artfirstprimo

artfirstprimo at the Screening of John Akomfrah's the Nine Muses

2012-02-12T14:49:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, Saturday 11th Feb I went along to a special screening of a film called the Nine Muses by John Akomfrah followed by a Q&A with Akomfrah. This film did not feature an explicit narrative in the conventional mode as one would experience in a so called mainstream film. Indeed this documentary (because that is what it is) presented the viewer with a collage of experiences on the theme of the outsider, arrival or the other, against the backdrop of the bleak, but beautiful winter wilderness of Alaska. The experience of arriving in a new land can at once be the excitement of the new as well as a frightening experience; both beautiful and dangerous.

This collage of experiences consisted of an all pervading, imposing and omnipresent soundscape, readings of works by James Joyce, Homer, EE Cummings, TS Eliot, and many others along with archival footage of Windrush arrivals and Ugandan Asian arrivals in the UK. Although the theme of this documentary is clear, that of the outsider, the experiences of the immigrant, the stranger in a strange land that uses the symbolism of the harsh Alaskan landscape, the film does not impose a didactic narrative on the viewer, but instead leaves the viewer to contemplate and think what the experience of these images together with their sounds and texts might say to them.

However, the structural narrative that binds all of these strands together in a lyrical mellifluous fashion is that of memory for we are introduced at the start to the Greek mythological story of Mnemosyne; she who lay with Zeus, king of the Olympians, for nine nights and whose progeny form an imposition on this film of a division into nine parts; nine parts introduced and given the names of those progeny the nine Greek muses: Calliope - Muse of Epic Song, Clio – Muse of History, Euterpe – Muse of Lyric Song, Melpomene – Muse of Tragedy, Terpsichore – Muse of Dance, Erato – Muse of Erotic Poetry, Polyhymnia – Muse of Sacred Song, Urania – Muse of Astronomy, Thalia – Muse of Comedy and Bucolic Poetry.

There is an underlying romanticism about this film, but not the romanticism one would associate with the false romance of Hollywood; more the romance of the 19^th century romantic painters exemplified by Casper David Friedrich (1774 – 1840), which Akomfrah acknowledges is indeed deliberate inclusion. This is the melancholy romance of the solitary person in the wilderness, which is not only is the subject of Friedrich’s paintings but also a presence in this film as well as Akomfrah’s film of a few years earlier - Oil Spill, which was about the Exxon Valdez Disaster. The solitary figure, as in Friedrich's paintings is never really identified, but also never really belongs to his/her surroundings. In Akomfrah's films this aspect is given greater emphasis by dressing the solitary figure in bright, high visibility thermal snow wear. The Nine Muses features beautiful photography that can only be truly experienced on the big screen of a cinema. Part film, part instillation; it would not be out of place in a contemporary art gallery. It is a sensuous and ultimately haunting experience.

http://www.riocinema.ndirect.co.uk/2012/feb12/specialcreenings.htm

artfirstprimo tours of the National Gallery

2012-02-05T11:33:00.001-08:00

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. Today on 5th February I conducted both 60 minute tours of the NG, from 11:30-12:30 and from 14:30-15:30. Both the 11:30 and 14:30 tours of the National Gallery featured eleven different paintings from the National Gallery's Permanent Collection, which consists of over 2,500 paintings.

I hope that those of you, who were able to attend one of my talks at the National Gallery today, enjoyed them, 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 the 11:30 morning tour with: Bernardino di Betto of Perugia called Pintoricchio (active 1481; died 1513). Next on the tour was: the Master of the Aachen Altarpiece (active late 15th to early 16th century) The Crucifixion (about 1490-5). This was followed by Agnolo Bronzino (1503 - 1572) An Allegory with Venus and Cupid (about 1545). We finally ended the Morning tour with: Joseph Wright of Derby (1734 - 1797), An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump (1768).

And if you missed my 14:30 tour of the same day or just need a reminder of the paintings we looked at to see them again with a friend, here's a reminder list: We began with: Workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio (about 1435 - 1488) Tobias and the Angel, (about 1470-5). Next on the 14:30 tour was: Alessandro di Mariano Filipepi, called 'Botticelli' (about 1445 - 1510) Venus and Mars, (about 1485). The 14:30 tour then looked at the Baroque master: Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) Peace & War, (1629-1630). This was then followed by the Northern Renaissance master Jan Gossaert (active 1503; died 1532) The Adoration of the Kings, (1510-15), and the last picture on my 14:30 tour was: Claude-Oscar Monet (1840 - 1926) The Beach at Trouville, (1870).

My next free tours of the National Gallery will be: Saturday 10^th March 2012 and Monday 12^th March 2012. The tours will be at 11:30-12:30 and from 14:30-15:30. See you there.

artfirstprimo in a quandry@the Leonardo exhibition again...

2012-01-24T02:27:00.000-08:00

On Jan 15th I took my 12th visit to the stupendous Leonardo exhibition (ending 5 Feb) to visit this occasion just four paintings. These four paintings in the Leonardo exhibition that have exercised the minds of many a Leonardo scholar. The paintings in question are the newly discovered 'Salvator Mundi', the 'Madonna Lita' from the Hermitage, the 'Madonna of the Yarnwinder' and the 'Lady with the Ermine'. The question is are they all solely the work of Leonardo? I know what Mr Sewell would think, but what do you think? think we can never know for certain and perhaps this is part of the mystery of Leonardo.

artfirstprimo in conversation with Frank Bowling OBE RA

2012-01-24T02:16:00.000-08:00

On the somewhat auspicious day of Friday 13th I was invited to the home and then on to the studio of one of Britain's greatest living artists - Frank Bowling OBE, RA to see his latest very illuminating work. But first we drank tea and spoke about his love the National Gallery's permanent collection and his disappointment that he narrowly missed out to Martin Creed on being appointed National Gallery Artist in Resident. I for one think that the National Gallery missed out on an opportunity that they my never get the chance again to revisit.. We also spoke about his enjoyment at visiting the Leonardo exhibition of course at the National Gallery - his privilege status allowing him quick and free entrance to this very difficult to gain entrance to exhibition.

Along with Frank's partner Rachel we then drove to Frank's studio to view some of this latest work. Frank was putting the final touches on two large scale pieces and also drying them with a hairdryer propped on a chair, they were truly extraordinary pieces. But I particularly like a small collection of pieces that to me exhibited the jewel-like wonder of Illuminated manuscript in their execution and relatively small size compared to Frank's monumental works, which we looked at on this occasion, and I was pleased to be informed by Frank that he had indeed included real gold leaf in some of these jewel-like works. As a Renaissance art historian I am particularly partial to craft and the art of making things and these works spoke to me of this age of wonder.

An illuminating interlude and one of the joys of living in London: http://bit.ly/yzMlce

artfirstprimo@Somerset House

2012-01-24T01:51:00.000-08:00

A short walk along the Embankment to Somerset House found me on the same day Jan 8th me at the Dazed & Confused Magazine exhibition. Inside this exhibition nudity & sexuality seem to be the main themes beginning with a poor pastiche of Velazquez's Rokeby Venus. However, the room with projected images of models who happen to be disabled is a refreshing breath of fresh air in this somewhat lacklustre exhibition that has the inventiveness of the emperor's new clothes: http://bit.ly/za9Sh5

artfirstprimo@Two Temple Place

2012-01-24T01:46:00.000-08:00

On Jan 8th I took a visit the late Gothic revival building of Two Temple Place here in London. where I experienced splendid architectural flights of fantasy, and extraordinary tapestries; shimmering and intricate in their detail. Although it must be said I am not a Pre-Raphalite fan, I found the Morris engaging as ever. Certainly worth a visit to this rather unusual hidden gem in the heart of London. http://bit.ly/yztqzV

artfirstprimo and Brian Sewell visit the Leonardo at the NG

2012-01-24T01:36:00.000-08:00

On Jan 4th I took the opportunity, straight after my one of free tours of the National Gallery, to see the Leonardo exhibition and briefly look at a few favourites. I was delighted to bump into Brian Sewell, whereupon we briefly walked around the Leonardo exhibition. Both myself and Brian have seen the Leonardo exhibition on many occasions, but Brian informed me that he was only here to set his mind straight about a few of the paintings that he had his doubts about.

