Yesterday was a really pleasant day. It was brisk cold in the morning, and never did warm up much. I started my day with a trip down to Leicester Square and the Tkts booth. I scored a cheap seat for Tango Por Dos at The Peacock Theatre for 7:30, and then headed down to Green Park to check out the Queen’s gardening prowess and write a post card or two. Here is a view of the park shrouded with fog (freezing fog, as the weather reports had it, but they exaggerate):

From there I went in search of Hamilton’s Gallery, a toni gallery in Mayfair catering in exclusive photography. I had seen that they had an exhibit of 12 new pieces by Albert Watson “Miss Beehayving” that I wanted to see.

Now my friend LJ had warned me about certain neighbourhoods: “a Dodgy part of town. Southwark…but very cool and interesting” she wrote. Well, no one warned me about Mayfair! This is a very scary place indeed. More money is poured into real estate here than just about anywhere else on the planet. The most expensive flat here is a new penthouse going up with a £100Million price tag. I wasn’t really sure where “13 Carlos Place” was, and it didn’t show on my map, so I just kept strolling around, doing a grid, hoping that I would find it. I even asked a helpful cabby, but without luck. Finally gave up and bailed.

Here is one place I came across on my search. Don’t let the name confuse you, its just a bunch of high-priced “Global Consultants”:

The only folk I know consult globes are fortune tellers, and I imagine they cost less, too.

Then it was off to Tate Modern — They have a big new exhibit on Duchamp, Man Ray and Picabia. That’s down by Southwark, sorry LJ! I took the tube to London Bridge and headed for the Thames. Here’s a set of photos taken from one spot, just to show how different a place looks depending upon which way you’re facing:

South:

East:

West:

Here’s Tower Bridge:

And here’s the Tower of London”

I then strolled on along the Queen’s Walk to the Tate. Along the way I found The Clink:

Don’t want to get thrown in there!

Well, in keeping with my fecklessness, I didn’t bother to check the dates on the new show, and it doesn’t open until the 21st. Oops! Oh well. I have seen a lot of DuChamp and Man Ray exhibitions, so if I miss it it’s not the end of the world. I went ahead and checked out the permanent collection and then cross the Millennium Bridge and take a tube back home.

There will be laundry!

Catchup time.

I’ve been discouraged since that Art Appreciation piece went off so poorly. I need to find better examples of Hockney and Doig to make that work. The perfect pieces were those in Tate Britain itself, all within 30 yards of each other, in adjacent galleries. Oh well, I’ll try to update it.

On Tuesday I took some shots on my way back from Tate Britain. Here are a few of those.

The Tate itself, view from Milbank:

Chestnut trees along Milbank:

London: Old and New:

That’s the Houses of Parliament in the distance on the left, Victoria Tower, and The London Eye towards the right.

Houses of Parliament:

Chestnut Trees leaning over Milbank, near Houses of Parliament:

Westminster Abbey in the mist and trees:

Stressed out sculpture by Whitehall:

Big Ben from behind:

A new day dawned with the same cold start that has been the hallmark of this week. Folk here are pretty upset about how bizarre their weather has been of late. There has been a strange system stalled around here which has lead to some very high highs and some very low lows. None of it appreciated.

Nowhere else would people complain about 65 degree weather in February, but when they had a high of 18.2 °C (64.76 °F)in Wales a few days ago there were complaints aplenty! Me, I came dressed for crappy Wisconsin weather, so I just get another layer out of the closet and get on with it.

This morning took me to St. Pancras station to confirm a return ticket on First Capital for Gatwick on 3 Mar. I tried to do this online but it is not possible. They start out by asking your country of residence, so I picked US from the menu. Then they give you a form to fill out and one of the required fields is “Postal Code” and it will only accept UK postal codes. Go figure.

After leaving St. Pan’s I went west to the other St. Pan’s; St. Pancras Church. I went to see an exhibit of cartography called “The Island – London Series” by Stephen Walker. I am not quite sure where to begin with this exhibit. I guess I’ll start with the setting. This is exhibited in the crypt of St. Pancras. Although the current structure dates only from 1819-22, the parish goes back at least 600 years, and is thought to be one of the oldest Christian worships in Great Britian. The current crypt hasn’t been used for burial purposes for quite some time, and the markers are rather unceremoniously been laid up in a pile in one corner.

The work itself is impressive. Mr. Walker has fashioned hand drawn maps of the entire London area, and I don’t mean the kind of cartoon map that Saul Steinberg made iconic in 1976 with his “View of the World from 9th Avenue”:
“

No, these are detailed yet hand drawn maps, well a map, and several sections of it. How to explain…

The original is about 200 cm. x 400 cm. and is so tightly packed with information that you need a magnifying glass to even begin to penetrate the detail. Thankfully you are handed one at the door. Then there are the sections. There are over 40 of these, each overlaps its neighbours and provides the same information as the comprehensive map, but in more readable format.

The conceit of the whole piece is London as an island (hence the title) and it is well executed. Red Groom would blush at what this young artist has done, but has nothing to fear from him in terms of illustration. The whole piece is a triumph of wit and execution, but whether it is a great artistic accomplishment will await the judgement of more critical eyes than mine. I enjoyed it, but I doubt that it is Great. That is my verdict. I will say this: If Mr. Walker does not succeed it will not be for lack of effort on his behalf by TAG; my entire visit was serenaded by the lilting tone of his very efficacious agent on his mobile trying to get various influential collectors in to view this “very important” show.

I bought the catalogue if anyone cares to see it.

