Un viaje a Real Academia de Artes, Londres. ('Royal Academy',Burlington House, Piccadilly, W1J 0BG)

La Real Academia es una institución artística de Londres, que promueve el conocimiento, entendimiento y práctica de las artes visuales internacionalmente.   Hoy quiero ver la exposición  'Ai Weiwei'.  Llevaba semanas deseando verla.  De lante de la Academia hay 'Arbol', el obra de Ai hecho de arboles muertos desde las montañas del sur de China. 

Desde niño, la vida del artista Ai Wei Wei ha vacilado entre reserva a manos del gobierno y su capacidad ejercer la libertad personal.  Nació en Beijing en 1957.  Cuando tenía solamente un año, su familia fue enviada al exilio; su padre fue denunciado como 'fascista' a pesar de siendo un miembro del partido comunista.  Fue una parte de la campaña contra los intelectuales, y su padre era un artista famoso, que había estudiado el arte en Paris.  

La familia se quedó en exilio por veinte años.  Su padre fue condenado a trabajos forzados, tenía que limpiar los baños por años.  Ai Weiwei sufría condiciones terribles. Vivían en un agujero en el suelo con madera para el techo.  Por eso, aprendió como hacer la ropa, muebles y ladrillos. Es indudable que este influyo su arte del futuro.  Ha dicho que tenía poca educación, pero en sus cueva había un enciclopedia frances, que le dio la única oportunidad para estudiar el arte durante toda su niñez.  Cuando se murió Moa Tse Tung en 1976 la familia pudo regresar a Beijing y Ai Qing, el padre, recobró su honor.   

Ai se graduó de Beijing Film Academy.  Allí había formado un grupo que se llamaba 'Las Estrellas', que volvió a introducir el concepto de auto expresión.  El grupo tenía que luchar contra las autoridades para lograr el derecho de tener exposiciones.  Desilusionado por el estado chino Ai salió hasta los estados unidos en 1981.  Se quedó allí por once años.  Por principio mejoró su ingles y estudiaba más pero pronto estaba viviendo en Manhattan, de que se había enamorado.  

He visto hoy su obra más importante de esta época.   Se llama 'Hombre Colgado' y es un retrato de Marcel Duchamp.  Esta hecho de una percha metal.  

En 1993 Ai regresó a Beijing puesto que su padre se enfermaba.    Se volvió ensimismado con la cultura de su país y produjo en 1995 uno de sus obras mas importantes 'Cayendo Una Urna de Dinastía Han".  Es una serie de tres.  Aquí la ultima. 

Este obra desafía tradición y duda el significado de la cultura y su valor financiero.  Ai tiene un serie de Coca Cola jarrones y por controvertido el dueño de uno lo cayó .  Hay una diferencia? 

Ai Weiwei ha llegado a ser un comentarista política muy activo. Se comunica por medios sociales muy efectivamente, pasa horas diariamente en Twitter y le considera tan un forma de arte como un medio de comunicación política.   

Después del terremoto de Sichuan en 2008,  se volvió twittear y bloquear mucho.   Se enfadaba y me recuerdo del trabajo incesante de Picasso cuando estaba produciendo Guernica.       

Preguntaba constantemente a las autoridades cuantos personas se han muertos?  Cuales son sus nombres? Porqué pasó?  La realidad era que los colegios eran de calidad muy mala, miles de estudiantes se perdieron las vidas y en total 90.000 personas estaban muertos y más de un millón se pusieron sin techo.  

Por fin, Ai obtuvo los nombres de los estudiantes muertos.   Pero pagó un precio muy alto.  Su blog fue cerrado, instalaron cameras en su casa y le pusieron en la cárcel y le dieron una paliza tan fuerte que sufrió un hemorragia de cerebro.  Fue tratado en Alemania.  Me parece que si no hubiera viajado a este país, nunca habría recuperado.  

Ai muestra todos los nombres en la exposición

Ai también ha documentado la calidad terrible de la construcción de los colegios por recogiendo con diligencia las barras de acero y haciendo con ellas su obra de 200 toneladas ' Recto' en memoria de todos los niños y adolescentes.  Está delante de la lista larga los nombres.  

Ai y su equipo construyo contenedores grandes con ventanas.  Se puede mirar adentro a modelos de Ai y sus carceleros.  Estaban con el todos los días.  Nunca decían nada, nunca hacían nada.  Se sentía muy intimidado.  

