Talke Talks: Total Eclipse of the (He)art

Howdy from Texas, dear readers,

Bet I have more in common with Dirk Nowitzki than you do? Unless you are a professional basketball player in the USA. In that case: congratulations! But back to me. Dirk and I are Germans in Dallas. We’re both involved in the art world: I theoretically, he practically – as an art collector and as the husband of Jessica Nowitzki, who once ran a gallery in Dallas. And not just any, but those of George Michael and his ex Kenny Goss. Nowitzki’s children even once went to my daughter’s German school (girls from GISD, if you’re reading this, thank you for everything!). And that’s where the parallels could have ended if I hadn’t recently been at the same event as the basketball star: I saw Dirk at the Dallas Art Fair last week. And what do you do when you are near one of the best German athletes? You nervously take a shaky photo and send it around, what else?

Then I met another great German at the art fair. Gerhard Richter, or rather his gigantic “48 Portraits,” which were shown at a new exhibition at the Dallas Museum of Art that opened at the same time as the art fair. In fact, the whole city seemed to be in art fever last week: parties in galleries, artist talks in museums, “immersive pop-ups” in public spaces…

The Dallas Fort Worth metropolitan area is growing inexorably; the number of its residents has increased by a million since 2010. The appetite for cultural diversity hasn’t just come from the many New Yorkers and Californians who have moved here in droves in recent years (unfortunately, they forgot to bring their gastronomic diversity with them). Buying expensive art has always been a Texas virtue. In its 16th year, the Dallas art fair counts a total of 91 American and international exhibitors. As at all art fairs in the world, much of what was on display was subterranean, most of it was overpriced and only a few were really outstanding.

But since the US art market sets the tone and always influences German tastes, here is a little art world prediction: abstraction is out, female artists and the female perspective are more in demand than ever before, works by POC (people of color) are booming , and the topics of migration, environmental pollution and political criticism are still very popular (if not in politics itself, then at least in art). The prices are steep, the Lallier is delicious at any time of the day, trade fair visitors should dress up in as eye-catching costumes as possible, and funny little dogs belong in buggies.

The art week was immediately followed by the next attraction: the solar eclipse, which should be particularly visible in Dallas of all places on April 8th. Here, too, many events were held, special eclipse drinks were sold, public viewing parties were organized and conspiracy theories were even spread about not being allowed to eat anything during the solar eclipse due to “harmful” radiation.

Then came the shock: A few days into the natural spectacle, experts said the solar eclipse would not be a total one because of the bad weather. We remained nervous until just before the eclipse, but fortunately the sky cleared at the right time and the darkness could be viewed in its full glory. Experiencing it was very close to the feeling you get when your favorite team wins (at least in my husband’s case) or when you stand in front of a work of art that you have wanted to see all your life (as in my case in front of the “Last Supper” in… Milan).

And what do you do when you look into this unforgettable natural spectacle? You make a shaky video and put it online, what else!