Do art galleries devalue the art in their tacky gift shops? ✎

This is the from the blockbuster Van Gogh exhibition last year at the National Gallery:

 

I felt a bit embarrassed. 😔

I think Van Gogh would be shocked by what’s been done to his work.

His sunflowers motif were a lifelong, almost spiritual, expression of “gratitude” of being face to face with nature. E.g. see Gauguin’s depiction of Van Gogh’s magnum opus. The power of his art comes from his energy and excitement; and Van Gogh was a troubled soul.

Quite a lot of his paintings were done in an asylum, and it feels v. disrespectful to slap his face and works on tacky bags, jewelry, kitchen towels, tea matts, and everything else etc. 

Van Gogh always wanted “validation” (esp. among the respectable Paris salons), but he certainly had a respect for art.

I get museums are strapped for cash, but is it too much?  🤔

Yellow Islands by Jackson Pollock (1952) ✎

From the Tate.

I don’t enjoy the chaos & nor do I really appreciate the appeal.

But I can see how revolutionary it was in art history.

No doubt a reflection of the world during the atomic age. The nuclear arms race, power of electrons and molecular matter. Artists from this era lived through two world wars, the Holocaust and the Great Depression. How do you make art that is meaningful? The expressionists turned inwards to themselves, and painted what they felt instead.

To me, a bit cheap and cheerful - more of a craft than art.

The Grand Turk Giving a Concert to his Mistress by Carle van Loo (1737) ✎

I saw this at the Wallace Collection.  It’s a historically significant work of art.

Carle van Loo was part of the 18th century French Rococo movement, and especially the “Turquerie” trend of the time.

This was a European artistic trend for “Oriental” scenes (v. popular in the 18th century). It was a reflection of the French aristocracy’s fascination with the exotic East. And, as the Wallace Collection argue, one of the “best examples of the Turquerie”. It was exhibited at the Salon of 1737 and was one of a famous pair.

The “mistress” is singing positioned to the left of the Grand Turk, leaning in towards a musical score. Laden with symbolism.

The Eltenburg Reliquary ✎

Wow. Saw this stunning object at the V&A in London. 

The Eltenberg Reliquary is a magnificent 12th-century masterpiece of Rhenish Romanesque art - 1180 AD.

Probably used to house sacred relics, e.g. the Eucharist.

Has that Byzantine dome, gilded bronze, exquisitely carved ivory ...

It shows how redundant our views of the Middle Ages as the ‘Dark Ages’, as little more than mud and superstition.

Elephant ivory used to depict the Crucifixion.

St Paul’s Cathedral at night ✎

I took this photo earlier this week around midnight.

Designed by Christopher Wren, and modelled on St Peter’s in Rome.