1) IL PROFETA ABACUC 'IO ZUCCONE' (1425) - Donatello
Donatello's statue is packed with character and humanity, I love the excellent way he has carved the swags and falls of the prophet's robes, supposedly this was Donatello's favourite sculpture.
I
bought this at the Museo Dell 'Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence where Zuccone (Bald-head!) resides.
2) LA MANDRA (1898-1900) - Ramon Casas
Bought from the Museu Nacional d'Art De Catalunya where room after room suggests to one that Catalonian artists followed rather than instigating movements down the years, one reaches the late 19th Century rooms with a sigh of relief to come across the great works of Barcelona artist Ramon Casas.
Yes they are again following the French impressionists but they have a charm and a quality that make them memorable - here a woman lazes on a bed in a quiet room, doing anything than what she probably should be doing... This was painted just as Casas was becoming a proponent of the Spanish Modernista movement, this included being a part owner in the famous bar Els Quatre Gats with his friend Pe Romeu which became a hub from Barcelona's artist community.
3) LES PASSANTS (The Passerbys) (1906-7) - Raoul Dufy
Yes, London art galleries and museums... whenever you finally decide to have an exhibition of Dufy I will be there.
This glorious painting is in the Courtauld collection and whenever I visit, I love to spend some time entering into the lovely world of LES PASSANTS. It's Fauvist colours and spare setting is a world I would love to live in... can I be in red please and own the green dog?
4) DAVID TRIBUNE (1501-4) - Michelangelo
I bought this in Florence at the Galleria dell'Accademia where Michelangelo's epic David stands in solitary majesty in a stark setting.
DAVID was originally placed in the Piazza della Signoria beside the magnificent Palazzo Vecchio. It stayed there for 369 years until it was moved to it's present location in 1873. Like all great art, it still manages to amaze when seen in the stone despite all one's previous sightings in books, films and adverts.
A detail from Brunelleschi's wooden sculpture which you can see in Florence's Church of Santa Maria
Novella - see the full length postcard in my earlier "Giftshop" blog here.
According to the biographer/artist Vasari,
this was Filipo Brunelleschi's response to a crucifix he disliked that Donatello had made in the church of Santa Croce. It's simple but glorious.
1) THE FOUNTAIN, VILLA TORLONIA, FRASCATI, ITALY (1907) - John Singer Sargent
This came from the recent marvellous National Portrait Gallery exhibition of portraits by John Singer Sargent. In this atmospheric study, a woman has perched herself onto a stone ballustrade to paint her canvas, dressed for the outdoors in her veiled hat and white coat and dress with her brushes arrayed beside her. Her companion relaxes beside her and Sargent has captured him either humourously regarding her painting or closing his eyes for a nap. Behind them the fountain of the painting's title splashes away, matching the white of their clothes and contrasting with the lush green trees beyond. A painting I could stare at for hours...
2) THE REBELLIOUS SLAVE (1513-15) - Michelangelo
From the Louvre in Paris, this is one of the two in Michelangelo's series of slave staues that is not unfinished and seeming to break free from the block of marble that surrounds it. Here a bound slave - with the all-important swath of material over his groin - strains and twists to escape his fate. The similarity facially to his David statue is very noticeable.
3) PORTRAITS OF BATTISTA SFORZA AND FEDERICO DA MONTEFELTRO, DUKE OF URBINO (1465-72) - Piero della Francesca
A double portrait of the Duke and Duchess of Urbino with their city spread out behind them which is one of the many treasures in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. Reality dictated their positioning as the Duke has lost an eye and was scarred on the right side of his face from a tournament which had also broke his nose. The Duchess' jewels and brocaded dress accentuate her grave beauty. Oddly the Duke and Duchess are also painted on the reverse on these double portraits in a different pose.
4) PORTRAIT OF GIACOMO DORIA (1533-5) - Titian
This imposing portrait by Titian confers on his sitter all the trops of power - the swaggering volumous black garment, the direct gaze of the merchant who was also a diplomat and the marble column he stands in front of. This can be seen in Oxford's Ashmoleon Museum.
