Visit to London - part 2

My daughter absolutely loves The Science Museum, so it was a must-do on our London city itinerary and we wanted to get there before the school rush. I loved this fascinating optical sculpture

 and the accompanying photo by Berenice Abbott which inspired it's re-creation.

My daughter's hoodie had a galaxy pattern, so we attempted to envisage the infinite!

After an early lunch, we headed to the Victoria and Albert Museum. So much to see there! The Chihuly chandelier at the entrance signifies the start of the afternoon of exploration.

I didn't remember seeing this huge Burne-Jones painting on previous visits, so perhaps I had never been in this stairwell before? The V&A is a large museum, it is easy enough to get (happily) lost!

I was excited to see an advert about a Winnie-ther-Pooh exhibition, then disappointed when the dates didn't coincide with my trip to London. So when I came across the hallway of original illustrations, including several by EH Shepard I was quite delighted.

I thought I recognised the work of Edmund Dulac, one of my favourite golden age illustrators but I was wrong. This 1911 watercolour of King Mark and La Belle Isoud from Malory's Morte D'Arthur is by William  Russell Flint.

There was a Dulac nearby, however. It is difficult to take pictures of these illustrations, because they are behind glass, but the image is from Hans Christian Anderson's The Snow Queen. The snow queen's carriage is brightening the left of the picture.

I was curious about this illustration by John Everett Millais. I have recently seen the film Effie Gray, who romantically became his wife after an unconsummated first marriage to John Ruskin.

There was a whole section of the museum devoted to performance and theatre which was delightful, and again, a section I had not explored on previous visits. This circus poster is (most obviously!) the inspiration for The Beatles' song Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite.

There is so much to see at the V&A that repeated visits are a must. Exit through the gift shop is always interesting...A plethora of ceramic buttons caught my attention.

Paper doll cut-outs!

Before I was old enough to go to school, I remember my Mum making me paper doll cut-outs to play with. Her little drawings were formulaic and I remember how she would start with 3 incomplete heart shapes which would eventually turn into a hairline, bathing suit top line and then a bathing suit bottom line (where the legs joined the torso). The paper doll had points for hands and feet and the legs were joined. But I was fascinated by how the end product was always a paper doll that she would cut out and then put under semi-transparent writing paper in order to trace different outfits over the figure, which could then be cut out. I loved these cut-outs and she only stopped making them for me when I was about 7 -- she told me I could draw better than her and could now make my own. Perhaps my Mum was just too busy (I am from a family of 10 kids, and I have 2 younger siblings) but I was quite confident also that I could make my own paper dolls. 

I most certainly did make my own over the years, but I also enjoyed ready made cut outs. Recently I was telling someone about my Ginny Tiu cut outs which I remember as my first store bought cut outs. I loved Ginny Tiu, a child piano prodigy from Hong Kong who made regular appearances on the Ed Sullivan Show in the 1960s.

 At Xmas time in the 1960s one of my favourite surprise gifts was a miscellaneous box labelled "Time for Play" and it had a big clock on it. The contents included various games, puzzles and learning cards (such as how to tie your laces, how to tell time) but I remember more than once the box included Midge cut outs. Midge was Barbie's best friend, or at least she was in the 1960s!

One of my sisters and I made cut outs out of just about anything. We always looked forward to when the catalogues (for major dept stores in Toronto -- Eaton's and Simpson's) went out of date because then my Mum gave them to us to do with as we would. We would spend ages in our room cutting up the catalogues -- not only did we have a great population variety, but we could build flat dream houses. [With store bought paper dolls we always removed any tabs as we played with cut outs horizontally not vertically -- i.e., flat on the floor.]

I remember one time my sister and I cut up another sister's Rupert books. We actually didn't think she would mind, as we only cut out the characters that appeared in the page corners where you turned the page, Even though all the print for the stories was completely intact, we were still in big trouble...

So a few months ago I re-discovered what I now refer to as the "Grey Box". I was looking for some papers and opened a file box to be surprised that it was full of sketches, drawings and doodles which had somehow escaped the numerous purges and house moves I have made over the past almost 35 years. I was especially surprised to find two sets of cut outs that I made when I was around 17, occupying myself while I was sick in bed.

This young girl must have been my alter-ego as all the clothes are copies of the clothes I owned, except the green table-cloth dress which is based on a party dress belonging to one of my sisters. I say "alter-ego" because I considered the pose elegant while I thought I was clumsy and the figure is a blonde while I had dark brown curly hair...

