WE WERE THE INTRUDERS.......


 After having seen the film on "The National Gallery" which I raved about to everyone. Three hours of bliss. More than documentary but a film that gave you another insight into "looking at art". I was pleased to be going back with Pierrette to the National gallery which I really don't know . We were to see an exhibition which was on, that she wanted me to see.

Pierrette had talked about Maggi Hambling. She had seen her work in Cambridge a couple of years ago. Crashing waves on the Suffolk Coast. So when we discovered there was an exhibition at the National Gallery - off we went. 

There were 8 or 9 huge paintings which were very impressive but not necessarily in my eye, water or waves. There was something extraordinarily visual, enveloping in her work. First I was permitted to take photos and then forbidden….but the second time around when we came back to the gallery, there  was Maggi giving a talk on her work. We joined the group. When question time came around, I did ask one and she replied « The Intruder…… » the answer to my question was oblique and am sure she did this on purpose. 

Certainly a character and this is what I found out on Internet. An interview with the Observers in 2009. I think it sums her up very well.

Maggi Hambling is 69
Maggi Hambling. Photograph: Alicia Canter


Are you healthy?
Early every morning, at least. I do a couple of knee stretches in the park while hitting a tennis ball for Lux, my Tibetan terrier. At breakfast I take a mixture of 12 pills and capsules then hope for the best.

What exercise do you take?
Passionate (but on the whole rather static) tennis, once a week.

How do you relax?
On my bed with a large whisky and Coronation Street in an effort to keep in touch with reality.

Have you ever had therapy?
Once upon a time (in 1983) I visited a famous psychiatrist, on the insistence of an insane girlfriend. He didn't speak for three months and I left. He was a very round person, and when I told him I'd had enough he shrank into a stick insect before my eyes. At age 60, I started therapy again in the hope of coping. My lady does reply now and again, and it helps, hugely.

How much sleep do you need?
Like most people, more than I get.

Is sex important to you?
Of course. Sadly, as a Scorpio, it's inevitable. But as fellow Scorpion Picasso said: "Art and sex are the same thing," so I'm always at it.

Do you worry about your weight?
Constantly. And with good reason.

Attitude to smoking?
Love it, love it, love it. Gave up at 10am on 10 October 2004. Now restrict it to funerals, weddings and other disasters.

How much do you drink?
Too much and not enough.

Attitude to drugs?
Cocaine best, but hangover worst.

Are you happy?
As a manic depressive, it's either very "yes" or very "no".

Have you ever spent a night in hospital?
A couple in casualty: once after a wasp sting, then after an oyster. I've given up both.

How do you feel about cosmetic surgery?
Don't approve, but would love some.

I swear by...
Steak tartare at The Ivy.

And here are a few of what  we saw


A wall of water and waves.....

For-Amy-Winehouse-

  Walls of Water - 2011

In front of two of her paintings


After seeing Maggi's work going to look at other galleries in the National Gallery was a waste of time for me. I could only see the energy of her's.....







Commentaires

Michael Keane a dit…
Well, I'm not so sure about the paintings - although I'm not totally against them - but I just love the interview and her responses. What a great sense of humour. And true,too.
21/12/14 09:46
Enregistrer un commentaire

Posts les plus consultés de ce blog

CONFLICTS AND ENCOUNTERS OF MULTIPLE HISTORIES

Image
Over the years, I have gone on discovering Wifredo Lam. He has been mentioned in different Blog chapters but always within permanent collections. I have to admit today that in the early years, I took one of his paintings for a Picasso….and seeing certain paintings of his today, it didn’t really surprise me. Especially as I learnt that he knew Picasso…This though was a retrospective of his work at the Beaubourg. Wifredo Lam (1902-1982) was a precursor of a cross-cultural style of painting, infusing Western modernism with African and Caribbean symbolism. He must have been one of the very rare artists who was in contact with all the movements of his time …and all those that I follow. Cubism, surrealism, CoBrA…but he never lost sight of the world around him and took on the struggle to paint the drama of his own country, Cuba. The above photo plunges us at once into the exhibition. Was he an attractive man? I think there are later photos which make him look less brutal….but in my book,
Lire la suite

MY BELOVED PICASSO -I WAS LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS -

Image
After 25 years as a museum, it was time to renovate the Picasso site. The « Hotel » as we call it, has quite a history. It is probably, as Bruno Foucart wrote in 1985,  (he is an art historian of 19th century architecture) “the grandest, most extraordinary, if not the most extravagant, of the Parisian houses of the 17th century”. Hotel Salé The Main stair case Another coming down "Picasso" would have liked these lights The building has seen many occupants come and go over the centuries. However, paradoxically, before the place was entrusted to the museum, it was rarely “inhabited”, but instead leased out to various private individuals, prestigious hosts and institutions. And so it became the Picasso museum. The renovations began in 2009 and quite obviously went well over budget and should have opened before the holidays started this year. The political arguments too had to be contended with not to mention the changes in Directors and the big question bei
Lire la suite

THE CHOICE OF ONE OF THE RICHEST WOMEN IN THE WORLD

Image
The exhibition season is very full between January and the French holiday period. I make less and less effort to go and see the « block-busters » and there are some museums which are not easy to get around. The Jacquemart André is one of them. The rooms are so small and when a couple of groups move in, it is virtually impossible to see a picture or move at all. Still I was interested to go and see the Alicia Koplowitz collection. Now I come to think of it, there have been quite a few private collections shown to the public since the end of last year.  Naturally I knew nothing about this woman.  Alicia Koplowitz is very well known in her home country, Spain. Thanks to her company, the Capital Omega Group  a comprehensive financial services company , she has become an important collect er Alicia is is a Spanish business magnate. When her father died, she and her sister inherited Construcciones y Contratas, S.A. (CYCSA), a company founded by her father. She  sold her part of the comp
Lire la suite