AAF: Battersea

AAF, or the Affordable Art Fair, took place in Battersea Park this weekend. There are two of these per year - the first took place this past fall at Hampstead Heath (my first time working at an art fair!) and the gallery I'm interning for set up shop at both. This fair was much more successful we were excited to say! I don't have any pictures from our booth (which was wonderful!) but I did snap a few pics of some of the pieces I really liked from other galleries...

I loved this because it reminded me of Dutch 17th-century still lives - when we're bombarded with so much modern art filled with televisions/lights/paint splatter/and such, its nice to know there are still artists who can really paint...and paint well.

The next work reminded me of French 19th century painting...there is a bit of the Degas Bathers about this picture, but then the green tint reminds me of the cover painting from the Les Bohemes exhibition (reviewed here!)...there's also a bit of of Picasso's The Absinthe Drinker about it. 

 This was just a really cool idea - a beach seen from an aerial view and desaturated to make the sand white - just a really neat concept (...wish I would have thought of it?!)

I thought this was really crazy because I'VE SEEN THAT SAME GRAFFITI IN LONDON! The "let's adore and endure each other" was something I saw when I was out with friends in East London - I took a picture of it and then started seeing it EVERYWHERE! Apparently I wasn't the only one who thought it was quite a poignant quote to put on the side of a building. (...see my picture below for comparison!)

 This was all comic strips...pretty rad.

and THESE were a reference to the French ceramics I've been studying - although not the same shapes as the plates, teapots, and saucers I've been pouring over, these figures are made from the same materials and processes...the decoration is definitely inspired by Sevres/Chelsea porcelain. 

and these were just plain awesome - can I have a pair to wear, please?!

here are some fun animals... (heads of these doggies are made out of handbags) 

and this was very pretty....probably a bit of Van Gogh influence? Incredible impasto and handling of the paint - look at the detail below! 

Last but not least, this man was amazing. Something very Haarlem-school 17th century Dutch about him...they were more likely to paint earthy peasants/old people/etc than the more "refined" style of Amsterdam painters like Rembrandt. Loved it. 

...and that is IT for now - I'm off to Italy this weekend and will be gone for a whole 2 weeks (Venice, Bologna, Florence, Rome, Vienna, Prague) and am not going to take my computer so this blog will be resting for the remainder of the month. See you in April!! 

Bounce, Sketch, Pizza in Knightsbridge & Champagne Night

A catch up on some social life & fun places to go out/eat in Londontown...first up, Bounce is a ping pong bar! Last night one of my friends reserved a table for her birthday - a huge group of us played ping pong for 2 hours last night - so fun! The 90s music was booming and a huge crew of 20-somethings that just got off of work were swarming around the tables. You couldn't walk 10 meters before getting hit with a ping pong ball but that was part of the fun! 

Next up...Sketch for afternoon tea. This place had the craziest Alice-in-Wonderland interiors

^^This is where we had our wonderful tea and scones....

and this is another one of the dining rooms - definitely coming back here for dinner or drinks (or both!)

that wasn't even the best part though...these are the bathrooms. Yes, those are giant egg-shaped pods. Craziest bathroom I've ever been in...

NEXTTT my friend had her birthday at this amazing pizza place in Knightsbridge - live 90's music was blaring, sparklers came with all the rounds of drinks, and the pizza was incredible. Perfect birthday spot! 

Last but not least, my college had a "champagne night" last weekend - with a ticket, one got unlimited quantities of champagne - dangerous? Perhaps. Very fun though! Good times definitely had by all :) 

...and now of to write some papers before leaving for VENICE in T-6 DAYS!!!!! 

need to get to work. that's all for now :) 

Brighton

Our class went to Brighton for a class trip on Thursday...lucky for us we had beautiful English weather for the excursion...what a great day to see the beach...(not)

Brighton became known as a fashionable nineteenth century party city during the lifetime of the Prince Regent, George IV. It was far enough away from London where George could host extravagant and lavish parties. Quite the party boy, this King (who was actually the Prince Regent from 1811-1820 because King George III went 'mad' and was unfit to rule) built an entire party pavilion, called The Royal Pavilion, to host all of his guests. 

The outside is decorated in this odd Indian style...

but then the inside is decorated in "chinoiserie" ...aka the English idea of what decoration from the 'Far East' might look like. "Chinoiserie" is definitely not authentic Chinese - it is what the English thought Chinese interior decoration looked like so is often a mash-up of Indian/Japanese/Chinese/etc styles - important to note. The whole place is meant to transport one into an exotic frame of mind - dinners would last for hours and the wine was flowing. 

