Wednesday, August 27, 2014

National, Tate and yet another Ealing Coffee shop

A few workaday things to do yesterday and decided to supplement them with a cultural visit or two one was the  National Gallery, very busy with rain adding to the crowds and some staff training at the Gallery delaying the  opening of some rooms.
National in the rain


What I did pay attention to was the Joachim Beuckelaer  Four Elements very well displayed in the gallery and quite amazing works from the 16th Century Flemish artist full of life and meaning too.

There's a tremendous number of devotional work in the National and another artist who caught my attention would feature in this area the artist was  Lo Spagna and the work I was taken with was 'Christ carrying the cross' Lo was from Spain and worked a few years prior to Joachim.

The third artist who was revelation to me was Andrea Mantegna, The introduction of the cult of Cybele was a very unusual work - it's a work from around 1505 and rather a trick of the eye in that it gives the effect of sculpted stone. Mantegna was an Italian Artist born in the year 1431 so this work was completed near the end of his life (he died in 1506).

After the National I went to Tate Modern to take a look at the Malevich  exhibition - the Tate was even busier than the National but as ticket or membership was required  for this viewing the numbers were not so bad (also the run of the  Matisse cut outs is nearing it's end).
Worth a look.


I was not over excited by the Malevich on display and preferred that which was figurative, the abstract and 'Suprematism' seemed rather without emotion and too considered but it sometimes is of benefit to see work outside that which one normally gravitates to and the work undoubtedly has a place in contemporary Art  history.

I would also now revise my view on the Northfields Road street art - it reminds me as much of Malevich as Kandinsky.






Coffee shops continue


Well it looks like I got it wrong the bubble's not burst - good luck to them  (a new Ealing coffee shop ) but let's have some other retailers please.

Something else too please


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