After Yorkshire

After Yorkshire our London filled with Museums…

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Tuesday midday began with an attempt to reach the new restaurant in Tate Modern’s Switch House.  This proved impractical as the elevators in the new building are comically dysfunctional; just as well, really, as the old restaurant atop the Boiler House was more than fine.

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After lunch and Louise Bourgeois’ “artist room”

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Rick departed for a walk along the Thames but we determined the elevators [unless of course one needed the restaurant] to be superfluous and visited several exhibitions on the fourth and third floors afoot. Little Chinese girls assiduously drew a city of cous-cous in one,

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another commemorated performative works, most memorably Rebecca Horn’s remarkable prostheses [not shown] and a strange Daria Martin film although Helio Otica’s installation was severely compromised by a lack of macaws.

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But all in all some pretty good stuff, as well as incidental architecture; worth the walk despite sore feet [which later, much later, were determined to be caused by my expensive new boots being a half size too small].

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Below, a Tony Cragg and the griddish thingie to the right a woven hanging structure one could enter by Cristina Iglesias, a Spanish artist who’s realized some amazingly ambitious architecturally scaled works in the E.U….

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across the gallery Roni [no relation] Horn’s immense block of cast glass was phenomenal.

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Back in the old wing after suitable refreshment we started through the not initially promising Wilfredo Lam retrospective just to see how the story ended…but the story became increasingly interesting [Lam was a Cuban surrealist painter, his grandmother a Santeria Priestess] as his work developed and friendships with pretty much every Important mid-century European Painter grew – he left Cuba to escape the CIA/Mafia-installed Bautista dictatorship, lived in Paris but returned once Castro came to power, bringing with him the surviving dada/surrealists for annual reunions – it got better and better.  No photos allowed [the one below surreptitious], but we’ll get the catalog.  His last amazing works were done with an Italian master printer late in a long eventful life.  A revelation…

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Time passed;

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we left

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to walk the Thames ourselves,

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Navigate by The Shard to London Bridge,

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jam into a rush hour Jubilee train and slide under the river to meet Linda’s friend Pamela, in town from Vienna for the opening of Frieze, for drinks and a visit in what may have been Mayfair.

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P. went around the corner for dinner and

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we continued on the Jubilee to West Hampstead, where Rick collected us…and so to Hollycroft and the Friend.

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Next day on his recommendation [and membership card] we found our way to the British Museum,

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where there were many wonders,

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Not least of which was the special exhibition “Sunken Cities” documenting two Ptolemeic ports, Thonus-Haracleion and Canopus, recently discovered downstream from Alexandria where underwater archaeology is revealing tantalizing insights into the workings of various  Greco-Roman-Egyptian cross fertilizations [not shown, natch], perhaps most astoundingly intricate details concerning the seed-cult of Osisris.

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Exiting through the gift shop we feasted on more antiquities before lunch in the Great Court, enjoying what is described as “fine European dining under the iconic glass roof” [I had the specially themed Egyptian menu] while observing passing schoolchildren and extremely fashionable oriental tourists.

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Afterwards, record-keeping,

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an Assyrian board game

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…and pots; I always like the pots.

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Girls with animal friends and talons…

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characters,

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critters,

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…and pots.

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A gold shawl [we’re in Bronze Age Britain now]

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the “iconic glass roof”,

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a BMW, decorated in Africa…

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and out

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to Hollycroft in the afternoon, where Mr. Watson has amassed, over the years, some very peculiar M. Moores indeed…

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hmmm.

laters.

M

 

 

7 thoughts on “After Yorkshire

  1. Trixie Merkin

    Wonderful photos; I assume that you’re back in the States, and that it’s too late to send my love to Rick and his canine, but just in case…

    Reply
    1. mikesmoore Post author

      We are indeed back, but will relay to Rick when he, busy lad, returns from Venice later this week.

      Reply
  2. ann

    Q: do you have more info on the mysterious clay object #1, with the 6 indentations? Enjoyed the large cuneiform style carved stele…bold!

    Reply
  3. Kirk Moore

    What a terrific trip (and museum tours)….Sunken Cities sound particularly fascinating.
    Welcome back and thanks for the photos and the art documentation….I’ve enjoyed all.
    Although not quite as good as being there in person, the lack of jet lag and intercontinental time zone change does make it is easy to appreciate it from my office. 🙂

    Reply
  4. Janet

    I too was charmed by the piece with indentations….but the British Museum is endlessly charming! They have such a deep and wide collection you can cross reference back and forth. Remembering one trip where I went back and forth between Etruscan and Minoen appreciating the relationship! I first became acquainted with Lam at the Menil museum in Houston, they were big fans and I became one; so envious of you getting to see a whole show, and a Bourgeois room……oh what a trip! Nothing to do with your inspired host!?

    Reply

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