Rooms are constructed in a series that accommodates a very specific experience - one would start out waiting in the long gallery, which is lavishly decorated with this exotic-feeling 'chinoiserie' 

...then the King would greet you and take you into the banqueting hall to eat and drink...

(here is a contemporary work done of the banqueting room - painted in 1826 so this is what it would have looked like in its prime)

Next you would retire to a sitting room (ladies and gentlemen to their respective rooms) for a short rest...this is the saloon 

before proceeding to the music room for dancing. 

After this long night guests would return back to their rented townhouses (which they would rent for a "season") - here is the outside of a series of these Regency-era townhouses

Only the royal family would stay at the pavilion - the upstairs were all bedrooms/sitting rooms decorated with Regency Style interiors. Note on "regency style" -- although the actual "regency" only lasted from 1811-1820 politically (this is the period George IV took over for his sick father - George III died in 1820 and George IV went on to rule as king until 1837), the term's stylistic connotations are applied to things made c.1795-1837. George had a huge influence on arts production and style during his lifetime so the term "regency" is applied to all decoration/objects made with his influence. 

Now Brighton is still known as a place to escape the formality of London and have fun - apparently the pier/boardwalk is a great place to go out at night in the summer and its a great spot for antiquing. I'm sure it would be more pleasant in the summer - perhaps I'll come back then and get a better impression of it. 

Westminster

I was lucky enough to get on a "behind the scenes" tour of Westminster Abbey last week - the chaplain of my college is friends with a Westminster Abbey chaplain so after a group of us attended "evensong" (here is a link to what it sounds like - not sure who made the recording on youtube but our service was nearly the same), we got to stay behind and go into all the chapels/etc that are usually not open to the public.


(loved the boys choir - they were amazing!) 

Probably my favorite part was seeing the exact spot where kings and queens have knelt for their coronations since 1269...what?! Here is the spot -- that white circle in the middle is literally where kings and queens have put their knee for hundreds of years. Consequently it is also the spot Prince William and the lovely Duchess of Cambridge were married last year! 

No pictures allowed so here is one from the 'net...an aerial view of the medieval mosaic - it was actually just restored recently just in time for the royal wedding. Constructed throughout the 12th and 13th centuries, this mosaic technique (called cosmati) was very fashionable for the time and was used to decorate other objects like tombs - it was most popular in Italy (these stones were actually transported from Italy) but this is one of the only existing mosaics left in England and definitely the largest, most complex, and most intricate left in existence. And I got to step on it! 

Moving on...behind the gold screen (from first pic) are the tombs of so many kings and queens - the abbey was originally built as a shrine to King Edward. He is the only English king to be canonized as a saint - his tomb and remains are still here! (see pic of his tomb below) 

He died in 1065 and William the Conquerer's coronation was here in 1066 (one of the most significant dates in British history - Norman conquest of England). 

Little remains of that original church from 1066 - the abbey has been added onto over the years with the most significant construction happening in the 16th century. 

Other really interesting parts of the tour were the chapels in the back - my favorite was probably seeing Queen Elizabeth I. She is buried in the same tomb (but on top of) her sister Mary Tudor (known as "Bloody Mary" because, as a Catholic, she burned Protestant heretics during her short reign). Divided during their lifetimes, it is poignant that they are united in death. As one might remember, both were daughters of King Henry VIII but Mary was Catholic, daughter of Catherine of Aragon, and Elizabeth was Protestant, daughter of Anne Boleyn. Here is their tomb -

Really interestingly, the face on Elizabeth's effigy is a death mask, meaning that is what her face looked like at her death. Is it creepy that I find that absolutely fascinating?! She was meticulous about all painted images of herself and because of that, the paintings do not depict a truthful image of her (she was concerned with communicating power, not preserving a likeness of herself) so seeing this is like an authentic glimpse into the past. 

After this we saw a few other chapels containing the remains of Mary Queen of Scots and King Richard II (funny moment - I was with a friend on the tour who studies theatre and he said he was in the middle of memorizing the monologue for Shakespeare's Richard II - it was a fitting moment for him to be able to visit the tomb the week he would perform his part)...and we also stopped by tombs for Isaac Newton, Darwin, and the myriad of poets, playwrights, artists, and wealthy members of the aristocracy along the way out. All in all, such a great opportunity. The chaplain was kind enough to offer to let any of us come back if we wanted to study some things in more detail - some of the effigies are by very famous sculptors so I might take him up on the offer for an art history lesson!