artfirstprimo at the NG - afternoon tour: 26-08-12

Welcome back art lovers. For those of you who don't yet know, let me remind you the National Gallery, London offers free lecture tours everyday at the same times of 11:30 and 14:30; leaving from the new part of the building - The Sainsbury Wing, just next to the main shop. National Gallery's Permanent Collection consists of over 2,500 paintings.

I hope that those of you, who were able to attend my free guided tour at the National Gallery today, Sunday 26th August, enjoyed the choice of paintings. But if you missed them or just want a reminded of which pictures we looked at so you can visit them again with a friend. Here is a list of those paintings:

We began with: The Fight between the Lapiths and the Centaurs (probably 1500-15) by Piero di Cosimo (1462 - 1522). We briefly mentioned wedding chest or Cassoni in the same room, with an image of The Story of the Schoolmaster of Falerii (late 15th century), attributed to the Master of Marradi (active in Tuscany in the late 15th century).  We then looked at Portrait of a Man (about 1475-6) by Antonello da Messina (active 1456; died 1479); briefly mentioning: Portrait of a Man (1497), by Alvise Vivarini (living 1457; died 1503/5) and Portrait of an Elderly Man (1487) by Francesco Bonsignori (1455/60? - 1519?), all in the same room. We then on moved to room 31 in to look at Equestrian Portrait of Charles I (about 1637-8) by Anthony van Dyck (1599 - 1641).  After this, it was through to room 36 to look at Mrs Oswald (about 1763-4) by Johann Zoffany (1733? - 1810), and we finally ended in room 44 with The Umbrellas (about 1881-6) by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841 - 1919).

My next guided tours of the National Gallery will be on Sunday 23^rd September at the usual times of 11:30 and 14:30.

artfirstprimo at the NG - morning tour: 26-08-12

Welcome back art lovers. For those of you who don't yet know, let me remind you the National Gallery, London offers free lecture tours everyday at the same times of 11:30 and 14:30; leaving from the new part of the building - The Sainsbury Wing, just next to the main shop. National Gallery's Permanent Collection consists of over 2,500 paintings.

I hope that those of you, who were able to attend my free guided tour at the National Gallery today, Sunday 26th August, enjoyed the choice of paintings. But if you missed them or just want a reminded of which pictures we looked at so you can visit them again with a friend. Here is a list of those paintings:

We began with: Tobias and the Angel (about 1470-5) by Workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio (about 1435 - 1488). We briefly mentioned an altarpiece in the same room, called the The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian (completed 1475), by Antonio del Pollaiuolo (about 1432 - 1498) and Piero del Pollaiuolo (about 1441 - before 1496).  We then looked at a picture in a state of deterioration, the oil on linen painting of The Entombment (probably 1450s) by Dirk Bouts (active about 1459; died 1516). We then moved on to room 9 in the main building to look at one of four unexplainable ceiling paintings called Happy Union (about 1575) by Paolo Veronese (1528 - 1588).  The others in the same room that we did not look at were: Unfaithfulness, Scorn, and Respect. This was followed the highly influential Seaport with the Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba (1648), by Claude Gellée Lorraine (1604/5? - 1682), we also compared this briefly to Dido building Carthage (1815), by Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775 - 1851).  After this, it was through to room 29 to look at Minerva protects Pax from Mars ('Peace and War') (1629-30) by Peter Paul Rubens (1577 - 1640), and finally we ended in room 14 with The Adoration of the Kings (1510-15) by Jan Gossaert (active 1503; died 1532).

My next guided tours of the National Gallery will be on Sunday 23^rd September at the usual times of 11:30 and 14:30.

Home is where the art is The Voice Newspaper interview

How one man went from problem child to an authority on early Renaissance and Medieval paintings at one of Britain’s finest museums.

 

There is a common assumption that the art world is the domain of an elite few – those who have enjoyed a privileged and cultured upbringing or an expensive education. Art historian Leslie Primo is different.

“My mother didn’t even know what an art gallery was,” says Primo, who grew up in south London. He does concede, however, that the majority of his peers do fit the stereotype.