5) OH, JEFF... I LOVE YOU, TOO... BUT... (1964) - Roy Lichtenstein
One of Lichtenstein's classic Pop Art portraits in all it's garish Benday-dotted Magna colour, a picture that while celebrating the banalness of commercial art also holds it's own mystique. Oddly enough, this exhibition felt unsatisfactory.
Now I have sorted out my scanner (bloody Windows 10!) here are some more postcards from exhibitions and galleries...
1) SOFA and CHAIRS (1898 - 1904) - Antoni Gaudi with Aleix Clapés
This came from the Gaudí museum at his home in Parc Guell, and features one of his furniture designs for the Ibarz-Marco family. Now I love a couch and this one screamed "sit on me"! Great art nouveau fin de siécle furniture and loving the big and boldly distinctive floral design.
2) HIPPOPOTAMUS (1981 - 1885 bc) - unknown
I spent ages walking around the Egyptian rooms in the NY Metropolitan Museum trying to find this chap as he featured heavily in the gift shop in many different shapes and sizes but eventually found him in a glass case along with other finds from the tomb of Senbi. He is tiny so can be easily overlooked - I think he's gorgeous and would have him away if I could. He dates from Ancient Egypt's 12th Dynasty.
3) MEDUSA (1595-8) - Michelangelo Merisi de Caravaggio
This is a detail of Caravaggio's magnificent depiction of Medusa's decapitated head frozen forever on Perseus' shield. If you ever want to find it in the Uffizi in Florence just head for the exit and it is one of the last paintings you will see - just look for the permanent huddle of viewers around it. A visceral, fascinating image to contemplate.
4) The WINGED VICTORY OF SAMOTHRACE (circa 190 bc) - unknown
How can something so solid and imposing also be so suggestive of movement and grace? The white marble figure of Nike is awesome in all it's shattered majesty and a must-see when visiting the Louvre in Paris.
5) The BREWHOUSE, COOKHAM (1957) - Stanley Spencer
Bought at the charming Stanley Spencer Gallery in his hometown of Cookham in Berkshire, this is a wonderfully detailed painting of the late 15th Century listed building in the village. You can fair hear the hum of bees and the clatter of plates coming through the open doorway as you marvel at Spencer's intricate handling of the foliage that softens the bricks and mortar of the house
A wonderfully exuberant and vibrant painting of the view from Picasso's Calais window, I bought this at the Museu Picasso in Barcelona. I love his punky white pigeons, the propped-up palette, the azure sea and magnificent tree in front of his studio window.
2) LE COURONNEMENT D'EPINES (1602-3) - Michelangelo Merisi de Caravaggio
Well I never knew Caravaggio was a Michelangelo too! I bought this at the Musée Jacquemart-André when they held an exhibition named FROM GIOTTO TO CARAVAGGIO. Caravaggio lights the scene with his usual shaft of light from one side to illuminate his fleshy, all-too-human Christ, held by two soldiers, as a third forces the crown of thorns onto his head with a stick. I like how Caravaggio has both Christ and the soldier holding him staring into the face of the soldier forcing the crown on as well as the emphasis on the hands of all involved.
3) LA NASCITA DI VENERE (1484) - Sandro Botticelli
Botticelli's iconic Birth of Venus isn't exactly one of my favourite paintings ever but when you go to the Uffizi Gallery shop you have to buy a copy of it - they call the police if you don't! For such an image of idealised beauty Botticelli's Venus is all over the shop physically but I prefer to dwell on the figure in the billowing drapery who hurries to cover Venus' modesty.
This wonderfully realised crucifix is in the Church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence and is one of the many remarkable works of art displayed there. According to the biographer/artist Vasari, Brunelleschi was compelled to make this crucifix after criticizing the one that Donatello had just unveiled in Santa Croce. Donatello's is certainly more realistic than Brunelleschi's idealised, stark figure but if you wish to decide for yourself, head to the Capella Gondi at Novella.
