Skulking around Dorsoduro

Yesterday was mostly spent on a pleasant meander around Dorsoduro and thus there was an early chance to work from the Accademia Bridge looking towards Santa Maria della Salute. I also produced a few studies of San Marco from Punta della Dogana before returning to the piazza itself.

The Peggy Guggenheim

The narrow alleyway which leads to the small but rather beautiful entrance of the Peggy Guggenheim Museum is typically Venetian. The wonderful courtyard garden where she is buried, the restaurant, building and artwork seems less a celebration of Modern Art, rather a show of affluence and excess. How is it, one is left to ponder, that some possess so much wealth; too much wealth; unimaginable wealth?

Besides the main galleries there was a special exhibition of mostly Surrealist work from the private collection of another rich faceless Swiss couple. Dali, Magritte, Ernst, Tanguy and even Arcimboldo and Bruegel were enough to delight...but again it seemed more a show of greed rather than connoisseurship.

The main collection to be fair, has it all. A marvellous range of Pollocks, Futurists, Cubists, more Surrealists...you name it and she's bought it. Scattered throughout the gallery are pictures of Peggy in her bedroom with art, Peggy in her dining room with art, Peggy in her...well we get the message and we are I suppose expected to be grateful. Yet considering the cost of entrance, the catalogue and restaurant (I think they picked a figure for each and then thought, it's Venice so lets double it), one is left thinking, 'for some, excess is simply the norm'.

National Theatre of Wales: Mametz

****1/2 Lost in Monmouthshire, a perfect antidote to the daily grind and certainly worth a 300 mile round journey. We join Cook's Battlefield Tours to remember the First Battle of the Somme and the 4000 38th Welsh souls that perished. Soldiers running through the long grass, zinc trenches and cattle sheds transformed. Songs, explosions and poetry linking today with those who fell a century ago. They are men and women just like us. The production is both individually human and epic too. When the order is given to go 'over the top' one is disappointed that there are but a handful of soldiers...but then, masterfully, the fourth wall is destroyed and we the 240 members of the audience join the throng. Pushing through the field towards Mametz Wood the sergeant screams at us to 'Hold the line'. Hearts beat ever faster and hairs stand on end. This is something special. We gather in a clearing and are reminded of death and loss. Powerful stuff and promenade at its best. I found myself being very critical, but this is often the case when confronted with powerful ideas and striking visuals; great ideas inspire and feed the imagination and now I long to stay in the woods.

Henry IV Pt. 2

**1/2 Part II has never been one of my favourite plays and on this occasion the starkness of both plot and set proved too much. There is to my mind, too much comedy in this history too far; the runt of the tetralogy methinks. Sher was again a worthy Falstaff of which Elizabeth would certainly have approved. Shallow is well performed but Silence is just plain irritating. The motley crew of conscripts do however amuse but Pistol is too wild and extreme a figure; alone he is striking, but in this production he is simply incongruous.

Henry IV Pt. 1

**** When Bollingbrook first takes the stage, mourning the death of Richard, David Tennant appears again as Richard II on the balcony...or we think it's Tennant and gasp with excitement. There are times when the play doesn't quite hit the mark (Hal's Machiavellian monologue for example) but otherwise it was a joy to watch. Hotspur is wonderfully petulant and the puppet of Worcester and his father but it is Sher of course who steals the show, revelling in Falstaff's comedy. Can't wait for Pt.2 now.

Abstraction at the Albert Dock

At the Tate in Liverpool Mondrian and Nasreen Mohamedi share the top floor gallery which, on the face of things, seems an odd pairing, yet in reality works well. Whilst everyone knows (and perhaps even appreciates) Piet's ordered grids of black and primary coloured neo-plasticism, it is the early deconstructions such as the Church Facade No.6 of 1915 and The Tree A of 1913 that I prefer. The latter also has a wonderful sense of Cezanne.

Mohamedi's work is however new to me. Early works are reminiscent of monochromatic Ivon Hitchens paintings, later developing into a complex form of Op Art which rivals even Riley. Again an odd combination one might think but Mohamedi's evolution as an artist seems wholly logical. There is even a reconstruction of Mondrian's studio to see but sadly, this didn't make me immediately wish to paint.

The 'DLA Piper Series: Constellations' exhibition which is also showing, assembles a typical selection of 'is that really art?' work. Stacks of magazines, colourful trollies, a pile of old towels, women being tattooed, and best of all John Smith's video from 1976, The Girl Chewing Gum. Containing elements of Pete and Dud and slightly Monty Pythonesque, I really like this piece, but probably for the wrong reasons.

Sunny Manchester?

Just my luck...what was a glorious sunny Sunday outside the Central Lending Library disappears as soon as my watercolour touches the paper.