Yet despite humble beginnings, Primo has spent the past 12 years immersed in this world of art, working his way up from a cashier in the National Gallery’s gift shop, to his current position as a lecturer specialising in early Renaissance and medieval art. It was a journey he started as a young boy and the road has not been without its challenges.

The young man of Guyanese heritage left school with no formal qualifications. He spent many years flirting with professions that included music production and photography.

Primo even spent a year in Japan where he studied the language.

As he sits beneath Peter Paul Rubens’ The Judgment of Paris in Room 29 at central London’s National Gallery, Primo explains how a hobby turned into a career.

“Going into galleries was something I did in my spare time, after work or at weekends,” he says.

As his knowledge grew, he started taking friends on informal tours in exchange for a lunch. Making the transition from amateur to professional seemed a natural step. “The art world is all about knowledge,” Primo points out. “The more you know, the more respected you are.”

Considering where the 46 year-old began, it is remarkable where he is now, especially when you see him in action. Like any good storyteller, he pulls his audience in and guides them through the paintings as if they were real characters. “What we can see in the paintings are the things that people really do,” Primo explains. “People get sad; people die; people deceive each other. That whole gamut of human emotion is in paintings, and those emotions have not changed over the centuries.”

Primo could be describing his own experience from his paintings, given what he says was a difficult childhood which earned him the label ‘the problem child’.

Excluded from primary school, and enrolled in a correctional school as a teenager, Primo admits to being a disruptive influence.

He recalls one particular fight with a fellow pupil. “I tore a large clump of hair from his head, which was then put into an envelope by the boy’s mother and sent with a letter to my mother,” he remembers with a shake of his head.

There are two major reasons why Primo became disenfranchised with the education system: domestic violence and dyslexia. “I had a violent step-father and the violence did happen quite a lot,” he says. “It was mostly my mother who was attacked, but sometimes it was me as well.”

MEMORABLE: Allegory of Venus and Cupid by Bronzino was the painting that attracted Primo to the art world as a boy

It was a school trip to the National Gallery that opened his eyes to the possibilities of the art world. “I saw a picture that I liked. I didn’t know who the artist was, and I had no idea what the picture was of, but I liked the colours. When I came back years later as an adult, I was looking for that picture and eventually I found it.” The painting was Allegory of Venus and Cupid by Bronzino. It took Primo at least 20 visits to find, but he never gave up.

Primo is not a man who is easily deterred. After deciding to study art history, he won a place at Birkbeck University without any of the prerequisite qualifications. He supported himself through part-time work at the National Gallery’s gift shop to cover the fees. “It was convenient”, says Primo. “I didn’t need qualifications in art history – I just needed to be able to work a cash register.”

The hard work paid off. Primo was offered a lecturing position at the gallery before he had even officially graduated.

When Primo talks about his profession his words are imbued with a sense of destiny, as though he is fulfilling a calling. And he is a rather distinctive figure: a black man from a non-privileged background, excelling in a world seemingly controlled by rich white men.

“For a very long time, there were no other lecturers who looked like me,” Primo reveals. On one occasion he was recognised by a man whose daughter had been lectured by a black art historian. Primo told him: “It must be me, because there are no other lecturers in the National Gallery who are black.”

But Primo prefers to concentrate on intrinsic merits. “For me it’s not about being black, it’s about being able to be good at what you do.”

However, there is a small part of him that is proud of his position: “There is a uniqueness about it, obviously and one can say, you feel somewhat special. You do feel you’re doing something that’s going to make a difference. I hope it will encourage other people from my sort of background or ethnicity to come to the gallery.

“I get very rare opportunities to do that, because it is not often you see faces like mine as visitors. When they are here, I do my utmost to make them feel they should be here.”

Primo attributes the lack of interest to the absence of black representations in art.
“I think many in the black community have a problem with that. They come in and think, ‘there are no black faces, it’s all about white people, why should I go there?’”

Without doubt, Primo believes this attitude is wrong and argues that there is something for anyone in the human stories that art conveys: “Those emotions apply to anybody, be they black or white.”