5) ANNE BOLEYN (circa 1533) - unknown
Um. The shame. I have never actually visited this portrait at the National Portrait Gallery! And me a big Boleyn fan. I am telling myself that this is for the best as I would probably try to stick it in my bag! An iconic portrait of an iconic woman, this has been the first stop for any costume designer and/or casting director in the countless retellings of Anne's sorry tale. I do love the stark quality of the portrait, Anne's jet black veil and gown accentuated by the brown furry sleeves and heavily-worked gold and pearls of the dress's neckline - and of course the directness of Anne's coolly knowing gaze, it almost feels like she is saying down the years, "Me? Guilty??"
Usually for me it kicks in about halfway round an exhibition... that's when I start thinking "I wonder if they have this picture as a postcard in the shop?" Indeed I remember going to the Royal Academy's 1991 Pop Art exhibition with a friend, Jacqui Tomlinson, who *raced* around the gallery barely looking at the Warhols, Lichtensteins and Johns'. When I caught up with her I asked did she really dislike it that much and she said "No, I just want to get to the shop quicker". I thought Andy Warhol would have found that particularly funny.
Of course once I get to the shop, I usually start my usual rant: "Why don't they have a postcard of THAT picture?? Why are there only 4 postcards for such a big exhibition - and why are they all the SHITE ones?" I have yet to get a proper answer to that one...
But we buy the postcards they have - and in a very special case, the catalogue - but what do you do with yours? Mine tend to sit in various boxes, waiting to be looked at again... so let's get them on here! I shall put up a few at a time and give my memories of when and where I saw them.
1) CARNATION, LILY, LILY, ROSE (1885-6) - John Singer Sargent
I bought this after seeing the glorious 2015 Sargent exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery which included the luminous painting of an artist friend's two daughters lighting Chinese lanterns in a twilight garden. The postcard doesn't exactly do Sargent's colours justice but it's a lovely painting, giving a nod to impressionism but with Sargent's careful staging.
2) EL FINAL DEL NUMERO (1900-1) - Pablo Picasso
I think I bought this at the Courtauld's exhibition BECOMING PICASSO in 2013 which focused on 1901, one of the key years in the artists life. I love his use of pastels in this vivid moment of a singer taking the applause of her audience.
3) MRS HERBERT DUCKWORTH (1867) - Julia Margaret Cameron
I bought this at the National Portrait Gallery exhibition of Cameron in 2003. Cameron's niece Julia Jackson posed for this photograph aged 21 and her austere beauty could almost be a personification of Victorian femininity. Later that year she married the barrister Herbert Duckworth and was left widowed 3 years later with 3 children. Eight years on she married the writer Sir Leslie Stephen who already had a daughter from his first marriage. The Stephens would go on to have four more children together before Julia's death at the age of 49. Her daughters would later rebel against their mother Julia's Victorian values through art (Vanessa Bell) and literature (Virginia Woolf).
4) DAWN, TOMB OF LORENZO DI MEDICI, DUKE OF URBANO (1520-34) - Michelangelo
I bought this in the Medici Chapel in Florence where Michelangelo's monumental tomb for Lorenzo, Duke of Urbano is. The Duke of Urbano was one of the lesser Medici, dying at the age of 26 but his daughter Catherine de Medici would go on to fame as the controlling Queen of France at the time of the Huguenot massacres. Michelangelo's nude allegorical figure of Dawn however is a glorious statue of weary majesty.
5) SAINT JOHN THE EVANGELIST (1320) - Giotto
I bought this at the Musée Jacquemart-André, a favourite museum in Paris which usually has interesting exhibitions and an even more interesting restaurant, perfect for déjuner avec un grand patisserie. This was part of their 2015 exhibition FROM GIOTTO TO CARAVAGGIO and is a fine example of Giotto's skill in humanising his figures, his John The Evangelist is an old man whose kind and wise face is suggested by the lines around his eyes and forehead. I like the gold trimming on his blue gown and pink shawl... John obviously liked his colours. I have been told by Owen that "Giotto invented art" and I'm glad he did.
It's the start of a new year so tradition must be upheld to look back on what I enjoyed in the previous 12 months. After a year of little sensory pleasures 2013 gave me much to savour and enjoy, very little to ignore.
