Past master.Design of a museum in Osnabruck, dedicated to the work of Felix Nussbaum Early Life and Education Felix Nussbaum, known mostly for his surrealist paintings, was born in 1904, in Osnabrueck, Germany. He had parents called Rahel and Phillip Nussbaum. Philip was a World War I veteran and German patriot before the rise of the Nazis. , was developed alongside that of Berlin's Jewish Museum There are a number museums called the Jewish Museum including:
Daniel Libeskind Daniel Libeskind, (born May 12, 1946 in Łódź, Poland) is a Polish-born Jewish American architect, who has designed many prominent and celebrated buildings, including the Jewish Museum in Berlin, Germany, the Denver Art Museum in the United States, the Imperial War Museum won the competition to build the Felix Nussbaum Museum in Osnabruck in 1995. As can be guessed from the timing, and from the oblique language that is common to both buildings, the design for Osnabruck was developed alongside that of the Jewish Museum in Berlin (p40) but was completed last year, becoming Libeskind's first finished work. Woven into the architecture of both buildings is a narrative that draws on the particular to illuminate a general truth - that in the interests of humanity, the Holocaust and the murder of millions should never be forgotten. Perception of that truth lay behind Osnabruck's decision to dedicate a new museum to Felix Nussbaum who was a native of the town and fatal victim of Nazi persecution. Nussbaum's international renown is relatively recent, but his works are generally considered some of the finest examples of German Expressionism expressionism, term used to describe works of art and literature in which the representation of reality is distorted to communicate an inner vision. The expressionist transforms nature rather than imitates it. ; the very existence of the later paintings is a poignant testament to the power of the human spirit to transcend adversity. Nussbaum was born in Osnabruck in 1904, the son of a middle-class Jewish merchant. During the '20s he studied art in Berlin, subsequently becoming part of a celebrated coterie of young artists. Early paintings were compared with Van Gogh and Rousseau, but with the rise of National Socialism National Socialism or Nazism, doctrines and policies of the National Socialist German Workers' party, which ruled Germany under Adolf Hitler from 1933 to 1945. and comcomitant anti-semitism his work became increasingly charged with uncertainty and lurking menace. From 1933 onwards he and the artist, Felka Platek, led a fugitive existence, fleeing through Europe to Brussels, to be finally betrayed, deported to Auschwitz and murdered in 1944. Most remarkably, almost until his deportation Nussbaum continued to paint. The Nussbaum museum is part of the Cultural History Museum, a palatial pa·la·tial adj. 1. Of or suitable for a palace: palatial furnishings. 2. Of the nature of a palace, as in spaciousness or ornateness: a palatial yacht. nineteenth-century building outside the town wall. It stands opposite the Schlikker'sche Villa which, now a folk museum, served as the local Nazi party Nazi Party German political party of National Socialism. Founded in 1919 as the German Workers' Party, it changed its name to the National Socialist German Workers' Party when Adolf Hitler became leader (1920–21). headquarters from 1933 to 1945. Three rectangular volumes make up the museum complex, each one given a separate external identity. Together they form an irregular triangle which outlines the paths of intersecting axes evolved by Libeskind and invested with meaning. Of these volumes, the main one is the Nussbaum Haus on an east-west axis leading to the site of the old synagogue The name Old Synagogue can apply to a number of Jewish synagogues throughout the world:
The most eerie component of the trio is a narrow horizontal concrete monolith shooting towards the Schlikker'sche Villa and known as the Nussbaum Gang. At 11 m high, 2m wide and 70m long it encloses two sepulchral se·pul·chral adj. 1. Of or relating to a burial vault or a receptacle for sacred relics. 2. Suggestive of the grave; funereal. se·pul corridors, one on top of another and dimly lit from above. Out of the gloom emerge the later paintings, charnel house visions of desolation. The remaining element of the composition, by which the new museum is hinged off the east wing of the old, is the elevated zinc-clad bridge. This has galleries on two levels, the lower one for the recently discovered paintings, the upper one for temporary exhibitions. Existing as a metaphor for connection of the past with the present, the structure crashes through the Gang to collide with the Haus, linking in each case with the upper levels of the building. The complex is surrounded by and visually tied to the detritus detritus /de·tri·tus/ (de-tri´tus) particulate matter produced by or remaining after the wearing away or disintegration