Photo by Gregor Hohenberg

Uwe Kowski, "Höhle" (2008)

Photo by Gregor Hohenberg

Uwe Kowski, "Farce" (2008)

Tim Eitel Paul Klee Tilo Baumgartel Uwe Kowski Neo Rauch Matthias Weischer German Parliament to Return Nazi-Looted Portrait Lean and Mean

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Born in Leipzig in 1963, Kowski studied painting and graphics, specializing in the creation of signage, at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig from 1984 to 1989, the last years of divided Germany. Like his classmates Neo Rauch, Tilo Baumgärtel, Tim Eitel, and Matthias Weischer, he’s injected an East German classical art education into work that otherwise feels distinctly contemporary. In 2008’s Höhle, for example, a sign writer’s carefully drafted letters try to coalesce into words, but fail to align or to find a common language of color or type. Stripped of their conventional meaning, they become nothing more than graphic elements, floating unmoored with their cousins — stripes, zigzags, and curlicues — between pale biomorphic constellations and patches of the rich, deep palette more common among Kowski’s Leipzig peers. The disorienting result appears at first to eschew unity in color, composition, or even plane, but step back, and the work achieves a tentative, if chaotic, harmony.

Fresh off his first solo museum exhibition, at Germany’s Kunsthalle Emden, Kowski offers these recommendations for art-friendly Berlin attractions outside of the fairs. Check them out after seeing the artist’s Eigen + Art show, which closes tomorrow.

1. Cult of the Artist: The Klee Universe at the Neue Nationalgalerie, through February 8, 2009

“This exhibition at the Neue Nationalgalerie is part of a series called ‘Cult of the Artist’ organized by the Staatliche Museen Berlin (National Museums in Berlin). The retrospective spans Klee’s career in some 250 works, allowing viewers to follow the development of his very universal visual language. Klee’s system of signs is remarkable, leading us into his captivating universe.”

2. Museum für Naturkunde (Museum of Natural History)

“The Museum für Naturkunde owns more than 30 million objects and is one of the most famous such institutions in the world. Its collection fuels not only scientific research but also the artistic eye, allowing, for example, for the discovery of structures and organic forms in the zoological, geological, and mineralogical pieces.”

3. Bode Museum

“One of the biggest collections of older sculpture in Germany is housed in this museum, which was heavily damaged in World War II, underwent years of sporadic repair work and inconsistent public access, and reopened two years ago after a major, comprehensive restoration. The building was conceived to show sculptures in context, surrounded by related furnishings from medieval times across rococo through classicism. Now the huge, unadorned halls of the museum present the sculptures as individual items, and visitors can totally exhaust the experience of forms and materials through the centuries.”