Arlington to Aachen: Imaging the Distance opened on Friday night at the Ludwig Forum. About 200+ people turned out for the show; afterwards, everyone involved with the project attended a dinner downstairs in the Restaurant Parapluie. Below I've posted some photos.

Saturday I checked into a hotel in Cologne--and finally indulged in some honest-to-goodness sightseeing. After a week at Aachen's Ludwig Forum, I took a trip to the Peter Ludwig contemporary art mothership: Cologne's Museum Ludwig. There I saw a show of black and white pictures by Cologne-born photographer and theatrical designer Chargesheimer, a group of videos by Corinna Schnitt, and, of course, the permanent collection. The Picassos and avante-garde Russian art appeared to be MIA, but I did see a surfeit of Pop art--Rauschenberg, Johns, Rosenquist, and a Claes Oldenburg piece with which I was unfamiliar: The Mouse Museum, a large, darkened, walk-in curio cabinet shaped like the Mickey Mouse head-and-ears logo, and full of plastic food, sex toys, and children's baseball paraphernalia.

Also on view there were some studies for Gerhard Richter's new stained glass window in the Cologne Cathedral. The window is based on Richter's 1974 piece, 4096 colors, and was unveiled a couple of months ago. The sight of a 1200 square foot Richter color chart glowing overhead--in the heart of a mammoth seven-and-a-half century old church--is undeniably jarring, and more than a little wonderful.

Tomorrow I'll have more photos, and reflect some on the shows I mentioned above.

Andreas Magdanz and Stephan Morsch examine Evan Reed's Arlington House.

From left to right: Artists Maria Karametou, Mona Sfeir, and Amy Glengary-Yang.

In my last post, I erroneously referred to Mona's piece as Flying Carpet--that was the title on her loan form, but neither of us can figure out how it got there. Anyway, the actual title is Return. Now you know.



Blurry shot of gallery-goers enjoying the work in Hans Niehus's space.

Untitled light sculpture by Tobias Danke.

Caroline Danforth, undoubtedly conversing in fluent German with the invaluable Holger Hermannsen.

Closeup installation view of Caroline's 5" X 5" aerial landscape paintings.

Chawky Frenn and his retinue.

Harald and Holger toast a job well done.

From left to right: AAC Executive Director Claire Huschle; LF Director Harald Kunde; Stephan Morsch and his family; the top of Chawky Frenn's shiny bald head.