Art - a Child's Play

I went to the Schirn Kunsthalle this evening. They have an exhibit there titled Art - A Child's Play. It's full of toys designed and made by various famous artists - Picasso, Warhol, various members of Bauhaus. In Warhol's case, it was an art exhibit he designed for children. It looked interesting. It turned out to be great fun!

First, coming up out of the Ubahn next to it was interesting. There is this huge two story escalator/staircase you have to go up to get to street level. In the past the wall of this staircase has just been a huge ugly blank spot. Well, the Schirn Kunsthalle has transformed it with quirky sayings painted in their typeface. As you go up the stairs, you are greeting with "Climbing Stairs is not Art", "Buying a Ticket is not Art", "Sweating is not Art", "Going to Schirn Kunsthalle is not Art". Funny and something to keep you interested in as you climb the stairs when the escalator is broken. :)

Inside the exhibit, they've arranged everything to be a bit like a big playroom with everything displayed on, in, or under big gray squishy building blocks. They've really tried to make it fun for kids to visit - things are about their height, a couple of the exhibits are under the floor so they can down at them. And many of the toys exhibited are also available in a couple of recessed play areas. I had fun playing with a spinning color wheel top and a stacked block set.

There were two really interesting pieces in the exhibit. The first was this interactive art installation. The lobby of the Schirn is a hole and the upper stories of the museum look down into it. In the childrens toy exhibit, they took part of this space (about 60 ft long, 5 ft wide) and filled it with colorful bungee cords, spaced about three inches apart. That was fun trying to get through! One of the curators had to keep telling people they could walk through. I giggled a lot trying to get through there. :)

The second really interesting piece was a movie. One of the artists who started in the 1920s liked to make wire frame animals and he used to put on a whole circus show for friends, family and grandkids. He had this elaborate act full of music and tricks. There was a lion tamer, a monkey that jumped on a galloping horse and a very elborate high wire act. It was amazing the detail and work he put into this little hobby. And all with a liberal dash of humor behind it.

If you're going to be in Frankfurt anytime from now until the middle of July and are a kid at heart, I highly recommend going to this exhibit.

Posted by Jinglelady at June 2, 2004 11:29 PM | German Life