Kept safe in a silk-lined box by its Belgian “custodian” lies a piece of the historic legacy of German composer Richard Wagner that was nearly lost forever. The Lohengrin vase, made of porcelain, was given to Wagner more than 150 years ago by Ludwig II, the “mad king” of Bavaria, whose passion for building fairy-tale castles was matched only by his love of Wagner’s operas. It was believed lost after Allied bombing in World War II destroyed much of Bayreuth, the town where Wagner built the legendary theatre that now hosts an annual music festival. But one fragment emerged after the war and was taken to the Belgian capital, Brussels, in 1949, where it has largely remained out of sight in the intervening years. A group of Wagner devotees recently received a special viewing during a production in Brussels of the opera “Lohengrin” — the work that first bewitched Ludwig — and an AFP reporter was given a rare glimpse. Patrick Collon, the renowned organ maker and art expert who now owns th

Frank Auerbach (b. 1931) and Lucian Freud (1922–2011) are among the most prominent exponents of post-war English figurative art. From 16 May to 12 August 2018, the Städel Museum’s Department of Prints and Drawings unites major works by the two artists in a single exhibition for the first time. “Frank Auerbach and Lucian Freud: Faces” presents altogether forty drawings and prints, in particular portraits that are among the most uncompromising and most innovative in contemporary art. The two artists were close friends for nearly four decades, until Lucian Freud’s death. It was not only mutual appreciation for each other’s work that bonded them; they also shared the fate of having been born as sons of Jewish families in Berlin. Already as children, they were compelled to emigrate/flee from Nazi Germany to England. Their works are expressions of very personal vision and experience. And however different their formal approaches,

In this solo exhibition, Kathryn Hart explores the web of emotions confronted in the search to begin anew, and the burden of choice. She continues her dialogue with evolving identity and the hope for new beginnings amidst a maze of emotional conflict, pain, and self-doubt. Hart offers, “after life leaves us tumbled upside down, completely derailed, we pick ourselves up and begin the search for…personal truth, enlightenment, growth, love, connections, a place to feel comfortable, a place to call home. We even search for the place to start the search. My flightpath was obliterated by an onslaught of happenings – my husband’s cancer, the deaths of both my parents, and my own struggle with an ongoing disease and trauma. How do I move forward? The search starts with one intent, one thought, one moment, one breath, one catalyst, one cell, one dot.