The Sneaky Magpie

Yesterday I celebrated my birthday at Hix. It was just M and I as I am going away for a shoot to Weymouth on Monday and M is flying off to Seattle for a couple of weeks.

Hix is one of my favorite places to eat in London. They always have the nicest old fashioned dishes. I started with asparagus and the best hollandaise I have ever had and M had a very nice prawn cocktail. I must say, the bread was not as good as ours!

There was a slight problem with hubby’s main but that got replaced quickly with something delicious while I enjoyed a roasted chicken salad. I was also served a complimentary smoked salmon and Richard Corrigan’s soda bread. I never liked soda bread but this one was amazing: sweet and slightly moist.

We had to share just one dessert as the portions are rather generous, we picked a cherry blossom jelly. The cherry blossoms were interestingly nice, nor sweet neither bitter with a good texture. And it looked so pretty.

The wine and bubbly were equally good. All in all a very pleasant evening.

Today we popped to Royal Academy and obviously as soon as I got there I realised I totally missed Van Gogh. We had a look at Relics of Old London: Photography and the Spirit of Old City. It was interesting to see old pictures of London streets however the exhibition was tiny.

Afterward we went to Fortnum & Mason to pick up few English specialties for M’s American colleagues. We settled at The Parlour for a cup of tea and cake enjoying our last day together for few weeks.

Desperate to catch all the shows before they end I organised a tight schedule and stuck to it this weekend.

On Friday night I saw Ed Ruscha at the Hayward Gallery which was good but not mind blowing. Definitely few very good paintings. Afterward my friends and I went to BFI for some drinks, the new bar on the riverfront is so much nicer than the old setup and the chips are excellent too!

On Saturday I met another friend of mine at RA and saw Wild Thing: Epstein, Gaudier-Brzeska and Gill. A truly wonderful collection of sculptures and sketches. The most impressive being Bird Swallowing a Fish by Gaudier-Brzeska and Epstein’s Portrait of Iris Beerbohm Tree and the spectacular Rock Drill. Amazing show, really worth a visit.

We had a quick lunch in Soho and headed down to Somerset House to see Norman Parkinson: A Very British Glamour. Another great exhibition, a lot of pictures of Parkinson’s wife and iconic shots of Jerry Hall from the 70s. Well worth a visit, especially if you enjoyed Golden Age of Couture at V&A a couple of years ago.

Warmed up by the museum hopping we decided to end the trip at The National Picture Gallery to see the very entertaining Beatles to Bowie: the 60s exposed.

I watched very moving Wajda’s Katyn – a film about an incident from WWII and its aftermath that not many people know of.

And I almost finished watching Mad Men season 3, a thought of only 2 episodes left to watch is making me depressed. Drooling over Betty Draper’s outfits.

I often don’t see any exhibitions for few weeks and then happen to see a number of them in a very short space of time.

I probably mentioned more than once how much I love Tate Modern, however it does feel like a kindergarten if you visit during the weekend. That’s why my favorite time to go is on Friday or Saturday evening when it is open till 22.00.

Inflatable bunny by Jeff Koons at Covent Garden Piazza

A friend of mine and I went to see Pop Life: Art in a Material World. The exhibition is loud, shiny, busy and very pornographic. Andy Warhol occupies three rooms, there is a room of Takashi Murakami’s Japanese ‘fairy-tale’ world, Keith Harings’s Pop Shop, Emin, Lucas, Hirst, Kippenberg, Uklanski and way too much of Jeff Koons – his Made in Heaven series made me wonder: where does art end and porn begin?

There are few interesting works in the exhibition but a lot of it looks just tacky and dated in a bad way.

Feeling bit overwhelmed we went to see John Baldessari: Pure Beauty which also shows at the moment. This is really worth seeing, brilliant and funny visual one-liners. Clever and thought provoking art.

John Baldessari, God Nose

We also experienced Miroslaw Balka’s huge container in the Turbine Hall – you walk into blackness, your senses are confused, you’re walking in space, very unsettling however it does not last long enough, your eyes get used to the darkness very fast and the effect is over.

On Saturday I went to meet another friend of mine to see Anish Kapoor at Royal Academy of Arts.

Anish Kapoor, Tall Tree and the Eye

It was spectacular, his creations are things of real beauty: pigment sculptures (you feel like blowing the powdery surface), polished mirror stainless steel works, and Svayambh which is truly amazing – a door that slowly slides back and forth on wax through three rooms of the gallery scattering wax on walls as it goes through the arches. A wonderful show indeed.

To finish the arty weekend we also managed to pop to The Wallace Collection where the latest Damien Hirst paintings are. This is one of the most beautiful museums in London with a vast collection of old masters, home to Hals’ The Laughing Cavalier so it felt slightly invaded by modern art.

Hirst’s blue period scull paintings looked like badly ripped off Francis Bacon. Say no more.

And that’s it. I swear Hirst and Koons seem to be everywhere in London, I have had enough of them for a while.

Last week, having managed to see all the exhibitions from my list I felt rather pleased with myself. Two days later the Tate magazine arrived announcing the autumn schedule, I scanned through all the galleries and here is my new to see list:

Tate Modern: Pop Life show will include Kippenberg, Koons, Warhol and Hirst to name a few. There will be also a John Balderssari show and Miroslaw Balka will take over the Turbine Hall.

It seems to be the season of Pop Art, The Hayward Gallery is having a retrospective of Ed Ruscha paintings, this should be good!

Tate Britain: Turner and The Masters, I am really looking forward to this show, it will include old masters like Rubens and Rembrandt. I would suggest to visit this exhibition bit later in the autumn as it will be packed in the opening weeks. The gallery will hold the annual Turner Prize show too.

