A painting

Tags

AGCC, art., Canada., docent, guide, ingres, Museums, NGOC, paintings

Years ago in my first job as a guide-docent at the National Gallery of Canada I came across many paintings from as early as 1200 to today, many periods and artists from Europe and North America. We were trained by the Education dept., as part of our training we were also advised on what to expect from visitors. We were told to be careful with children under the age of 11 and with children between 11 and 16. We were told what not to show and how to avoid controversy or questions which might be delicate to answer. The real concern was not the kids but the parents, some parents who have a certain world view or philosophy of life might object to art depicting topics like nudity, violence, religious or biblical scenes, young naked children, dark colours or modern contemporary art like the surrealist art of Dali, Picasso, Magritte.

So what do you show exactly beyond a vase with flowers and more importantly how do you avoid such art on the walls as you walk through the galleries.

This painting is a case in point,  it is in the National Gallery in Ottawa on the Second floor. The subject is Actaea the Nymph on the sea, by Frederic Lord Leighton, in his Pre-Raphaelite style so loved by Queen Victoria.

So we were instructed by the Education Dept to avoid that corridor and if not, see if we could not attract the attention of the children to the opposite wall where one could look at Italian and French landscapes. Did you notice that Actaea is looking at dolphins? Kids love dolphins, they fascinate them. So one day I had a class of grade 5 student, so around 10 years old, also with our group was their teacher and one parent who appeared indifferent which is often the case.

I was trying to get this group of 20 kids to look at a painting by Camille Corot, The bridge at Narni.

We had just walked by the Venus by Lucas Cranach the Elder and one boy asked me why was the Lady naked.

So back to Actaea, while I do my best to speak of the Corot painting and the ruined bridge at Narni, I suddenly notice that I lost my audience, the kids are all looking at the dolphins. I look at the teacher and ask, what should I do? Teacher says; you better explain the dolphins. The children were oblivious to the naked Nymph and all they wanted to know was the names of the dolphins and where they could see them. Now that was a tough question to answer. After that episode I decided that whatever was in the Museum I would simply present and give honest answers to children’s questions. I have found that they are perfectly happy with that approach.

Kids are fascinated at that age by things they see and are trying to understand  and make it fit in their world view, which is completely different from the adult world.   Renaissance paintings with Biblical scenes of violence as a moral lesson, also attracts them, what they want to know is how was it done, not the violence itself.

Currently at the Art Gallery of the Confederation Centre I have not had this dilemma, with one exception recently. We currently have a study in our Summer show one art work the artist took as a subject La grande baigneuse de Valpinçon by Ingres and modernized or updated it.

So last week I had two groups of 13 year old students and the boys found it quite funny, sort of the funny embarrassed laughter of boys in puberty.

This is where it gets tricky as children enter puberty and their world changes drastically, no longer children but teenagers. Luckily I have lots of other works to show them and start discussions around. Never a dull moment at the Gallery.

London and Southampton

Tags

Chelsea, Islamic Art, Kensington, London, Museums, UK, V&A

One thing we both noticed during our trip through Ireland and then the UK is how foreign workers most of whom are EU Citizens work in the service industry. Gone are the days when Irish or British worked in that sector. It got us thinking that in the  event of Brexit, Britain will find itself in a very difficult position, all those EU workers in the service industry would go home or move to other EU countries. What will Britain do to replace them? The Brits are not going to take those jobs there has been in the last 30 years a culture change and you will find Brits working abroad but not at home and not necessarily in the service sector. In Hotels, restaurants, etc. staff is from a variety of European countries, not a Brit in site. It will be interesting to see how this situation evolves.

While in London we also stopped at the Victoria and Albert Museum. The V&A covers 12.5 acres (5.1 ha)[3] and 145 galleries. Its collection spans 5,000 years of art, from ancient times to the present day, from the cultures of Europe, North America, Asia and North Africa. The holdings of ceramics, glass, textiles, costumes, silver, ironwork, jewellery, furniture, medieval objects, sculpture, prints and printmaking, drawings and photographs are among the largest and most comprehensive in the world. The museum owns the world’s largest collection of post-classical sculpture, with the holdings of Italian Renaissance items being the largest outside Italy. The departments of Asia include art from South Asia, China, Japan, Korea and the Islamic world. The East Asian collections are among the best in Europe, with particular strengths in ceramics and metalwork, while the Islamic collection is amongst the largest in the Western world.

