SHARING WITH ME

Tobacco Shop Covent garden It was soon after New York that I was off again to London and Meldreth. Springtime and the daffodils will be out and the sun will be shining so I thought....well that was to be a dream which would not come true with the exception of one gorgeous day in Cambridge. The rest of the time we were back in our winter clothes and I piled on jumpers and cardigans in the hope of keeping warm. The exhibition « Becoming Picasso» - Paris 1901 was the main reason for our visit to London. Pierrette joined me and intimated that the following days were to be full of surprises. In an email she had mentioned the «Hermitage» but short of flying there, I couldn’t imagine for one moment what she was talking about. There had been no mention of a museum in England being «connected» to the Hermitage as is the case in Amsterdam, so I certainly could not guess what I was in store. But Picasso first. And for the first time I was a little disappointed in the exhibition. The Court

I was still bubbling with enthusiasm when I met up with Gianni to go to Dynamo. Would I be as enthusiastic when I had seen this block-buster? Over 4,000 square metres of cinetic art? Dynamo, a century of light and movement. 1913-2013. The first thing that struck me of course were that the important periods are the 60's/80's.. Having seen the Julio Le Parc, I should have recognized this at once as most of his work is dated in the 60’s although a lot was started in the late 60’s/70’s and completed in the 2000’s and  some in 2013. In looking at the small edition of Beaux Arts, those of real interest and creative are completed during this period.  The 60’s of course were vibrant years. Everything was changing. Art too. No more frames (heavens above). Meta Malévith - wood, metal with a mechanical device -1945 Art is in movement. Jean Tinguely’s. (1925-1991) machine sculptures engage in a loud and multi-coloured conversation with the onlooker: Through his works, Jean Tinguel

Before I even started writing up my experience with «Dynamo», I went back to see Julio Le Parc with Nicky. The experience was as strong as the week before and as usual when you see an exhibition for the second time, you see something else. Especially with cinetic art. You enter into it and there is little to understand if not «how on earth did he do it?». 
 Nicky liked it too.. My enthusiasm after the first visit and then «Dynamo» with Gianni a few days later gave me a lot to think about following a dinner party with Europeans and Argentinians. When I could get a word in, I finally started talking about Julio Le Parc. He had been a teacher of a guest attending the dinner party. The same guest had in his time been very famous, known around the world and then the company he was working for as an exclusive designer went broke and he lost everything. The Jeweler in question did not go broke because of the artist but for other reasons. It was relaunched a few years later

 Coming back to Paris is always exciting and there were two exhibitions I was looking forward to. Two different exhibitions on Op art works. I saw them close together but will need a couple of days to digest the second one. They were both extraordinary events. I think that I «met» Julio Le Parc for the first time in 2008 at the ART ELYSEES- Foire d'art moderne et contemporain- Galerie Lelia Mordoch- in Paris and of course the permanent collection in the Modern Art Museum.  There were two exhibitions that year on cinetic art or perhaps Op art, also known as optical art, which is a style of visual art that makes use of optical illusions. "Optical art is a method of painting concerning the interaction between illusion and picture plane, between understanding and seeing." Op art works are abstract, with many of the better known pieces made in black and white. When the viewer looks at them, the impression is given of movement, hidden images, flashing and vibration, patt