Somerset House is hosting Norman Parkinson: A Very British Glamour, expect a visual feast of some of the best fashion pictures ever taken. I must admit, I have never been to this venue, it has been on my list for ages. Now is the time to go.

Victoria and Albert Museum: Maharaja show, I really hope this is good, the last few times I went the exhibitions looked tempting but failed to deliver. The last one that I really enjoyed was The Golden Age of Couture which I went to see twice.

Royal Academy of Arts, probably my least favorite museum in London, will hold Anish Kapoor show. Looks very interesting.

National Gallery is showing a major exhibition of Spanish painting and sculpture from 17th century, Velazques and Zurbaran are among the artists. The Sacred Made Real show opens in October. This is my favorite gallery in London, I often go in and spend hours looking at the paintings from their permanent collection.

The White Cube Hoxton Square and Mason’s Yard will hold Anselm Kiefer and Damien Hirst shows respectively.

Fashion and Textile Museum have got Foale and Tuffin retrospective. I saw few designs of this iconic company few years ago at the V&A and loved every piece they produced.

British Museum:  Revolution on paper, Mexican prints 1910-1960. This is a real highlight for me.

I did miss one exhibition this summer which was Banksy vs Bristol Museum however Purple Cloud documented it very well so I feel like I have been there. Have a look here.

I haven’t blogged for a while, I’ve been totally swamped at work and had to sort out my house a little. Have a few things to catch up on: holidays in Naples and Dublin, Christmas and few exhibitions.

I’ve been rushing recently to see all the autumn shows before they finish and was left slightly underwhelmed. The only one that I really really liked was Francis Bacon at Tate Britain, went to see it three times. Very dark, aggressive, sad but beautiful pictures. Lots of emotions, lots of drama. In addition to this while in Dublin I went to the Hugh Lane Gallery where Bacon’s studio is recreated, more about it soon.

Tate Modern’s Rothko and Cildo Meireles exhibitions were ok, nothing to rave about though (to be perfectly honest I cannot get too excited about Rothko’s paintings so take no notice). Meireles’ show included two rooms with limited amount of visitors allowed and the queues were up to 1h for both, I lost interest. I did like the Babel tower and the crazy clock/measuring tape room but didn’t quite get what did the artist mean by the latter one. Conceptual art doesn’t do it for me.

The Turner Prize show was very disappointing, I went twice to see if any of the work will grow on me – it did not.

The Cold War of Design at V&A had a lot of different media on display but lacked strong pieces, I thought it was a little bit confused and missed the point.

V&A runs two more exhibitions – Fashion v Sport (which is probably finished now) and Magnificence of Tsars. The latter one is worth the visit. It shows some amazing pieces from 1720 to 1917: coronation clothes, casual wear and army uniforms. All stunningly made, fantastic craftsmanship.

Royal Academy tempted me with Byzantium – unfortunately another disappointment. There were few interesting objects like the amazing micro-mosaics and pretty little boxes but overall the show lacked something, it was really hard to compare the works, see how art developed over the period of over thousand years. Besides I had a feeling of being ripped off – the tickets were £12 per person and lots of the works came from British Museum and the V&A.

I just wonder, are we so spoiled by the choice in London and become too picky?

Wondering what to do on another miserable rainy Sunday I decided to catch the Vilhelm Hammershøi exhibition before it ended. I didn’t know the artist’s work and was absolutely overwhelmed by his style – peaceful, composed paintings with subdued colours and perfect straight lines.

Sunshine, 1900

Hammershøi was a recluse which shows in his paintings, most of them were views of his home: interior and exterior, portraits of his wife almost always painted from the back.

There were few very powerful paintings of deserted streets on a misty day, a couple of them of The British Museum and surroundings; haunted interior of an old ballroom and some beautiful landscapes.

I left the exhibition feeling content and satisfied.

It’s only the 2nd of September but it feels like autumn has been with us for a while. Rainy days, cold wind, Wellington boots and umbrellas are the daily reality.

I love autumn, in fact it is my favorite season, but I feel I didn’t have enough sunny days this year.

So what’s out there to look forward to? Well, there is great fashion, few good movies coming out, stodgy food, golden leaves and open fire, there are also few very exciting exhibitions coming out.

Victoria and Albert Museum presents Cold War Modern: Design 1945-1970. This exhibition will focus of post war design from around the world, it will show how design was shaped by history and the difference between the West and the Iron Curtain. It will cover design, architecture, film and art of that period. Opens September 25th.

The Hayward Gallery will be showing Andy Warhol Other Voices, Other Rooms from October the 7th. It will be a major retrospective of the artist’s films, TV programmes, painting and illustrations. I wonder what the connection with Capote will be?

Francis Bacon exhibition starts on 11th September at Tate Britain. It will include the triptych Thee Studies for the Crucifixion and portraits of Pope Innocent X. This is something I am really looking forward to see. Furthermore the Turner Prize is back.

Tate Modern – Rothko exhibition opens on 26th September, perfect for everyone who likes big canvases with soft squares.

Royal Academy will show two big exhibitions: objects from collection of the Fondation Maeght by Miró, Calder, Giacometti, Braque from October 4th, and Byzantium 330-1453 from October 25th.

From 15th October National Gallery will treat us with great masters in Renaissance Faces – Van Eyck to Titian.

Apart from the current blockbuster Hadrian at the British Museum look out for Babylon exhibition starting on 13th November.

National Portrait Gallery will have few shows, one of them is a must see – Annie Leibovitz A Photographer’s Life 1990-2005. Starts October 16th.

Additional treats are the opening of the new Saatchi Gallery in October and ICA scrapping their entry fee.

This autumn will be exciting!