Posted on Dec 23, 2012 in Cologne | 0 comments

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On December 22, we went downtown Cologne to see the David Hockney exhibit A Bigger Picture at the Museum Ludwig.

I had looked forward to seeing this show for the last 8 months, ever since I discovered Hockney’s newest work and had pre-ordered the exhibition catalogue on Amazon back in March or April. I was seriously considering flying to London while I was based in Berlin to see this exhibit, but then found out it was going to be touring Cologne over Christmas, where I was going anyway to visit my relatives and friends.

I had been a long-time Hockney fan and was thrilled to see his prolific output of traditional landscapes with his own edge after his return from L.A. to his native England. I read the catalogue, I watched the DVD. I feel a kinship with his approach to drawing and am inspired by his drawings, paintings, iPad sketches, videos, and his take on perspective.

But at the exhibit, I was amazed what I was drawn to: his charcoal drawings, his sketchbooks, his videos, and his giant printouts of iPad drawings — rather than his large paintings. The paintings had appealed to me the most from looking at the catalogue, but at the exhibit they felt almost too big and too rough.

After building up our hunger at the exhibit, we had a wonderful meal of greasy “Rievkooche”, the Cologne word for “Reibekuchen” which means potato cakes. They are served hot-fried, with cool apple sauce on the side for dipping.

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