Sunday 1 July 2012

Art tidbits

Yesterday, I went trolling around London on a long-overdue cultural exploration. I decided to explore Cork Street a little more. First, I stopped at Ordovas for a quick look at the Calder in India exhibition. It's intriguing to me for historical and personal reasons (I was once married to an artist whose work was similar). However, I found it a bit "samey" and didn't dwell too long.

Then, I popped into the Hay Hill Gallery to sneak another peek at the Liminal State exhibition. If you haven't been, I can't encourage you strongly enough - it's truly amazing stuff.

Then I popped across the road to the Haldane Fine Art gallery, where I discovered something called the annual Master Paintings Week, which is on in London from 29 June till 6 July this year. This is evidently a week every year when all the participating fine art galleries put their old masters out on display. The Haldane exhibition was a delight, with witty epigrammatical quotes above most of the paintings, many of them left me chuckling appreciatively.

Another witty touch was the recreation of old-master-like paintings with photography. I will certainly be exploring the rest of the Master Painting week if time permits.

A few doors down at the Alpha Gallery was a fabulous contrast of famous Rodin statues and very modern work, representations of the solar system created in a unique painting style. They were still setting up the gallery, but I'm hoping to make it to the private viewing next week.

But the find of the day for me was at Flowers: an exhibition of the surreal art of Glen Baxter. For me, this was beyond witty and clever, I roared with laughter at most of the pictures. Clever, full of snide pokes at the art establishment and life in general and very clever indeed, this is a great, great way to put a smile into your day.

Just a few yards off Regent Street, but a million miles from the hustle and bustle of tourists and tat, Cork Street is a great way to spend half an hour or half a day.

2 comments:

Leg-iron said...

off topic but... Who is Sally?

Obnoxio The Clown said...

I don't know, but please send her my way!