ART
From the unknown artists of the Ice Age to the pop age of Roy Lichtenstein, from the 1901 paintings of Picasso to the Profumo scandal of 1963 via George Catlin's paintings of native Americans, it has been a varied and fascinating year for exhibitions.
The Hayward Gallery's LIGHT SHOW collated installations including Ivan Navarro's mirrored, neon-lit telephone box, Carlos Cruz-Diez's chromatic series of single-colour rooms, Leo Villareal's shimmering cascade of white neon on silver and Olafur Eliasson's dizzying Model For A Timeless Garden (fountains of water seemingly frozen in time by neon light); the National Portrait Gallery's MAN RAY: PORTRAITS showed his astounding experiments in photography; the Victoria & Albert's DAVID BOWIE IS took you on a journey through the ch-ch-ch-ch-changes of the first artist to fully understand how late 20th Century pop would be a real marriage of Sound and Vision while the Royal Academy's exhibition MODERN AMERICAN LIFE opened my eyes to the work of American painter and printmaker George Bellows.
But the Art Chrissie goes to A CRISIS OF BRILLIANCE at the Dulwich Picture Gallery which linked the artists Paul Nash, Christopher R.W. Nevinson, Stanley Spencer, Mark Gertler, Dora Carrington and David Bomberg who all attended the Slade Art School in the years 1908 -1912. Although not a large exhibition, there was plenty to spark a curiosity in artists I had been too quick to overlook in the past, in particular Nevinson. It also gave me an opportunity to commune with one of my favourite paintings, Carrington's portrait of Lytton Strachey.
It was an inspiring exhibition that was exhilarating but also moving as for most of the featured artists the 'crisis of brilliance' that their Slade Professor Henry Tonks accused them of having was never fully resolved. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Stuart Kirk-Spriggs who has given me a new appreciation of some of the trickier areas of 20th Century art thanks to his inspired teaching.
MUSIC
It's been a good year for gigs, mostly a string of awesome shows under the auspices of Yoko Ono's Meltdown festival on the South Bank. Somehow - I'm still sure how - Owen managed to get tickets for both of the Siouxsie shows that were much sought after. It made me remember how good Patti Smith's Meltdown festival had been in 2005. Maybe all Meltdowns in future should be curated by female singers in their over-50s?
This year I've seen Boy George twice (thinner and bursting with confidence), Liza Minnelli (with the remnants of her voice and hips but glowing with pure star wattage), Petula Clark at 81 dominating the barn of Theatre Royal Drury Lane with class and showmanship, two alternative music queens Sinéad O'Connor and Viv Albertine wowing with passion and humour and an incandescent Pet Shop Boys show that lit up the O2. Hopefully 2014 will see them back again now we are familiar with the new material.
For her Meltdown show, Marianne Faithfull turned the Queen Elizabeth Hall into an intimate club as she strolled through her back catalogue with guitarist Bill Frisell (she will back in November to celebrate 50 years in music); The B-52s brought their unique lunatic genius to the IndigO2 while, back at Meltdown, Patti Smith brought along the kids Jackson and Jessie to accompany her in an evening of prose and music where she was wonderfully goofy, caustic and relaxed! And in the afore-mentioned shows, Siouxsie was quite magnificent, encased in a white PVC ensemble as she showcased the entire Banshees KALEIDOSCOPE album from 1980 then plunging into songs from their back catalogue as well as from her solo career. They were her first shows in 5 years and she owned the stage - as some hapless oaf found out when he foolishly attempted to climb up.
But my Music Chrissie, and I am a bit surprised by this, goes to Amanda Palmer at the Roundhouse. With her new band the Grand Theft Orchestra she showcased most of her 2012 album THEATRE IS EVIL (sez she) as well as older and some unrecorded songs. As with the four acts mentioned above, Amanda creates her own unique world when she performs and this time was just as memorable. What makes each show different is that she is unique in being able to take whatever is happening to her at that precise moment in her life and spin the show around it, making each one moment-specific.