Brian then informed me that he still did not believe the painting of the Musician was by Leonardo despite what the label said. And having looked at the painting on many occasions myself and now with with Brian, I must say it is very odd with what seems to be a dark background added later to the painting. Clearly the 'Musician' with its unfinished jacket lapels and also later added hand (transparent) as one can see the music sheet through the fingers (this suggests its later inclusion), begs many questions as to how many artists may have contributed to this picture said to be solely by the hand of Leonardo. Yet the curls at the front of the hair seem unmistakable by the hand of Leonardo in the way that they also seem to be the same as Leonardo's evocation of water in drawings such as the 'Deluge',or seem also to match the hair of the angel seen in the 'Baptism of Christ' attributed to Leonardo and his one time Teacher Verrocchio in the Uffizi, Florence. Although the background over painting may have obscured the delicate edges of the hair of the so called young 'Musician'.

Brian also casted some doubt on the pin-up girl of the exhibition - Cecilia Gallirani (The Lady with the Ermine). Essentially Brian argument here was that if you took away Cecilia's hand and the Ermine it could not be then argued that this work was by Leonardo. This argument I found very hard to agree, if anything, I thought this hypothesis could be reversed. However, we both agreed that the 'Madonna Litta' could not be by Leonardo. Indeed before the exhibition it was given to Leonardo's pupil Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio and also said on previous occasions to be by both artists.

There is very little time to make up your mind as this stunning exhibition ends on Feb 5th. Tickets on the day only still available if your are prepared to start queueing from 06:30 am.

artfirstprimo at the South London Gallery

2011-12-26T07:31:00.000-08:00

It's your last chance to see Dara Birnbaum's exhibition this year! We are open until 6pm today (& reopen on 3 Jan) http://bit.ly/vfY7D2

Yes, you do indeed find me at the South London Gallery, just a few days ago on 23rd December, looking at the video installation work of American artist Dara Birnbaum. A cascade of music greets one in the dark expanse of the main exhibition space here at the UK premiere of Dara Birnbaum's Arabesque at the SLG. There's several clips of only women playing Schumann's Arabesque, with just one of Clara Schumann's little known piece Romanze 1, opus 11. The purpose of Birnbaum's work becomes clear quite quickly, but I must say I really loved the rare opportunity to sit and listen to the Schumann's work in an unusual an somewhat reverential atmosphere created here at the SLG by the artist, Gallery and curator.

artfirstprimo at the Ashmolean

2011-12-26T07:22:00.000-08:00

On 16th December I visited the Claude Gellee 1604/5?-1682 (called Claude Lorrain) exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. It was quite refreshing to have been informed by some of the invigilators in the rooms that this exhibition has no proscribed route. Indeed the Claude exhibition is simply divided into three rooms: drawings, paintings, and etchings. For me this was infinitely preferable as am somewhat lothed to follow the convyer-belt-like fashion of visiting exhibitions, which usually results in me starting exhibitions at the end.

In the room of Claude's drawings in this Ashmolean exhibition are some fascinating drawings on the wall devoted to compositions. Claude's compositions included drawings made not for paintings, but made from paintings as works of art in their own right. Among the compositional drawings we see a drawing made after Claude's Seaport with the Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba. The drawing in pen & ink & brown wash is from the Staatliche museum, Berlin, but painting it's taken from is in the National Gallery, London. The drawing of Seaport with Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba, with its long dark shadows retains all the drama of its painted counterpart. But in some ways Claude's Seaport composition even manages to surpass even his own painting of the scene in its apparent immediacy.

Another notable drawing on this wall is the Adoration of the Golden Calf, it's the largest of four scenes dedicated to this popular subject. The dancing maidens in the Adoration of the Golden Calf clearly have a deliberate antique quality to them and reminds one of Greek caryatids, such as on sees on the Erectheon in Athens. Ironically the Golden Calf is almost imperceptible, being as it were dwarfed by the ornate neoclassical composite column upon which it stands. Other than his religious scenes the composition are of Arcadian rustic idylls; i.e. peasants and livestock in the landscape and nobility on horseback surveying their land and ultimately looking down on the "happy peasants". Such Virgilian rustic idylls reminds one of similar scenes found in the work of the Dutch painter from Dordrecht, Aelbert Cuyp (1620-1691).

In the room of paintings we are confronted with 12 large-scale pictures that with classical scenes imported into them, and one small landscape. In Landscape with the Judgement of Paris, Claude follows the Renaissance tradition of interest in this subject, but Claude also hints at a more prosaic outcome to the famous story with a barely visible couple of rutting goats in the left foreground. On the opposite wall are Claude's late mythological and historical landscapes paintings. These large-scale painted works by Claude Lorrain are visibly colder in colour when compared to the opposite wall. They also in some cases have peculiarly and impossibly elongated figures that apparently indicative of his late style, but reminds this reviewer of late mannerist painting or even the strange forms one finds in the works of Botticelli.

Unlike the ever-popular Leonardo exhibition in London the Claude exhibition is not busy, which means one can observe the, tiny and intricate, etchings that Claude produced at close quarters. There is even a cabinet in this room of exquisite engravings that shows one the materials and techniques needed to achieve an engraving.

The Claude exhibition at the Ashmolean, Oxford is refreshing, very well curated and well worth seeing. Claude is certainly an artist that warrants re-discovering beyond his occasional chocolate box image.

artfirstprimo back at the National Gallery

2011-12-26T06:47:00.002-08:00

I hope that those of you who were able to attend one of my talks at the National Gallery yesterday, Monday 12th December, enjoyed them, 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: Sandro Botticelli (about 1445-1510), Venus & Mars (about 1485). Next on the tour was: Andrea Mantegna (about 1430/1-1506) The Introduction of the Cult of Cybele at Rome (1505-6). This was followed by the four canvases in room 11 by: Joachim Beuckelaer (active 1563-1575) The Four Elements (1569-70). Next we looked at the unknown painter called: The Master of Delft (active early 16th century), Scenes from the Passion (about 1510). We finally ended with: John Constable (1776-1837), The Cornfield (1826). This painting was eventually named by the National Gallery not John Constable.

And if you missed my 14:30 tour of the same day or just need a reminder of the paintings we looked at to see them again with a friend, here's a reminder list: We began with: Masaccio (1401?-1428) The Virgin & Child, 1426 and Gentile da Fabriano (1385-1427) Madonna and Child with Angels, 1425. Next on the 14:30 tour was: Carlo Crivelli (1430/5?-1494) La Madonna della Rondine (The Madonna of the Swallow), about 1490-2. The 14:30 tour then looked at the Baroque master: Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) Peace & War, 1629-1630. This was then followed by the master of chiaroscuro: Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610) The Supper at Emmaus, 1601, and the last picture on my 14:30 tour was: Georges-Pierre Seurat (1859-1891) Bathers at Asnieres, 1884.

My next free tours of the National Gallery will be: Weds 4th Jan 2012. The tours will be at 11:30-12:30 and from 14:30-15:30. See you there.

artfirstprimo - Winter Chocolate tasting and Neil MacGregor at the Purcell Rooms

2011-12-26T06:24:00.000-08:00

On the 10th December, the day after visiting the Leonardo and OMA/Progress, I took a walk London's South Bank to experience the Winter Festival. But, I must say it probably should have been re-named the Winter Chocolate Festival;I've never seen so many chocolate purveyors in the same place. For a chocolate disciple such as myself this experience is certainly worth braving the icy-cold conditions as it was then, although, as any chocolate fan will tell you, a good chocolate is best served at room temperature. Please do not let any philistine persuade you to put your chocolate in the fridge. But now I must get back to the serious business of chocolate tasting. My eventual chocolate choices were Damian Allsop sublime individual artistic creations in beautiful packaging, and the wonderful bar curiously called Duffy.

