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From: f lang Category: Art Date: 16 April 2008 Time: 05:14 PM Review: The Belvedere by sudbahnhof has some overshadowingly beautiful views from the windows of the galleries. Two paintings by Friedrich http://www.belvedere.at/jart/prj3/belvedere/main.jart? rel=en&content-id=1169655781721 of ships in the mist exceed the aesthetic frisson of seeing a klimt on the wall then out the window. These two Friedrichs have that can't take your eyes off them beauty. That thrilling, can a little panel of oil really have this effect, magic. Friedrich without anything showy, makes the shore seem like cliff on the edge of the abyss, the sky has nothing of sunset or storm, just the infinite beauty and subtlety of real skies. And then you see the ships and the sea and you make a jump. And then back to the folky little things in the foreground, a tree some fishing rods etc. Stiffness sharpness versus the veiled vapour of sky and see and with a thin brush the impression of ships leaving. Don't be put off the by the existential melodrama of metaphor. Here is all that painting has even been. Can or should it be more is the only question I am left with as I sail off to the fustiness of the rest of the paintings, unable to bear more time with the infinite exquisite.