Larry List in Düsseldorf

Larry had come to our regional capital from Spain and had to depart again on Saturday morning (12^th of October) for Paris. His main concern in Düsseldorf was to meet the Fluxus artist Takako Saito (see our last year’s report Seewerk Exhibition) to discuss with her the prospect of organizing an exhibition of her work in the United States where Takako has widely fallen into oblivion. Therefore the Friday evening crystallized as only date for a mini KWA meeting, we (i.e. Prof. Wolfgang Angerstein and your KWA webmaster) arrived at Takako’s studio at about 6 pm to be heartily welcomed by her and Larry. Unfortunately Michael Negele – much to his regret – couldn’t join us there, he was too late back in Friday night from a business trip to France (Lyon): therefore he could meet Larry only briefly the next morning in his Düsseldorf hotel before the latter had to leave for Paris.

Takako Saito kindly showed us her large studio with all her fascinating works of art, many of them not displayed at the a.m. exhibition in Moers. In spite of her age Takako (*1929) is still very active as an artist, and as many of her pieces of art are made (partly) of wood, she still works herself on the material with help of a workbench and a power drill standing in one of her studio rooms. Certainly each visitor will find his own favorite(s) among her works, for Wolfgang Angerstein it was a "Wippe-Schachspiel" (seesaw chess) which he immediately became attached to… And we were especially pleased when Takako presented us each with an autographed copy of her catalog published in 1989 (see the below scan of the cover).

Below you will find a few photographs from our visit to Takako’s home, it’s a pity that she couldn’t join our dinner afterwards – due to her new but only temporary dentures (after a bicycle accident) she did not feel comfortable eating with them in public. So for the dinner (only in a threesome) a comparatively nearby restaurant in Meerbusch-Büderich was easily found, and it also turned out to be quite satisfying (at least the tarte flambée I [R.B.] had chosen was excellent …); but naturally our talk about chess subjects was more important and intriguing, we didn’t even notice the TV broadcast of the football match Germany – Ireland just around the corner. And it was a special pleasure to nominate Wolfgang Angerstein as Takako's "Chief Medical Adviser" - , also in view of future travels of our Japanese artist. (Our professor of medicine had already helped Takako to get very important surgery done to restore her eyesight.) So we are hopeful now that Takako’s US exhibition will come true, the Saint Louis chess center would be a wonderful place for it. Maybe – in the course of that project – Larry will find once again his way to Germany …

Larry List succeeded in creating a photo collage that includes all four of us: