Kartoffelmühle by Andreas Slominsky

You’ve probably heard me say this before; I don’t go to church. There are some places I go however, that feel like church to me. The mountains are one of them. Art museums are another. This may seem like an unlikely pair of places that invoke my spirituality. Bear in mind, I’m only stating the facts, not explaining them.

Yesterday I went to the Neues Museum of Art in Nurnberg. It’s a nice size museum. By this I mean that it is manageable to walk through in a day. You won’t feel the need to rush through, you won’t miss anything, and you won’t get bored. The bonus is that it only costs €1,00 on Sundays…and the parking in the city is free.

The Neues Museum is a modern art museum. You won’t find any of the classics there, but what you will find are plenty of paintings and sculptures that will challenge your definition of art. Since Art plays such a huge role in my life; I find that exposing myself to it’s newest forms is refreshing, cleansing, rejuvenating, and inspiring. I have to be in a museum alone for it to have this effect. By myself it’s as if all of my senses are turned on to the inanimate objects around me. The art gains a pulse that registers in my brain. Yesterday I realized I’ve been missing this energy for too long. I was starving; but now I’ve feasted. The artists featured in the permanent collect are quite clever and their art gets you thinking.  Some of my personal favorites were a painting made of caviar on canvas, a shopping cart turned into a little kid’s chair, and a sofa made of recycled tires.

Surfing on Acid by Mary Heilmann

The current special exhibition is Mary Heilmann: Good Vibrations. If you like neon, geometric lines, asymmetric canvas, and drippy paint; it’s worth your trip. Heilmann is a female artist born in California in 1940. I love how youthful and energetic her work is, despite her being over 70. In fact, many of her pieces on show at the exhibition look like things you’d see trending, and currently for sale, on Etsy. Viewers of any age could identify with her art and it’s subject matter.

www.nmn.de