In the NY Times today, Michael Kimmelman writes about the Flick show. One sort of offhand comment he makes is, to me, a significant aspect of the whole thing; he writes that Flick's collection is "astonishingly long on cruel, cold, black-humored art."
Of course I'm making this observation remotely, and I can't claim to have a direct impression of the collection, but a good illustration of this is offered by Paul McCarthy's Apple Heads: a little bit of funny, a lot of icky. From my lofty and distant perch Flick demonstrates a leaning towards art that is uncomfortable-making or even downright gross (witness, also, Duane Hanson's Motorcycle Accident). He bought these things in the space of 7 years; 2000 works in 7 years. That's quick. It has produced what Hanno Rauterberg at Die Zeit says is a "collection more concise and strongly-conceived than any other."
BUT: given that incredibly short span of time, what does it say about Flick's intentions, conscious or not, in building his collection? What impulses was he responding to within himself, if, as he says, he was acting "from the gut?" These are rhetorical questions, mind. But I am tempted to return to Kippenberger's Beim besten Willen etc. here (see yesterday) and wonder whether we're not meant to read the entire endeavor as a sort of underhanded razzing, whether of contemporary German Erinnerungskultur or of Society As a Whole.
Ah! To the contrary: let's compare the causes and effects of the Flick Collection, specifically the government's unequivocal acceptance (or even its protection) of Flick, with the recent success, such as it was, of Der Untergang. Heinrich Wefing at the FAZ writes:
Deutschland ist unübersehbar dabei, in eine neue, nicht weniger schwierige, aber vielleicht weniger hysterische Phase der Erinnerung einzutreten. Eine Veränderung, die Folgen für die Formen des Gedenkens, aber auch für die Machtbalance der Erinnerungspolitik haben wird. Es dürfte diese Erkenntnis gewesen sein, die Flicks Kritiker zu Härte und Heftigkeit getrieben - und zugleich die relative Folgenlosigkeit ihrer Einwände befördert hat.
[keep reading for English]
Germany is unmistakeably in the process of entering a new, not less difficult, but perhaps less hysterical, phase of memory. This is a change which will have consequences for the shapes which memorializing will take, but also for the balance of power of memory politics. It was likely this discovery which drove Flick's critics towards severity and ferocity - and, at the same time, resulted in the relative lack of consequences from their objections.
Posted by Heather at September 28, 2004 09:38 AM
Comments