The V&A has its origins in the Great Exhibition of 1851, with which Henry Cole, the museum’s first director, was involved in planning; initially it was known as the Museum of Manufactures, first opening in May 1852 at Marlborough House, but by September had been transferred to Somerset House. At this stage the collections covered both applied art and science. Several of the exhibits from the Exhibition were purchased to form the nucleus of the collection. By February 1854 discussions were underway to transfer the museum to the current site and it was renamed South Kensington Museum.

The official opening by Queen Victoria was on 22 June 1857. In the following year, late night openings were introduced, made possible by the use of gas lighting. This was to enable in the words of Cole “to ascertain practically what hours are most convenient to the working classes”.

It is an immense museum and you have to choose what you want to see in the various galleries, one can become overwhelmed by the wealth of the collections. We picked to visit the Asian galleries on our visit and looked into Islamic Art. What is on display is of very high quality and is beautifully curated. It is also very well explained and the collections are part of established British policy to bring back to London treasures of conquered lands which at the time came under British rule. You can say the same thing about the French, German, Spaniards, etc who also had colonial empires. This is why museums in Europe have such extensive collections of Art from abroad.

Ceremonial dagger encrusted with semi precious stones, carved ivory, enamel, a gift from Fath Ali Shah of Persia (Iran) to Captain John Malcolm of the East India Company in 1810.

Gold and pink sapphires bracelet, Madras, India.

Chintz costume, a man’s morning gown made from Indian painted cotton, very popular in England, France and Holland around 1660. It is recorded in Samuel Peppys journal that he bought himself one around 1661. Much later chintz will become popular with ladies.

Fine stone carved window panels, exquisite design, Iran. This fashion of carving appears also in India, Syria, Egypt.

  

 Men’s Mughal Costume, was based on the Jama a tailored gown tied at the side and the Paijama trousers loose at the top but tapered at the lower leg. An elaborate turban (Pagri) was also worn at Court and a long decorative waist sash (Patka). Fine kashmir wool shawl were often draped over the shoulder, a fashion started by Emperor Akbar (1542-1605).

There were many other objects to see, making the visit most interesting. All this in only one part of the V&A museum.

We then went to lunch or Brunch this being Sunday with our friends J. and David Nice.

The House of Pre-Raphaelite painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1828-1882 in Chelsea

The Thames at low tide.

On the Thames this sculpture by Korean artist Ik Joong Kan, entitled Floating dreams. It is in front of the New Tate Modern Museum.

A small front garden of a house in Chelsea.

A street by our hotel in London

Now comes the time for our last leg of our trip, going home from Southampton on the Queen Mary 2. A 7 day crossing of the North Atlantic our destination New York.

Other sites in Dublin

Tags

Bloomsday, Davy Byrnes, Dublin, Fairies, Guinness, Ireland, James Joyce, Leprechauns, Museums, Pub

There are sites in Dublin we wish now we had the time to visit, one is the Guinness Distillery which occupies a huge area in central Dublin. It is the most visited tourist site in Ireland, 1.5 million visitors a year. Even the Louvre Museum or the British Museum cannot pull in that many people. Call it the power of a name or beer, who knows, I hasten to tell you that I am not a beer drinker and very seldom will I drink a glass of beer. However Guinness has pull and prestige factor and so I did try a glass of Guinness with fresh oysters  while we waited for our train on the platform in Westport, no this was part of Irish Train service but rather of the Luxury train Grand Hibernian package we were on, it won’t happen for ordinary train travellers, oysters do beat a bag of chips any day, if you see what I mean.

If you are in Dublin do go to Guinness for a visit it is worth it I am told.

