#hoping to tackle a 4' tall portrait by the end of the year

[neptuniite]

rough preparatory studies from this week

#hoping to tackle a 4' tall portrait by the end of the year #subject is an old photograph from the palio di siena horse races #i love their little outfits #oil painting #art #palio di siena #also peep the sargent study hiding in the corner

[kevkesblog]

Translation: Kai Havertz portait in ZEIT newspaper (January 2019)

NOTE: Hey guys! This time I tried something new. I translated an exclusive portrait the german weekly newspaper DIE ZEIT did with Kai in January. They interviewed him as well as Kai’s family. Its very candid and has alot of details. I hope you guys like it, since DIE ZEITs writing is usually very difficult - even for germans. And I apologize for spelling errors as usual. 

The original text in German

Kai Havertz: the peace itself

 (January 23, 2019)

People praise Leverkusens national player Kai Havertz, 19, for his serenity with the ball which put him on the radar of many European top clubs. His parents start to realize that he is likely becoming world famous.

By Jörg Kramer

The most promising german football talent these days picked a table very far behind in an restaurant somewhere in Cologne to order himself some spagetti gnocchi – inconspicuous.

There is no star posturing with Kai Havertz. The 19 year old could even go through as a normal university student; with his bright hoodie and somewhat cheap and not even special occurence.

And with his voice, which has this typical regional dialect, without the typical empty phrases that young football player use to often in order to cover up their meaningless sentences. But people know his face by now. So thats why he doesnt sit right next to the entrance.

He belongs to the celebrities of the football scene. European top clubs are scouting the young men in stadiums, team mates from Bayer Leverkusen praising him and forecasting him to have the potential to become a world star.

He already scored nine goals this season, decided some games by his own and played his first games for the national team. Havertz became the centre of his clubs game by playing at the centre midfield. His role only changed slightly and the importance of his role not at all, since Peter Bosz took over as head coach. He views this very relaxed and talks in an restaurant somewhere in the Belgian Quarter of Cologne about Leverkusen being the „perfect place“ in order to develop as a young player. And thats where he wants to give his all for the last half year ahead. Ooops!

His last half year? That was a slip of the tongue of course, he meant to say the next half year. Because his contract with Bayer is still running until 2022 without an exit clause. But things now are developing in a rapid way which runs parallel to his explosive performance currently. Its just a matter of the perfect timing that someone like him will end up going to Barcelona, Manchester or at least Munich – a choice between summer 2019 or summer 2020 maybe.

Havertz walks over his misspelled sentence like nothing happend. Once in Nuremberg in the middle of a turmoil of an rainy game, it seemed as if he stopped – as if he was reconsidering the situation with him having the ball. Like if somebody pressed a ‚Stop‘-button. And he chiped to ball in an cool and unemoitional and scored.

Coaches and team mates are citizing his body language, he says. So he works on looking more aggresive. He even participates on useless discussions between his teammates and referees after controversial decisions on the pitch, in order to get a penalty for the other team or some revenge. But it doesnt really look good him when he does it, he admits – even after a though tackle or when going after the ball. „I’m a player that shines with his tranquility.“ A nice sentence that gives away his elegante style of play.

Havertz remained an artist on the pitch. Every foul is a sign of weakness. Everytime he gets the ball, which is his job as an offensive player, he never runs into his opponents – he anticipates. „I try to imagine, which options my opponent has, what he would do if I were him.“ He then runs with a planned pass way and he gets the ball.

Havertz learned in the past almost two and a half years all systems and tatics of modern football. Starting with a radical system, almost a raid-strategy under coach Roger Schmidt, by which the goal keeper kicked the ball high and it flew wide over the pitch – almost always directly aimed at Havertz‘ head – because he is 1,88 meters tall.

Then the mixed system under Heiko Herrlich. He always had to look for his team mates before he passed. Now with Bosz, a planfull offensive style with flat passing. He runs through all the chapters. The first began on October 15, 2016.

It was a Saturday. A day where the Havertz family from Mariadorf near Aachen still couldnt realize that their youngest son, will probably end up living off football and perhaps even become famous. They cant really believe it up until today, says Anne Havertz, his mother.

