altdorfer (1480-1538) "The Battle of Issus" Alexander the great defeat the Persians 借古喻今的预言 abstract, whirlpools 近似抽象形式 漩涡 prophetic artwork, thirty years' war, 1618-1648

Johann Melchior Dinglinger (1664-1731) Dresden, Baroque Zwinger, 1710-, flamboyant Augustus the strong Grünes Gewölbe (the Green Vault), 1723 Wunderkammer (cabinets of wonder/curiosities) Mogul Arungzeb (1618-1707) /同为“蛮族” 蒙古人与日耳曼人的区别

Franz Xaver Messerschmidt (1736-1783) Vienna, Belvedere Palace the Enlightment, Sturm und Drang (storm and stress) 启蒙运动 风暴与压力 (狂飙突进) disenchantment reflected by: anguished poetry of Friedrich Schiller (1759-1805) tempestuous writings of Goethe (1749-1832) simmering temsions of Haydn (1732-1809) spurned(scorn, reject) by the court grimacing(grimazo-caricature, grima-fright) character bronze and stone sculpture Friedrich Nocolai (1733-1811, writer and bookseller) attempt to externalise the demon, exorcise it. beneath the still surface of the public self, lurk unofficial desires and fears. dicontent and desire for change. 不满与要求变革的时代 /physiognomy 面相学；对黑魔法的兴趣；那时从工匠开始随阅历见识悟性增长渐入艺术创作

[Lithograph by Matthias Rudolph Toma depicting Messerschmidt's “Character Heads”

microcosm (mikro kosmos), austere (austeros-severe), sinuous (sinus-a bend), raucous (hoarse), fiefdom, Bartholomew, brocade(brocco-twisted thread), dermatological (derma-skin), livid (bluish) green, beset, smoulder, pillage (plunder), piety (devotion), pathos (suffer), emaciate (ex, macies-leanness), belt clasp, dupe (hoopoes), plethora (plethein-be full), teeter (titra-shake), surrogate (super, rogare-ask), Mogul (mongol), minor arts (jewelry, miniature, textiles, pottery)

Episode 2: Dream and Machine

Walhalla 瓦尔哈拉纪念堂 , 1807, Ludwig I, 1830-1842 Donaustauf, east of Regensburg, Bavaria. ancient Germanic (Gothic, Vandal, Lombardic, Anglo-Saxon), medieval Dutch, Swedish and Russian. /欧洲西北角的这帮家伙，向西与岛国凯尔特人，向南与高卢凯尔特人，向东与斯拉夫人，越过阿尔卑斯山与地中海人，征战与融合，我猜如果他们只自信坚持自身特色再开几个奥丁学院估计早就灭亡了，但却没有，他们既吸收了拉丁文化，包括最基础的字母以及后来的天主教，也可以反对以及变革所引进的宗教，结果是一步步解放人性，开启自己的文明之旅。有直视战争瘟疫饥荒各种灾难的勇气，探索，吸纳，革新，保有根性的同时自由延展。想象一下，如果两千年前的人类都守着自己的地盘，现在会是什么样。也许我们需要一场文化复兴，重拾春秋战国时代以及民国时期的精神，百家争鸣，兼容并包，才可能在自身走向繁荣的同时，为人类贡献关键文明，如同两千年前一样。

Where could they find the sense of value to bring them together? Where could they find a source of strength to counter their weakness? Fuelled by the ideals of the Romantics generation, they looked to their land. They turned to nature. Some looked to the beauty and spirit of the natural world, which became the lifeblood of the Romantic imagination and inspired a painting tradition which took German art to new peaks. Others sought to harness the forces within nature through science and technology, to make Germany strong. /浪漫主义背景下的自然风景(spirit of nature), 科学技术探索(laws of the material nature)

Phillipp Otto Runge (1777-1810) children-nature, William Wordsworth(1770-1850) 将孩童与自然相关联

Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840) Greifswald, Pommersches Landesmuseum Neubrandenburg, his parents' hometown "The Monk by the Sea" "Abbey in the Oakwood" Friedrich believed it up to every man to find the god for himself, in nature. To him, the beauty and variety of the natural world was another form of god's word. 自然界的优美与多样是上帝之言的另一种形式 ruins-sky 废墟-天空 /物质世界与精神 ship, symbol of journy of man 船 旅人的标志 pondering, man's insignificance before the vastness of the cosmos 沉思 在浩瀚宇宙里人的微不足道

Der Mönch am Meer (The Monk by the Sea ) 1808-1810

Abtei im Eichwald (Abbey in the Oakwood) 1809-1810

/查瓦尔哈拉纪念堂时发现卡斯帕·弗里德里希的这幅画，为自由而战的英雄之墓或阿米尼乌斯(Arminius 17bc – 21ad)之墓，怎么看这么眼熟，难道是用了披麻皴点苔法

