Exit Through The Giftshop - Pictures At An Exhibition #16

As museums and galleries close for another lockdown here are some postcards I have liberated from their shelves in the past...

1) PORTRAIT OF A GIRL (1912) - Mark Gertler

I bought this at the Dulwich Picture Gallery when it showed the CRISIS OF BRILLIANCE exhibition which celebrated the pre-WWI year at the Slade School which included Mark Gertler, Dora Carrington, Paul Nash, Stanley Spencer and Christopher Nevinson.  Mark Gertler was 21 when he painted this lovely study of a young woman in his final year at the Slade.

Gertler has painted her in a soft mauve blouse with a matching headress, which really pops against a dark green wall.  The bright red bead necklace which hangs loosely around her neck is gathered in her hand and she gazes coolly out at us like a Renaissance heroine. I really like the marriage of colours in this as well as the subject's impassive stare.  This is in the Tate collection.

2) THE TOMB OF FRA ANGELICO (circa 1455) - Isaia da Pisa

This came from the church of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva which is down the left-hand side of the Pantheon in Rome - you cannot miss it, there is a huge statue of an elephant carrying an obelisk outside! Although "a flower of Tuscany". the former Guido de Pietro died while working in Rome so is buried there.

In 2018 the full-length marble tomb stone was damaged by vandals so I hope it has been restored.  Next to the tomb is a lovely epitaph which sums up the humble Dominican Friar who was also one of the greatest of Renassance painters; it translates as:

When singing my praise, don't liken my talents to those of Apelles.
Say, rather, that, in the name of Christ, I gave all I had to the poor.

The deeds that count on Earth are not the ones that count in Heaven.

I, Giovanni, am the flower of Tuscany.

3) 'YO': SELF PORTRAIT (1901) - Pablo Picasso

This came from the Courtauld Gallery in 2013 when they mounted an exhibition of Picasso's work all from his pivotal year of 1901.  Picasso started 1901 in Barcelona but the end of the year found him back in Paris, painting the spare, emotive works of his 'Blue Period'.

Pablo emerges from a dark background, staring at the viewer: you can really feel the burning concentration in his eyes as he captures the moment in time and his place in it.  His jacket is sketched in with broad strokes, the main attraction is Pablo and he makes sure nothing distracts from it.

4) BUST OF QUEEN NEFERTITI (circa 1345 bc) - Thutmose (?)

Mona who?  The real iconic female artwork for the ages is the glorious bust of Queen Nefertiti, who reigns in serene, imperious isolation at the Neues Museum in Berlin.  After wandering - or running - through their Egyptian rooms, you are ushered into her presence a few at a time and take your place in history, walking around and around her, trying to find something unexpected.

It was discovered in 1912 by the German archeologist Ludwig Borchardt in the site of the workshop of sculpter Thutmose in the ruined site of the city of Armana which was the capital city of Akhenaten, Nerfertiti's pharaoh husband.  Mystery surrounds most of her life and the overthrowing of Akhenaten due to his wish to move Egypt from a multi-god belief system to one based around the sun, the Aten, would have helped her attempted erasure from history but how remarkable that her face is the eternal female representation of Ancient Egypt as the death mask of her son-in-law - and stepson - Tutankhamun represents the male.  She is glorious....

5) TORNABUONI CHAPEL, SANTA MARIA NOVELLA (1485-1490) - Domenico Ghirlandaio

The Tornabuoni Chapel is the main chapel in Florence's monumental Santa Maria Novella which is where this was bought; it can be a bit of a tight squeeze negotiating around the gothic altar to see the Ghirlandaio frescoes but it's worth persevering as they still look wonderfully intact.  He worked on the frescos with his students so Michelangelo's brushwork might be on them somewhere.

Giovanni Tornabuoni was, as usual, a merchant and banker whose sister was the mother of Lorenzo de Medici.  When the chapel was sold to him, he commissioned Ghirlandaio to fresco the walls with scenes from the lives of John The Baptist and the Virgin Mary.  They, of course. feature the Tornabuoni family and their powerful friends and relatives, among the many characterful faces on show.

Exit Through The Giftshop - Postcards at an exhibition....

More postcards from exhibitions and galleries...

1) ELS COLOMINS (1957) - Pablo Picasso

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.

4) WOODEN CRUCIFIX (circa 1412) - Fillipo Brunelleschi

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??"

Exit Through The Giftshop - Postcards at an exhibition....

I am going to do this as an occasional blog...

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.

More soon...

New York New York: Day 7

Giggleheim yesterday, Museum of Modern Art today! I had been round it on a previous visit but have not seen it since the upgrade. The building looks excellent, large galleries, wide connecting concourses with views down onto the floors below.