On that day – October 15 – Kai was a youth player, in a big house next to the woods in Mariadorf having breakfast – when suddently coach Schmidt called. Lars Bender, professional Bayer-player who was supposed to play against Werder Bremen that evening, got injured and had to quit. Kai had to come to Bremen, immidiately! His mother drove him to Leverkusen. A special shuttle took him to Bremen. His whole family was sitting in front of the TV that night.

Kai was sitting on the bench as expected. Then, during the 83th minute, the commentator saw already more than the viewes and said: now we are experiencing a debut. Kai Havertz was ready to get subbed. In the real Bundesliga. Anne Havertz said: „Oh my god!“.

(Credit: Instagram: kaihavertz29)

Kai’s mother, who worked as a lawyer until she got pregnant with her eldest son, came to the restaurant in Cologne one day after Kai to talk about life as a family of an future world star. She brought her husband – Kai’s father, and her daughter Lea, Kai’s sister. The sister is studying marketing and digital media in the city.

People can reach his father in an emergency by dailing 1-1-0. He is a police officer working at the police station 3 in Cologne-West. He says he is really impressed, about how cool and routinely his football playing son manages post-game interviews and how we stays cool when people recognize him in public and everybody is watching,

The Havertz family is still perplexed about a football world where colleagues of their son, order their own cooks to cook for them at home. And whenever he puts his legs into an special bag in order to regenerate. Almost the whole family – except his oldest brother and the dog – are having apple pie and salate and looking back at the stages of his career, which started at Alemannia Mariadorf. Kai skiped two age-groups. He then played with older players than actually intended. Then he transfered to Bayer Leverkusen. All because the scout was tough but not intrusive like the other scouts. By the age of ten, Bayer drove Kai to training sessions three times a week.

4 year old Kai Havertz (Credit: kicker tv)

He was still among the smallest players in the team by the age of 14. Then suddently - a growth spurt which resultet in issues with his knees and his back. They were responsible for Kai loosing his fixed spot on the team. This was also the hard time because he left home and moved to Leverkusen. The club doesnt have an academy so he stayed at a guest family – the family of the stadium announcer from Bayer, together with two other players. A year later he moved into an apartement with his older brother, until Jan had to move to Nuremberg – he has a marketing job at adidas now.

A lasting memory: endless discussions within the Havertz family about the overarching question: does the boy need a german high school diploma (Abitur)? Will he pass the tests when he is travelling around with his professional teammates?

Kai Havertz attended the Landrat-Lucas-Gymnasium. An elite school of sports where he could skip classes in the morning for training. But he always had to catch up school stuff from the day. Once he played with Leverkusen at the DFB-Cup at Sportfreunde Lotte. He was subbed late, it went into penalities and after the team was eliminated from the cup he arrived home late – at 3am. At 8am he had an English exam.

The family became a team. His mother and sister helped him with biology exams. One day the young football player said to his family, he has no power left anymore. „But he never said: I want to quit!“ his mother insists. This was a breaking point by which his parents thought about quitting and stop pursuing the Abitur. But suddently coach Roger Schmidt intervened and said Kai should pull through. The whole Bayer team will support him.

The Abitur became a factor of will power, a test of life. The school supervisor of Bayer, a former athlete herself, said something memorable: it will shape his whole life if Kai quits school now. Whenever something becomes difficult, if something goes beyond your pain barrier, he will always have this option to quit in his head, that you can just give up.

Kai Havertz choose the pain, the Abitur. Now he will always choose the hard way if the theory of his supervisor holds.

On this January afternoon in Cologne, he is being asked what other job he would have picked if it wasnt for football. He likes the job as a barber, for men’s hairstyle. He smiles. Some curls are hanging on his forehead from left to right. A Barber. He wouldnt have needed an Abitur for that.

He is a genius at football. He won the German junior championship with Bayer and scored 19 goals in 29 games. He got awarded as a Under-19-player as the best of his age with the Fritz-Walter-medal from the DFB. Kai made it onto second place on his position after Marco Reus from Dortmund in a list of the football magazine „kicker“ which they publish every half year – but seven spaces in front of Munich’s Thomas Müller.

