The Sneaky Magpie

I have spent a lot of time at V&A lately. As the museum has got a lovely indoor cafe and even better outdoor space it’s the perfect place for meetings and fun.

I have visited the Grace Kelly show which was really really lovely. Grace had an incredible class and style which, among other things, was reflected in her wardrobe. Apart from beautiful ‘movie siren’ dresses and classic suits she loved fabulous Madame Gres’ gowns, floating, kaftan-like things of beauty. I was surprised how tall she was and I couldn’t help but think of Betty Draper throughout the exhibition.

I have also visited Horace Walpole and Strawberry Hill which made me really want to visit the real thing. Unfortunately it is closed for refurbishment till autumn so I will have to wait.

And last but not least I have attended Osman Yousefzada’s fashion show which was a lot of fun. It’s my first fashion show and I loved it. The pictures came out rather badly, here are a couple of acceptable ones.

My weekend started at Osteria Antica Bologna in Northcote Road, a nice family run Italian restaurant where I enjoyed delicious scallops with lentil, apple and parsley salad accompanied by good wine and fabulous company. I actually tried to recreate the lentil salad but it wasn’t as good, truth be told I used the wrong kind of apple. If you are ever in Clapham Junction area do go, it’s a fantastic place for lunch, dinner or drink. Beware of a slow service but the wait will be worth it!

Saturday was all about food shopping and a very early spring cleaning of the flat, we have thrown out a bagful of old papers and organised a lot of cupboards. We also visited the local charity shop to offload some stuff where I couldn’t resist buying F.Scott Fitzgerald collection of short stories for 50p.

After last two weeks of ebay madness I hardly have things to get rid of which feels so good.

Sunday was spent on cooking and playing with my little niece. I baked Allegra McEvedy’s Swedish apple cake which is more of a pudding than a cake, especially when served with good vanilla ice cream. Very easy recipe, it takes about 10-15 minutes to put everything together and 50 min to bake.

Got to read a little too, Vogue and ELLE arrived, The Sunday Times had a good article on Mad Men which btw won the best drama at Golden Globes for the 3rd year in a row, well deserved!

I am reading Chekhov’s stories and this weekend I enjoyed Ward no6. I also got D.V. by Diana Vreeland which I am very much looking forward to. Following the Norman Parkinson show at Somerset House I decided to re-read The Golden Age of Couture – the book accompaniment to one of my favorite exhibitions.

I watched the rather bad Breaking and Entering (a total waste of time) and the very graphic yet beautifully shot Antichrist.

Few things I am looking forward to:

a visual feast of A Single Man thanks to Dan Bishop

visiting V&A to see Quilts, Grace Kelly and Horace Walpole shows, and might even pop in to see a rather intriguing sounding The Metropolitan Police Service’s Investigation of Fakes and Forgeries

Foal and Tuffin at Fashion and Textile Museum should be fun, along with a stroll down Bermondsey Street

William Eggleston at Victoria Miro Gallery

Irving Penn Portraits at NPG

whole lot of good stuff at the Tate Galleries

buying some plants – I quite like the idea of mother-in-law’s tongue in nice mid-century pots, at the moment I own no plants whatsoever, even my basil died so this will be a challenge.

I had a great day today and yesterday, I have posted near to 30 items on ebay and they caused a stir! Fingers crossed all will sell which will give my wardrobe much needed breathing space. I have decided that if I haven’t worn something for a year or longer I will never wear it again and it must go. I have also revisited the boxes of designer treasures that are not such treasures now I look at them, no classics, time to go. My fashion investments will remain in the bag and shoe stock.

I have loaded a bag for charity shop and will deliver it to Oxfam with all the ebay failures.

You know all the tasks that get put away like mending your clothing, polishing shoes and sewing missing buttons on? They have been staring at me from the depths of my wardrobe for some time and yesterday I finally faced them all at the same time. Such a relief.

I have invested into a small catering business in Philippines on Kiva. I really hope these ladies do well.