Grab des Arminius (Grave of Arminius/Graves of the Fallen Freedom Fighters) 1812

夏景山口待渡图，董源(934-c.962)

好像是。但是同为风景画这差别真是太大了。弗里德里希的海边的修士和董源的夏景山口待渡图里人都很小，相对自然来说是极其渺小的存在，只是修士面对着的自然庞大无边并且有压迫感，修士在沉思，而渔夫行走其中的自然却是宁静深远似乎与其融为一体，渔夫可能只想着今天捉了几条鱼做个什么汤

山径春行图 1190，马远(1160-1225)

怎么，我们就不沉思的吗。当然不会，马远兄就总是面对一片苍茫在思考着什么。但还是不一样，如果说修士思考的是信仰，是人类与自然的关系，马远在想的可能是家国天下事，再拔高一点，诗意，只是几点花苞和飞鸟还是多少暴露了小清新的味道，而且，触袖野花多自舞，避人幽鸟不成啼，宋宁宗的两句题诗更是让哲思的可能荡然无存

世俗与信仰，无意对这些差别做价值判断，只是觉得我们需要尝试体验和理解各种不同，对，多重宇宙，而不是固执于自身的某种框架。

St. Jerome in His Study, Albrecht Durer,1514

骷髅也是一个很大的差别，欧洲绘画里的骷髅不要太多，有些是战争里的遗骸(戈雅，奥托迪克斯)，有些代表死神(勃鲁盖尔，死神与少女系)，有些象征时间或永恒(丢勒，荷尔拜因，memento mori系静物画)，还有各种不可言喻(梵高，恩索尔)，但是翻遍中国画，可能也只有一幅南宋李嵩的骷髅幻戏图

骷髅幻戏图，李嵩(1166-1243)

同样，不大会启发关于永恒或信仰的思考，但是在世俗嬉戏之外，好像有一层对生死的思考，比永乐宫墙上王道长提着的那副骷髅图还是严肃多了。我看道教就是把老子庄子的思考迷信化了，否则也不会总想着长生不死，庄子可不这么看

庄子外篇至乐里有这样一段，庄先生的妻子死了，朋友去看他的时候，他没在哭反而敲着盆唱歌，朋友说你这也太过分了，庄子说我当然会感到伤心，但是，

察其始而本無生，非徒無生也，而本無形，非徒無形也，而本無氣。雜乎芒芴之間，變而有氣，氣變而有形，形變而有生，今又變而之死，是相與為春秋冬夏四時行也。

嗯，这个宇宙观很前卫，所以也就不难理解庄先生去楚国时看到一个骷髅就拿过来当枕头，呃，枕头，又回归了世俗

哎呀不扯了

Adolph Menzel (1815-1905) German cut off from the nature, shackled to the false gods of science and the machine. 工业革命 Wagner (believed he can not change this evil world) use his art into a apace of transcendent dream and myth. 瓦格纳超脱现实的梦想与神话 /托尔金的指环王灵感来源

Kathe Kollwitz (1867-1945) Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880-1938) Otto Dix (1891-1969) Franz Marc (1880-1916) he manages to combine an abstract language with a figurative language 抽象语言与具象语言的融合 forms that suggest elemental energy and nature 暗示基本能量与自然的形式

That is a beautiful drawing. Wow, this is .. something.

Episode 3: In the Shadow of Hitler

Arno Breker (1900-1991) Otto Dix (1891-1969) George Grosz (1893-1959)

Adolph Hitler (1889-1945) remarkbly unremarkable sick version of the visionary artist /退缩，疏离，淡漠，既缺少人类性情，也缺少理性的构建。记得有人提到过他收藏有希特勒的水彩画，我猜如果从文物的角度来看，也许有价值，如果是艺术角度，也可能是负价值。 Isaiah Berlin (1909-1997) "The sinister artist whose materials are men." The man who was obsessed with building a thousand-year future, brought immeasurable destruction down on the cities of his own country. 一个执念于千年大计的人为他自己国家的城市带来无法估量的毁灭

Bauhaus School (1919-1932) one of the **sacred groves** of mordern movement,

August Sander (1876-1964) In the city of Cologne and the countryside around, he began a quest to record, describe and document a certain kind of truth. 记录真实 August Sander asked himself a question - "Wer sind die Deutschen?" Who are the Germans? 德国人是谁 Sanders subjects meet the cameta's gaze directly, often posing for up to seven seconds. Something happens in that space of time, a very particular capturing of humanity. 人性的捕捉 he was interest in types, categories, but what shines through in every portrait is individuality. 他对类型学感兴趣，但是闪耀在每张肖像里的是个性 the drive under the project, a mosaic, to show that there were different forces, different energies in society. all these society parts are living side by side. 马赛克，展示社会中不同的力量不同的能量，并且彼此共存。 "Face of Our Time" everybody had a place in his society, everyone was an individual. 每一个人在社会中都有一个位置