But I must admit to not being here at the South Bank just for the Chocolate tasting, I am in fact here at the South Bank Purcell Rooms to listen to a talk by the Director of the British Museum, Neil MacGregor. The subject of Neil's talk is the Book of his Radio 4 program A History of the World in 100 Objects...It was a marvellously informative and amusing talk, filled with highlights such as a suggestion that an object that could represent this century might by a football shirt belonging to the Francophile footballer Drogba; the shirt itself made in China, the footballer a French speaker from Africa playing football for an English football team. Although the talk was interrupted by a member of the audience being taken ill this was quickly solved by a request for a doctor. And consummate with having a middle-class audience five doctors appeared all at once, and the person was eventually taken to hospital. Neil MacGregor handled this incident with aplomb by reminding us how safe we were in such an audience. At the end of Neil MacGregor's talk at the South Bank Purcell Rooms I joined a queue to get my copy of his book signed - of course he remembered my name.

artfirstprimo reflects on Leonardo and OMA

2011-12-26T05:34:00.000-08:00

On 9th December I returned once again to the Leonardo exhibition for a short visit to marvel at the works not only of the master himself, but to also marvel at the work of Leonard's close associates and followers too. In this visit I will mostly be concentrating on drawings. In particular the exquisite tiny drawing of a youth in profile by Francesco Gali called Napoletano (died 1501). Napolitano's drawing demonstrates a fine delicate handling of pen and ink to produce subtle effects of shading comparable only to the Master himself. Napolitano's shading is especially effective in the facial areas akin to Leonardo's sfumato effects in paint. Also I could not resist including at least one painting in this report, the profile portrait of Bianca Maria Sforza. This painting by Ambrogio de Predis (about 1455-1510) demonstrates such wonderful handling of light effects in her gold brocaded dress. Among Leonardo's beautiful drawings are those of the dogs paws and the Bear's head, they demonstrate Leonardo's real sensitivity to the animals he depicts in every metalpoint line delicately drawn upon the prepared paper.

Following an absolutely splendid afternoon tea at the fairly newly opened Delaunay, a Viennese style eatery on Kingsway;I now am on my way across town to the Barbican to see the OMA/Progress (Office of Metropolitan Architecture) exhibition. Upon arriving it seems I have entered through an entrance that gives me an introduction to the exhibition without being the full exhibition. In this part of the exhibition there are several cardboard cut outs of people who mimic the attitudes and positions one would exhibit as one walk around any show such as this. They have the effect of seemingly to be real as you catch them out of the corner of your eye. I now head in to the exhibition itself. On entering the exhibition one is confronted with grey empty walls that seem to be of an unfinished exhibition, indeed the grey paint on the seemingly hastily built walls barely disguises the text from a past exhibition. In one room there is so much information that one is invited to construct ones own book by taking away pages of ones own choice. On the walls of this room, called 'Current Preoccupations' new words abound, such as: optioneering, megalopoli(tic)s and creatification. The deliberate information overload in this exhibition, especially within the so called 'secret room', perhaps brings one close to what it may have been like if one were able to walk into the mind of Leonardo. In the centre of the exhibition we are presented with a moving representation of this sensory overload. Projected on a large screen are a myriad of ideas, overlapping each other continuously, of an architecturally real and imaginary future. Samples of materials and textures also abound in this exhibition, alongside the many ideas.

There is a paranoia in this exhibition, around these ideas, regarding taking photos, which one is frequently reminded is strictly forbidden, indeed it has taken the staff some time to realise that my smart phone is being used for tweeting not photo taking. My overall view of this exhibition is that this Barbican space particularly lends itself well to architectural exhibitions such as this, however, this is not art in the conventional sense of art, it is an outpouring of idea, but what is art if not an outpouring of ideas. And if the Leonardo exhibition and this exhibition tell us anything it is that art is first and foremost the idea and even Leonard's art was not seen as conventional in its time.

This OMA/Progress exhibition here at the Barbican demonstrates that it is the art of design and its approach to the human scale as a microcosm of the world has much in common with Leonardo's approach to his art and the world around him in his time.

artfirstprimo day of exhibitions - continued

2011-12-26T04:50:00.000-08:00

And so upstairs the private view continues at Tate Britain where you join me in my 3rd exhibition of the day on December 6th. I am afraid I know next to nothing about the sculptor Barry Flanagan, but from what I can see here at this Tate Britain exhibition Barry Flanagan works in a variety of materials, but mostly hessian, rope, sand and wood. Flanagan seems to be experimenting with perceptions of dimensions and textures and as with many contemporary artists this work is very much a cerebral affair. Alas, while I understand Flanagan's work, my cerebral engagement with his works leave me cold and without an emotional engagement.

artfirstprimo at the Tate Britain private view of the John Martin exhibition

2011-12-24T17:21:00.000-08:00

Welcome back, here is a little catch-up on my recent activities. With the Vermeer exhibition now a distant memory, but the images still very much in my mind, also on December 6th I moved from the sublime to the extraordinary, because I was back in London in time for a private evening viewing of the John Martin exhibition at Tate Britain . John Martin's pictures are truly spectacular. However, they are, as one critic put it, 'A bold experiment in public taste'. Martin's pictures are huge and full on technicolour. But big and more colour is not necessarily better, they are essentially bombastic and generic in their conception. Take Martin's epic painting, Joshua Commanding the Sun to Stand Still Upon Gibeon has so much going on that it inevitably lacks a focal point. Martin's Destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum, is again on a grand scale and mostly red to stand out from the crowd as if this was needed. It would seem that in many of John Martin's picture everyone is doomed, death and destruction abound as in the expansive Fall of Babylon, and his demonic Pandemonium based on Milton's Pandemonium. Martin loves his thunder bolts, whenever there's destruction, there they are. Martin's Eve of the Deluge reminds one of some of the truly awful science fiction air-brush paintings that feature on some sci-fi book covers.

I then sat in a room in the exhibition that has been appropriately arranged in a cinema like fashion to view Martin's great triptych. The images of the triptych are: The Plains of Heaven, The Last Judgement, and The Great Day of His Wrath. Martin's triptych is extraordinary and I remember being wowed by them on a school visit. But now I'm just in time for something that probably would not have been possible when I was at school; a special light-show and audio treatment given to Martin's triptych. It's a magic lantern spectacular in which individual parts of each of the paintings are lit, projected on with identical images, and virtually animated by this magical light show; also accompanied by Jeff Wayne-like War of the Worlds commentary. It is quite a sight to behold, but is it art? Well of course it is, it's a kind of art that appeals to those who love a sense of fun and showmanship and don't take their art too seriously, and I must say I do like a bit of fun occasionally.

And so the John Martin exhibition ends with the appropriately ironic image by contemporary artist Glen Brown,The Tragic Conversion of Salvador Dali, a perfect way to end the show.

arfirstprimo at the Fitzwilliam

2011-12-24T17:09:00.000-08:00

Welcome back art people, here is little catch-up on my recent activities. On 5th December I stayed at the Moller Centre, Cambridge. I was in Cambridge to give a talk on the origins of the Renaissance to the Young Arts Award Students for the Cambridge Decorative & Fine Arts Society. The talk itself would take place the next day on 6th December, it was also night after Martin Boyce picked up this years Turner Prize,

indeed, early Renaissance artist laid the path that would be followed by Leonardo & Michelangelo, indeed without them there would be no Turner Prize. But of course one could not visit Cambridge without going to its preminent museum and at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge I was luckily able to see the exhibition, Vermeer's Women: Secrets & Silence.

As there are so few of Vermeer's paintings existing this exhibition affords us the opportunity to view some of Vermeer's contemporaries. Many of Vermeer's contemporary painters are now not as well known, but it does not meet they not every bit as intriguing as Vermeer. In this exhibition we witness the Eavesdropper by Nicolaes Maes (1655-1693) that let's the viewer into a secret world of an affair, we are also confronted by the beautifully conceived Girl Peeling Apples by Cornelis Bisschop (1630-1674). However, the overall image reminds one of an annunciation. But Jacobus Vrel's mysterious (c.1650-62) image of a Woman at a Window, Waving at a Girl, shows us a ghostly image of a little girl. Vrel's image dispenses with light from without to give us light from within the interior only. The result, a black window and fully lit room.

