Der Kulturforum

On Thursdays I have only one class (German from 9-12), so I decided to take a visit to "der Kulturforum" (or just the Kulturforum). It is located about 500 meters away from Potsdamer Platz and is known as the "collection of cultural buildings in Berlin." There is quite a number of art museums and galleries here, as well as the Chamber Music Hall and the Berliner Philharmonie. In the beginning of the semester, the FU-BEST program distributed annual museum cards to us that allow us to access any of the state-owned museums for free! Thus I decided to utilize this handy card to check out the Gemäldegalerie, which "holds one of the world's leading collections of European art from the 13th to the 18th centuries" and is located conveniently in the center of the Kulturforum.

I spent about two hours here, browsing through the vast collections of paintings. Many of the paintings, unsurprisingly given the time period, had religious foundations. I cannot even begin to tell you how many "Maria mit dem Kind" (aka Mary with baby Jesus) paintings I saw! It is interesting to note, however, how painters' interpretation and representation of Mary and Jesus differed. Sometimes both Mary and Jesus would have darker features (brown hair and brown eyes) while other times both Mary and Jesus would look like the perfect Aryan mother and child. Although I have little art history knowledge, notes from an art history class that I took at Berkeley my freshman year of college began to flood my mind. I started to take notice of disproportions, lighting, color and hue use, background, foreground, etc. It made me remember how much I actually learned (and retained!) in that class.

Two things I would like to point out:
1. Who would have thought that baby Jesus could be so creepy looking? Sometimes the painters would give Him adult sized/looking legs attached to an infant's body. Or they would paint His face with mature features. It's to the point of being disturbing.
2. You can totally tell when a (male) artist has had little or no experience with a female partner. He will draw (or paint, in this case) a woman's body like a man's, giving her masculine features, and then put two circle-like things that will act as "breasts". It's so awkward; I love it.

Der Kulturforum

The view of the surrounding Kulturforum area

St. Matthäus-Kirche

Berliner Philharmonie
(where I saw an amazing Mozart symphony last Saturday night)

Potsdamer Platz in the distance



(Note to all the Wikipedia lovers out there [like my brother]: Yes, I was quoting Wiki. Deal with it! :P)