The Master Craftsman from People of the Twentieth Century, Pastrycook 1928

Master Potter from Frechen 1934

Master Shoemaker 1940-42

Haus der Deutschen Kunst Adolf Wissel (1894-1973) smuggled this Trojan horse of a painting right into the Nazi citadel. 特洛伊木马 hitler bizarrely blind to its nuances. lost, melancholy. he has no sense of human empathy 希特勒因没有人类同理心而意识不到画中微妙的失落和忧郁 /我倒觉得在此之外他的自卑悲观和绝望让他选择这幅画

Die Ausstellung Entartete Kunst (Degenerate art) (1937) Ernst Bloch (1885-1977) Anton Bruckner (1824-1896) Symphony No. 4 in E-flat major, Romantic 安东·布鲁克纳的E♭大调第4号交响曲 浪漫

Yves Klein (1928-1962) Gelsenkirchen, art therapy interior space 克莱因蓝在室内空间的疗愈感

Georg Baselitz (1938-) hero paintings, remember what happened in Germany The Big Night in a Bucket (Die große Nacht im Eimer) 1962-1963 水桶里的大夜晚 this horrible little grotesque inflicting his sick weird masturbatory fantasies on the entire world. 将自己的变态欲望与妄想施加于整个世界 you allowed this to happen. 似乎在质问观者，是你允许这一切发生的

Bernd Becher (1931-2007) & Hilla Becher (1934-2015) confrontation is not the only way of remembering. there are other strategies. 对抗不是铭记的唯一方式 subject matter is the industrial past of the late 19th century, presentation and approach is reminiscent of August Sander's great project. 主题 表达与方法 some national mentality in these unassuming structures. 在这些朴实的结构里蕴含着某种民族精神 winding tower, concrete, without scaffolding, French, wheels, England, monumentality, Germany, thought about eternity, 矿井提升绞车塔：无框架混凝土，法式；轮子，英式；纪念塔，德式，思考永恒。 these objects are very thoughtful in the visual sense. there is a lot to discover and you are surprised yourself what you see and what you find. If you look closer, it's like a kind of universe. 仔细看，这里是一种宇宙 history, it changes all the time. 随时间变化 right after the war, nobody wanted to remember anything. 战争之后没人愿意记忆(所发生的)一切 blast furnace, iron-steel-bombs 冶炼炉

English Mineheads, 1966 - 1973

Joseph Beuys (1921-1986) remember, recover from its trauma 记忆，从创伤中恢复 everyone is an artist. /每一个人都面对宇宙 emblematic objects lie open to the interpretation of the viewer. Beuys always leaves room for our imagination. 博伊斯将阐释留给观者，为观者留出想象空间 cold war, warm sculpture. 冷战中的温暖雕塑 Beuys mobile, battered VW camper van, smeared and smudged windows, rust-stained flanks. 残破的大众野营车，污浊模糊的车窗，锈迹斑斑的车身 nurturing side of ourselves. 我们人类所持有的养育呵护的一面 all we need is love. 爱是我们需要的一切

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe (Denkmal für die ermordeten Juden Europas) 2004 consistently campaigned against forgetting. 不可遗忘 wound of Nazism, the other wound of terror regime to the East. /即使在谷歌地图上看也挺震撼的

google maps

checkpoint alpha 东德检查站 α banality(compulsory, banal, ban, common to all) of a regime of terror. 专政恐怖的日常性 you must meditate on this. freedom of expression, freedom of thought, freedom.

Tacheles (Yiddish, straight talking), a berlin famous squat /一处被艺术创作者占领的废弃建筑，自由，充满活力，但也有点流于表面的感觉，貌似安大叔在这里心情有点复杂，以康定斯基的神秘性与一位被访谈人建立起联系

Beuys' 7,000 Oaks 七千棵橡树 freedom vs. responsibility Goethe's comparison of a Gothic cathedral to a spreading oak tree. The oak was a symbol of mythic power to Beuys, too. he link it to the social. a vast, living organism in constant need of nurture. Kassel 市 a pillar of basalt (mafic: magnesium+ferric extrusive rock) stone 玄武岩方石块 a city turned to art. 一座城市因此成为艺术 no civilisation can thrive unless it exists in harmony with the world. 只有与世界和谐共存的文明才能繁衍生息

basket case, blistered mirror, skat player, cut their teeth, obscene prosthesis, prussian fencing fraternity, isenheim alterpiece, pandered to lowest-common-denominator outrage, blitzkreig, salutary rage, encephalitic(enkephalos-brain, itis-inflammation), bratwurst, slicked down black hair, parodic image, connoisseur, glass cases vitrine, shaman, stukas Ju87 Sturzkampfflugzeug "dive bomber", final fruition, stonehenge