girls' night out

Last night I joined a group of girls from the college at the bar for a "girl's night out" ...no boys allowed (but obviously some were there) - we all ended up going out to Hoxton Square to a club. It was so much fun! I ended up running into a group of Christie's students there too - super random but fun to see them outside of class! Super fun night. 

Print show at the gallery

This weekend I helped put on a print show at the gallery. Before the show, we spent a few hours hanging (and straightening) pictures, dusting, cleaning, and adjusting lighting. During the show I spent my time pouring drinks and chatting about the work - there are worse things in life than sipping wine and talking about art! 

These were my favorite pieces - four prints by Joe Webb. 

The Saatchi Gallery is currently showing some of his work, which is a HUGE deal! The Saatchi is all about presenting work by largely unseen young, contemporary artists but it is unbelievably competitive now that it has become so prestigious and elite. Established in 1985 right off Sloane Square in the heart of Chelsea, the gallery is known for showing controversial, contemporary art. It is where Damien Hirst really got his start. 

This was my favorite out of all of them...love the eyeglass. 

And here are the others we had at the show...

HERE is a link to an interview with the artist, Joe Webb. 

Probably my favorite part of these events is talking to really interesting people. One of the highlights of the evening was talking to this guy who is a clergyman for the royal police force. He looked at this painting and recognized the church in the background right away - apparently, his god-daughter's father is the Dean of this abbey. The guy texted his friend a picture of the work and the Dean responded saying he was having dinner with the bishop of that abbey right then! Funnily enough, the bishop apparently looked at  the picture and after hearing the price said it was "too cheap" (haha) but how cool is that! Love those connections. Apparently the artist had no idea about the abbey, just chose to photograph it for aesthetic purposes for the background.

I'm really starting to love these events - hopefully more in the future! 

Dulwich Picture Gallery

This past Saturday I went down to Dulwich Picture Gallery, located in South London in an area called Dulwich (the gallery is appropriately named). There was a prep school and quite a few soccer fields, tennis courts, and parks - very quaint area! 

The architect of the building was Sir John Soane. His design is in an austere neo-classical style, appropriate for the late eighteenth/early nineteenth century in England. Dulwich Picture Gallery was the first public gallery in London (National Gallery opened in 1824,  same style of architecture). Soane began plans in 1811 and the gallery opened to the public in 1817. I will admit that I was a bit under-whelmed at first glance...but upon closer inspection, it really is a interesting building. The many brick recessions on the visage give the building a unique touch and the different levels of the roof lead the eye upwards like a staircase. From within, Soane manipulates the skylights to make an illusion of continuing space.

The collection of pictures inside was originally commissioned for the King of Poland, however after he lost his throne, it passed through many hands and eventually was bequeathed to "the nation" in 1811. It is quite a mix but there were some impressive Italian, Dutch, and English paintings I really enjoyed. There were also quite a few incredible wood inlay tables, porcelain vases, and an amazing tortoise shell inlay clock in the room housing Veronese, Raphael, and Reni.

Although I was interested in the gallery as a whole, I came specifically to see one painting - a Titian workshop Venus and Adonis that had just been restored and was only on view for one more week. 

The original work done entirely by Titian was sent to King Philip II of Spain and now lives in the Prado in Madrid. However, because the picture was so popular, the "workshop" of Titian, or all of his assistants, produced several copies. This is one of them. There are parts that are very likely to have been painted by Titian himself, such as the right arm of Adonis - one can tell because the musculature is done more expertly than the rest of the flesh. Of course, conjectures like these are pure connoisseurship and there is no record of which parts Titian painted and which his assistants painted while he watched over them. Having seen quite a few Titian pictures and studied him fairly extensively before I was proud that I could indeed detect the difference between different hands that were likely involved in the painting (though only after these were pointed out to me..) but it is exciting to be acquiring this kind of knowledge! 

