Thursday March 29 was another cloudy, very cool and rainy on and off day with a high of 9C. We had a late morning coffee at All Press, just a few minutes away from our flat. It is a New Zealand brand and the coffee was excellent (though 2 £ vs 1 euro in Naples for an espresso is always a shock).
We then noticed a wonderful store called Toogood. We had to buzz and a woman came down. The store had the most wonderful furniture, ceramics, rugs, and some clothes all designed by Faye Toogood. She has been in business for about ten years and started with furniture. This location was basically a studio with some examples of her work. The woman in the store told us Faye's story and gave us a tour. Of course, everything was way beyond our price points, but it was wonderful to see the creativity. She sells to very high end stores--- in Canada, her clothes are sold in one store in Montreal.
 |
| Outside of House of Toogood on a corner- Interiors, Furniture, Clothing |
 |
| Wonderful spring collection |
 |
| Another top |
 |
| Her chairs, table and a ceramic piece in a small courtyard |
We took a double decker bus to the St. Paul's Cathedral stop. Our host had recommended we take the bus and then walk over the Millennium Bridge to the Tate Modern. However, first we had an adventure. On our first day in London, we had tried to use a pound coin and were told that the ones we had were out of circulation since our 2016 visit as were the 5 and 10 £ notes (the latter had just gone out of circulation on March 1). We were told we could change them at a bank. The first bank we went couldn't exchange all the bills we had and the teller told us that we had to go to the Bank of England. Fortunately, the bank was only a 10 minute walk from where we were. Our bills were exchanged with no problem, but the bank does not exchange coins and the teller said there is nowhere in London we could now exchange the coins. So, Alain and I are out about 6 £ each.
 |
| St. Paul's |
We continued our walk to the Millennium Bridge.
 |
| Wonderful signage and history |
 |
| Views from the Thames-- new apartment building |
 |
| The Shard |
 |
| Walking over the bridge to the Tate Modern |
 |
| An installation piece just as one enters-- lots of kids on the swings |
We went to a wonderful Modigliani (1884-1920) retrospective. The show was closing on Monday, so we were glad we had a chance to see it. There were many paintings and sculptures in largely chronological order. The show was a great match to a smaller show mainly focussed on his drawings that we had seen at the Jewish Museum in New York at Christmas time.
 |
| Poster at entrance |
Amedeo Modigliani was born in Livorno, Italy and moved to Paris in 1906 to develop his career as an artist. The first painting in the show was a self-portrait painted in around 1915, in which he presented himself as the tragic clown Pierrot--- always open to change.
 |
| Self Portrait as Pierrot 1915 |
 |
Bust of a Young Woman 1908-- during his first years he was influenced by the art of his contemporaries-
this piece recalls the work of Dutch artist Kees van Dongen |
Paul Alexandre was Modigliani's fist patron who begged Modigliani not to destroy a single sketchbook or a single study. He provided Modigliani with a modest stipend.
 |
| Paul Alexandre in front of a Window 1913 |
 |
| The Cellist 1909 (this was the front of a painting- the other side of the canvas had another work) |
Modigliani lived first in Montmartre, which in 1906, was still known as the "village on the hill". In 1909, he moved to Montparnasse-- where he started to meet other artists and writers who met in the many cafés in the area such as Le Dôme, La Rotonde and La Closerie des Lilas.
There was a brief but intense period where Modigliani focussed on sculpture. However, the materials affected his health (he had an earlier bout of tuberculosis ) and he eventually abandoned sculpting. There was a room of his sculptures, but it was difficult to take photos there. Modigliani was influenced by Egyptian styles, which are seen both in his sculptures and later paintings with elongated faces and almond shaped eyes.