We walked in Dublin and many of its street are for pedestrians. Another site we went to was the National Museum of Leprechauns, yes there is a National Museum dedicated to the little people. Most interesting, you are guided through and told many tales about Leprechauns and how Walt Disney maligned them the greedy bastard. Leprechauns are cobblers by trade and wear brown suits not green, or have anything to do with Lucky Charms cereals or any products on the market. They are very honest and must always answer truthfully a direct question, they are also bound by a promise made. The whole story about the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is also explained in a very funny story. It turns out that the pot of gold is there earnings from their trade as cobblers, so you understand why they wish to protect it, you would too if it was your money or your bank account. We were told that you should not fear the Leprechauns, they are harmless but in a forest be afraid of the Fairies, they can be quite dangerous and evil. The Tuath(a) Dé Danann are a race of supernaturally-gifted people in Irish mythology. They are thought to represent the main deities of pre-Christian Gaelic Ireland. Many of the Irish tales of the Tuatha Dé Danann refer to these beings as fairies, though in more ancient times they were regarded as goddesses and gods. The Tuatha Dé Danann were spoken of as having come from islands in the north of the world or, in other sources, from the sky. After being defeated in a series of battles with other otherworldly beings, and then by the ancestors of the current Irish people, they were said to have withdrawn to the sídhe (fairy mounds), where they lived on in popular imagination as “fairies.

A distinction to be made Fairies are not like Tinkerbell.

Map of Ireland showing all the magical sites where Leprechauns can be found.

The National Museum of Leprechauns was a delight and quite fun to visit, it opens the door to another world of the Irish Folklore.

We also went to some pubs for dinner or lunch, one we really liked was Davy Byrne a pub named after a character in James Joyce, Ulysses. But also a real man and the famous owner of the Pub at 21 Duke Street.

Davy Byrnes is of course famous for its patronage by many other Irish literary greats. Figures such as James Stephens, Liam O’Flaherty, Padraig O’Conaire and in later times Myles na gCopaleen, Patrick Kavanagh, Anthony Cronin and Brendan Behan fully appreciated its hospitality.

During the War of Independence and Civil War the premises was visited regularly by Michael Collins and Arthur Griffith. Davy Byrne’s nationalist sympathies were evident, permitting as he did the upstairs room to be used for meetings of the Irish Republican Brotherhood (IRB) and the outlawed Provisional Cabinet of the State, of which Collins was Minister for Finance. On one occasion, an officious barman clearing the premises at closing called: “Time, gentlemen please,” to which one customer replied, “Time be damned! The Government is sitting upstairs.”

Davy Byrne retired in 1939, and in 1942 the pub was acquired by the Doran family of Marlbourgh Street, who had been in the Dublin licensed trade for 50 years.

The Doran family are still here too, the premises now run by Redmond Doran.

Davy Byrnes’ excellent pub-food reputation, with seafood as its speciality, is famous throughout Dublin. Visitors at lunch and evening time can savour fresh and smoked salmon, and also crab dishes. A full range of hot meals and salads compliment the menu and visitors can enjoy a hearty meal of oysters and Guinness.

Davy Byrnes décor is original, authentic and pre-Second World War in theme. Boasting an art collection, visitors can appreciate the three educational murals of Joycean Dublin by Liam Proud, the murals of the 1940’s by Brendan Behan’s father-in-law, Cecil French Salkeld and the fine sculptures of Eddie Delaney and John Behan.

 

 

 

 

This and that

Tags

Assad, carpets, Civil war, Damascus, Diana Darke, Iran, Italy, Line C Metropolitana, Line C Roma, Museums, Roma, Rome, Russia, Souk al-arwam, Syria

Have you ever noticed that if you hear Jazz on the radio the announcer always has a smoky voice. It seems that you cannot have Jazz music without that voice, it goes together and this is true of every station I have ever heard, from Radio Jordan to Catalunya Musica from Barcelona or BBC3 or Radio-Canada, etc.

I just finished reading an excellent book My house in Damascus by Diana Darke.

Diana Darke is a fluent Arabic speaker and has specialised in the Middle East for over 30 years. The owner of an old courtyard house within the walls of Old Damascus, she is well known as an authority on Syria and has written for the Sunday Times, the
Guardian, the Financial Times and the BBC. Diana Darke is the author of several guides to Syria and Eastern Turkey.

At the moment Syria is in the news everyday and Canada is taking some 25,000 refugees selected by the UNHCR, people who reside in those immense camps in Jordan. Very low risk for Canada and mostly poor people with large families who could not flee elsewhere.