Next up was a horse of a different colour, as they say. Down to the Tate British, off of Millbank. The big shows right now are “Peter Doig”:

and “Modern Painters – The Camden Town Group”:

The Camden Town bit was what one would expect. A lot of copy-cat pieces inspired by the work ongoing in France at the time, but with a gritty English tilt. I don’t mean this too sound as dismissive as it does. I really wasn’t aware of the art of these chaps, Spencer Gore, Charles Ginner, Harold Gilman, Walter Richard Sickert, William Ratcliffe and Robert Bevan key among them. But, there is little here to recommend the school as more than an echo of what was happening on the continent. There is one important element, which is Sickert’s work in illustrating a sex and murder scandal of the late 1890s which broke new ground with art as a commentary on news. We still hear reverberations of this today in everything from Blueman and Jenny Holtzer, and before them Weegee and his bretherin.

The Doig exhibit, on the other hand, presented something which we haven’t seen before, at least not in just this form. Though his work seems heavily influenced by the work of Francis Bacon, David Hockney and Ed Paschke, it is both new and descendent. Doig tends to work in large canvases, like those three, and he uses parts of each of their techniques. From Paschke he draws the skill of over-painting the scene in such a way that he obscures almost the enitirety of it yet manages to lose nothing. To see what I mean, consider this piece of Paschke’s, “Blanco” from 1992:

In this piece, as with his others, Paschke has distilled the image down to that which we need to construct a face with which, even if we are not comfortable, we at least associate.

Now consider one by Hockney:

Now a pair of pieces by Bacon:

Lastly a piece by Doig:

Am I the only one who sees a progression here?

Thanks for putting up with my little art appreciation course. Sorry if I went overboard there…

I will follow up tomorrow morn with more photos from the day.

Ta!

So I had an email exchange with my friend KS and mentioned that I have slowed down my writing partly due to the problem of not having any suitable place so sit and type on my laptop.

“maybe you can go to a ‘charity shop’ and see if they have a cheap ol’ & easy to transfer table, chair you could decorate your pad with… or can you bring the chair from the deck inside?”

Well, there’s a thought.  This morning I made myself some breakfast and then went looking for charity shops in my neighbourhood who might carry such items.  Problem is that there aren’t any.  There are charity shops around here, but not that carry furniture.  Those that do are too far away to be practical.  Oh well.  I did have fun looking, and along the way I stopped in at an OxFam store that specializes in books and music.  They had a very nice travel guide for Prague, and that got me thinking…

A couple of days ago I was discussing with BW my foray to Portobello Road and she asked if I bought any Julius Dressler pieces.

I collect ceramics from that Bohemian pottery, mostly from right around 1900.  I didn’t see any, but I was looking.  That is about the only thing I could justify buying here and bringing back with me.  “No, I didn’t,” I replied, “guess I’ll have to go to Prague and look there.”  Well, with my new found travel guide, it’s just Kizmet!

So, back at the flat after an exquisite tapas lunch (nothing like a Spanish waiter who is sprouting an English accent) I went ahead and booked myself a short holiday in Prague in a week or so.

Now, lest you think I am being rash, it is fair to say that I have really been thinking about this for awhile.  It was just the confluence of events which lead me to go ahead and do it now.  It just feels right.

I’ll be staying in the Jewish Quarter, not far from the Old Town Square for three nights, and I am looking forward to it.

I meant to write a lot more about various themes but I have spent the last 9 hours on a customer emergency and am now totally spent.  Thankfully I was able to get out earlier to pick up some groceries and some vodka, so I can finally relax (at 1:30 am!) and try to get some sleep.

Ta!

Another day in London and I find myself in Piccadilly Circus for the first time this visit. The first time really out of my neighbourhood, for that matter. Here’s an obligatory tourist shot of Piccadilly:

Then it was off Leicester Square to find the National Portrait Gallery. I saw an ad in Vanity Fair for an exhibition of portraits from the magazine’s first century:

Now where is that gallery?? I wandered quite a bit before I found it. Meanwhile, came across some interesting sights. Here is an incongruous image of Chinese lanterns hanging in front of The Crooked Surgeon:

Remember I commented on the over-courteous construction sites? Well, here is further proof of just how seriously they take it:

Finally found the gallery, and the show was a treat. Also got to see the “Photographic Portrait Prize 2007” show, which had some really sharp up and comers on display.

One of the odd things about Central London is how close everything is. From Piccadilly Circus to Leicester Square is just a couple of blocks, and then to the NPG is a couple more, then from NPG to Trafalgar Square is only a block or so. You just keep stumbling from one to another, whether you mean to or not. I didn’t plan on going to Trafalgar today, but took a wrong turn out of the NPG and found myself there. I’ll go back another day, but for today got another obligatory tourist shot (of tourists getting their own obligatory…)

At Covent Garden found mysterious queues of foreign kids in various places. They just as oddly dispersed, but I found another large crowd making all sorts of racket. Took me a moment to realize that there was a busker in their midst who was urging them on in competition with another large crowd getting the same treatment from another busker on the other side of the Garden. Quite a little shoutfest going there.

Now, why was it I came here? Oh yeah, the big heart:

The shops put this up to attract valentines celebrating folk to come and get their photos snapped under the pink boughs. Hopefully they’ll shop a bit too. Not far away a pub in St. Paul’s is advertising a “Sad & Single” event tonight, for the other half (or two thirds).

Then off across the Waterloo bridge (locals several steps behind me, “What bridge is this? Mum, do you know what bridge this is?””Wish I did.” Alas they were too far back for me to tell) to the Old Vic. Got an 11th row center seat to see “Speed The Plow” a week from Saturday, or Saturday week, as the locals would say. Ooh goody!

Back to the flat to rest up a bit. It has been a cold day for traipsing around, and it will be good to get back. Note to self: Regardless how easy it looks, never try to briskly ascend the staircase from the Bakerloo line into Marylebone Station! I felt like the guy on the “Danger of Death” placard.

Ta!