Wednesday 21 October 2009

N tertained by Damian

Today I was in London at the Wallace Collection, where I was able to see Martin's favourite painting and many other fine pieces of art. I'm not sure that the current exhibition quite qualifies as that- I thought it does work as a coherent exhibition and I'm glad to have seen it, but frankly some of the actual art was pretty poor. If you go to the link and the sideshow, I liked nos. 2,3,4 and 5 best and thought that the single skull and the glass jug with roses were reasonably well executed - the butterflies seemed to be but he'd just stencilled them on - a typical short-cut which one has to simply accept as what he does - after all, most of his conceptual art wasn't actually executed by him at all.

Anyway, the place will always be dear to me because it was where I first met Martin and Wendy. I say "first", although there hasn't yet been a second meeting - but of course there will be. Friends don't have to meet regularly, although it's lovely when they do. I was on an organised visit today (had to leave home at 6.15 - it was still dark, darlings! - to catch the coach from Norwich) so couldn't offer to meet anyone.

It was mostly dry in London, but raining when I left home today and still raining when I got back. Good job we did this week's building already. I phoned the Sage to tell him what time to expect me home and when I arrived he'd cooked dinner, opened a bottle of good Beaujolais and, having swept the chimney during the day (no spilt soot, the place is as clean as I left it), lit a lovely fire. Since, he's made me a dear little pot of coffee.

Do you find, by the way, that the better the wine, the more satisfying it is, so that one wants to drink less of it? Two small glasses, and I was not at all tempted by the offer of a third.

9 comments:

Roses said...

Firsties! Yay!

Sounds like a wonderful day all round.

Good to hear the chimney is now swept and you're properly ready for the winter evenings.

I haven't been drinking wine recently so 2 glasses is probably my limit at the moment. Besides, the 3rd will go brilliantly in today's stew.

Dave said...

'as clean as I left it' is the key phrase there, sin't it?

I've never been tempted by the offer of a glass of wine.

Z said...

I do like a refilled glass (chicken can't fly on one wing, as they say) so I have smallish ones, part-filled.

Excuse me, Dave, what you sayin' there?

DILLIGAF said...

When I was 14 we visited a miserable old Uncle. Bored I wandered down into his cellar at one point. He had stocks of wine. I found a corkscrew and opened one. Drank the whole bottle. Very nice. Dad found me kettled down there when we were leaving and sneaked me out into the car.

Several days later I heard the miserable old git had been taken to hospital with a suspected stroke after discovering his Chateaux Something or other from 19God knows when worth over £300 apparently had mysteriously been drunk by an unknown burglar....

....ahhhh...those were't days

Z said...

Typical, 4D. Hope the wine was delicious.

I don't spend hundreds of pounds on a bottle of wine, mind you. There's no wine in this house that I'd collapse over if it were *accidentally* drunk.

Sarah said...

Two is NEVER enough....
Well done the sage!

I love Hirst's work!
Picasso rarely executed his own sculptures and often had students to help 'colour in' ! and Lichtenstein's work is notoriously sloppy....it's the concept that is important.....still, that's what art is all about, inspiring discussion. ooops..sorry.end of lecture!!

Z said...

Indeed, most old masters didn't do the whole job themselves, wasn't considered important I suppose. Just as it's not expected that in a restaurant the headline chef peels the potatoes or cooks every dish.

I was rather endeared that Hirst actually did all the paintings himself. That many of them weren't actually very good showed a willingness to display vulnerability that I like - though his comparison of himself to great masters was a bit cringe-making. Still, he must have known it would have given the critics good ammunition. Apparently, he says that he doesn't read reviews, just weighs them. I also liked the concept of the whole thing. Have you seen the exhibition yet? After all, I know nuffin' - no artist and, though I like to feel I'm open-minded and interested in a wide range of art, I'm quite ignorant.

Sarah said...

Quite so...!

No I haven't been to the exhibition...in fact London has been off the radar for a while. Must go, a good excuse.

luckyzmom said...

Really very interesting stuff.