Exploring Oslo
The hotel I was in, wasn’t bad, but it was in the wrong position, as the web site said it was ten minutes from the centre. I assumed that was walking, but it was by car or taxi and there wasn’t any Metro station nearby. However I took a bus to the centre and friendly young lady, told me to get off at the National Theatre.
Norwegian National Theatre
It was a good place to start, as a lot of the museums and other places to see are around that area. There was also a customer service centre, where I was able to buy a 24-hour ticket for the trains, trams, buses and ferries. It is also a station from which you get the train to the airport.
One thing about Norwegian and Swedish for that matter, is that a lot of the words can be guessed. For instance the stop for the Nation Theatre is Nationaltheatret. At least the Norwegian National Theatre is more centrally placed than ours in London.
From the theatre, I walked around for an hour or so, until I got to the National Gallery, as I wanted to see the Munch paintings.
Norwegian National Gallery
At the moment there is a celebration of Edvard Munch, so I bought a ticket for the two venues at both the National Gallery and the Munch Museum.
A Horse In Heathrow Terminal Five
This horse is one of the silliest piece of art I’ve ever seen.
A Horse In Heathrow Terminal Five
It was outside British Airways Executive Club.
How Many Good Paintings Have Gone In Skips?
This story about how Robin Darvell found a painting by John Constable in a job lot in an auction, is in The Telegraph.
The painting, bought at an auction in Canterbury ten years ago, has remained in a drawer ever since after the canny buyer spotted a faint signature on the corner.
It has now been revealed as a Constable painting, believed to have been completed near to his home in Suffolk, after being examined by experts on television programme Treasure Detectives.
It now looks like it’s worth about £250,000.
On my wall I have a painting by Arthur Perigal. He wasn’t in Constable’s class, but he is a well-known Scottish artist.
Villa Albani by Arthur Perigal
The painting of the Villa Albani, nearly went in the skip when I moved back to London, as it was in a broken frame and just thrown in the loft. It is signed Arthur Perigal RSA and dated 1872.
It’s not worth a lot, but then it would be worth nothing, if it was in the skip.
How my mother-in-law acquired the painting, can’t be determined now. But she did work for his son, Walter, who was the local doctor in New Barnet. The doctor was an amateur painter and she was given some of his paintings, when she left his employment. Or that’s the story C told. But knowing C’s father, I suspect he got them for perhaps doing a favour for the doctor.
Anybody, who knows the truth, died many years ago.
Art At The Bus Stop
My local bus stop has got the treatment from Art Everywhere.
Art At The Bus Stop
I think, I’ll go and find the original some time next week.
Chagall At The Tate Liverpool
I’d gone to the Tate Liverpool to see the Chagall exhibition.
Chagall At The Tate Liverpool
I found it very enlightening and it showed me how little I know about art and especially artists like Marc Chagall. But don’t take my word for it, that it is good, read this report from the Telegraph. It starts like this.
Forty years ago, Marc Chagall was one of the uncontested masters of modern art. Living out his old age on the Cote d’Azur, immersed in his magic-realist memories of the old Russian-Jewish world, Chagall seemed fully the equal – well, almost the equal – of his sometime Riviera neighbours Picasso and Matisse.
Since then his critical stock has inexorably declined. He’s come to be seen as a whimsical fellow-traveller of Modernism who produced an overabundance of self-consciously poetic and rather sugary images. His trademark flying postmen, mooning lovers and bearded violinists have come to seem questionable in their sincerity, never mind their artistic quality.
This exhibition, the largest Chagall show in Britain for 15 years, gives us the chance to look again at this long derided figure and decide whether he should be reinstated as a major 20th- century figure or left quietly in his corner.
I think that it is definitely a must-see exhibition and unless you saw it in Zurich earlier, you’ll have to travel to Liverpool. Someone said to me, that they’ll catch the exhibition when it comes to London. It won’t and it’ll probably be many years before an exhibition of this scope is mounted again.
So go and decide, where you think Chagall should be placed in the history of art. i liked the exhibition a lot, and his work to me, is almost a progression of the various styles of art through the twentieth century. Just like any great artist, Chagall seemed to be a complex person, who the more you look at his work, the more you see in it.
Walking To The Tate Liverpool
After visiting St. George’s Hall, I walked down to the Tate Liverpool, having lunch at Carluccio’s on the way. I took these pictures on the way.
They show how much public art and the number of clocks there are in the city.
I think it is true to say that you could spend a couple of days looking at all the public art in Liverpool.
The Dalston House Comes Down
I was passing this morning and saw this sad event.
i wasn’t the only one, who thought so, and it is a real pity, that it couldn’t have been up for longer.
A Busy Last Sunday At The Dalston House
The last Sunday of the Dalston House was busy as the pictures show.
The Dalston House was one of those exhibitions, that if money could have been found, could have gone on longer.
Sadly, they didn’t let Heidi the basset hound climb the wall. Now that would have been a sight!
Only Three More Days To See The Dalston House
I passed the Dalston House this morning and it was very busy.
As it closes on Monday, there is not long now to have a butchers!
Here‘s my pictures from a few weeks ago.
Clouds In St. Pancras Station
There is now an artwork, where the Olympic rings were last year in St. Pancras station.
It is described in detail in this BBC report.
The Anonymous Widower 