As with the Guggenheim's RUSSIA! exhibition, most of the lower galleries were more than easy to pass through, unmoved by the claims of installation pieces or photographic exhibits which were jaw-droppingly average. 

However the higher up you go... truly the closer to art heaven you get.  It was quite an experience seeing so many great works under one roof... definitely one to visit again.





We walked round the sculpture courtyard afterwards which was bathed in sunlight and we found Picasso's delightful statue of a goat. Spent bigly in the shop too.

After that it was time to head downtown and see my friend Sam who runs the film poster gallery Posteritati. He wasn't in the gallery but he and his wee 'un Benny caught up with us at Il Palazzo in Little Italy where O and I were fit to burst from the food! After walking Sam back to the gallery we had a nice meander up through SoHo which was as busy as anywhere on a late Saturday afternoon. 

Stopping off for a wee at the Angelika Film Center we headed to Bleeker Street to visit the Biography Store, a small bookshop I always visit and usually find something to buy but not this trip dammit. HOWEVER walking up Christopher Street (my favourite street) we went into Alternate Cards and.... I now own my own RuPaul doll! She stands an Amazonian 13" tall and I may never leave the house again!

And - as if it could not get any more Out There - we saw the Christmas show at the Radio City Music Hall.  O is a bit of an Xmas junkie so he was in Bliss City just looking at the marquee! 

The cavernous, opulent lobby was worth the price of admission alone - to say nothing of the Gents! - but the show was beyond anything. Starting with a 3D film of Santa flying in and out of the NY skyscrapers we then were treated to the first of several appearances by the famous Rockettes.
Legs, huge sets, snow falling inside the auditorium, skaters on stage, dancers on stage, this was surely what the Follies must have been like! And if my senses hadn't reeled enough we had a re-enactment of the Nativity which outdid itself in jaw-dropping earnestness - with the help of real donkeys, sheep and 3 camels! 

We staggered back to the hotel to meet Dezur and Paul for much-needed JD and Cokes!

Then sadly... up to the room to pack in silence... sigh, the saddest part of any holiday.

New York New York: Day 6

We Metrocarded up to the Guggenheim which I have always wanted to see but never got round to. Typically they were renovating the front so I didn't get to see it's impressive frontage, however once inside I was thrilled by the spiralling rotunda. 

The main exhibition was RUSSIA! an overview of Russian art. Sadly most of it was very easy to be given the go-by... icons, religeous art, court portrature, vast landscapes of St. Petersberg a la Canaletto, many paintings depicting the life of the humble peasant - all quite ironic bearing in mind what was to come. 20th Century art movements were adopted but rarely it seems understood, then there was the Soviet Art extolling the revolution - there is an bizarre one of a teenage girl meeting Stalin surrounded by applauding party members - all of whose heads could easily be painted over at some time. 

However there were paintings which drew you to them, there were some fine 'social realist' ones - depressive as Hell but at least they gave a sense of real life. Landscapes of startling clearness - almost like digital photographs and an amazing painting by Vasily Vereschagin "Defeated: Service For The Dead" of a priest and officer under a darkening sky standing in a huge churned up field that stretches off into the horizon which is filled with the bodies of hundreds of dead soldiers. 

Off the main rotunda are separate galleries given over to the Thannhauser collections and the museum's substantial Kandinsky paintings. The first contained some glorious works by Picasso: "Woman With Yellow Hair", "Mandolin and Guitar" and "Le Moulin de Galette" and the Kandinsky gallery glows with colour and imagination. Looking forward to future visits...

After lunch in a crowded Madison Avenue eaterie that left me feeling more hungry after I left than when I went in, we spent the rest of the afternoon walking leisurely though a Central Park turning golden in Autumn and getting ready for the invasion of runners for the NY Marathon on the Sunday. 

The park looked lovely and after a bit of hunting we found the ice-skating rink - the last time we were there it was surrounded by huge banks of snow!  By now I was seriously flagging, made it back to the hotel and had about an hour's snooze which was much needed. We were both in two minds about going to see the show tonight - but we had the tickets and thought we could always leave in the interval if we were not enjoying it.  Enjoy it?  We loved it - AVENUE Q at the Golden Theatre.

What a great show - the most enjoyable one of the trip. To say it's a musical with puppets is putting at it's most basic - it's a laugh-out-loud collision between The Muppets and the best American sitcoms. The cast of seven - three actors, four puppeteers - work their arses off and the show fully deserved it's Tony Award for Best Musical - among it's hilarious songs are IF YOU WERE GAY, EVERYONE'S A LITTLE BIT RACIST, THE INTERNET IS FOR PORN - 'Grab your dick and double-click' and THE MORE YOU RUV SOMEONE (sung by the Japanese character) - hugely recommended!