I have purchased two nice belts from All Saints, in brown and black leather. They are my only sales hunts so far, unfortunately the other belt sold out so I don’t have a picture.

I have really cracked on with my book pile, I have managed to read:

High Raise the Roof Beam, Carpenters by J.D. Salinger

Seymour an Introduction by J.D. Salinger

Nine Stories by J.D.Salinger

I know it is a lot of Salinger but he is such a good writer, I also found out that he is still alive, 100 years old!

The Most Beautiful Woman in Town by Charles Bukowski

The Faithful River by Stefan Zeromski

I have decided to put away Ulysses and The Corporation, at least for now.

So the only remaining books left are Tropic of Capricorn and some Chekhov stories and plays. This means I will be able to move onto some brand new books very soon. Really looking forward to it.

I have watched the 2 new episodes of Cranford and am awaiting the DVD of the first series, I might even start reading the books. I am quite glad I have not discovered it earlier because I am in real need of a costume drama fix.

I have made it to Tate Britain today to see the wonderful Turner and the Masters show, they had some amazing Rembrandts and Canalettos. I also checked out the Turner Prize which is definitely better than last year’s and glimpsed at some beautiful sculptures in the hall. This reminds me of few more exhibitions I must see and the time is running out. Especially for Ed Ruscha at The Hayward (Friday 6.00-10.00pm two for one deal) on till the 10th of January, Maharaja at V&A till 17th January and Jacob Epstein, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska and Eric Gill at The Royal Academy till 24th January. I knew I left it too late and now will have to rush.

The Mill by Rembrandt

And tomorrow I will have to take it easy….

Yesterday we braved the cold and wind and had the first barbecue of the year in our friend’s garden in Notting Hill. We even had blue tarpouline roof! How very English.

Watched Promised Land by a prolific Polish director, Andrzej Wajda. The films tells a story of three friends opening a textile factory during the industrial revolution in the city of Lodz (where I am going this summer, very exciting!) and how it all goes wrong. The film is full of amazing imagery and great actors including a beautiful actress Kalina Jedrusik. I forgot how pretty she was.

The film shows how greed and debauchery can bring people to ruin. It also shows the contrast between the rich industrialists and the poor folks flooding to cities from villages.

Unfortunately didn’t get to V&A as my friend had a major flooding in her apartment but I did manage to catch the Van Dyck exhibition on it’s last day at Tate Britain. I am not a Van Dyck fun, the paintings are bit flat, faces lack expression, the proportions are very often wrong. He clearly couldn’t paint hands and at the later stage of his career employed someone to do it for him. Having said that it was worth a visit, I do like to see exhibitions dedicated to one artist as it allows me to look carefully at their work and decide whether I like them or not.

So far this month…

… I’ve been to Oxford for a day, if you go you must visit the Pitt Rivers Museum – it’s got the craziest collection of ‘souvenirs’

…failed to go to the seaside due to the incorrect tickets/bad weather/ill husband

…Been catching up on movies, finally saw the Marc Jacobs and Louis Vuitton documentary and Control. Both are very good.

…Watched the whole two discs of Jan Svankmajers’s short films, love love love his animation

…been discovering Spotify, Blondie and David Bowie are on my playlist today

…ordered a veg box from Gregg the Vegman, it arrives tomorrow with some fabulous spring greens and asparagus, cannot wait, hope it’s good

…waiting impatiently for strawberries and peonies

…rediscovering Kurt Vonnegut

…celebrated my birthday at Wolseley, amazing place

…failed going to any exhibitions so MUST go to Tate Britain to see the Van Dyck show which finishes this weekend; will also hopefully catch Baroque (not my favorite period in art but Waldemar Januszczak made me curious) and Hats at V&A thanks to my lovely friend with a membership card

…started all healthy diet and signed up for weekly Pilates classes

…started reading the best Chanel biography ever

That’s all for now.

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?

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!