Music magazines

As I wrote from Sydney, I couldn't find a single music or art related magazine in the Sydney Airport magazine/book store. I was looking for Opera Today to read the article on Christine Goerke, one of the singers I sketched in New Zealand.

I checked at the book store at the Graz railway station and there I found four different magazines about opera, two about musicals, one about ballet and so many art related magazines I didn't bother to count them. There were just as many titles about computers, sport, cars etc as in Sydney of course, it's just that the offering was more balanced. Opera Today was not one of the four available opera magazines so I left with Das Opernglas.

Maybe Lyndon Terracini (Opera Australia artistic director) could arrange that at least one store in Sydney carries opera titles, perhaps the opera house store? Would that be too much to ask? 

Graz Kunsthaus

The Graz Art Gallery by the Mur River has a very unusual shape.

Model of the Kunsthaus Graz which stands outside the gallery

As with most European art galleries, there is an entry fee (8 Euro in Graz) and I always wonder how many more people would visit if the galleries were free as they are in Australasia. They might attract people who thought they were not particularly interested in art, especially on a wet day like Saturday. Instead I was one of a select very few who were wandering around the exhibits.

The first floor was given over to media art, a very crowded floor of media screens none of which captured my attention for more than 5 seconds. Media art can be wonderful, but just because things move doesn't mean they are interesting.

The work on show on the top level with those odd shaped window-tubes was much more interesting and worth the eight Euro entry fee. Chinese artist Liu Xiaodong, who had done a four month residency in Austria, was showing work created in Austria and back home in China. His paintings were very large and naturalistic but all of them were worth looking at. They were mostly simple scenes of people talking or looking, set against a backdrop of their locality but somehow they made you think up stories to fit them and I found myself going back to have another look at several.

Paintings by Liu Xia0dong. The round tube windows are a feature of the building.

The tube windows on the 3rd floor are unusual and the space is a bit awkward with few internal walls (or perhaps the internal walls had been taken out for this show) but that didn't detract from the paintings.

Liu had also made movies showing his method of working. I found them much more interesting than the media downstairs. The one I watched was a 38 minute movie about a horse market in China.

Screen showing movie of the work habits of Liu.

It showed the market, how Liu chatted with the peasants to see what was going on, how he sketched and then transferred his sketches onto large canvases. He had quite a few young helpers and my impression was that they helped not only with the set up and transfer of sketches but also with the painting.

At the top of the gallery there is a glassed-in balcony where you can look over the bridge crossing the River Mur to the city beyond. The river was turbulent and still the rain fell.

Graz, viewed from the top of the Kunsthaus

Austria is wet and cool

Before leaving Sydney I had seen television coverage of the heat and fires in Spain so I was surprised that Munich was cold (14C). It was also very wet and as my train to Graz sped through the landscape I looked out over sodden fields with puddled water and gushing rivers almost breaking their banks.

Swollen river between Salzburg and Bischofshofen

In Austria I had to change trains in Bischofshofen and was pleased my wait was only 15 minutes because it was even colder there.The Alps, soaring straight up from the railway line were very misty and romantic, a view easier to paint than photograph, but soon we were over the top and racing along wet green fields again, this time with typical Austrian Chalet houses.

Wet Austrian landscape

I wasn't surprised this morning when the television showed fresh snow on the mountain tops. Graz is wet but warmer - about 22C.

Austrian webcam: the caption at the bottom reads "Summer Operations from 21.06-16.09.2012"

Graz Fashion

The shops in Graz inner city lanes are full of interesting stuff.... rings made of red leather and silver, ... bags made of thick wool patchwork
...classy clothes ...... like the clothes worn in the Hamburg rail station when I arrived late at night.

A Beer in Graz

In a tiny place just around the corner from the tourist restaurants I sip my beer, wait for my schnitzel and sketch the neighbourhood.

No cars, no noise, what a pleasure

The wonderful thing about European cities is that the centers are car free. Instead of noise and pollution you have peace and tranquillity, open spaces where people can gather and outdoor cafes where you don't suffer from carbon monoxide poisoning.I am in Graz and it is a different city in the sun. The side-walk cafes are buzzing and the shops full of innovative and quirky fashion items.

"This is a city I could live in", I thought to myself as I walked the narrow inner city lanes, stumbling upon old churches and wide car-less streets full of outdoor restaurants.

To Graz,to Graz