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mmoa_writes at 12:24am on 04/01/2007
mmoa_writes at 12:24am on 04/01/2007... but really it's just an interesting article on the language.
http://www.tribune.com.ng/31122006/igbo_cul.html
Went to two art exhibitions today - was rather proud of myself for managing that feat.
First off, Hans Holbein at the Tate Britain.
I should have known better. The queue to buy tickets was so incredibly long that I wondered whether I should give up and check out Velasquex and leave Holbein well alone. But that would have depressed me, so I valiantly joined the queue and... waited. I also read a good deal of Mihio Kaku's book on parallel Universes. And observed how, apart from one Indian assistant, and another West Indian one, I was literally the only black person under the age of twenty there. That was actually quite frightening.
As for the exhibition, well, first off, I am biased so, to be honest I discovered nothing new about Holbein. If he were still alive, I would probably have turned out to be his patron numero uno, to hell with that Erasmus (and Caravaggio who is one of the few reasons why I sometimes - but very rarely - wish I'd been born a boy. And maybe some 400 years ago, lol)!
What I did get a chance to see was the sketches. The paintings in their actual sizes. The plans for paintings long since destroyed. That was amazing.
His use of line is absolutely amazing and the detail he pays to everything: wrinkles, the minute differences in expression, the costume... ah, heaven. It really is exquisite, though I felt like slapping the old man next to me who kept on saying that under his breath. Ah, the hypocrisy of the misanthrope...
Seeing his sketches, I also got the strange impression that he would have made an excellent cartoonist if he were alive in this day and age. Just an impression.
Disappointed by the crap selection of postcards in the shop, though. I was actually furious that from such an amazing exhibition, there were only postcards of famous ones like lady with a squirrel and Henry VIII. Perhaps if I got o the gallery again some time over the weekend, they may have restocked. Knowing the Tate Britain though, that seems unlikely.
Then Velasquez.
The queue was nonexistent. No really. I also got an amazing student discount (in your face, Tate!).
Holbein. Then Velasquez.
The difference in the style is amazingly clear and yet one can see that they were both at the height of their powers (or at least, in Velasquez's case, very close to it). His portraits of King Philip are amongst some of the most revealing (and eventually heart-breaking) of any important historical figure that I'ver ever seen.
Interesting how few paintings there were of women, in comparison to what was displayed at the Holbein exhibition. The one of the 'Sybil' was my favourite, but alas, there were no postcards of it, so I was a little depressed. But at least overall the range of postcards available was pretty good (it was also quite amusing hearing an old couple debating which postcard to send to their militant atheist daughter - no, really! They wanted to send 'The Soul's contemplation of Christ after the Flagellation' which was one of the best of the postcards, but had to settle with the comparatively less interesting (and, well, good basically) one of the Boar Hunt. Hell, how intolerant do you have to be that even religious art is anathaema to you?).
*hearts*
I hope to go to the V&A exhibition of life in Renaissance Italy tomorrow, but early in the morning as I have to deliver and organise the local newspapers... *sighs*.
My father and I are okay, but mainly because we're both a little annoyed by my/his mother/wife. I find this rather amusing. Family politics are the greatest, and you know what, there's just the six of us here - I dread to think what we would have been like if we were in Nigeria with the rest of the gang.
New Discovery... Stephen Lynch is a very funny comedian from New York.
http://www.tribune.com.ng/31122006/igbo_cul.html
Went to two art exhibitions today - was rather proud of myself for managing that feat.
First off, Hans Holbein at the Tate Britain.
I should have known better. The queue to buy tickets was so incredibly long that I wondered whether I should give up and check out Velasquex and leave Holbein well alone. But that would have depressed me, so I valiantly joined the queue and... waited. I also read a good deal of Mihio Kaku's book on parallel Universes. And observed how, apart from one Indian assistant, and another West Indian one, I was literally the only black person under the age of twenty there. That was actually quite frightening.
As for the exhibition, well, first off, I am biased so, to be honest I discovered nothing new about Holbein. If he were still alive, I would probably have turned out to be his patron numero uno, to hell with that Erasmus (and Caravaggio who is one of the few reasons why I sometimes - but very rarely - wish I'd been born a boy. And maybe some 400 years ago, lol)!
What I did get a chance to see was the sketches. The paintings in their actual sizes. The plans for paintings long since destroyed. That was amazing.
His use of line is absolutely amazing and the detail he pays to everything: wrinkles, the minute differences in expression, the costume... ah, heaven. It really is exquisite, though I felt like slapping the old man next to me who kept on saying that under his breath. Ah, the hypocrisy of the misanthrope...
Seeing his sketches, I also got the strange impression that he would have made an excellent cartoonist if he were alive in this day and age. Just an impression.
Disappointed by the crap selection of postcards in the shop, though. I was actually furious that from such an amazing exhibition, there were only postcards of famous ones like lady with a squirrel and Henry VIII. Perhaps if I got o the gallery again some time over the weekend, they may have restocked. Knowing the Tate Britain though, that seems unlikely.
Then Velasquez.
The queue was nonexistent. No really. I also got an amazing student discount (in your face, Tate!).
Holbein. Then Velasquez.
The difference in the style is amazingly clear and yet one can see that they were both at the height of their powers (or at least, in Velasquez's case, very close to it). His portraits of King Philip are amongst some of the most revealing (and eventually heart-breaking) of any important historical figure that I'ver ever seen.
Interesting how few paintings there were of women, in comparison to what was displayed at the Holbein exhibition. The one of the 'Sybil' was my favourite, but alas, there were no postcards of it, so I was a little depressed. But at least overall the range of postcards available was pretty good (it was also quite amusing hearing an old couple debating which postcard to send to their militant atheist daughter - no, really! They wanted to send 'The Soul's contemplation of Christ after the Flagellation' which was one of the best of the postcards, but had to settle with the comparatively less interesting (and, well, good basically) one of the Boar Hunt. Hell, how intolerant do you have to be that even religious art is anathaema to you?).
*hearts*
I hope to go to the V&A exhibition of life in Renaissance Italy tomorrow, but early in the morning as I have to deliver and organise the local newspapers... *sighs*.
My father and I are okay, but mainly because we're both a little annoyed by my/his mother/wife. I find this rather amusing. Family politics are the greatest, and you know what, there's just the six of us here - I dread to think what we would have been like if we were in Nigeria with the rest of the gang.
New Discovery... Stephen Lynch is a very funny comedian from New York.
accomplished