Por fin, aquí 'Recuerdo de Shanghai'.  Esta construido con ladrillo de la galería de Ai que el gobierno destruyo en 2011 como un castigo por su critico de las Olimpiadas.  Contiene una cama hecho de palo de rosa de la dinastía Qing. 

Imagen de http://assets.inhabitat.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2014/04/Ai-Weiwei-6000-Stools-Exhibition5-e1396620303852.jpg.

Y 'Para Siempre Bicicletas' su araña de luces en la ultima sala. 

He disfrutado mi día muchísimo.  La exposición me emocionaba y interesaba.  

Después mi hija y yo almorzábamos y yo caminaba por Hyde Park.   Fue una experiencia muy buena. 

  

Another Sunday in Oxford

Today I once again visit the Harris Manchester College Chapel.   I described the chapel in my blog, Meg in Oxford.    

https://draft.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=9132087080831761368#allposts/src=dashboard

I identify strongly with the Unitarian approach and usually enjoy the services here.   Today the focus is on the abolitionist work of John Wesley who was born on 17 June 1703 ( 28 June in the modern calendar), the fifteenth of nineteen children born to Samuel Wesley, Rector of Epworth, and his wife Susanna.  The Wesleys lived in an impoverished area and worked tirelessly for social justice. This puritan parental influence would be the inspiration for John Wesley’s work, and that of his brother Charles, both of whom who went on to found the Methodists.  John, a graduate of Christchurch, Oxford, like his father, became a clergyman.  He believed that Christian living depended on acts as well as faith.  He was vocal about ordinary people being excluded from the church. And although he was always fiercely loyal to the established church he was often barred from the pulpit for his opinions.  He therefore  began to address the public in open areas, giving rise to ‘Field preaching’ as a feature of Methodism.

He is said to have preached 40,000 sermons and travelled 250,000 miles. John famously said "I look upon the whole world as my parish'  Until his death in 1791 he continued to campaign on social issues such as prison reform and universal education. 

In the 1730s he visited North America including Georgia, which was then a British colony, and there he came into contact with enslaved people. This experience left him with a loathing of slavery but at first he felt unable to act on this.  His chance came when Granville Sharp contested the case of a runaway slave (James Somerset) in the courts. John Wesley was inspired by a text by the Philadelphia Quaker, Anthony Benezet. 

Two years later, in 1774, he wrote a tract called "Thoughts on Slavery." In it, he attacked the Slave Trade and proposed a boycott of slave-produced sugar and rum. In August 1787, he wrote to the Abolition Committee to express his support. In 1788, when the abolition campaign was at its height, he preached a sermon in Bristol, one of the foremost slave trading ports. In those days, an anti-slavery sermon could not be preached without considerable personal risk to the preacher and a disturbance broke out. 

He maintained an interest in the abolition movement until he died. Wesley also famously said: "Give liberty to whom liberty is due, that is, to every child of man, to every partaker of human nature. Let none serve you but by his own act and deed, by his own voluntary action. Away with all whips, all chains, all compulsion. Be gentle toward all men; and see that you invariably do with every one as you would he should do unto you'
So......... after lunch at The Ashmolean I decide to see the exhibition 'Titian to Canaletto: Drawing in Venice, With a contemporary response by Jenny Saville' I prefer the latter; it is fantastic.  The exhibition traces the role of drawing in Venice and its importance over three centuries, attempting to dispel the myth that Venetian artists, including their greatest painter, Titian, had no interest in drawing.  In a parallel exhibition, Jenny Saville has produced new work on paper and canvas in response to the powerful qualities of Venetian drawing.  She transcends the earlier work with themes around Femininity and Motherhood.

I end my day out with a walk back to the bus stop via Christchurch Meadows.  Life continues. 

Another Day out in London

I feel pleased with myself for making an early start (on Phyllis the bike in light drizzle) and arriving at The National Gallery at 1000.  First stop today is the Goya Portraits Exhibition which is here till 10 January and yes, I will be back if I can. It is wonderful.

  http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/

Francisco de Goya y Lucientes 1746 - 1828 is one of my favourite artists but I still did not expect to be so moved and delighted.  His characters seem real, full of character, I feel as if they are living.  This painting portrays the serious illness which nearly killed Goya in his forties and left him totally deaf.  