Paul Guillaume, Modigliani's art dealer from 1914, was a leading promoter of African art.
 |
| Bust of Paul Guillaume 1916 |
In around 1911, Modigliani had an affair with the famous Russian poet Anna Akhmatova. She modelled for a number of his drawings and paintings. The description of the drawing at the exhibit quoted her saying that Modigliani was infatuated with things Egyptian and used to take her to the Egyptian wing of the Louvre. She noted that "he sketched my head in the style of decorative motifs portraying Egyptian queens and dancers."
 |
| Woman Dressed in Low-Cut Gown Reclining on a Bed (the Russian Poet Akmatova) 1911 |
Modigliani also did portraits of many of his artist friends. A number incorporated cubist aspects, the style his friends including Picasso and Spanish painter Juan Gris were working in at the time. Modigliani experimented with cubism, but never rejected figurative representation. He remained impressed by Picasso saying that "Picasso is always ten years ahead of us."
 |
| Pablo Picasso 1915 (the word Savoir (knowing) is inscribed in the painting) |
 |
| Juan Gris 1915 |
The exhibit had a number of portraits of painters of many different nationalities who were living in Paris in the early part of the 20th century.
 |
| Portrait of Diego Rivera 1914 (Rivera became friends with Modigliani when he lived in Paris (from 1909-1921) and they briefly shared a studio in 1914. Rivera returned to Mexico in 1921). |
 |
| Jean Cocteau 1916 |
In the last months of WWI, with Paris suffering air raids and Modigliani's health suffering, one of his patrons sent him to the French Riviera. He made some of his strongest works in Nice, capturing the warm Mediterranean colours. He moved back to Paris in 1919 with his lover Jeanne Hébuterne, who was pregnant with their second child.
 |
| The Little Peasant 1918 (lovely luminous colour-- in the Tate collection) |
 |
| Black Hair (Your Dark-Haired Girl Seated) 1918 - this painting belonged to Pablo Picasso who bought it in the 1930s |
At this point in the exhibit there was a room with a virtual reality recreation of Modigliani's final studio on the Rue de la Grand Chaumière near the cafés of Montparnasse. It was an excellent recreation- with cigarettes burning in the ashtray and water dripping into a pail from the ceiling. One could see out of the windows to a very smokey Paris. There were about 15 headsets that an assistant helped one attach properly to experience Modigliani's last studio.
The last room had a number of his final paintings. Modigliani drank heavily and his health deteriorated. He died in January 1920 at the age of 35. Jeanne Hébuterne, expecting their second child- took her own life a few days later.
There was a remarkable late self-portrait, in which Modigliani captured himself as a confident painter, palette in hand.
 |
| Self-Portrait- 1919 |
Jeanne Hébuterne 1919
While we were in the exhibit, we noticed a woman with a sticker on her purse-- "Bollox to Brexit"!!
 |
| A woman at the gallery had a great sticker "Bollox to Brexit" on her purse |
 |
| The imposing outside of the Tate Modern in the rain |
We walked along the water and then crossed the Thames on the Hungerford Bridge which took us to the area close to the Theatre District. Alain wanted to check out the beautiful avant-garde clothing store Dover St. Market (which moved a few years ago to Haymarket Street). While the clothes were out of sight, we stopped for a fabulous bowl of soup and some salads at Rose Bakery located in the store.
After dinner, we went to see Mary Stuart with Juliet Stevenson (one of my favourite British actors) and Lia Williams. It was an amazing production directed by Robert Icke in modern dress. All the actors were superb. At the beginning of the play, the cast comes on stage and a coin is tossed to see which of the two women will play Elizabeth I and who will play Mary Stuart. Lia Williams won the coin toss and played Elizabeth I in the production we saw. The stage was very simple - a bare black stage, circled with golden benches for Elizabeth I and brick walls for Mary, who is under castle arrest and at the centre of Catholic terrorist plots on her cousin's life.
 |
| Stage just before play started- a bit hard to see brick walls details |
The play was superb. It was three hours long with one intermission. The face-off between the two powerful women is very well done. Caught between the intrigues of her male court, Elizabeth prevaricates about sending her cousin, Mary Stuart (Mary Queen of Scots) to her death. There are lots of references to the rights of refugees, the threat of terrorism and the scope of international law that make Icke's update of the play by Fredrich Schiller first performed in 1800, very contemporary. The play ends with Elizabeth being left completely alone, as the male courtiers have either been banished by Elizabeth, left the country or resigned.
We took the tube back to the apartment arriving at about 11:30 p.m. A wonderful first full day in London.
Comments
Post a Comment