The perfect perspectival view in Cornelis de Man's (1621-1706) Interior with a woman sweeping is somewhat compromised by the clearly later addition of cat, evident by it partial fading with time to reveal the original background. However, one of the stars of this exhibition is Gerard ter Borch (1617-1681). His exquisite handling of paint to create texture is quite sublime. Highlights by ter Borch include: Woman drinking wine and holding a letter and Woman sewing by a cradle. But of course the true stars are the Vermeer's (1632-1675) especially the image that is possibly one of his largest, The music lesson, and Vermeer's tiny but iconic Lacemaker on loan from the Louvre. The texture of the canvas and what is being sown almost becoming one.

One gets so few chances to experience Vermeer and his world and this exhibition not only explores Vermeer and the contemporary world of painting in Delft, but it manages to do so in a quiet, understated, and most effective way.

artfirstprimo at the Don McCullin exhibition at the Imperial War Museum

2011-12-05T03:52:00.001-08:00

Welcome back. On Wednesday 23rd November, just a day after giving my lecture on Leonardo at the Court of Milan to the High Weald Decorative and Fine Arts Society in Staplehurst, Kent, I made a visit to the Imperial War Museum, London to witness and experience the overwhelming and the shear power of Don McCullin's photographs.

The emotion in Don McCullin's pictures, taken decades ago by this great photographer is still palpable. Amongst the images that moved me were Don McCullin's image of pain and anguish on the face a Turkish Cypriot woman, that for me brings to life the emotions seen in Massacre of the Innocents Pulpit at Sant' Andrea in Pistoia, Italy (1301) by the Renaissance sculptor Giovanni Pisano (c.1245/50-after 1314).

From these powerful images to Don McCullin's black and white still life image of flowers with its crisp painterly-like qualities to his haunting landscapes; one can experience, as McCullin says, 'a darkness inside' of him, that in the case of his non-war pictures bring a sublime beauty to his work.

Don McCullin's Shaped by War exhibition is at the Imperial War Museum until 15th April 2012.

'Leonardo da Vinci: Maestro del Disegno at the Court of Milan' a new lecture by artfirstprimo

2011-12-05T03:36:00.001-08:00

Welcome back. Earlier this week on Tuesday 22nd Novemeber those that follow me on twitter joined me on a train heading for Staplehurst, East Sussex to give a brand new lecture to the High Weald DFAS. The High Weald Decorative and Fine Arts Society heard the lecture: Leonardo da Vinci - Maestro del Disegno at the Court of Milan. This lecture has of course been specially written to accompany the blockbuster Leonardo exhibition at the National Gallery, London.

The National Gallery exhibition covers a substantial part of Leonardo's life at the court of Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan the late 15th century. With such a unprecedented and comprehensive exhibition it has been a struggle to keep this lecture within the regulation one hour. Fine arts societies such as High Weald require lectures to be an hour only, the lecture as it stands will struggle to be under an hour. And so back to my train journey where I began this blog. After passing Sevenoaks, through the blackness of two tunnels, upon emerging for the darkness of the tunnels there is still less visibility as the entire countryside is now shrouded is a thick mist, and as the train rounds a corner into to Tonbridge station its front end seems to disappear into this heavy Autumn fog; soon I will arrive at Staplehurst station and I will be greeted and taken to another lecture hall.

So here I am at the lecture hall. An over full house greeted me at the High Weald DFAS for my lecture on Leonardo to accompany the exhibition. It was indeed heart-warming to have such a large audience for this very new lecture. A listing and synopsis of 'Leonardo da Vinci: Maestro del Disegno at the Court of Milan' is now available on my website: primoartdiscoverytours.co.uk

artfirstprimo in the contemporary world of art in Cork

2011-12-05T03:18:00.001-08:00

Welcome back. On Wednesday 30th November I found myself in Cork, Southern Ireland at Crawford College of Art and Design for a lecture given by the curator Sean Lynch. Lynch spoke about the exhibition he is curating at the nearby Crawford Art Gallery that looks at Irish art in the 70s and 80s. We were given an introduction to Sean Lynch by the ever effusive Trish Brennan director of Art at the Crawford College of Art and Design.

In a very informal style that is more a seminar than a lecture Lynch takes us through shows that he has been involved in, such as a show at the Camden Art Gallery, London and others that stirred his interest, such as a show in Santa Monica that reinstated the framework past false walls past exhibitions in the exhibition space in the Santa Monica gallery. Both shows dwell on resonances of past shows re-imagined, layered and re-realised in their original spaces.

Lynch then revisited Joseph Beuys' work and visit to the Crawford in the 70s. At which point the talk is briefly interrupted by someone tying to seek the whereabouts of the owner of a silver Laguna. However, the talk then moved on to the point where we are shown photographs of the proposed site of an Irish pavilion in Venice for the Bienniale. It was never built, so we view the resonances of the space the pavilion would have occupied through these photographs.

Lynch also spoke about the utilisation of cultural objects, illustrating this with episode of the so called Tau Crosses (possibly 6th or 13th century objects), which were removed from their places of origin (in Irish fields) to accompany contemporary art exhibitions from the 60s onwards. Over-arching theme of Lynch's talk was that of resonances of works that were never made, and the controversy surrounding work that was made, but pilloried and even vandalised by the society at the time (70s), such as a large steel sculpture in Kinsale and an artist's nude self-portrait with an erection.

All these events were of course seen strictly from a contemporary and Irish perspective and thus did not mention the fact that art work has been pilloried and vandalised by members of society for at least the past 6 centuries and more. With iconoclasms occurring between 730 and 787, 814 and 842, and the many incidents that occurred in Wittenberg, Germany in 1517 that resulted in Reformation. Indeed protests against images remain with us today in the form of attacks on works of art in galleries, some of which have occurred as recently as in the last 5 years and the last 6 months in national institutions in the UK.

So with the talk now over you now join me in the Crawford Art Gallery viewing some of the pieces discussed by Sean Lynch in his talk earlier today, such as the Tau Cross incident, represented here in old newspaper cuttings, and the works by the artist Nigel Rolfe, including a video piece of the artist himself falling into a bog. It will take me some time to understand this piece. But unfortunately our time has unexpected run out due the rather early closing of the Crawford at 17:00, I am ushered in a somewhat uncouth fashion by an official that clearly does not enjoy his job and should be doing something else, but lacks the courage to do so. This together with the almost non-existant signage, making it difficult to locate part 2 of the exhibition, which was split over two floors, made for a quick and unsatisfying visit to this exhibition at the Crawford Art Gallery, Cork.

artfirstprimo Back on the Road with the Wilton Diptych

2011-11-25T11:33:00.001-08:00

The day after my visit to the Leonardo I was back on the road again, back to my old itinerant ways. I found myself, yet again, on a train platform as usual. This time in Grantham, Lincolnshire; I was returning from giving a lecture to the curiously named Holland & Kesteven DFAS, a lively and intelligent fine art society. The lecture I gave to Holland & Kesteven was the story of the mysterious painting, by artist unknown, called the Wilton Diptych. Though much is known about the Wilton Diptych, such as the identities of those in the painting, there is still much that is unknown. Such as when precisely was the Wilton Diptych painted, who painted it and how did it end up in Wilton House from whence it was bought by the National Gallery.

Because of the mysterious origins of the Wilton Diptych it has since its acquisition by the National Gallery gone under this title. The Diptych part of the title indicates that it's a two panel painting and Wilton part of course relates to its known origin of Wilton House.

However, as the train now speeds along (late) and the night closes in I have to leave the Wilton Diptych behind. It's time to think about my next assignment today, it's time to return to the life of Michelangelo in part 3 of his life. I return to the City Lit, Covent Garden immediately upon leaving this train at Kings Cross to teach part seven of Masters of the Renaissance. Until the next time...

artfirstprimo experiencing Leonardo da Vinci at the Court of Milan

2011-11-25T10:58:00.001-08:00

On the morning of 9th November I made my way to a private early morning view of the event the year if not of the decade. The event was, as you've probably guessed by now, Leonardo at the Court of Milan, the exhibition opening later on today at the National Gallery here in London. Indeed at 09:00 that very morning, yours truly artfirstprimo was one of the few to enter the exhibition before the crowds were let in at 10:00

As I walked around this unprecedented exhibition, which marks a once in a lifetime opportunity to see so many of Leonardo's works in one place I was aware that this is indeed an historic occasion, and on this occasion that curator of this exhibition is on hand to take myself and the rest of the National Gallery staff around the exhibition giving us his own commentary on the life of Leonardo and the paintings in the exhibition.

