SHARING WITH ME

For a long time now, probably since I started going to contemporary concerts some 20 years ago with my mother, the question keeps on coming back...what is the difference between contemporary and modern music ? Last week during a concert with Gianni, I asked the question. Yesterday at a lunch with Gianni, Laurent and Jerome, the question came up again. It would seem that everyone has an answer. Some satisfactory some not. 

What was mine? Naturally like everyone else I went onto Internet and looked up what people had said on Forums and of course, Wikipedia...a lot was related to art and then the was a spark of light. Why don’t you too relate modern and contemporary music to art? I know what I like in art today and can this pleasure be related to music? I am far from being a «realist» in art. Anything which is too real, too explicit turns me off. Yet a very good friend Murielle, has taught me a lot about the early history of art and I have come to accept and enjoy many of the Flemish

  Following the documentary on Monet, I saw that the following day there was one on James Ensor (1860-1949).  Admittedly I fell asleep in the first five minutes and kept on nodding off during the hour. Most unusual for me but the woman in front slept during the whole film and then appluded enthusiastically at the end. I am not there yet. Ensor, was a major figure in the Belgium avant-garde art scene of the late 19th century. Some people say that he was important in the develoment of Expressionism in the early 20th. He is quite eccentric, macabre and probably quite modern for his era. Definitely politically engaged but what I enjoy most is his satyr and interest in carnaval, masks, role playing and a theatrical approach to his work. Death and the Masks Apart from his Mother’s portrait, a few self portraits and several other paintings, from what I have seen to date, no-one has a real face. A mask, or something which is exaggerated in terms of a face. His colour

The Cartier Foundation for contemporary art, is one I love. About 40 minutes walk from where I live across the Luxembourg gardens. The walk is a little risky on a Saturday morning as the joggers take no notice at all of those strolling across the park. Before leaving I say hello to the  bees  buzzing around in their hives above and walk up the Bd. Raspail to the Foundation.  I was excited about the exhibition I was  to see with Laurent. Images had been buzzing around my head since I had downloaded the App on my Ipad and studied it with a great deal of attention. "Mathématiques Un Dépaysement Soudain" or "Mathematics A Beautiful Elsewhere". I love the English transaltion.  Mathematics have always been hermetic for me.  I have often been reprimanded for my lack of understanding, miscalculations or interpretations which had nothing to do with reality. Yet, I love to look at figures. They seem to have an obscure form  which enter into some kind of abs

At lunchtime today, Marielle, Annick and I went to see a film made by Phillipe Piquet. The main reason for making this effort was that P.P. gives conferences on Art intermittently on a Monday evening. «Key Exhibitions from the middle of the 19th century to the end of the 20th» A subject which interested us all. However, his conferences have turned out to be (and there are 7 to go) a list of excuses «I haven’t done, haven’t had time to do, didn’t find on Internet....» and for me anyhow, have become infuriating. We decided to  see his film, but in expectation of what? 
Philippe Piquet is the great, great step grandson of Claude Monet. We are reminded of this in nearly every conference....The film is called « Claude Monet in Giverny - the house of Alice»....He presented  the film remarkably well. As an adolescent he had scrummaged in the attic of his grandmother’s house and found Alice’s (Hoschede)  correspondance to Claude Monet along with photos.  A diary of events wh

Over the New Year Period, I was in Portugal. As I usually always travel alone, this leaves me time to reflect and sometimes write notes. The text that you will discover below, some may have read, others not. A very good friend in Australia after reading this text, suggested that I should start a blog on the discoveries I make along the line.  Too much hard work!  Then today I went to an exhibition at the Cartier Fondation in Paris which rocked me. "Mathematics, A Beautiful Elsewhere" It  "branded me" and made me very excited. I need now to set down my thoughts and perhaps in a blog share them with friends?  What is important is setting these thoughts down.  Perhaps it will be a trip? An exhibition? A concert?  But now I want to write about what I see and share it.  So will you join me in my discoveries ?   First of all - try understand doing  "Nothing"....... 31st December 2011-7th January 2012