of a substance or tissue. de·tri·tus n. pl. of history. Nussbaum Gang, slicing past the western end of Nussbaum Haus, is itself sliced on plan by the remnants of a seventeenth-century bridge. Revealed during excavation, it led to the ravelin Rave´lin n. 1. (Fort.) A detached work with two embankments which make a salient angle. It is raised before the curtain on the counterscarp of the place. Formerly called demilune ltname> and half-moon ltname>. protecting the city gate. A new path raised over the vaults takes visitors left to the museum's main entrance at the head of Nussbaum Gang, or straight on to a dead end, the restored wall of an alleyway that once led to the lost synagogue. The cut through Nussbaum Gang isolates a notional fragment of it. Forming a concrete tower for temporary installations it stands sentinel opposite the massive front door. Like a tapestry woven around the buildings, fragments of the old and new are part of new gardens criss-crossed by paths. The graphic simplicity of a carpet of dwarf sunflowers (a motif borrowed from Nussbaum's paintings), brilliant against green grass and stone, is really delightful. More history is exposed in a litter of stone columns in a courtyard between old and new museums. Without knowing the symbolism inherent in the parts you can appreciate the painterly paint·er·ly adj. 1. Of, relating to, or characteristic of a painter; artistic. 2. a. Having qualities unique to the art of painting. b. composition that has the sculptural power of the buildings as its focus. It is the interiors that raise difficulties. They are derived from an inevitable tension between the architect's passionate desire to convey a message, almost literally, through architecture and the fundamental purpose of a gallery to show pictures.(1) Libeskind's museum is a disconcerting dis·con·cert tr.v. dis·con·cert·ed, dis·con·cert·ing, dis·con·certs 1. To upset the self-possession of; ruffle. See Synonyms at embarrass. 2. place in which to contemplate paintings. Volumes are distorted, walls slashed by oblique window slits, and floors raked; ceilings are scored by lighting tracks and (on the top floors) fissures of glass. The staircase on the south side of the Nussbaum Haus projects at a deliberately sharp angle into the galleries to leave a triangle of space too acute to accommodate anything much. Libeskind has set out to convey disorientation disorientation /dis·or·i·en·ta·tion/ (-or?e-en-ta´shun) the loss of proper bearings, or a state of mental confusion as to time, place, or identity. , restlessness, the absence of rules, so that normality no longer exists and reality is difficult to judge. Considered simply as a building, the spaces it contains can at times seem bleak and irritatingly confusing. Libeskind's subversion of promenades architecturales has produced a circulation system so labyrinthine lab·y·rin·thine adj. Of, relating to, resembling, or constituting a labyrinth. labyrinthine pertaining to or emanating from a labyrinth. as to defeat even the most determined first-time visitor. (It is made more confusing by the fire doors obstructing passage from one building to another.) Steel mesh panels set into floors do allow glimpses of other rooms, above or below, but how to reach them? On the day the museum opened, discomfort was heightened by Hans Peter Kuhn's weird electronic acoustics reverberating re·ver·ber·ate v. re·ver·ber·at·ed, re·ver·ber·at·ing, re·ver·ber·ates v.intr. 1. To resound in a succession of echoes; reecho. 2. around you. Undeniably powerful with its fractured walls and challenging volumes, the place must be a curator's nightmare. Admittedly on opening day the collection was not yet in place but sight of the few paintings on show huddled in inhospitable corners was not encouraging. Nussbaum's paintings are intricately composed, and quiet study is required to realize their expression of humanity and tenderness, the depths of their desolation and despair. Of the two artists involved in this scheme, it is the architect who seems to be striving for effect. 1 Of course Wright's Guggenheim building in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , like other Expressionist ex·pres·sion·ism n. A movement in the arts during the early part of the 20th century that emphasized subjective expression of the artist's inner experiences. ex·pres museums, makes a difficult gallery but no-one could wish it had not been built. The problem here, where purpose is so specific, is that the tension is extreme. Architect Daniel Libeskind Project architects Daniel Libeskind, Markus Aerni, Barbara Holzer, Anne Marie O'Connor, Claire Karsenty, Ariel Huber, Lars Graebner, Karl-Heinz Maschmeier (advisor). Structural engineer Konrad Ehlers, Watermann Landscape architects Muller, Knippschild, Wehberg Lighting Lichtplanung Jan Dinnebier Photographs Christian Richters 1-9, Katsuhisa Kida 10-15 |
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