Primo has not forgotten his distressing childhood memories, but has managed to mould a career worthy of acclaim, one that bears no reflection of his troubled past. Only the dyslexia, diagnosed in 2003 while he was at university, lingers.

In art, Primo has found somewhere he feels he belongs. “I’m perfectly at home and comfortable in galleries wherever they are in the world.”

Unsurprising for one who believes art and life are one and the same.

The Renaissance expert comes to a conclusion: “Art tends to not pay any heed to transient things. Somehow good art rises above the here and now, and has a resonance that continues throughout the centuries.”

The large paintings in room 29 seem to stir in the fading light.

“Art is a mirror of our society at whichever point in time that mirror is set up.”
As a boy he may have once pulled out a few strands of hair.

As a man, Primo helps pull back the curtains over these mirrors offering people a glimpse of past stories in all their splendour.

Interviewed and Written by Bart Chan
16/08/2012 04:15 PM

Follow the link below for the story and video interview:

http://www.voice-online.co.uk/article/home-where-art-0

artfirstprimo at the NG - afternoon tour: 16-08-12

Welcome back art lovers. For those of you who don't yet know, let me remind you the National Gallery, London offers free lecture tours everyday at the same times of 11:30 and 14:30; leaving from the new part of the building - The Sainsbury Wing, just next to the main shop. National Gallery's Permanent Collection consists of over 2,500 paintings.

I hope that those of you, who were able to attend my free guided tour at the National Gallery today, Sunday 5th August, enjoyed the choice of paintings. But if you missed them or just want a reminded of which pictures we looked at so you can visit them again with a friend. Here is a list of those paintings:

We began with: various pieces from a dismembered altarpiece by Ugolino di Nerio (active 1317; died 1339/49?) known as  The Santa Croce Altarpiece (about 1324-5). We also compared this briefly to another dismembered altarpiece in the same room, on the adjacent wall, which was originally called the  Maestà (1307/8-11), by Duccio (active 1278; died 1319).  We then looked at the extraordinary oil on poplar painting of Doge Leonardo Loredan (1501-2) by the Venetian artist Giovanni Bellini (active about 1459; died 1516). We then moved room 19 in the north of the Gallery to look at the mysterious Landscape with a Man killed by a Snake (probably 1648) by Nicolas Poussin (1594 - 1665). This was followed the Caravaggio influenced Christ before the High Priest (about 1617), by the Dutch ‘master of light’, Gerrit van Honthorst (1592 - 1656), we also compared this briefly to another Dutch ‘master of light’, The Concert (about 1626), by Hendrick ter Brugghen (1588 - 1629), and also Belshazzar's Feast (about 1636-8) by Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606 - 1669). After this, it was over to the east-wing of the Gallery to look at Impressionism with two works in room 43: The Thames below Westminster (about 1871) and The Gare St-Lazare (1877) both by Claude-Oscar Monet (1840 - 1926), and finally ended in room 45 with the explosion of colour that is the Sunflowers (1888) by Vincent van Gogh (1853 - 1890).

My next guided tours of the National Gallery will be on Sunday 26^th August at the usual times of 11:30 and 14:30, and I will also be giving a Ten Minute talk on Lady Cockburn and Her Three Eldest Sons (1773), by Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723 - 1792) in room 34 at 16:00 also on Sunday 26^th August.

artfirstprimo at the NG - morning tour: 16-08-12

Welcome back art lovers. For those of you who don't yet know, let me remind you the National Gallery, London offers free lecture tours everyday at the same times of 11:30 and 14:30; leaving from the new part of the building - The Sainsbury Wing, just next to the main shop. National Gallery's Permanent Collection consists of over 2,500 paintings.

