Iran’s New Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei ✎

Iran has a new Supreme Leader.

10 days into this conflict, and the sheer speed and destructive power of the US military campaign has been impressive. The US & Israel have destroyed about 80% of Iran’s missile launchers, and its daily ballistic missile and drone launch rates have collapsed by approx. 90% since the first day of the war.

I think Trump's decision to go to war remains the right one. More detail for another time. The problem is that (probably because the President decided to bypass Congress), he may be looking for a premature exit strategy. See Connor Stringer writing in “Ayatollah’s son is leading contender to be Iran’s next supreme leader” :

Donald Trump said on Tuesday that “someone from within” the Iranian regime might be the best choice to take power once the US-Israel military campaign is completed. The US president, who four days ago had called on Iranians to “take over your government” once the bombardment ended, appeared to drift further from the idea that the war presented an opportunity to end theocratic rule. He told reporters in the Oval Office: “Most of the people we had in mind are dead. Now we have another group, they may be dead also, based on reports. So you have a third wave coming. Pretty soon, we’re not going to know anybody.”

Reza Pahlavi, the exiled crown prince of Iran’s last shah, is positioning himself for a return to power should Iran’s Shiite theocracy fall. Asked about Mr Pahlavi, Mr Trump said: “It would seem to me that somebody from within maybe would be more appropriate.” He added that it may make sense for “somebody that’s there, that’s currently popular, if there is such a person” to emerge from the power vacuum.

Regime change should remain the case for war, and it should be articulated to the American people. 

As it stands, the IRGC, the army and the regime itself are still functioning. If the Americans fold up their tents and leave, they will emerge from their bolt holes, there will be an immense slaughter of perceived opponents. Iran will definitely re-start producing weapons and manufacturing weapons-grade uranium again, the dark cloud of Islamism will fall once more and the regime will calcify to embitter people’s lives for many years to come.

“Radical Harmony: Neo-Impressionists” exhibition at the National Gallery - Part 2: Landscape and Portraits ✎

Note: This post is a continuation of part 1 of the “Radical Harmony: Neo-Impressionists” exhibition write-up of the National Gallery.

---

Gallery 4: Seurat’s Chahut

Helene Kröller-Muller purchased this iconic painting is 1922.

It is considered one of his masterpieces as it perfectly marries his scientific theory with the vibrant, gritty working-class nightlife of Montmartre.

Le Chahut by Georges Seurat (1889-1890)

It is beautifully stylised - dazzling and energetic, but it’s also slightly underwhelming.

The figures don’t actually look at each other; they stare out into the void with manufactured smiles.

Seurat’s work is entirely scientific and geometric - I much prefer the quiet sunlit home of a Dutch master. But hey-ho, it is important and I get it.

✲✲✲

Gallery 5: The “stillness and quiet calm” of Neo-Impressionism

The exhibition finally highlights painting in which the figures often appear isolated, focusing on introspection rather than interaction - esp. in depictions of domestic life by Signac and Rysselberghe.

✲✲✲

The Dining Room (or “Breakfast”), Opus 152 by Paul Signac (1886-1887)

While the earlier impressionist works were about capturing fleeting, joyful, and spontaneous moments of life, neo-impressionism often resulted in something much colder and more “calculated”. Made more discomforting by the rigid geometries. 

✲✲✲

“Sunday” by Paul Signac (1888-1890)

So many turned backs.

It’s striking that the husband has his back completely turned to his wife and she seems to refuses to engage.

Cat seems to be on edge too.

✲✲✲

In July - before noon or The orchard by Théo van Rysselberghe (1890)

Pure vibrating tranquility. Everyone is blended softly into the landscape.

✲✲✲

Woman reading in the sun (Jeanne Biart) by Henry van de Velde (1892)

The Belgian artist’s sister.

In his late twenties, van de Velde had grown frustrated with the slow, calculated, and mathematical dots of traditional pointillism. Heavily influenced by the recent discovery of Vincent van Gogh’s work, he adopted a frantic technique with a anxiety to it.

✲✲✲

Woman Reading by Henry van de Velde (1891)

The woman in the painting is not treated as a living, breathing human being with a distinct personality. 

Instead, van de Velde strips away any sense of intimacy, warmth or psychological depth.

✲✲✲

Gallery 6: Radical Landscape

Finally, the exhibition looks at how neo-impressionists used landscape painting to experiment with radical techniques that bridged observation and abstraction, ultimately influencing modern art.

✲✲✲

Coastal Scene by Théo van Rysselberghe (1892)

Mediterranean coast in southern France.

Wonderful luminous quality of light reflecting off the water.

✲✲✲

Beach at Vignasse by Henri-Edmond Cross (1891-1892)

Henri-Edmond Cross was a master of capturing the intense, shimmering and vibrating sunlight of the coast.

