What’s It Like to See Art in the Era of Social Distancing? We Crawled Berlin’s Newly Reopened Gallery Scene to Find Out

“Just about full circle,” Lawrence Weiner muses in a towering
permanent installation, written in his standard XL typeface,
outside Konrad Fischer Galerie in Berlin. “Not quite, but
close.”

It’s an old piece, but it sums up quite well how things feel as
I sanitize my hands and pull on my mask to step into a gallery
again for the first time in months. Same old, just about.

The Berlin art world has reopened, and dealers are feeling a
general sense of relief to be airing out their spaces again.
Invitations to press conferences and exhibitions, which began
with a trickle, have turned into a groundswell. The general
messaging? Please come, but not all at once.

The industry is returning to some semblance of normal, but
the situation is far from usual, nor is it secure. Dealers I
spoke to are not pretending otherwise. Fairs, including Art Basel
and Art Cologne, are still postponed. And gallerists
who normally have a year’s worth of shows lined up shrug when
I ask what will be on view in September, when Berlin Gallery
Weekend will now take place after having been postponed from
May.

“We are not quite sure yet,” says Claudia Pasko of Konrad
Fischer. “It all depends.”

Tentativeness is the new normal. There is no set end date yet
for the gallery’s current exhibition of triumphant sculptures by
Thomas Schütte, which includes two absolutely breathtaking
14-foot-tall bronze works in the gallery’s courtyard. The show
opened last weekend, on May 2, and the gallery says many German
collectors have made appointments to visit the gallery in
person.

Appointment Viewing

Appointments are a big part of the new normal. Even as
the country beings to reopen, German officials are closely
watching the infection rate, and social distancing measures will
remain in place for the foreseeable future. “We have to be
careful that this thing doesn’t slip from our grasp,” German Prime
Minister Angela Merkel said in a press conference on Wednesday.

Peres Projects, for example—which is reopening today, May 7,
with a show by the US artist Richard Kennedy—will stagger
its reception throughout the day, and will only allow two visitors
in at a time.

“In order to minimize possible waiting times to enter the
gallery and to limit contact, we are asking people to preschedule
their visits by calling the gallery,” Javier Peres says. “If
we have too many people, they will have to wait outside to
enter.”

Some galleries that already reopened ran out of appointments.
Slots to see Kara Walker’s solo exhibition alongside a
concurrent show by US sculptor Richard Artschwager were completely
booked out last weekend at Sprüth Magers. The gallery is
allowing two people at a time to enter for 30-minute
visits. König Galerie is doing the same (and is also selling
editioned masks by artists).

What’s Selling

But because travel is depressed and visitors are not coming to
Berlin in high numbers, some dealers are holding off on their prime
shows.

A museum-quality exhibition of historic works by Richard
Serra, Imi Knoebel, and Stanley Whitney, among others, that was
planned for Nordenhake has been postponed, and will now
probably open next year. Another exhibition, by Rebecca Horn
at Galerie Thomas Schulte, has been pushed to 2021.

“Berlin was never exactly a
high-traffic area for collectors,” one gallerist told me as we
stood at a distance, face masks on. Dealers seem wary of wasting their shows on
what looks to be a lukewarm market, even through the fall. “We know
that this September will be a very German crowd of collectors, and
that not too many collectors will be traveling.”

Yet transactions are still taking place, even if buyers appear
to be moving cautiously. “Selling is a slow process these days,”
says dealer Philipp Haverkampf, who opened his gallery on Friday,
April 30, with a show of works by painter Marcel Eichner.
Works are available for between €3,500 and €15,000. “Deals are
still happening when people really want something, even when they
consider themselves not to be in a buying mood.”

Elsewhere, dealer Juerg Judin opened his space with a show
by Hugo Wilson that was originally planned to open “with a
bang during Berlin Gallery Weekend,” Judin says. But even with a
quieter, softer launch, the exhibition has found an audience.

“The fact that the show is almost entirely sold out makes us
cautiously optimistic about the viability of our segment of the art
market,” Judin says.

A Buzz in the Air

In this peculiar time, which is so full of uncertainties, at
least one other thing is sure: the experience of looking at art in
person is not going anywhere.

“You cannot completely digitize the viewing of
artworks,” says Eike Dürrfeld of the Thomas Schulte
gallery. “It won’t tempt you to discover something
new. There is a renewed curiosity returning—you can sense
it.”

The excitement is echoing around town. “I think art enthusiasts
and collectors are simply happy to visit galleries and see art
again, now that restrictions are being carefully lifted in the
city,” says dealer Jan Wentrup. Today, May 7, his gallery
opens with a group show of works—many of them made in
lockdown—by Sophie von Hellerman, Gregor Hildebrandt, and this
year’s Käthe Kollwitz Prize winner, Timm Ulrichs.

“It was important for us to show our artists, collectors, and
the art world that life goes on and in Germany already can go on,
certainly under new regulations, but with the possibility to
present exhibitions to the public.”

Personally, I didn’t attend any recent openings, and I don’t
think I will soon. It still feels too risky. And anyway, having a
gallery all to yourself on a non-opening day, which is now best
practice, was long my preferred way to see shows.

Bu it was an absolute pleasure to hear the uncanny echo of my
heels as I walked slowly around Schütte’s massive bronze busts at
Galerie Konrad Fischer. And catching my reflection in a glass pane
before an erotic portrait by Robbert Mapplethorpe at Galerie Thomas
Schulte pulled me into the drama of the artwork in a way that
neither AR nor VR will ever be able to imitate. That’s why looking
at art in person won’t be going away. As Dürrfeld out it: “The
art world will never pull through without physical galleries.”

The post What’s It Like to See Art in the Era of Social
Distancing? We Crawled Berlin’s Newly Reopened Gallery Scene to
Find Out appeared first on artnet News.