The two great moments were when she sang BIGGER ON THE INSIDE a painfully honest examination of her recent spell of depression and DEAR DAILY MAIL in which she lambasted that ridiculous paper for highlighting her recent Glastonbury gig when her breast popped out of her bra. She was, quite simply, her.
CINEMA
In rediscovered cinema I am grateful for the National Film Theatre (nope, still can't call it BFI Southbank) in giving me the chance to see three favourite actresses - Jean Seberg, Vivien Leigh, Vanessa Redgrave - on the big screen with screenings of BONJOUR TRISTESSE (in a sparkling new print), THE DEEP BLUE SEA (I've finally seen it!!) and an advance screening of the BBC film THE THIRTEENTH TALE in which Vanessa was excellently paired with Olivia Colman in Christopher Hampton's atmospheric version of Diane Setterfield's novel. The same cinema also provided the cinematic highspot during Yoko's Meltdown festival when it showed Eisenstein's BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN with the score by the Pet Shop Boys (with Neil on hand to introduce it) - yes comrades, the revolution WILL have a Disco Beat!
I've seen more recent films this year but nothing that totally knocked me out - the most enjoyable being the two Broadway documentaries I saw at the London Film Festival, Dori Berinstein's MARVIN HAMLISCH and Chiemi Karasawa's ELAINE STRITCH: SHOOT ME - equally enjoyable in different variations in the documentary form.
EVENTS
In the course of any year there are those shows that you can't quite fit into other categories and I had a few of them in 2013.
I saw the remarkable Rita Moreno give an insightful talk at the covert racism she faced in the Hollywood of the 50s & 60s while also rubbishing the film she was there to introduce - now that takes guts. David McAlmont was in the audience to ask her about THE RITZ and I also saw him giving a talk at the National Portrait Gallery. Tracey Thorn, Derek Jacobi and Ray Davies gave us idiosyncratic glimpses into the process of writing their autobiographies and Simon Russell Beale gave us his memories on working at the National Theatre.
In particular I enjoyed a reading of A CHRISTMAS CAROL at the Queen Elizabeth Hall with Griff Rhys Jones as Dickens and an excellently cast Bill Paterson as Scrooge. The supporing cast included Tim Pigott-Smith as Marley and Janine Duvitski as Mrs. Dibber and as I watched them I wished they could be playing it for real at the National next door. At the same venue earlier in the year Rupert Everett gave a hugely entertaining and insightful talk about his autobiography VANISHED YEARS while at the Leicester Square Theatre, Patti LuPone gave an odd combination of concert & talk (with Seth Rudetsky) which covered all areas of her acting career. It gave her ample opportunity to bury a few axes in appropriate backs but the high points were when she simply sang songs from EVITA, THE BAKER'S WIFE, LES MISERABLES, GYPSY and most surprisingly "With One Look" from SUNSET BOULEVARD, the first time she had performed it since being so ingraciously fired from the London production. The biggest surprise came when at the climax of her final song - "The Ladies Who Lunch" from COMPANY - she punctuated the final "RISE!" with hurling her drink into the first few rows. Guess who got splooshed? A dryer but wonderful 45 minutes were spent in the company of Imelda Staunton and Jim Carter as they reminisced about their experiences working at the National Theatre which of course included memories of my beloved 1982 production of GUYS AND DOLLS, which was were they first met.
But the Chrissie for Best Event goes to the similar National Histories talk with actress Julie Walters and director Richard Eyre. A delightful 45 minutes sped by as these two favourite people showed a delightful chemistry as they reminisced about their NT memories. Of course I would love it as Richard Eyre talked at length about his 1982 production of GUYS AND DOLLS but it was also an emotional moment too when they both talked about Ian Charleson with Eyre obviously moved when talking about how he came to cast Ian as HAMLET in 1989 when they both knew he was dying.
The lovely thing is by clicking here you can watch the Walters & Eyre talk and here you will find Carter & Staunton's talk.
As an intermission act I will leave you in the capable hands of Amanda Palmer and her riotous song DEAR DAILY MAIL from the Roundhouse gig. After the interval? The Theatre Chrissies...