As so Luke Syson the curator of the Leonardo exhibition completed giving his talk to this private audience of which felt like it consisted of almost the entire staff of the National Gallery. So it was now it is time to look around and see the work of the Master myself.

Among the highlights of this exhibition of Leonardo's time at the Sforza Court of Milan is the Louvre version of the Madonna of the Rocks. This is truly of the real scoops for the National Gallery, getting the Louvre to part with this masterpiece. It hangs facing the National Gallery's own version; Luke Syson, curator of the exhibition says that this is possibly the first and the last time these two great masterpieces will hang together. Also here to view is the Madonna Litta, previously thought, until very recently, to be by a pupil of Leonardo's Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio, indeed The Madonna Litta, c.1481-97, was also thought to be collaboration between Leonardo and said pupil. However, in this exhibition it has been re-attributed to being solely by the hand of Leonardo. And as if this revelation isn't enough, the Leonardo exhibition also has the newly attributed Christ as Salvator Mundi painting on display in London also for the first time; it too was miss-attributed as being by a follower of Leonardo’s pupil Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio at which time it was valued at £48.00, its value has subsequently increased somewhat.

After three hours in the National Gallery’s lower exhibition rooms of the Sainsbury Wing being mesmerised by this exhibition I emerged into the daylight and was greeted by an enormous queue stretching out of the door of the National Gallery, along Jubilee Walk and around to the back of the building, little did I know at this time that this would be the shape of things to come for the duration of this historic exhibition. Everywhere one turns in this exhibition there is a delight for the eye that verges on overwhelming the visual senses, but if one is to be overwhelmed there can be no better reason.

artfirstprimo at the National Gallery

2011-11-07T16:07:00.000-08:00

Welcome back art lovers. I hope those of you able to attend my 11:30 tour of the National Gallery on Friday morning 4th November enjoyed it. If you missed it or just want a reminded of which pictures we looked at so you can visit them again with a friend, here's a reminder list of those paintings:

We started with the small but perfectly formed Jan van Eyck (active 1422-died 1441) painting - The Arnolfini Portrait, 1434. This exquisite painting in oil by the Netherlandish master has many mysterious conundrums contained within its fastidiously detailed composition. van Eyck was not only famous in the Netherlands and of course Bruges, where he painted this image, but he was also famous in Italy; where he was once hailed as the inventor of oil painting. Italian artist had been egg-white for centuries as a binding agent for paint pigments, while Netherlandish artists such as van Eyck had not only perfected the use of oil, but taken it to a degree of sophistication that has arguably never been surpassed.

The next painting on my 11:30 tour was by the brothers Antonio (about1432-1498) and Piero (about 1441-before 1496) del Pollaiuolo. The Pollaiuolo painting, a large-scale single panel altarpiece was called, The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian, completed in 1475. The Pollaiuolo altarpiece is one of the most securely documented paintings in the National Gallery and a superb demonstration of Renaissance manipulation of mathematical perspective, it was also painted in the very year of Michelangelo's birth.

Also on the 11:30 tour was a painting by Claude Lorrain (1604/5?-1682) called, Seaport with the Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba, 1648. Claude's ability to create realistic light effects in his paintings and his ability to infuse previously anodyne landscape and seascape subjects with mythological subjects helped to popularise such subjects and bring him a host of admires who were inspired by his works longs after his death, including John Constable who was a life-long admired who famously strove throughout his life to reproduce light in his paintings as Claude had done in his.

The 11:30 tour then moved on to Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) The Judgement of Paris, probably painted between 1632-5. Rubens was obsessed with this subject from Greek mythology, The Judgement of Paris, and painted eight times throughout his life from 1600 to 1640; for reasons unknown apart from his last version painted just before he died.

The 11:30 tour finally ended with Paul Gauguin's (1848-1903) Faa Iheihe, 1898,a late painting from his last years in Tahiti. Gauguin's now legendary time in the South Pacific was recently the subject of a major retrospective at Tate Modern in London. This one of Gauguin's last paintings like many of his Tahitian paintings attempt to capture as Gauguin says "A long lost barbarian luxury". However, while his wife Mette Sophie Gadd was back in her native Denmark with their five children, Gauguin wrote to his fellow painters in Paris boasting "I'm sowing my seed everywhere".

If you missed my subsequent 14:30 tour it or just want a reminded of which pictures we looked at so you can visit them again with a friend, here's a reminder list:

My 14:30 tour of the National Gallery began with a painting by Dieric Bouts (1400?-1475) called 'The Entombment, prob 1450's. A rare image being the only entombment subject by this artist in existence, and also painted on the rare support of linen. This was followed by two paintings of the same subject, one by Giovanni Bellini (active about 1459, died 1516) The Agony in the Garden, about 1465 and another by Andrea Mantegna (about 1430/1-1506) also called The Agony in the Garden, about 1460. These images hang next to each other in the National Gallery, Sainsbury wing, not only because they are of the same subject, but also because Mantegna married Bellini's sister.

The NG 14:30 tour then went on to look at Jean-Honore Fragonard's (1732-1806) Psyche showing her Sisters her Gifts from Cupid, 1753. The story in this picture comes from the pen of the Roman author Lucius Apuleius; c. 125 – c. 180. This painting was followed by the hugely theatrical painting by Paul Delaroche (1795-1856) called The Execution of Lady Jane Grey, 1833, depicting an event that had taken place two centuries earlier, and dramatised by Delaroche in such a way as taking certain artistic liberties with this historical event, which saw the 16 year old Lady Jane Grey rule England for just nine days before being beheaded on the 12th February 1554.

The 14:30 tour finally ended with that Finish occasional Impressionist Akeseli Gallen-Kallela (1865-1931) with his painting called Lake Kaitele, 1905, the only painting by a Finnish artist in the National Gallery's Permanent Collection. Not only was this picture painted some time after Impressionism had officially ended back in 1886, nut it also feature a subject matter no French Impressionist painted would ever tackle - a scene inspired by Finnish folk lore.

Just half an hour after these tours I also gave a free ten minute talk at 16:00 in room eight of the National Gallery on Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola, commonly referred to as Il Parmigianino - 1503-1540. This High Renaissance painting of a Madonna and Child with a young John the Baptist squeezed into the edge of the composition is actually on loan from a private collection rather than forming part of the National Gallery's Permanent Collection. Parmigianino was born in Parma hence the name, and painted in the same period as Leonardo, Raphael and Michelangelo, indeed he was mostly influenced by Michelangelo's late style of painting, retrospectively referred to as 'Mannerism'.

But for now I m signing out until my next report from the world art, hope to see you all there.

artfirstprimo at Kew and Beyond

2011-11-03T16:51:00.000-07:00

Welcome back art aficionado's. Today I went out and about in city of cultural delights that is London. I took an underground train for a change heading west for the splendid Kew Gardens to witness the delights of Autumnal colours as only Kew can display; which can be best witnessed from the wonderful tree-top walkway; whose rust coloured iron supports almost blend imperceptibly with the autumn colours around it them. And speaking of stunning architecture I also experienced the simple sweeping curved elegance of the Sackler crossing the beautiful bridge designed by John Pawson.

However, today's excursion does not of course mean I have left the painted facsimile world of art behind, because later on at 18:00 I continued my teaching at City Lit, Covent Garden with part seven of Masters of the Renaissance which was part two of Michelangelo's life in a lesson called: 'Survival and Competition'. Looking at the Master's rivalry with other artists and the paucity of his surviving work in the medium of drawing especially in comparison to Leonardo. Why are there approximately 600 surviving drawings by Michelangelo compared to approximately 6,000 surviving drawings by Leonardo; given that Michelangelo (89 when he died) lived so much longer than Leonardo (67 when he died)? This is just one of the topics we discussed in the classroom while we looked some Michelangelo's greatest drawings.

