Initiation of the Young

Last Friday we got another chance to go where no lover of art has gone before - into the private households of people who also love art and have enough money to live with it, too.

This time we were invited into the house of a family living near the zoo Hellbrunn. The experience was once again different than the ones we had before. Their collection, spread over the vast house and into the garden, made a lot more sense than others, so to say. There seemed to be less "I need to have it, no matter what it is!" and more rational collecting on advice by art dealers and associates. The love for their art was there nevertheless.

What made this visit very interesting was also the youngest daughter of the house, that, at an age I would assess to be around 13, is already incredibly fluent in the terms and expressions of art, guiding around visitors and explaining how she loved growing up with the art and even being the one to stand the longest in front of old masters in a russian museum, as her father proudly informed us. Asked why she has such a big interest, she says, shrugging her shoulders " I just love looking at the colours, the lines ... Art has been there my whole live so I guess I just grew into it from the start."

She seemed to have been less happy several years ago when russian photographer group AES+F took an altogether different group portrait of the 4 children of the house on request from their parents, almost crying as she clutches a thankfully fake missile in front of an artificially inserted backdrop of the mountains and the cityscape of Salzburg. "Now I like it, though" she says. "It's a very unique representation."

Just as unique as the house, it's inhabitants and their collection we had the immense pleasure of exploring. A big thanks once again to the family for allowing us in and to the management of the Summeracademy for organising. [mp]