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BELOW: Lars Krutak, Konyak
Naga with Traditional Facial
Tattoos, Nagaland, India.
2010.
Photo © Lars Krutak.
Courtesy of the artist.
BELOW: Object. Maori,
New Zealand. 19th century.
Greenstone (pounamu), sealing wax.
Purchased in 1953 from Ludwig
Bretschneider, Munich.
Inv. 53-7-1.
Photo © MFK, Nicolai Kästner
BELOW: Petrus Beltjens, Big
Man. Simbu Province, New
Guinea. 1950–1955.
© Weltkulturen Museum
AGING BY
CONTINENT
Frankfurt—How do we deal with the
political, social, and scientifi c problems
that the world’s ever-increasing older
population gives rise to? How can this
inexorable aging process be approached from a multicultural
perspective? And how can it be interpreted in
an artistic and, most importantly, optimistic perspective?
Artists all over the world are exploring the possibilities,
each according to their own traditions, points of view,
and the cultural baggage they carry. Every culture has its
own conceptions of aging and of the stages of life. Will
there eventually be a universal notion of “age” and in
particular of advanced age? What can we learn from our
neighbors about ways to manage our elderly population?
These are questions that Grey is the New Pink: Moments
of Aging, on view until September 1, 2019, at the Weltkulturen
Museum addresses through the presentation of
works by more than fi fteen multinational artists. It invites
refl ection upon cultural contradictions and places the
museum squarely in the realm of social discourse.
MUSEUM NEWS
RIGHT: Helme Heine.
Refl ection, whakaata ahua.
Watercolor.
© Helme Heine.
FAR RIGHT: Helme Heine,
You Can See Better with
Both Eyes.
Watercolor.
© Helme Heine.
BELOW: Bowl fi gure.
Maori, New Zealand.
19th century.
Wood, haliotis shell.
Purchased in 1935 from the estate of
H. Meyer, Leipzig.
Inv. 35-4-2.
Photo © MFK, Nicolai Kästner.
HELME HEINE
Munich—Refl ections: Maori Art and Helme Heine’s
View on New Zealand is the current temporary exhibition
at the Museum Fünf Kontinente. On view until
April 28, 2019, it explores different perspectives and
“refl ections” on the art of New Zealand by renowned
German artist, illustrator, and satirist Helme Heine. In
the fi rst perspective, a political one, Heine takes a kind
of mischievous pleasure in describing his adopted country’s
contradictions. The second part is an homage to his
friend and neighbor, New Zealand artist engraver Cliff
Whiting, who died in 2017, and Heine echoes and honors
his European-descended colleague here. These modern
perspectives are counterpointed by some of the oldest
pieces in the museum’s collection, which happen to
be Maori. In harmony with the works of contemporary
artists, the greenstone volutes and interlacing wooden
openwork designs of former times attest to the aesthetic
wealth of this distant land. As the exhibition text states,
the recent works are the descendants and refl ections of
ancient masterpieces in their aspect, their history, and
their duality.