Brixton Flea Market

On my way down to the Dulwich Picture Gallery (more on that later), I stopped by the Brixton Flea Market. Located just off Electric Avenue, the place is a mix of Afro-Carribean food stalls, vintage and second-hand fashion finds, and cheap electronics/jewelry/etc you would find on Canal Street in nyc. 

Interestingly, this is the avenue that Michael Caine walks down in the 1966 film Alfie. 

A little walk away the flea market continues outside - the "arcades" house the indoor shops - there are incredible restaurants and coffee shops here. This is where the vintage clothing was, along with a few small art/print galleries and fresh fish, fruits, vegetables, herbs, etc stands. 

these guys were quite pungent... 

I got a really cool turquoise and silver ring for a few quid and had the most incredible lunch at this little place - roasted beets with goat cheese and mint over toasted whole grain toast. YUM!

This was the restaurant -

There were cute touches like the menu on crumpled brown paper clipped to a clip board -

After filling up, I headed down to Dulwich (which was WAY further away than I anticipated - I really need to look at maps a bit closer in these situations) to see the gallery down there! 

NYE

I spent New Year's Eve at a friends' flat in Pimplico - despite a bit of jet lag (as in I couldn't sleep the whole ride over here) after landing at 9am in London, I managed to stay awake until far past midnight, which was well worth it! Probably climbed into bed around 3am that night so not sure how many hours without sleep that was but I slept in and took a 3-hour nap New Year's Day so clearly I needed to catch up...here are some pics from the night though! 

Met up with these girls from Christie's...

and I brought two friends from Indiana who were visiting so we were quite the crew.

This was our view of the fireworks! That is Parliament and Big Bed silhouetted against the lit up sky. 

Happy 2013!

Northern Renaissance at Queen's Gallery

The Queen's Gallery is part of Buckingham Palace, located at the south end of the building. Right now there is an exhibition on the Northern Renaissance happening - Durer, Cranach, Holbein, etc.  

The northern countries (present-day Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany) experienced the effects of the Italian Renaissance (which began in the fourteenth century) a bit later, during the fifteenth and sixteenth century.

Albrecht Durer (1471-1528) was born and died in Nuremberg but visited Italy in 1505. He was a prolific printmaker, concentrating on woodcuts and engravings. He exploited the new potential for print dissemination in the fifteenth century - with the new printing technologies, he was able to circulate his images quickly and cheaply, gaining international fame by the end of the 1400s. Prints he made were often used as devotional images - people would paste the religious prints up on their walls - but were also bought by many artists who copied his figures. Although famous for prints like St. Jerome in his Study or Melancholia, I was completely distracted by how he made his demons, devils, and dragons! Look at these things! 

so fun! 

Another cool part of the exhibition was the space they dedicated to old books and manuscripts. Here is a 1518 version of Thomas More's Utopia

Here is the response Henry VIII of England wrote when Luther published his 95 Theses. Luther wrote the treatise in 1517 and Henry wrote this in 1521. At this time, Henry was still a devout Catholic and for his work, Pope Leo X gave him the title Defender of the Faith, a title he (and all future English monarchs) retain despite that small issue of excommunication in 1527.

Last but not least, here is Martin  Luther's response to Henry VIII. This is a version from 1522 (the same year it was written). The woodcut on the title page, shown here, was done by Cranach the Elder...when you look closely, on the upper right is a cleric with the head of a pig. Not very subtle, was he?

Of course there was armor...always a crowd pleaser (and I never tire of looking at it)

My personal favorite was Pieter Brueghel the Elder's Masscre of the Innocents. This scene is a popular one from Roman mythology but Brueghal sets it in a Northern (Netherlandish) landscape to make a point...at this point, the Netherlands were fighting for independence from Spain and the artist means to create an allegory comparing the ones massacring innocent children to the Spanish militants that occupied the Netherlands. 

The highlight of the exhibition was this painting of Adam & Eve by Gossaert, an artist contemporary with Durer who worked in Antwerp. The figures have a clear Italianate influence (very sculptural bodies) but the faces, brushwork, and landscape in the background are all quite Netherlandish. 