✲✲✲

Sun at noon (or Landscape with Haystacks) by Johan Thorn Prikker (1904)

Prikker shares a lot of artistic DNA with Vincent van Gogh’s iconic landscapes from the late 1880s and 1890.

Prikker paints the light expanding outward in concentric rings and energetic dashes, making the midday heat feel practically alive.

✲✲✲

Landscape with Haystack by Jan Vijlbrief (1894)

Stricter colour theories of optical mixing over the flowing expressive dashes of Prikker’s Sun at noon.

✲✲✲

Twilight by Henry van de Velde (1889)

✲✲✲

Shell Gatherer on the Beach by Jan Toorop (1891)

Jan Toorop had a wonderful ability to capture the atmosphere of the coast without letting the painting technique overpower the actual scene.

This and Looking at Sea (1887) show a fantastic approach to painting light and water that avoids feeling overly calculated.

✲✲✲

Sea by Jan Toorop (1887)

✲✲✲

The Channel at Gravelines, Evening by Georges Seurat (1890)

It truly is breathtaking! A poetic silence to this piece.

This painting is part of a famous trio. As below, The Channel at Gravelines, in the Direction of the Sea (1890) and The Channel of Gravelines, Grand Fort-Philippe (1890) were painted during the exact same summer trip to the French coast as this Evening painting.

Seurat actually painted a border directly onto the canvas using complementary colours.

The prominent anchor in the fore with an extreme colour contrast.

✲✲✲

The Channel at Gravelines, in the Direction of the Sea by Georges Seurat (1890)

The dots are so fine and delicate that they practically dissolve into pure sea air.

The Evening painting was about stillness in dark silhouettes, but this painting is entirely about the blazing, shimmering light of the coast.

✲✲✲

The Channel of Gravelines, Grand Fort-Philippe by Georges Seurat (1890)

✲✲✲

“Les Balises, Saint-Briac” by Paul Signac (1890)

✲✲✲

The Death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ✎

A great day for the Jewish people. A huge day for the Iranian people. 

And a beautiful day for mankind.

I saw this video on the Guardian which made me smile:

I have several things to say.

1. We should take a moment to remember the tens of thousands of brave Iranian unarmed protesters which the regime has committed organised mass murder against in the past weeks.

2. The US and Israel are showing the world what military might can do to make the world a safer place by preventing Iran, a pariah and rogue state, from making nuclear and ballistic missiles. Take note China. They definitely deserve our gratitude. They have my support.

3. I think Ayatollah Khamenei more than warranted military action, and that Trump has already exhausted so-called “negotiations”. Iran’s paramilitaries, in other countries, have gunned down or abducted thousands of civilians. They have launched tens-of-thousands of unguided missiles at civilian areas. The Islamic Republic, since its founding, has constantly threatened to destroy a much smaller country thousand-miles away, which was allied with Iran and had never attacked it. And it is enriching uranium to weapons grade, while maintaining a public “countdown clock” to their use.

4. I don’t think peaceful or grassroots uprisings can succeed against a deeply entrenched military state. The IRGC was established after the 1979 revolution specifically to protect the Islamic system and prevent internal dissent or military coups. They have an estimated force of nearly 190k active personnel. I think a full-scale invasion, foreign occupation, and forced regime change by the West in necessary. This is the exact playbook the US used during the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and historically during the post-WWII occupations of Germany and Japan. If the Shah-in-exile is assisted to become the pro-tem leader of the country while a new administration is put in place via elections then Iran stands a better chance of becoming a safe, civilised state than if it’s left to whoever on the streets has the most weapons when the dust settles.

The Manchester Madonna by Michelangelo (1497) ✎

I think the angels on the left side of the canvas (at Mary’s right side) who are softly reading from a scroll together are beautifully rendered. Their flowing, colourful robes and serene expressions really showcase Michelangelo’s incredible skill at rendering fabric and human form, even way back around 1497 when he was just starting his career.

The exposed breast is actually the symbolic motif of The Madonna Lactans.

This was from the National Gallery.

Vase of Flowers by Claude Monet (early 1880s) ✎

From the Courtauld.

Monet capturing the light and shimmering effect of a billowing bouquet of petals.

Some more information from the Impressionists Gallery:

Between 1878 and 1882, for the only extended period in his career, Monet concentrated on still lifes. He was likely motivated in part by financial concerns: opulent flower paintings found a readier market at this time than did his landscapes. The present work is one of 21 floral still lifes he undertook during this time, and contrasts notably with the few paintings of cultivated cut flowers he produced in the 1860s, which adhere more closely to the conventions established for the genre by eighteenth-century painters such as Chardin ...

The blossoms and foliage are rendered in thick, short dabs of paint that, rather than defining their forms, convey a raw, unfiltered impression, very much in keeping with Monet’s interest in vision as the pure sensation of light and colour.

Thick & short dabs of paint.