I hope that those of you, who were able to attend my free guided tour at the National Gallery today, Sunday 5th August, enjoyed the choice of paintings. But if you missed them or just want a reminded of which pictures we looked at so you can visit them again with a friend. Here is a list of those paintings:

We began with: The Wilton Diptych (about 1395-9), English or French (?). We also compared this briefly to a central panel in the same room called Christ Glorified in the Court of Heaven (about 1423-4) by Fra Angelico (active 1417; died 1455), both images exhibited a flag of the Resurrection.  We then looked at La Madonna della Rondine (The Madonna of the Swallow) (after 1490) by Carlo Crivelli (about 1430/5 - about 1494), with its image of St George and St Jerome as a cardinal in red. Moving to room 9 we looked at two paintings: Mars and Venus (about 1590) by Palma Giovane (1554 - 1628). This was followed The Rape of Ganymede (about 1575), attributed to Damiano Mazza (active 1573). We then took an unscheduled detour to look at Bacchus and Ariadne (probably 1700-10) by Sebastiano Ricci (1659 - 1734), and finally ended in room 34 with An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump (1768), by Joseph Wright 'of Derby' (1734 - 1797).

My next guided tours of the National Gallery will be on Sunday 26^th August at the usual times of 11:30 and 14:30, and I will also be giving a Ten Minute talk on Lady Cockburn and Her Three Eldest Sons (1773), by Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723 - 1792) in room 34 at 16:00 also on Sunday 26^th August.

artfirstprimo at the NG - afternoon tour: 05-08-12

Welcome back art lovers. For those of you who don't yet know, let me remind you the National Gallery, London offers free lecture tours everyday at the same times of 11:30 and 14:30; leaving from the new part of the building - The Sainsbury Wing, just next to the main shop. National Gallery's Permanent Collection consists of over 2,500 paintings.

I hope that those of you, who were able to attend my free guided tour at the National Gallery today, Sunday 5th August, enjoyed the choice of paintings. But if you missed them or just want a reminded of which pictures we looked at so you can visit them again with a friend. Here is a list of those paintings:

We began with: triptych altarpiece by Master of the Aachen Altarpiece (active late 15th to early 16th century), The Crucifixion, (about 1490-5). We then looked at Penelope with the Suitors (about 1509) by Bernardino di Betto of Perugia, called Pintoricchio  (active 1481; died 1513). Moving to room 8 we looked at to look at The Raising of Lazarus (about 1517-19) by Sebastiano del Piombo (about 1485 - 1547). This was followed An Allegory of Love (probably about 1527-39), by Garofalo (about 1481 - 1559). We finally ended in room 45 with The Sunflowers (1888), by Vincent van Gogh (1853 - 1890).

My next guided tours of the National Gallery will be on Thursday 16^th August at the usual times of 11:30 and 14:30.

artfirstprimo at the NG - morning tour: 05-08-12

Welcome back art lovers. For those of you who don't yet know, let me remind you the National Gallery, London offers free lecture tours everyday at the same times of 11:30 and 14:30; leaving from the new part of the building - The Sainsbury Wing, just next to the main shop. National Gallery's Permanent Collection consists of over 2,500 paintings.

I hope that those of you, who were able to attend my free guided tour at the National Gallery today, Sunday 5th August, enjoyed the choice of paintings. But if you missed them or just want a reminded of which pictures we looked at so you can visit them again with a friend. Here is a list of those paintings:

We began with: altarpiece by Leonardo da Vinci (1452 - 1519), The Virgin of the Rocks, (about 1491/2-9 and 1506-8) commissioned by the Milanese Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception for their oratory in San Francesco in 1480, followed by a new contract drawn up in 1483. We then looked at the three predella panels from the dismembered altarpiece, the Maestà by Duccio (active 1278; died 1319) The Healing of the Man born Blind, The Transfiguration and The Annunciation all dated (1307/8-11). We then moved to room 12 to look at Bacchus and Ariadne (1520-3) by Tiziano Vecellio, called Titian (active about 1506; died 1576). This was followed by a look at number 4 panel from the Marriage A-la-Mode series, The Toilette (about 1743), by William Hogarth (1697 - 1764). We finally ended in room 34 with Rain, Steam, and Speed - The Great Western Railway (1844), by Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775 - 1851).

My next guided tours of the National Gallery will be on Thursday 16^th August at the usual times of 11:30 and 14:30.