At the Beach

Most people associate the beach with rest, relaxation and holidays. VALIE EXPORT has used this space to think about bread, the meaning of which has changed over time, especially: “At the time of the creation of my work ‘Homometer’ in 1973, it was completely different. I had two large hand-baked loaves of bread tied around my legs and feet and, crawling in the sand, I came out of the sea with them and went back into the sea. For this work, a text by Simon N. H. Linguet [sc. 1736–1794] was important, which states, among other things, that ‘no other food sustains humans in greater dependence’” (V. EXPORT 2018).

But back to the holidaymakers: Hundreds, if not more, of them cavort between the beach chairs on the Dutch coast; Max Clarenbach captured them in sandy colors, as it were, in 1925. Bold people indulge in “Swedish bathing” (nudism), like Edvard Munch in Warnemünde. On the Baltic Sea, the piers are also lined up among the guests; Max Oppenheimer draws them vertically up to the horizon at the upper edge of the picture. On the sands of Grado, men and women enjoy the day under colorful parasols or at a live concert in the nearby café, as sketched by Friedrich Hermann Schiff in a watercolor. Kurt Moldovan’s pale-watery drawing technique corresponds similarly to his subject “Promenade des Anglais” in Nice. Here the chairs are deserted; a counter-image like the deserted natural beaches of Emilie Mediz-Pelikan, Friedrich Loos, and Wenzel Radimský.

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