Overall, it was very well done! There were many highlight paintings and it was a great lecture review.

Victoria & Albert (again)

I made a point to spend some extra time at the Victoria & Albert Museum this week for a few reasons...first, they have a new furniture exhibition which is worth checking out, second, I have been reviewing Term 1 notes and wanted to go back and see the objects we have talked about in person, and third...I just love any excuse to walk around South Kensington.

First stop - Europe 1400-1600 galleries, Donatello Room. 

Donatello (1386-1466) was a Florentine sculptor who developed a technique of shallow relief, called rilievo schiacciato...the sculpture below is undoubtedly the most valuable piece in the room and is the best example of this kind of technique. It depicts Christ giving St. Peter the keys to heaven. It is not known what or whom the piece was originally commissioned for, but it did end up at the Medici palace in 1492, about 60 years after it was executed and after Donatello had died. This picture doesn't do it justice but its amazing to look at up close - incredible perspective and detail in such shallow relief.

This next piece is a lamentation scene - Mary holds Christ's body as Mary Magdalene and others lament his death.

There are several terms used describe the series of events leading up to Christ's death - each are slightly different and the distinctions are important. Artists during the Renaissance knew their stuff...from Ovid's Metamorphosis to the stories of the saints (in the Golden Legend) to the Bible, artists (and educated elite) knew the difference between the Crucifixion (still on the cross), Deposition (coming down off cross), Lamentation/Pieta (in Mary's arms), Entombment (being put in tomb), and Resurrection (rising from the tomb). And now I must know these to be able to identify the works (woohoo!)

Other highlights from that room were a painted trompe l'oeil ceiling of a chapel somehow transported from Italy to London as well as a few paintings (one by Crivelli) and other sculpture and relief by Donatello, Duccio, etc. 

After having my fill of this, I set off to see the furniture exhibition - it was very informative! There were instructional videos about how joints are made (I now know the difference between a dovetail joint and a mortise and tenon!) and how things like wood inlay/intarsia are done. Instead of written labels, there were ipads for each small display where you could read info about each piece. Interestingly, the person performing wood inlay in the instruction video was  none other than the guy (his name was Yannick - heavy but endearing French accent) that visited our class to lecture on the subject! Clearly he is the best guy in the business.

And last but not least, I stopped by the ceramics...Bernard Palissy is quite an interesting guy when it comes to his ceramics designs. 

Palissy would make casts of dead snakes, leaves, and other objects from nature to put onto his pieces...very in vogue at one point in history (though I cannot imagine food being appetizing after having being served from this one below...)

Palissy lived from 1510-1585 and although living in Catholic France, he was a Protestant (French Protestant = "Huguenot"). His militant Protestantism landed him in the Bastille and he died there, though a few years later in 1598, King Henry IV of France issued the Edict of Nantes which allowed for religious toleration throughout France. Poor Palissy, it is a pity he didn't live to see religious freedom in France.

Unfortunately this religiously tolerant society did not last forever, and in 1685, less than 100 years later, King Louis XIV revoked the edict. He declared Protestantism illegal and this sparked a mass exodus of Huguenots from France. Many actually went to England and many others to the Netherlands. What is so interesting about this is that the Huguenots were particularly hard-working (Protestant work ethic anyone?) and were extremely productive and sought after for their superior skills. When they left France, Britain and the Netherlands benefitted from their prolific artistic production. Many Huguenot craftsmen went to work at English country houses and that is why there is often excellent craftsmanship at many of these houses either in their furniture, wrought-iron work, carving, or even architecture. Interesting! 

Last but not least, I stopped in a room full of sculpture/etc I had never seen before, where I heard this little child say the best thing ever...

"This is amazing history!"

Yes, he said it! Verbatim. It made me smile. He was walking through this series of tombs for English kings and queens, all at about eye level for him...it was a pretty cool room.

and then this was just charming - at the foot of the woman above, her dog remains :-) adorable.