All medical students should study this painting.  

Next stop is the National Gallery.  We are jumping to the 20th century to see my companion's favourite artist.  

http://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/giacometti/exhibition.php

Alberto Giacometti (1901 -1966)  was an Swiss Italian sculptor, painter, draughtsman and printmaker.   He was born into an artistic family and was interested in art from an early age.  He did not suffer the misfortune of Goya, who lost many children with only one adored son making it to adulthood.  Nevertheless Alberto had his problems.  He seems to have been dogged by lack of self confidence.   

Examining this masterpiece of his Mother, 1950, it is hard to understand why he felt like this. 

 Next we brave the rain and all pervading dampness and head to the ICA.  (Institute for Contemporary Arts) on The Mall.  We are going to Side On by Prem Sahib.  Read about Prem here 

https://www.ica.org.uk/whats-on/prem-sahib-side-on

 He brings us bang up to date and is a lot of fun.  I love the jackets and hoodies. 

Upstairs we are invited to walk on his 'floor'.  I notice skid marks and other evidence of human feet.  I ask if I can clean it with a wet wipe but I am told Prem did not specify about that so maybe I shouldn't.  

My companion wishes the floor would swallow her up.

The ICA is also a nice quiet lunch spot in Central London.  

After lunch we head for The Courtauld Institute where my companion did both undergraduate and postgraduate study.  We step back in time to mid 20th century and have yet another great art experience.   

Soaring Flight: Peter Lanyon's Gliding Paintings are really interesting.  I do not understand gliding but do love these paintings. Though abstract they conjure up coastal views and aviation easily and the colours make me feel cheerful and warm. 

http://courtauld.ac.uk/gallery/what-on/exhibitions-displays/soaring-flight-peter-lanyons-gliding-paintings

Peter was born in 1918, the same year as my mother in law and was a Cornish painter of landscapes leaning heavily towards abstraction.  He died in his forties following a gliding accident.  I wonder what he could have achieved in later life. 

And so, it is farewell to my lovely friend and back to my sweet little bunny via tube, GWR and cycling in drizzle. 

Time for a beer! 

A day out in Gloucester

The arrival of our visitors from NYC (via Andalucia) gives us the excuse to do some exploring.  We need to deliver them to a sheep farm on the Welsh Borders so decide to break the journey at Gloucester.  We were last here for an ordination some years ago and in the more distant past I would travel fortnightly for seminars.  Today is damp and mild, not too bad for wandering. 

The docks area has been transformed, tastefully it has to be said, into Gloucester Quays Outlet.  But Malls were not on our US visitors' agenda!  The Quays are part of the city’s historic docks area which can trace its roots back to the 19th century.  It was once the hub of the UK’s most inland shipping port, on the River Severn. Today pleasure boats have replaced the ships and barges and the docks are  a 'visitor attraction'.  Apart from shopping it seems they have outdoor theatre and weekend food markets.  There is also a Waterways Museum and the Regiments of Gloucestershire Museum. 

The Victorian Warehouses behind have been restored as residential property.  

We have a wander into town and happen across the lovely Saint Mary de Crypt Church, which, sadly, is closed. 

The church was first recorded in 1140, and includes a number of surviving Norman features. It was rebuilt and extended in the late 14th century, incorporating some of the 12th and 13th century work, and further work was carried out in the 15th and 16th centuries.  

In 1643, during the Siege of Gloucester in the First English Civil War, the church was used as an ammunition factory and store.  The founder of Methodism, George Whitefield, gave his first sermon here in 1736. 

T of N is interested in this shop as it bears my maiden name, but I feel sure I have no Gloucestershire connections. 

Next stop is the cathedral.  I am sure this will impress them!  

There has been a place of worship here since Saxon times.  This building was begun in 1089.  Prior to the dastardly work of Henry VIII and Thomas Moore, the cathedral was a monastry.  Thus it is one of the few surviving abbeys.  It was saved because Edward II is buried here.   

By now we deserve refreshment and head for Tank.  

Tank opened in May this year on the original site of the Gloucester Brewery, which had been in existence for four years.  The pub offers a wide range of craft beers and real ales including those from Gloucester Brewery and from it's own nano brewery.

The welcome we receive is second to none. 

We need to be home before dark, so after a very tasty sandwich lunch and Gloucester Gold for the non drivers, we drag ourselves away.