Exhibitionist

I have a week’s leave to “ use or loose” so am combining a list of household management tasks with attendance at several exhibitions this week.  So far:

Chris Beetles Gallery, The Illustrators 2015, on until 9th January

What a treat to see so many original illustrations one place, all framed beautifully and consistently so that the eye was not distracted from the image.  There is a superb online catalogue that contains all 354 images, here, and if I had infinite funds, I would have bought Aubrey Beardsley and Quentin Blake - especially “On the Roof” featuring Mrs Armitage.

 White Cube Gallery, Mason’s Yard, “Losing the compass”, on until 9th January

Lots of textiles, but I really wasn’t sure about this one.  Some if it seemed more like “losing the plot” rather than ‘losing the compass”.  Acrylic paint on the top surface of a piece of carpet, then stuck in a frame, not for me.  Some interesting historical quilts, but displayed in a rather odd way, lying on top each other on the floor and hung from hooks on the wall such that the whole design couldn’t be seen.  I did like the embroidered maps and slogans by Alighiero e Boetti

Sims Reed Gallery, Bury Street, until 20 January.  Lovely drawings and painting by David Hockney and beautifully drawn pumpkins by Yayoi Kusama.

Joy of joys, using my Tate membership  - thank you mother in law, to see Alexander Calder  - Performing Sculpture. ( on until April 2016) I could have sat there all day, watching the shadows, and the gentle movements.  Despite the signs asking for no blowing on the sculptures, some people could not resist.  The 3D wire sculptures of heads and acrobats were a real revelation, and made me understand some of the comments from my drawing teacher about using the  weight of line to show ‘disappearing and appearing space’.

Then, thanks to a tip off from a friend who works in the art word, a visit to Omer Trioche Contemporary Art, where a small show of Calder tapestries and gouaches finishes this weekend.  It is a bit intimidating visiting these little galleries, as you have to ring the bell and request entrance but nothing ventured as they say.   Photography was allowed here.  

Vibrant reds and yellows lit up the gloomy day.  These are not tapestries in the conventional sense of weaving, but are rather braids of fibres placed on edge and then attached to a backing.  The scale is not apparent here, but this star was about a metre across the widest part.

The braided cords can be clearly seen here.

On my travels, interesting architectural details that caught my eye

Current turbine hall installation “Empty Lot” 

Cheesegrater, Walkie-Talkie, Gherkin, and Monument, just appearing in gold, now completely dwarfed by these monsters of commerce.

Worshipful companies’ signs, which due to the wonders of the internet, I can now research.  Glaziers here, Scientific Instrument Makers here and Launderers here.

British Museum of Food was new to me

and in the basement, Alcoholic Architecture, only open in the evening.

Shard partially concealed by a tree

Workers on the Millennium Bridge - love those sinuous lines - of the bridge that is, not of the workers

The old and the new - almshouses disappearing underneath recently-built towers

 

Colour and shine in a shaft of light coming through the gloom

Bollards, and what looks like a giant, upturned, steel mug supporting this building

London getting ready for Christmas, from a balcony at Tate Modern.

Home for dinner, and hopefully tomorrow, if my brain and feet hold out a trip to Goldsmith’s to see the work of Christine Risley, a contemporary and colleague of Constance Howard.