These "medieval" cut outs were made around the same time. I think I was sick for a week (don't remember what was wrong with me!). I gave everyone names from Arthurian legend so Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall was the red haired man in green and blue, while the young fellow in the brown laced "leather" with puffy yellow sleeves and grey-green cape I named as Ambrosius (for Merlin's father according to writer Mary Stewart anyway!). I don't think I was naming people accurately for the legends, just the general character and names that I liked. I know at least several were just my imagination.

A few years ago there was a big Bowie "fashion" exhibition in the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. Although I didn't get there myself, my cousin in London did, and knowing how I was both a Bowie and a cut out fan sent me this memento.

London - Victoria & Albert Museum

There was so much to see at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, I am so glad I finally made it there! The V & A was just not on my radar, as I had pre-conceived (and incorrect!) notions about the museum's collection. At the main entrance one is greeted by this lovely hanging sculpture full of lights.

The entrance has a double foyer so this hanging sculpture of blown glass modules is also lovely to see.

The Jameel Prize 3 exhibition was on; for more information click here (link to the V&A which also includes short videos of the artists at work. "The Jameel Prize is an international award for contemporary art and design inspired by Islamic tradition. Its aim is to explore the relationship between Islamic traditions of art, craft and design and contemporary work as part of a wider debate about Islamic culture and its role today."

Although I was not allowed to take photos in this gallery, I found some photos online of the work that I particularly like. These two carpets by Faig Ahmed are based on traditional designs, but in the left one the upper right corner of the design is skewed and in the right one the top quarter of the design is pixellated! The designs were obviously worked out with the aid of a computer bringing the traditions to the digital age. This is both amusing and effective.

Laurent Mareschal created a temporary "carpet" from spices.

Here is a detail of Mareschal's spice carpet. Kneeling on the floor beside it a delicious aroma wafted to my head.

Commanding the gallery was Nada Debs's "Concrete Carpet" with Arabic script carved into it, the font designed by fellow Jameel Prize shortlisted artist Pascal Zoghbi.

The carpet was created with multi blocks of stone. Here is a detail. The Jameel Prize exhibition included more than works based on carpets -- these were just the works that appealed to me.

As well as the huge sections devoted to permanent collections of artifacts in ceramics, furniture design, clothing design, jewellery, sculpture, historical artifacts, etc, there are also curated thematic exhibitions. We saw one about photography as fiction, which included the work of Jeff Wall and Cindy Sherman among others. There was also a gorgeous and eclectic exhibition of British drawing from the last few hundred years. I was pleased to see two elaborate Aubrey Beardsley pen and ink illustrations, a beautiful flower sketch by Frederic Leighton, an early David Hockney portrait, and this fabulous drawing, "Head Study Two, 2009" by Alison Lambert. The drawing is done in charcoal and soft watercolour paper, and has a heavy patchwork texture as she has glued additional paper onto areas and continued drawing over that.

London - Sir Frederic Leighton at the V & A

I was in London last week, and among loads of things that impressed me, I saw some work by Sir Frederic Leighton at the Victoria & Albert Museum. I've always had a soft spot for the pre-Raphaelite painters of the 19th century (my interest in illustration and romantic bent rearing their heads!) so was pleasantly surprised to see an exquisite tiny flower drawing of Leighton's in an exhibition of British drawing. Even more exciting though, I stumbled across rooms 102-107, a large corridor, where mock-ups, a full size "cartoon", and Leighton frescoes were exhibited. The corridor was somewhat dim, I presume to protect the work.

This is "The Industrial Arts as Applied to Peace" -- difficult to photograph because of lighting and size. For a sense of scale, please note that the figures are life size! The arched room is panelled with more Leighton works.

This is a detail of an arch panel.

There is a smaller painting of the fresco which is a full mock-up.

 But the most exciting piece for me was the full size "cartoon"  for this fresco. I also found out why they are called cartoons - but that is another story!

What magnificent drawing!

I love this lion's head handle on the side of a jug.

I was reminded of what had attracted me to Leighton's work back in art school. I was just starting my journey into dreams, psychology, psychoanalysis, etc. and came across an image of Leighton's painting "Flaming June".

I still lived at home with my parents in 1980, and my younger sister was a great model - when she was asleep! Here is one of my sketches of her from that time:

I later turned this into a small painting (I don't remember what happened to it). From the same sketchbook, here is the working out of some colour -- with a strong Matisse influence:

Dee Dee asleep appears in many sketchbooks, and I did a large painting of her in 1980 or 1981. (At the time, many of my friends would jokingly express surprise if they ever saw her awake!)