Coach Heiko Herrlich says Havertz reminds him of Toni Kroos. Football critic Reiner Calmund compared him to Franz Beckenbauer. His head goals remind him of Michael Ballack. Mesut Özil was always Kai Havertz idol, because of his tranquility with the ball and his ability to read a game. Sometimes Kai misses the final conciseness in front of the goal, which was visible after the recent 0-1 loss against Borussia Mönchengladbach.

Having the ability to remain calm, even when you get tackled is the result of a deep confidence in your own strenghts: screen your surrondings – in short time if necessary – and then make the right decision. Joachim Löw praises Havertz „good orientation“, something he said about Özil years ago. What he means is a certain sense of space on the pitch – an inner compass. Something that has to do with attention and memory. Havertz, who is a master of navigation, doesn’t even need practice. Some creatures have special senses and are able to find orientation on earth through a magnetic field – like migratory birds for example.

Kai Havertz likes watching Champions League games. And while watching them, there is always a wish inside him to participate as well whenever the big games of the quarter- and semifinals are on. „I think you can only reach that level by going to a top club at some point“ he says.

Mother, father and sister Havertz say, they don’t expect things from him. Something they never did in his career. But if someone asks them, who will follow Kai in a foreign country to get used to everything – they start to think about it. They would alternate. One week his mother would visit, next week his sister and then his grandmother maybe.

Kai Havertz still has a room back home in Mariadorf. Back in the day he used to have posters from FC Barcelona. So it could happen maybe one day, that youngsters in Barcelona will have posters with Kai Havertz on them.

++END++

#kaihavertz #kai havertz #bayerleverkusen #bayer leverkusen #German NT #diemannschaft #DFB Team #dfb #bravertz #julianbrandt

[s3539630]

January - June Gallery Reviews typed from my journal.

Gallery / Exhibition Reviews Eliza Hogg s3539630 Turist

Henry Trumble 

NO VACANCY GALLERY Visual: a small, skinny room. walls lined with big A1 glossy prints. Very soft german music playing. Soft, warm lighting. Critical: The work in this exhibition all resembled old, film footage stills, and showed a beautiful, cinematic side of Berlin. Very touristy-like photos, of friends and family and recognisable landmarks. These works gave me a very nostalgic feeling about traveling with friends and was a personal and intimate look into Trumble's travels around Berlin. I noticed that the images were subtly grouped into colour-coordinated categories, and the whole exhibit was split down the middle, with images taken in the day time on one wall to the left, and all images taken at night, or that had very dark lighting or dark colours, placed on the right hand wall. The Artist: Henry Trumble explains that making these images whilst in Berlin really allowed him to slow down and take a deeper look at the world around him. He aspired to take a longer look at his subjects, 'getting to know every shadow, shape and detail.' Trumble describes these images as 'slow souvenirs,' which i found incredibly inspiring. The Great Exhibition

Patrick Pound 

ACMI     Visual: A long hallway with a glass cabinet stretched its length, leading to a big, tall, dark room with a large glass table in the middle. Walls painted black and lighting highlighting the collections of photographs in contrast to the rooms darkness. Small printed film photos groups together in different categories around the room. Critical:  Drawing on items from his own found collection and the NGV’s permanent collection, he weaves together a series of seemingly unrelated items, photographs and curios, into new collections, encouraging audiences to rethink everyday objects all around. Photographic prints make up the largest component of Pound’s collection. Family snapshots and newspaper images taken from their original sources. According to Maggie Finch, the NGV’s photography curator, Pound is not so much the “author” of these photographs as a kind of hunter-gatherer seeking out prints via the internet. Ther Artist: An avid collector, the New Zealand-born, Melbourne-based artist is fascinated by the categorisation and ordering of objects. Photographs, objects and curios sourced from the internet and op shops will be organised alongside artworks from the NGV Collection in a wondrous series of encyclopedic displays.  He describes his works as 'a museum of things.' Pound last exhibited at the NGV in the 2013 exhibition Melbourne Now with his popular Gallery of Air – a collection of diverse artworks and objects that held the idea of air, drawn from the NGV Collection and the artist’s archives. The idea of a 'collection' seems to be a common theme in this previous exhibitions. Top Arts

