Hamburg, Dove, and Helene Schjerfbeck (I can't pronounce it either)

I spent a couple days in Hamburg, Germany this week for work -- getting immersed into the workings of my newest client, Dove (as in the stellar "Campaign for Real Beauty"). Edelman has a great office there and the team I’ll be working with is an awesome group of gals (Heidi, Jessica, Anna and Pia). Tuesday evening Jessica had us over to her home for a totally fabulous old-school American/Mexican dinner. We’re talking tortillas, guacamole, black olives from the can, grated cheese, sour cream, salsa, ground beef, refried beans, rice…and beer, of course. It was serious good times and so yummy. She had to go out of her way to find all those ingredients in Germany, but go figure, there is a Wal Mart nearby which provided most of the goods. From what I understand, the Germans are not big fans of the American mega chain, but we sure were after dinner…ole!

The weather was pretty cold, dreary and rainy, but we got lots accomplished Tuesday and Wednesday. It’s a nice office to work in…it has lots of windows and sits alongside a small canal, which I’m sure is charming in the summer when you can sit out on the terrace by the canal and enjoy your lunch.

Wednesday evening after work, Pia and I went to the Hamburger Kunsthalle – the main art gallery in Hamburg – to see the Helene Schjerfbeck exhibition. She was a very well known Scandinavian artist (1862-1946) known for her portraits, landscapes and still lifes. I saw a brochure for the exhibition at my hotel and was captivated by some of the pictures of her paintings, which put me in mind of Modigliani (one of my very favourites). And I wasn’t disappointed…there were about 120 wonderfully-curated paintings. It was a great exhibition with some very touching pieces….my favorites being “Dancing Girls” (a really tiny one), “Madchen von dem Bildteppich” (that’s the portrait at the beginning of this post), and “Maria.” After the exhibition, Pia drove me back to my hotel. I went next door to an Italian restaurant for dinner, where I also finished my book “The Memory Keepers Daughter” (by Kim Edwards), which was really excellent. I managed to get a few hours sleep before leaving at 5am the next morning to head to Paris for another meeting….