But now just a brief reminder that I, artfirstprimo, will be conducting two free National Gallery tours tomorrow at 11:30 and 14:30. All are welcome, and as usual I will not be revealing my choice of paintings I will be looking at until we alight on them in the rooms of the Gallery; indeed I myself will not make up my mind what I will be looking at until I arrive at the Gallery tomorrow. But if you fancy knowing which artist I will be looking at and fancy something shorter than my 60 minute tours you could attend my free National Gallery 10 minute talk at 16:00, which will be on Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola, usually referred to as Il Parmigianino - 1503-1540.

See you there at this talk which will be in room 8.

artfirstprimo tours the National Gallery

2011-10-30T07:58:00.000-07:00

I hope that those of you who were able to attend one of my talks at the National Gallery yesterday, enjoyed them, 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:

The 11:30 NG tour pictures were: The Margarito of Arezzo (Virgin Child, 1260s), Carlo Crivelli - about 1430/5 - about 1494 (La Madonna della Rondine, about 1490-2), Jacopo Cumin called Tintoretto - 1518-1594 (Origin of the Milky Way, probably 1570-80), Tiziano Vecellio in English Titian - active about 1506 - died 1576 (Diana and Actaeon,1556-9), Titian (Death of Actaeon,1559-75), and to end the 11:30 tour, Claude-Oscar Monet - 1840-1926 (The Bathers at la Grenouillere,1869) and Claude-Oscar Monet (The Beach at Trouville, 1870).

For my 14:30 tour of the National Gallery I looked at the following pictures: Andrea Mantegna about - 1430/1-1506 (Introduction of the Cult of Cybele at Rome,1505-6), Bernardino di Betto of Perugia called Pintoricchio - active 1481-1513 (Penelope with the Suitors, about 1509), Agnolo di Cosimo called Bronzino - 1503-1572 (An Allegory with Venus and Cupid, probably 1540-50), and to end the 14:30 tour of the National Gallery, William Hogarth - 1697-1764 (Marriage-A-la-Mode, about 1743).

And for those of you who like quick bit-sized information about an artist and a particular work the, National Gallery's ten minute talks everyday at 16:00 will be ideal for you. Yesterday I also gave this talk, which took place in room 38 of National Gallery, and featured the artist Canaletto and his 1738 large canvas view of The Upper Reaches The Grand Canal with S. Simeone Piccolo. The vantage point places the viewer directly in the centre of the Grand Canal. Canaletto's fame and fortune was mostly secured by English patronage, this resulted in him visiting England in 1747, which, for a painter that rarely left Venice, was indeed significant.

If you would like to come along to my next two tours of the National Gallery at 11:30 and 14:30 they will be on Friday 4th November, starting as usual just outside the main shop in the Sainsbury Wing. As usual I will only reveal the choice of pictures as we tour around the Gallery. However, I will also be giving the free 10 minute talk on the same day at 16:00 in room 8 in front of the painting, the featured artist, which I can reveal will be Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola called Il Parmigianino - 1503-1540 (The Madonna and Child with Saints John and Jerome, 1526-7).

Hopefully see you all there for more fun at the National Gallery.

The itinerant art historian face to face with the ultimate itinerant artist

2011-10-26T03:14:00.000-07:00

Welcome back art lovers. Monday night night saw the completion of the course called 'Introduction to Western European Art History', which I teach at the Bishopsgate Institute in London's Liverpool Street. This whirlwind, and frankly very exciting, six week course is quick and immediate in the information it imparts especially if the students have particularly inquiring minds, as was the case on this particular course. The course took the students on a rollacoaster ride from Byzantine to Victorian painting; ultimately giving them the confidence and the tools of art recognition to survive and be comfortable in any art gallery in the world.

Tuesday morning saw the me, the itinerant art historian once again leave the confines of London to deliver another my lectures, this time to the Mid Kent DFAS. The Mid-Kent decorative and Fine Arts Society are a plucky, warm and welcoming society based in the village of Sutton Valance, not that I got to see it, as a travelling art historian, one gets to visit many destinations but rarely gets to see them. However, for this lecture the Mid Kent DFAS got to experience just one part the life of Leonardo da Vinci, his Portraits and Madonnas. My lecture 'Leonardo's Portraits and Madonnas revealed many hitherto unknown facts regarding the life of the great Renaissance master.

However, although we know that Leonardo was born the illegitimate son of Ser Piero da Vinci, on the 15th April in a small hilltop town called Vinci some 20 miles west of Florence surprisingly little is known about Leonardo's early life before his entry into the workshop of Andrea di Michele di Francesco Cioni a local hero of painting in the nearby town of Florence who would later be given the nickname - Andrea del Verrocchio as a direct reference to his skill as an artist; Verrocchio literally meant 'true eye'.

However, what is now known is that the famous image of an old Leonardo from the museum in Turin is not Leonardo. Indeed it has been known for decades that this image is not Leonardo, yet it has persisted to be recognised in the minds of the public as being him no doubt helped by its use on book covers and by the media. But you don't need me to find out more about the life of this giant of Renaissance art, because if you are lucky enough to live in London or you are able to travel to London, you can experience another aspect life of Leonardo for yourself in the up and coming exhibition to be held at the National Gallery -

Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan
9 November 2011 – 5 February 2012

But a word of warning, this is going to be a very busy exhibition and tickets are being restricted to keep the numbers down, so do not just turn up and expect to get in, book in advance to avoid disappointment.

I will be virtually living in this exhibition, so see you there.

The Itinerant Art Historian in a Contemporary Landscape

2011-10-25T15:13:00.000-07:00

Welcome back art lovers. On Saturday 22nd October I visited the latest incarnation of the White Cube group of galleries in London's , Bermondsey Road. White Cube three takes over a former industrial building and turns it into an austere and uncompromising homage to the cult of contemporary art. The inside is bathed in harsh white light; no signs adorn the walls of this protestant-like temple to contemporary art, in an obvious attempt to break with the past, there are not even any signs to inform you where the toilets are. As for the art in these cavernous white spaces, they will need a further visit, because it was now time to get across town to the next appointment with art.

Later on on Saturday I was to be found in the Gerhard Richter exhibition at Tate Modern; admiring Gerhard Richter's so called squeegee paintings that have an extraordinary effect of seeming as though they are other-worldly; as though there are many dimensions beyond just three within their bounds, especially those with interventions within them that seem to float over the surface of the images. I am also admiring Richter's engagement with the past in this exhibition entitled Panorama; the word which itself derives from the Greek god Pan- the god of everything, indeed we still invoke this god in many other words such as pandemic and the orthodox image of God referred to as Pantokrator. Richter's photo-realist black and white paintings of American bombers and his uncle Rudi confront the realities of war re-representing images that are at once art and also detached from their times. But his painting of the 'Reader' engages with a more distant past reminding us of the ethereal light in Johannes Vermeer's (1632 - 1675) paintings and the anonymity in the work of the Danish artist Vilhelm Hammershøi (1864 - 1916). In all these paintings Richter achieves his own kind of anonymity, by inducing a photo-realist blur into his images that distances the viewer whilst also echoing the convention of the Dutch 'conversation piece' popularised by Vermeer and his contemporaries such as Pieter de Hooch (1629 - 1684) and Jan Steen (1626 - 1679).

This inspiration from the past also reappears again as I look at Richter's photo-realist image of 'Betty', as one is again reminded of Hammershøi, but also of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres's (1780 - 1867) iconic Bather of 1808. But the image of Richter's daughter 'Betty' resides in a room where Richter also approaches the traditional subject of landscape painting. But in Richter's landscapes we see again his obsession with blurring the image, which very much his signature. These images are wonderfully hypnotic and traditionally romantic; we the viewer look down of these lands again as outsiders impossibly floating over a seemingly imaginary landscape. Also in this exhibition one comes across a painting of a single Candle, this image reminds us of the single point of light in seen in many of the works by the so called Masters of Light painters from Utrecht also known as the Caravaggisti, such as Hendrick ter Brugghen's (1588 - 1629) Concert of about 1626 and Gerrit van Honthorst's (1592 - 1656) Christ before the High Priest from about 1617. In the work of Gerhard Richter we do not see an artist that is trying to confound the viewer with the variety of his styles and media, indeed we see an artist that continues a tradition that stretches back to the very earliest stirrings of the Renaissance, that is the ability to work in a variety of media and a resoluteness not to work in the way that art historians would wish or image an artist should work. The past is the future and the future is the past in the work of Gerhard Richter.

