An Avalanche of Culture!

valeriehuggins0

Dec 4, 20246 min read

I have just had an avalanche of culture while on a trip to London. Living in the South West of England, I find that when I venture to London I try to do as much as possible within a couple of days, and although it fills my soul with beautiful memories, it can also be a tad overwhelming! But I am so fortunate to have a dear friend to share the experiences with as I indulge in my cultural quests.

I started my adventure at the V&A Museum to see the The Fragile Beauty exhibition which showcases over 300 works from Sir Elton John and David Furnish's extensive photography collection. It is curated into sections such as fashion, reportage and desire. and reflects their personal journey through the history of photography from the 1950's to now.

It was a privilege to see iconic works from renowned photographers like Richard Avedon, Diane Arbus, and Nan Goldin. I particularly liked the images of famous icons, such as Marilyn Monroe and Frank Sinatra (who is pictured walking alongside his body double!), while the record images of 9/11, which included Richard Drew’s Falling Man from 9/11, were harrowing. Each section showed photography's capacity to capture the 'fleeting moment' in human experience as well as cultural narratives, and I found it absolutely absorbing.

I was particularly fascinated by these images of Elton's children, created by Adam Fuss:

and this is the final image in the exhibition, created by Trevor Paglen in 2020, using AI!

So much to take on board from the array of images I had viewed I stepped outside for a break. I saw this scene and just got lost in the flow of making my own images:

After a day walking in the beautiful grounds of Chartwell, and getting to know Winston Churchill's paintings, the next joy was The Silk Roads exhibition at the British Museum. The 300+ artefacts on display are used to tell the story of the exchange of goods, and the spread of religions, ideas and technologies, across Asia, Africa and Europe from about AD500 to 1000. The use of a soundscape of horses and camels, along with the projection of stunning mountains, paths and rivers on to the walls, gave it an immersive feel.

I soon realised though how ignorant I am about so many aspects of human history as I marvelled at the displays and at the amazing creativity of humankind. For example, I had never heard of the Sogdians, who I learned were Iranian-speaking people from Central Asia (present-day Tajikistan and Uzbekistan) who were key to trade along the Silk Roads. I was also amazed that the artefacts that were made of fragile materials such as pottery, glass and paper had survived through the centuries.

Some of the narratives were heartwarming, others heartrending, but they show how our journey to globalisation began, and how integral the slave trade was to the process.

We did find that the one downside to the exhibition was that it was very, very crowded. It was hard to stop and read all the information or gaze fully at the objects, before feeling the need to move on to let others in. It is a timed, ticketed event - maybe they should sell less tickets for each slot!

Anyway, after a break for lunch and to gather our thoughts we plunged into the world of Van Gogh! The new exhibition Van Gogh: Poets and Lovers marks the National Gallery's 200th anniversary and shows over 60 paintings and drawings from the artist's transformative years in Arles and Saint-Rémy during 1888-1889. As a huge fan of Van Gogh, I was thrilled to have this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see all these masterpieces together. As Rachel Cook in The Guardian notes: The "Portrait of a Peasant (1888), a painting of an old gardener, Patience Escalier, with a green-tinged beard, has never before left the Norton Simon collection in Pasadena, California. The Philadelphia Museum of Art has sent Sunflowers (1889), enabling it to hang beside the National Gallery’s Sunflowers (1888) for the first time since they were in the artist’s studio; together with La Berceuse (The Lullaby, 1889), which has travelled from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, these form a triptych, as the artist always intended".

"Portrait of a Peasant (1888)

A photo cannot do justice to the wonder of this painting - the gold of the hat just glows!

Sunflowers (1889), La Berceuse (The Lullaby, 1889)Sunflowers (1888),

It was wonderful to see multiple versions of Van Gogh's most celebrated works, such as Sunflowers and Van Gogh's chair, adding to my understanding of his genius. I also experienced some surprises as I encountered new paintings and aspects of his techniques for the first time, appreciating the innovation that occurred in his work in these few years. The workers in the fields, the strollers in the park, the dark trunks of the trees in the garden, each one offers new insights and his use of colour and movement is just astonishing. Here are just a few:

I thoroughly recommend that you go! It is on until January 2025.

The next day, we had another treat as we went to the Courtauld Gallery to visit the Monet exhibition - another of my favourite artists and another once-in-a-lifetime event! Titled Monet and London: Views of the Thames, it offers an extraordinary exploration of the artist's works created during his time in London between 1899 and 1901. It is the first time that these works have been exhibited together in London, fulfilling the artist's ambition. I was intrigued to see masterpieces like Waterloo Bridge and The Houses of Parliament, which highlighted Monet’s fascination with the changing light of London's foggy atmosphere.

I was surprised to learn that Monet would set up his easel on a balcony at the Savoy Hotel to capture his views of the Thames. He was fascinated by the way that the fog and sunlight mixed with the smoke from the factories chimneys, and how it changed so rapidly. He would start one canvas and then put it aside and quickly start another as the light altered. He took over 100 canvases back to France with him to complete. He enjoyed working in series, and created a whole visual experience from multiple canvases of the same subject, saying that the individual pictures 'take on their full value only in the comparison and succession of the entire series'. I have often played with creating sets but seeing the Monet's images curated and grouped together in this display was eye-opening:

Claude Monet (1840 – 1926), London, Parliament. Sunlight in the fog, 1904, oil on canvas, Musée d'Orsay, Paris, Photo © Grand Palais RMN (musée d'Orsay) / Hervé Lewandowski

Fig 3: Claude Monet (1840-1926), Waterloo Bridge, soleile voilé signed and dated 'Claude Monet 1903' (lower left), 1899-1903, oil on canvas, Private collection. Photo © Christie’s Images / Bridgeman Images

It was a meditative experience, following the progression of light across a sequence of paintings. But again, tricky at times to step back and compare and enjoy the paintings as s set because it was busy. Although, we did chuckle at the number of people taking selfies with the paintings, individually and in groups, because to do so they had their backs to them!

The exhibition runs through January 2025. For more details, you can visit The Courtauld Gallery's website.

Our final visit was to the National Portrait Gallery. Time was pressing and we could not stay long if I was to get to my train on time, but I was eager to see the Taylor Wessing Portrait Competition images. We had enjoyed it in 2023 and were once again impressed by the variety and eclecticism of the portraits. The winner this year is an unconventional portrayal of motherhood, Sonam, by Steph Wilson. There are some exceptional portraits to see, including these in monochrome, Father by Diana Markosian, which my friend was particularly taken with:

and this one of 90 year-old Roosje with her collection of antique dolls by Harmen Meinsma. She dresses up every day in a party dress! This photo is filled with joy, colour and it makes me want to find out more about Roosje and her fascination with dolls:

There is also a People's Choice and I voted for Frankie Mills: Kitchen Embrace, from the series Good Evening, We Are From Ukraine, 2023.

This image jumped out for me initially because we are from Devon and had hosted some refugees from Ukraine. But on looking more closely I was so struck with tenderness of the gesture that had been captured. Nothing staged, composited, manipulated. Just a genuine fleeting moment in human experience. And it touched me.