artfirstprimo

Sunday, 8 April 2012

artfirstprimo at the NG - the afternoon tour 08-04-12

Join me for tour called ‘Agents of Change’ at the National Portrait Gallery on Tuesday 10^th April, beginning at 15:00 in room 12, and also at the NPG, beginning at 15:00 for my tour called, ‘Icons’ on May 1st. My next talk at The National Gallery will be the lunchtime talk on Paolo Uccello’s painting, the Battle of San Romano in room 54 of the Sainsbury wing on Saturday 28^th April and my next two guided tours of the NG will be on Wednesday 16^th May at the usual times of 11:30 and 14:30. See you there.

artfirstprimo at the NG - the morning tour 08-04-12

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 8th April, 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 four paintings: Fra Filippo Lippi ( born about 1406; died 1469), The Annunciation (about, 1450-3) and Seven Saints (about 1450-3), Francesco Pesellino (1422 -1457) The Story of David and Goliath, and The Triumph of David (both about 1445-55). Next on the tour was: Sebastiano del Piombo (about 1485 - 1547) The Raising of Lazarus (about 1517-19). This was followed by: Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617 - 1682) The Heavenly and Earthly Trinities (about 1675-82). We finally ended with modernity in pieces, the work of Edouard Manet (1832 - 1883) The Execution of Maximilian (about 1867-8)

The next tour today will be at 14:30, and will be different choice of pictures. Hope to see you there.

Monday, 12 March 2012

artfirstprimo at NG afternoon tour 12-03-12

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. The National Gallery's Permanent Collection consists of over 2,500 paintings.

I hope that those of you who were able to attend my talk at the National Gallery today, Saturday 10th March, 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 three panels by Duccio (active 1278; died 1319), The Annuncaition, The Healing of the Man Born Blind, and Transfiguration (1307/8-11). Next on the tour was: Giovanni Bellini (active about 1459; died 1516) The Agony in the Garden (about 1465), and Andrea Mantegna (about 1430/1 - 1506) The Agony in the Garden (about 1458-60). This was followed by: Raphael (1483 - 1520) Portrait of Pope Julius II (1511). next was the: Garofalo (about 1481 - 1559), An Allegory of Love (probably about 1527-39). We then moved into the 19th century with two paintings by Claude-Oscar Monet (1840 - 1926) Bathers at La Grenouillère (1869) and The Beach at Trouville (1870). We finally ended with the monumental Post-Impressionist work of Georges Seurat (1859 - 1891) Bathers at Asnières (1884).

I don't yet have a schedual of my next tours of the National Gallery, but they will be at the same times 11:30 and 14:30, and there will be a different choice of pictures. As soon as I have the dates they will be posted on my twitter page.

artfirstprimo at NG morning tour 12-03-12

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 talk at the National Gallery today, Monday 12th March, 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: Leonardo da Vinci (1452 - 1519), The Virgin of the Rocks (about 1491/2-9 and 1506-8). Next on the tour was: Workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio (about 1435 - 1488) Tobias and the Angel (1470-75). This was followed by: Dirk Bouts (1400? - 1475) The Entombment (probably 1450s). Then we looked at the work of: Master of Delft (active early 16th century), The Passions of Christ - triptych (about 1510). We then looked the work of the painter from Dordrecht - Aelbert Cuyp (1620 - 1691) River Landscape with Horseman and Peasants (about 1658-60). We finally ended with the work of the painter from Delft - Johannes Vermeer (1632 - 1675) A Young Woman seated at a Virginal (about 1670-2)

The next tour today will be at 14:30, and will be different choice of pictures. Hope to see you there.

Saturday, 10 March 2012

artfirstprimo NG afternoon tour 10-03-12

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. The National Gallery's Permanent Collection consists of over 2,500 paintings.

I hope that those of you who were able to attend my talk at the National Gallery today, Saturday 10th March, 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: Margarito of Arezzo (documented 1262), The Virgin and Child Enthroned, with Narrative Scenes (about 1260s). Next on the tour was: Carlo Crivelli (about 1430/5 - about 1494) La Madonna della Rondine (The Madonna of the Swallow,1490s). This was followed by: Jan Gossaert (active 1503; died 1532) The Adoration of the Kings (1510-15). next was the: Master of Delft (active early 16th century), The Crucifixion and Passions of Christ (about 1510). We finally ended with the work of Hans Holbien (1497/8 - 1543) The Ambassadors (1533).

My next tours of the National Gallery will be at the same times on Monday12th March, and will be a different choice of pictures. Hope to see you there.

artfirstprimo NG morning tour 10-03-12

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. On 12th December I, artfirstprimo, 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 my talk at the National Gallery today, Saturday 10th March, 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: Piero della Francesca (about 1415/20 - 1492), The Baptism of Christ (about 1450s). Next on the tour was: Jan van Eyck (active 1422; died 1441) The Arnolfini Portrait (1434). This was followed by: Peter Paul Rubens (1577 - 1640) A View of Het Steen in the Early Morning (probably 16). We finally ended with the work of: Joseph Wright of Derby (1734 - 1797), An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump (1768).

The next tour today will be at 14:30, and will be different choice of pictures. Hope to see you there.

Sunday, 12 February 2012

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

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