Last Monday the Husband and I went up to Tate Britain to visit the Degas, Sickert and Toulouse-Lautrec exhibition. It was well worth the visit, despite late trains and disturbed and overcrowded tube trains. There were several large rooms full of pictures, plus a couple of sculptures not only by the three artists that the exhibition was named after but several other artists as well.
I was pleasantly surprised by the works by Degas, especially his ballerinas. The pictures "spoke" to me in a way that reproductions of his pictures never do, it was well worth going to the exhibition for that alone (plus a sculpture by him of a young ballerina, a wonderful work).
The Husband wanted to see the works by Sickert but I have to admit that they were not really my thing. I could appreciate his works set in various music halls of the period but I had difficulty appreciating his pastels, especially the nudes. However, that may well have been because they were displayed alongside a couple of pictures of nudes by Pierre Bonnard and I got the distinct feeling that at the time he painted them Bonnard really cared for his model - something that to me came out of his pictures. In contrast I got the distinct impression that there was no connection between Sickert and his models other than the act of drawing. Perhaps I am wrong - my opinion, anyway.
I have to mention Degas' painting L'Absinthe which was given a special position, with only two other paintings in the same room. In the 1890's, when it was first really exhibited in London the painting caused a scandal as it was interpreted as glorifying people in thrall to the dreaded drink Absinth. In fact I enjoyed looking at the work and felt that it displayed people totally dislocated from their surroundings and community. It was a wonderful work.
It took the better part of two and a half hours to get around the exhibition and was well worth every minute.
11 comments:
What a wonderful outing you had. Envious, I am! Glad that it all worked out. Degas's ballerinas speak to mean, even in the cheapest reproduction. The lines are so great!
Cop Car
Envious, we are! I'm a fan of Degas, too. My dentist has a poster of a serving girl/bartender, that I think must be by Degas. I'll have to ask the next time I go.
I'm glad you got to make the trip. Too bad the travel was not as much fun.
Buffy
I am so glad we went. The exhibition was well worth it and after over 30 years of commuting to work the bad experiences travelling was not unexpected.
Do either of you have the opportunity to visit any art galleries near where you live?
There are plenty of opportunities. Unfortunately, I plead guilty to not availing myself of them. Among the likely companions for such an outing is no one who will accompany me. No one else cares to go. (Lame excuse, I know!) Kansas City has a beautiful art gallery that I've not visited in years. I've been trying to dragoon someone into making the trip with me (it's about a 3.5-hour drive up to KC.) Hunky Husband's mother and sisters were very arts-minded. His mother and the younger of his sisters were accomplished singers. I always wanted to see his sister sing in Carmen; but, never had the opportunity--and she was killed in 1991.
Cop Car
Cop Car,
I am lucky that I have a husband with similar tastes to mine as far as the Arts are concerned (not identical though: he loves choral work, for example, and it is just not my thing). So we go to places we both want to see. But when we are there we tend to go around separately - I am convinced that the appreciation of Art is a very personal thing.
If you'd like to go to Kansas City to visit the gallery there and there is no-one to go with then why not treat yourself to a day of pleasure and go on your own. I have to admit that I do enjoy the odd day on my own doing only what I want to do and taking into account no-one's tastes can be really relaxing sometimes.
Just how good is the Gallery at Kansas City (I keep on thinking of that song from Oklahoma when I write the City's name ~grin~). Perhaps looking at the treats on offer online will encourage you to treat yourself.
Well, it just isn't much of a treat if I must do all of the driving, myself. Don't know how good the gallery is these days (don't even recall its name since it was re-dubbed sometime in the last 50 years--which is how long it's been since I lived in KC), and it was never world-class; but, it is close. Wichita has a couple of galleries, but I've not attended them. Elegant Friend and I have meant to go this last year, but didn't get our schedules synchronized. It took me a second to figure out what is in Oklahoma that mentions KC; but, I think that's the musical from which Everything's Up to Date in Kansas City came. We used to sing Oklahoma! when I was in grade school in Tulsa, though.
Cop Car
When I said, "...it is close." I meant in proximity--not that it was close to world class. I have no idea how the experts ranked it. William Rockhill Nelson Gallary of Art and Mary Atkins Museum of Fine Art is the name that I knew. I just looked it up on the web and find that it is now called The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. The web page says:
"The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City is one of the country’s premier art institutions. Its rich collections bring together masterpieces from every culture and period of the world, spanning over 5,000 years. The Museum opened its doors in 1933 as a gift to the community from William Rockhill Nelson (1841-1915), founder of The Kansas City Star. Contributions from the estate of Mary McAfee Atkins (1836-1911) helped complete the building."
You are giving me the encouragement that I need to get up and go. Thank you.
Cop Car
Cop Car,
Oklahoma has some of the best music of any Rogers and Hammerstain musical, music I love. Though R&H's musicals never had decent plots. There was an award winning staging of the musical with Hugh Jackman as Curley at our National Theatre sometime ago which although I never saw it the Husband bought me the DVD which I really enjoy.
Cop Car, I've just looked up The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. I am impressed by their range of collections and exhibitions. I especially liked the online reproduction of Monet's "Boulevard des Capucines". Wonderful.
I do hope that at some stage you have the opportunity to go there. It looks fascinating.
Come go with me!
Cop Car
Oh, I wish I could. Unfortunately trips to America aren't really possible at the moment. All our pennies are being saved up to do some work to the house.
But you go to the Gallery and enjuy yourself, and think of me.
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