2017 Graduates 

ACMI Visual: A room that bends around in a 'U' shape, white walls and very open and natural lighting. The exhibitions considered of a massively diverse range of media used. Unexpected materials were also utilised, with Morgan’s Trencher’s application of human hair for her abstract sculpture Specimen 2, exploring the use of scientific materials as ornamentation, and Ruby Marchese combining human hair with papier-mâché for her portrayal of the illusion of security in the current global state. The artist's folios, essays, statements and research were all on a touch screen monitor with headphones and a video of each artist talking about their work was presented upon arrival. I found that this really made the exhibition much more powerful because they explained their long process of make each work.   Critical: I always go to this exhibit every year, and i always find it so relatable and inspiring. It's relatable because i feel like the artists are all in the same place in their life as i am, and they all have very similar skills and knowledge about this industry. Its a fascinating headstart for students just like me into the industry. Forty-seven of the state’s finest emerging young artists who have excelled in VCE Art and Studio Art will exhibit their work in the annual exhibition, featuring 57 pieces drawn from over 2,600 submissions from across Government, Catholic and Independent schools. One of my favourites, Mardi Denham-Roberts, a student from Caulfield North, places beauty standards under the microscope with her large sculptural work which digitally merges human wrinkles. The kaleidoscopic work aims to contrast the inelasticity of aging bodies with the popular obsession with flawless and youthful skin. The artists: This year self-identity was a key theme. Warragul student Maggie Hamilton challenged gender stereotypes with her photographs of young women competing in motocross, a male dominated sport. Swinburne Senior Secondary College student Rukaya Salum Ali-Springle also reflected on identity with her image tackling the underrepresentation of people of colour in media and the dominance of western beauty ideals. Bill Henson

The Festival of Photography 

NGV Visual: A giant room, massive spacial surroundings. Dark colours, dark lighting, dark artworks all around the room at eye level, about A0 sized. A collection fo works chosen by the artist including portraits, nudes, lush museum interiors and transcendent landscapes. Critical: Each of the works included has a palpable sense of the cinematic and together they form a powerful and enigmatic imaginative statement. Like much of his work, there is little that is explicit, and rather the works propose open-ended narratives and capture a transitory sensation. A powerful sense of mystery and ambiguity can be found within the images, heightened by the velvet-like blackness of the shadows and the striking use of chiaroscuro to selectively obscure and reveal the form of the nudes, sculptures and the landscape itself. The Artist: Almost a decade ago, police raided the Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery in Sydney and seized two dozen of Bill Henson's works, with then prime minister Kevin Rudd labelling them "revolting". This week, two major public galleries have put his photographs of naked young people back on their walls – and nobody has batted an eyelid. The images in this exhibition are drawn from a body of works created between 2008 and 2011 and continue Henson’s sensitive, sophisticated study of the human condition, which he has realised over his 40 year career. Vincent Van Gogh 

The Seasons

NGV Visual: I really admired the way that this exhibit was set out. First was a cinematic experience that showed a narrated video that talked all about his works and the time that it took to make them. This was very informative about the artist's life. Then the exhibition continued with 4 different rooms, all themed with a different season. Critical:  Although, whilst the Van Gogh exhibit was superbly presented with an in depth history of the artist himself, there was certainly a tinge of disappointment for me with the paintings on display. I was certainly surprised and indeed disappointed with the absence of so many of his iconic famous works. Van Gogh’s total immersion in the natural world, both as the subject of his art and for its therapeutic effects, saw him observe, in minute detail, the ever changing moods and landscapes of the seasons, cyclical time through the rhythms of farming and human activity, and the qualities of light that changed with both the time of day and the time of year. The Artist: I was really interested in the film that was shown before the exhibition. Van Gogh was the son of a Protestant clergyman of the Groningen school and exhibited fervent religious devotion in his mid-twenties. He rejected this, to some extent, in the 1880s, as he commenced his art practice in earnest. However, a Christian outlook remained central to a worldview that also bordered on the pagan, with all of the natural world infused with a divine presence. Van Gogh’s hope, expressed repeatedly in his letters to Theo, was to share with others the profound healing to be found in nature and in colour. The seasonal cycle promises predictability within inevitable change, and the seeds of rebirth within each death.