The Itinerant Art Historian in Historical Winchester

2011-10-18T13:19:00.000-07:00

Welcome back art lovers. You find the itinerant art historian arriving this morning in the bright sunlight and azure skies of a briskly chilly Winchester the home of King Arthur's round table; well at least something that claims to be this legendary object. Of course the reason why I am here in Winchester is not to see the round table, but to give a lecture to the Winchester decorative and fine arts society on the subject of 'The Art of Portraiture: From Titian to van Dyck'. The society is a large one that requires me to give this lecture twice today to accommodate their membership, which numbers almost 500.

But as I sit here in the Victorian Gothic splendour of the Winchester's raked seating Guildhall theatre venue waiting to take to the stage and give my lecture, I reflect on my brief walk around the interior of this grand build where I came across many other large and splendid halls, some of which contained paintings of great figures associated with Winchester's great and historical past, including a rather large, if somewhat unimpressive portrait of Charles II by one of the many artists that would benefit from imitating the style of Anthony van Dyck - Sir Peter Lely.

But as my mind now drifts back to the first of my two lectures here in Winchester, I glance around the lecture theatre to observe the great and the good of the Winchester DFAS arriving. As the theatre starts to fill for the morning rendition of my lecture one can hear the conversations that abound as to what revelations might be revealed by this lecture. Amongst the chatter I overhear a lady remark, as she looks at the title of the my lecture displayed in large type on the screen on the stage, "does it say Titan,who is he"? At least there will be one revelation that I can be guaranteed to be revealed.

In two days time I head off once again on my travels with art around the country bound for Huddersfield via Wakefield station to give this lecture again. See you there, and stay up to date at my twitter feed.

artfirstprimo peregrinations at the NG

2011-10-17T09:19:00.000-07:00

Welcome back art lovers, the itinerant art historian here. Whether you were there or not this morning on my free 11:30 tour of the National Gallery, here is a list of the paintings that featured from across the National Gallery's world renowned permanent collection consisting of over two and a half thousand masterpieces of Western European art.

We started this morning with a quintessential example of Renaissance art with: Masaccio's Virgin and Child, 1426, which we them compared with a similar work by Gentile da Fabriano; his Virgin and Child, 1425, we then looked at love, marriage and sexual appetite with Botticelli's Venus and Mars, 1485, followed by Poussin's very odd pagan rites of his Bacchanalian Revel before a Term, 1630-4. With mythology and the sexual excitement of the nude we moved on to Velazquez's mysterious Rokeby Venus, 1647-51. Why is this the only nude in existence and where in the world by Velazquez and is this really an image of Venus or somebody Velazquez actually knew? And finally Seurat's monumental canvas Bathers at Asnieres, 1884

It was indeed an exciting tour filled with laughter & real life resonances regarding love, life, betrayal and ridicule. Be part of the next tour today featuring a new selection of pictures, at 14:30.

Welcome back to my 2nd free guided tour of the NG. If you missed today's 14:30 tour or just want to know want a list of what we saw...Here is a list of those masterpieces: We began with a painting by an unknown artisan described only as the Margarito of Arezzo, 1260's, this painting was bought in the 19th century by the National Gallery not because they though it was a superb example of art, but precisely because they though it was a bad example of art that could be used to demonstrate just how far art had progressed from the 13th century to the 16th century with the art of Raphael, indeed it was described as primitive. We then looked a painting that is an enigma in its own right, the mysterious so-called Wilton Diptych, c.1395-99. Again there is no recorded artist for this small portable folding altarpiece, but it is filled with symbolism and richly decorated with real gold leaf and expensive colours such ultramarine blue. We then moved on to Titian's Diana and Actaeon, 1575, a painting executed towards the end of the life of this illustrious Venetian Renaissance master; who even in his old age was experimenting with new styles in painting, indeed this painting could be said to be exhibiting the earliest example of what came to be known as 'Impressionism' long before the term was coined in the 19th century. And so from Titian we moved into the 18th century with the work of a now little know painter called Sebastiano Ricci. Ricci's Bacchus and Ariadne, 1700-10, demonstrate a painter at the height of his powers with this popular mythological subject that was made famous by painters of a previous age including Titian. And finally we alighted on one of only three works owned by the National Gallery, the work, Caravaggio's Supper at Emmaus, 1601. This picture has many strange anomalies such as the strange fall of light on the characters within, the strange view point of us, the spectator, and the mysterious possible error of a large outsized hand. Indeed this an artist that was much maligned within and for centuries after his death. Here is just a few of the comments that were made about Caravaggio just decades after his death in 1611:

“For that Florentine-born Spaniard, Caravaggio was an evil genius, who worked naturally, almost without precepts, without study, but with only the strength of his talents… the coming of this man to the world was an omen of the ruin and demise of painting… this anti-Michelangelo, with his showy and superficial imitation, his stunning manner, and liveliness, has been able to persuade such a great number and variety of people that this is good painting… that they have turned their backs on the true way.”

Vincencio Carducho, artist and writer, 1633

“Michele’s work often degenerated into common and vulgar forms.” He lacked invenzione, decorum, disegno, or any knowledge of the science of painting…it seems that he imitated art without art.” “The moment the model was taken from him, his hand and mind became empty… Caravaggio suppressed the dignity of art, everybody did as he pleased, and what followed was contempt for beautiful things, the authority of antiquity and Raphael destroyed.”

Giovanni Pietro Bellori, biographer of Caravaggio, 1672

Caravaggio's reputation would not be revived until the 20th century and this comment would be instumental in helping to revive his reputation:

“There is hardly any one artist whose work is of such moment as [Caravaggio’s] in the development of modern art… he was, indeed, in many senses the first modern artist; the first… to proceed not by evolution but by revolution; the first to rely entirely on his own temperamental attitude and to defy tradition and authority. Though in many senses his art is highly conventional… he was the first realist… his force and sincerity compel our admiration, and the sheer power of his originality makes him one of the most interesting figures in the history of art.”

Roger Fry, artist and critic, 1905

Next NG tours by artfirstprimo: Sat 29 Oct at 11:30 or 14:30 and Fri 4 Nov at 11:30 or 14:30.

See you there.

West-Country Odyssey

2011-10-15T11:11:00.000-07:00

Welcome back to artfirst. You join me one again on a train concourse here at Paddington station at an ungodly hour of 06:48. And reason for this early foray? It must be the 'Cult of the South Pacific: from Cook to Gauguin'. This lecture seems to have a life of its own. I am giving this very popular lecture literally the length and breadth of the country.

So far I have visited, with this lecture: Ayrshire, Edinburgh, Sutton Coalfield, Newbury, Peterborough, and for this week, from today until Thurs, I shall be visiting: Shepton Mallet, Liskeard, Bodmin and Truro in the west-country, and then on to Guildford and Sevenoaks. Why on earth is this lecture so popular, if only I knew? Having given it first in 2007 at the National Portrait Gallery, it has grown and grown in popularity. If you want to know more about this lecture have a look at the synopsis on my website primoartdiscoverytours.co.uk

And so on with the tour, for those of you in the west-country the itinerant art historian, on route from Westbury, has just left Frome station, next stop Bruton Station, followed by my destination Castle Cary Station to begin my west-country odyssey. The lecture to Mendip DFAS near Shepton Mallet via Castle Cary now over, I now find myself on a train to Taunton, where I will pick up a train to Liskeard.

As the rolling hill and last flourishes of green rushes past out of my window I'm faced with an elderly man in a pin-striped suit asleep in front of his ipad with his Apple headphones in. The scene makes for an interesting juxtaposition with the landscape full of sheep and cows and the world inevitably rushing by. The odyssey continues, because with the Liskeard lecture but a distant memory, I am whisked away in car owned by an official of the Bodmin DFAS (Decorative and Fine Arts Society) to give my lecture to their society the next morning.

