Kunst, Spiele, und Weihnachtsmarkt

This weekend introduced me to some fantastic things:

-  Kunstmuseum Stuttgart:  first, let me preface this by saying that for a relatively artsy person, I am not the biggest museum fan.  Unless there is a particular exhibit I am interested in, it is not usually on the top of my list of things to see.  However, I had heard good things about this museum in general, so I decided to spend my free time on Saturday there.  One of the main exhibits right now is a collection from Heinz and Anette Teufel in a particular genre of Abstractionist art called Concrete Art (not actually made from concrete at all).  One of my favorite artists, Bridget Riley, had a painting in this collection, as well as several new artists which I discovered and fell in love with.  Here is a link to the museum's description of the exhibit (with the Bridget Riley painting that I love):

http://www.kunstmuseum-stuttgart.de/en/index.php?site=1&page=2&actualSel=35

Here are some links to my fav artists.  I would post pics, but I don't want to cross any copyright lines...so check them out for yourself.  :-)

http://www.galerie-la-ligne.ch/--herzlich-willkommen/kuenstler/kubiak-uwe.html

http://www.trocadero.com/griffintrading/items/591534/item591534store.html

http://www.regio-kunst.de/regio-kunst/druckansicht/konkret.html

http://www.spielvogel-galerie.de/html/bilder-brandt-liste.html

http://www.galerie-hoeppner.de/kuenstler/fruhtrunk_gunter.php

A lot of the paintings had very intense colors or very stark lines which are naturally hard to capture in pictures, but I thought I would give a little a flavor of the exhibit, and what I spent hours studying.  It was wonderful to go in to the museum and simply lose track of time.  Good times.

Last night, I was introduced to a couple new German games, and my competitive spirit was delighted to be able to be expressed.  :-)  One is a game several of you are probably familiar with - Die Siedler von Catan (Settlers of Catan).  For those of you who aren't familiar with it, it is a game of establishing towns and streets and strategic land holdings and all other sorts of things that I just barely scratched the surface of in our one simple game (and also learning all of this in German made things even MORE interesting).  I am a little hooked already, so all of you Settlers fans out there, be ready - I want to play and I want to learn more...my competitive spirit just can't resist it.  :-)  We were actually playing with the original version of the game, in the original German (since it was created here...go figure).  Pretty awesome.

Finally, here is a teaser for the next post:  While in Stuttgart, I saw the beautiful craziness that is a German Weihnachtsmarkt (or Christkindlmarkt).  Unfortunately, because of the stomach virus mentioned in the last post, I was unable to enjoy the full experience, i.e. Glühwein (mulled wine) and all the awesome German confections.  So, I plan to make a return trip to the huge market in Stuttgart (as well as to our local market in Waiblingen) and give a full report.  Stay tuned...