Diana Darke tells the story of the house she bought in the old walled city of Damascus surrounded today by the modern city. It is an area I know well, since I went to it many times to buy my carpets from the brothers Khaled and Anas Lahham in the Souk Al-Arwam in the days under the dictator Hafez and then his son Bashar Al-Assad.

1920 photo of Souk Al-Arwam in Old Damascus. The carpet shop is or was on the left of this photo a man is standing at the entrance.

Her house was from the Ottoman Period several hundred years old and she tells the tale of her Syrian friends and how she came about to buying and renovating the house, its history, her friends and how the Civil War starting in 2011 overtook them and she had to return to Britain.

It’s a very good book and very accurate in its description of the people and their terrible situation, something very few readers will be able to grasp the full horror of a people condemn to be bystanders in their own tragedy while the political actors great and small play. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to read about the ordinary human face of this civil war. I travelled and stayed in Syria many times during my 8 years in the region and while living in Jordan, I wish I could say I enjoyed my time in Syria but no, having to deal with the monumental stupidity, greed and sheer idiocy of the Baath Party and the government officials in Syria was enough to put anyone off the country.

As Diana Darke points out astutely the civil war in Syria could go on for many more years since Assad is unlikely to let go as long as Iran and Russia support him fully. Unless Iran is promised or given something they want from the USA and then they could switch camps and abandon Assad, but the prize will have to be fairly important for Tehran for this to happen. Then what will Russia do? As another observer pointed out, in Arab countries whenever there is a revolution it is always about political institutions there is never talk about enhancing or creating a new social framework and institutions.

Finally reading the Italian newspapers this news item, Line C of the Metro of Rome which has been under construction for 9 years and is 5 years late and 1 Billion Euros over budget has been shut down for gross mismanagement, 500 workers have been laid off, the City of Rome is 225 million Euros short and can no longer pay. The line will now end at the St-John Lateran Station only one third of it built. The two critical stations going by the Colosseum and down the avenue through the Roman Forums, the most archeologically sensitive area of the Eternal City will not be completed for the time being and the rest of the Line which was to go all the way to the Vatican and down to the Olympic Stadium may never be completed now since work has not started on that portion. The portion of Line C which opened last year only carries a third of the passengers it is meant to carry, the planning predictions were way off.

Another story which made headlines in this time of austerity in Italy with Museums forced to close or stay open only a few days a week, all have budget problems. How can this be with more and more tourists coming to Rome and flocking to the numerous museums?  All the money that is collected from ticket purchases, usually 12 Euros per ticket, only 30% actually goes to the Museums the rest or 70% of the profits go directly into the pocket of the company running the ticket app. online. Who allowed this to happen?  Another Roman story or farce.

None of this surprises me, this is the way things work or don’t in Italy. Some are saying, I am not kidding, where is Benito Mussolini to help us out of this mess, but I somehow doubt it. Even Il Duce would say that Italy was impossible to govern.

 

 

 

 

 

A new year, a new beginning and a new blog

Tags

Canada., Europe, Food, Museums, New Year, Ottawa, Rome, Travel, Wishes

Each year I update in some fashion my blog, a bit like re-painting a wall or re-decorating, a question of refreshing a presentation since time is passing and events of the past take on a different perspective. Per example when I first starting blogging I was in China, I started to put things on a blog to document what I was doing, it was a slow start. Then in Rome the blog took a life of its own because we saw and experienced so many things. We travelled in Europe and our experience were enriching. Now I am retired and though we still travel it is not as frequently and my life activity is different. I am not sitting at home, no not at all, I have many activities and I read a lot and keep busy. But our life now is here in Ottawa and it is not Europe, though we make an effort to live in a European style as much as possible. It is very much part of my life, I have been travelling to Europe since I was 12 years old that was 47 years ago. All this to say that in 2015 I hope my blog will take on a different look and cover different topics.

 

New Year Puppies enjoying the Festivities. Forefront Nicholas and in the background Nora.

Maybe I will talk more about my Museum experience and what I learn. Maybe more on food and recipes, I always love to read recipes. There will be posts about travel and friends. So keep reading.

Best Wishes to all and thank you for reading and commenting.

Happy New Year 2015!

A recording of 1930, Auld Lang Syne, with Peter Dawson, Australian Bass-Baritone (1882-1961). A spirited rendition.