The next morning as I say farewell to the officials at Bodmin I almost forget where in the west-country I am, but there s no time for reflection because I am now standing on another train platform. This time it's Bodmin Parkway and I am expected in Truro to give my lecture to their DFAS. I arrive in time to give an evening lecture, which is well received, however there is not time to think about how it went, because I have a overnight sleeper to catch from Truro Station, the 22:27 Riviera Sleeper. As I get on board I am greeted by a very friendly train guard who shows me to my private berth complete with fold-away sink, bed and TV with a selection of movies and documentaries. It is a long overnight journey that will not get me into Paddington until 05:21 the next morning, am told I can sleep in until 07:00 if I like when the train arrives. I settle in for the night and the bumpy journey ahead.

Welcome back art lovers. You find me this morning enjoying the delights of the 1st class lounge at Paddington. Apparently one is entitled to such luxuries when a sleeper ticket is purchased. On offer in the 1st class lounge are various complimentary breakfast delights such as croissants, tea and coffee, newspapers, biscuits and fruit - I sample all and make myself at home. It has been a whirlwind odyssey around the west-country, from Castle Cary in the Mendips to Liskeard, then Bodmin and Truro. And as I wait here in the 1st class lounge with the TV chef Gary Rhodes and his bevy of women minders sat behind me, I realise that though I am back in London there is not enough time to go home, I prepare to set out on the next part of my mission to take art around the country. Next stop the 08:15 from Waterloo to Guildford, Surrey, luckily I was able to have a wash and shave on the sleeper.

In Guildford I will give a lecture to the Shalford DFAS at 11:00 am on Angelica Kauffman: An 18th Century Artists in England. Kauffman, originally from Switzerland spent 7 successful years in England wowing audiences with her painting and intellectual prowess and was one of only two women founding members of the Royal Academy in 1768 along with that other forgotten women hero of 18th century painting in England Mary Moser. From Guildford, Surrey I will take the train from Victoria to Sevenoaks, Kent to give a lecture on portraiture, entitled the Art of Portraiture: from Titian to van Dyck. I finally arrive back in London at 23:30 Thursday after setting out on Tuesday 11th October at 05:30, and at last get to sleep in my own bed - for a while. Because the week is not over, I have two 2 hour classes to teach one at the City Lit: Medieval to Renaissance and one at the Bishopsgate Institute: An Introduction to Western European Art. I arrive home at 21:15 on Friday night and finally end my week.

More adventures in art next week; where I will be once again at the National Gallery giving two free guided tours of the National Gallery's permanent collection on Monday 17th October. Tour one at 11:30 and tour two 14:30, each tour will last for 60 minutes and each tour will feature different paintings, and as usual I will not decided which paintings I am going to talk about until I get to the gallery. And don't forget, the meeting place is the same everytime - the ground floor Sainsbury Wing entrance by the NG shop.

See you there art lovers

artfirstprimo: Leonardo and the question of dissection

2011-10-07T03:11:00.000-07:00

Welcome back to artfirst. Having spent a Monday 3rd Oct at the Exmoor DFAS giving my lecture called 'The Cult of the South Pacific: from Cook to Gauguin', I then took a few days off in Devon to enjoy the scenery and catch up with my good friends in the region before heading back to London.

My arrival in London yesterday saw me plunging back into my first love - the Renaissance. It was time to teach part 3 of my City Lit course in Covent Garden, London; the course - Masters of the Renaissance: Leonardo and Michelangelo. In part 3 it was time, once again, to catch up with the remarkable life of the painter from the small town of Vinci - Leonardo.

In this lesson called - 'Nature, Anatomical and Experiment' we looked at Leonardo's view and perception of the world and how this shaped his art. This we did by looking at some examples of his work in the context of some of his own comments such as this one, which we discussed the meaning of: "“The human race in its marvellous and varied works seems to reveal itself as a second nature in this world.” Leonardo da Vinci: 1452-1519.

Further questions that were discussed were, 'was Leonardo the first to dissect human bodies to aid his depiction of them or was it a Florentine artist, practising in the 1470s, known as Antonio Pollaiuolo as is mentioned here by the 16th century painter turned art historian Giorgio Vasari: 1511-1574 - "“He (Antonio Pollaiuolo) understood about painting nudes in a way more modern than previous masters, and he dissected many bodies to view their anatomy. He was the first to show how to seek out the muscles and so give them their proper position and form in his figures.” This is a question I leave to you to decide.

We also got up close and personal to, in my opinion, the most enigmatic of portraits by Leonardo - the portrait of a young Florentine girl called Ginevra de' Benci. Painted circa 1480 it is one of Leonardo's earliest portrait commissions and is the only Leonardo in America.

Of course we also discussed the hotly anticipated exhibition at the National Gallery, London, and the need to book your tickets in advance, and the details of this live broadcast:
http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/leonardolive

Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan

9 November 2011 – 5 February 2012

artfirstprimo at the BM

2011-10-04T11:45:00.000-07:00

Welcome back to artfirst. You find me today in the BP lecture theatre at the British Museum listening to the assistant curator of the Grayson Perry exhibition called the 'Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman'. The assistant curator is very nervous and clearly not use to public speaking as she is speaking at a rapid rate and finding it somewhat difficult to catch her breath. We are looking at images of some of Grayson's work and some images of the works from the BM's collection that have influenced and inspired Grayson. Including Grayson's tapestries such as 'Map of Truths and Beliefs' and Benin bronzes. The overall theme of the exhibition is that of pilgrimage and similarities between ancient and modern beliefs. The culmination of the exhibition is the 'Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman' itself, which manifests itself as a large cast iron sculpture by Grayson of a sailing ship that is rusted to give it an appearance of an ancient object.

It is but a short walk from the BP lecture theatre to the exhibition itself, where I find myself now for this private view of the exhibition in question. As I walk around this exhibition of the 'Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman' it is clear that Grayson embarks on a spiritual pilgrimage. It is a pilgrimage that is both physical, as in his journey to Germany on his custom made motorbike, (that features outside the exhibition as you go in) imaginary, as in his recollections of childhood, and virtual as he scours the vaults of the British Museum's treasure trove of objects to bring 16th century German vases into contact with his own vases. This Grayson Perry exhibition, here at the BM, has been an introduction into the life and world of an artist who has some how managed. To combine an intelligent art historical approach to the combination of works that make up the exhibition, while also acknowledging that he's not a historian,with a child-like openness that allows the viewer into his world of the benign dictator Alan Measles (Grayson's very ancient teddy bear he has had since childhood). Grayson's force of personality draws the viewer into the utterly believable world of his teddy bear Alan Measles creating a modern myth that draws on ancient traditions of story telling.

The juxtaposition of ancient and modern in Grayson Perry's 'Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman', brings alive objects from our shared and collective past histories and reminds us that fundamentally we have changed little over millennia, indeed there is nothing new under sun. A must see exhibition, British Museum 6th October 2011-19th February.

artfirstprimo at-large

2011-09-30T01:20:00.000-07:00

Welcome back to artfirstprimo the blog. In this very latest add-on the the artfirstprimo on-line presence, brought to you by Leslie Primo, I will be exploring in more detail the places the events in the art world that artfirstprimo recommends, such as which exhibitions I have been to recently or will be going to and which galleries I have recently been to, as well as the art world events that Leslie Primo of artfirstprimo is part of. Which maybe anything from, which London gallery you may find me lecturing in and which classes and colleges in London I am currently teaching at.

Those of you who are already familier with my twitter page @artfirstprimo can also follow me their where I will be posting live reports from galleries on recomended paintings to see and posting live reports on my travels around the UK and Europe giving lectures to fine art societies.

Look out for reports on my latest round of free lectures at National Gallery, London. Here are the forthcoming dates and times for my free 11:30 & 14:30 tours of the National Galllery: Mon 17 Oct, Sat 29 Oct, Fri 4 Nov. feel free to attend either the morning or afternoon tour, each of which will last 1 hour and feature a completely different selection of paintings each time. Or if you are really mad about art see you at the morning and afternoons sessions.

Also, Look out for my reports from the forthcoming blockbuster exhibition at the National Gallery, London:

Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan

9 November 2011 – 5 February 2012

Of course the more detail reports of these adventures in the world of art will feature here on the artfirstprimo blog-spot.

2011-09-26T09:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the brand new atfirstprimo blog-site. more to come soon on this blog-site.

But if you can't wait why not catch up at my twitter page also called artfirstprimo or visit my artfirst website http://www.primoartdiscoverytours.co.uk/