Quotes of the Day
London: Sir John Soane's Museum
John Soane, architect of the Bank of England when it was rebuilt in 1833, created this museum in his own house to showcase his massive collection of antiquities, artifacts and copies of Greek and Roman sculptures. Accessed via winding staircases, the narrow galleries are filled with plaster oddities: men fighting with griffins, single feet and knees, an acanthus leaf, a devil's face. Soane intended to create an Academy of Architecture, but ended up with a richly eccentric folly. For more information, go to www.soane.org. — by Lucy Fisher (See 10 things to do in London.)
Tel Aviv: Bauhaus Foundation Museum
In 2003 UNESCO declared Tel Aviv's city center and its trove of 4,000 pristine Bauhaus buildings a World Heritage Site. Now visitors can explore that singular patrimony at the new Bauhaus Foundation Museum. Located in Bialik Square, the museum is housed in a renovated 1934 apartment building. Inside, look for furniture and craftwork by design icons such as Erich Mendelsohn and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. Outside, check out nearly a dozen other Bauhaus architectural beauties on Bialik Street and around the square. For more information, call (972 3) 620 4664. — by David Kaufman
Berlin: Reinhard Onnasch Collection
Reinhard Onnasch has been displaying his art collection for almost two years and still hasn't sold a thing. But that's O.K. — he's not looking for buyers. Onnasch owns vast amounts of contemporary art and he's content with sharing his cultural wealth with the public. Running through 2009, the rotating exhibition at the art gallery El Sourdog Hex highlights 19 artists from the 1950s to the '90s. Works by German sculptor Markus Lüpertz go on display March 9-April 25, followed, on May 4, by a show on American neo-conceptual artist Peter Halley. Check out www.elsourdoghex.org. — by William Boston
See the top 10 museum exhibits of 2008.
- No longer in love with the Louvre? Moving on from MoMA? Some of the greatest art can be found in quirkier collections. Here are three to see