The Royal Academy have a lovely exhibition at the moment about John Singer Sargent and his paintings of the sea. The paintings range from some of his earliest attempts at painting when travelling with his mother to full blown glossy ‘Academic’ works.
Sargent clearly spent a lot of time observing children at the beach, sailors, ships and ports. There are some delightful images of limpid blue French coasts; but equally crowded ports with sail and ropes criss-crossing each other. Also there are some very atmospheric pictures of rising and swelling expanses of waves.
A superb quality show of Sargents.
I was really looking forward to seeing Jackson Browne at the Royal Albert Hall as I love Running on empty; Doctor my eyes; Fountain of sorrow.
However something was wrong with the sound as all the music was so loud that it distorted his voice. He did not seem to know what he was going to sing; he had hardly got going before a break came up but before that we had to listen to a poor song by David Linley.
I decided to leave to avoid being more disappointed. Listen to Lastfm and hear his classics!
If you have not been to the Gagosian gallery near Kings Cross now is the time to go as the current exhibition about Picasso and the Mediterranean years should not be missed.
The range and quality of the objects is exceptional: they are a must see for anyone with a passing interest in Picasso. The series of 10 paintings where a traditional bull morphs into just a single line drawing alone is worthwhile.
However added to that are some lovely paintings of the town of Vallauris; charming paintings of his children, funny cardboard cut-outs and great sculptures.
Go enjoy the Gagosian!
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I went to see Dandy in the underworld at the Soho Theatre not knowing anything but liking the title. I did not know that it is based on the true life story of Sebastian Horsley who aimed to shock and sadly died as I wrote this item.
Milo Twomey is certainly entertaining as Sebastian if initially somewhat monotone. Once he warmed up and we get to know Sebastian better a more moving, if still funny, story unfolds. On the whole this is a quite entertaining play if not for the easily shocked.
If you have any interest at all in art, drawing or design this is a must see exhibition.
The British Museum have assembled a stunning collection of drawings by Italian giants including Leonardo, Raphael, Fra Angelico and Michelangelo which might never be seen in one building again.
As well as admiring the exquisite expertise, you can learn about the development of perspective, how the artists challenged each other and of course Italian city states.
My favourites include Mantegna’s Lazarus slowly raising himself from the ground; and Leonardo’s infant Christ playing with a cat that looks like you could stroke it.
I first saw Angelique Kidjo hosting a Miriam Makeba tribute at the Barbican tribute event which made me book to see her again at the Barbican.
Kidjo has genuine charisma, dynamic energy and is massively entertaining, a true African superstar. She can sing up, not just a storm, but a tornado with a cut glass voice of tremendous volume but can still produce slower songs to devastating effect.
As well as singing Kidjo also dances like the devil which included getting the audience on the stage to dance with her.
Listen to her or read the Guardian review.
This is the fourth time that I have seen the Gotan Project (@O2AcademyBrix) and again I was not disappointed. In fact the whole event went too quickly.
The audience goes wild at end of Gotan Project show.
As usual their dynamic electronic, very modern, interpretation of tango based tunes really had the audience swaying in time. A nice feature, as part of their Tango 3.0 album, was a strong trumpet sound. As usual the fascinating back projections were integral to the performance which unfortunately does not come over on cds.
If you have not heard the Gotan Project before you might have on TV adverts or on various film soundtracks.
I was not sure whether Four Lions directed by Chris Morris would be any good but went anyway and did not regret my decision.
The story of some, not very bright, Jihadist bombers from north England does not seem like the obvious stuff of comedy. However I spent most of the film laughing, even if others were not sure whether to laugh or not.
If you want to see police snipers arguing if a man dressed as a Wookie is a bear after having shot him, or suicide bombers accidently blowing up themselves up, this is the film for you.
Cesaria Evora really was barefoot at the Barbican last night, as befits the ‘barefoot diva’ from Cape Verde. I am lucky as I have now seen her twice and each time the live performance is much better than any cd.
She was backed by a great group of musicians who made up for her somewhat static performance. Standout songs: Sodade and Besame Mucho.
There was also fascinating support from Ballake Sissoko (Kora) and Vincent Segal (Cello) who playing very contrasting instruments hypnotised the audience.
I have written before about Le Corbusier and not being so keen on influence on later architects therefore I could not pass up the chance while in Marseille to visit one of his most famous buildings the Cite Radieuse.
Seen from the front my previous thoughts were confirmed as the building looks drab and ran down. However going round to the back revealed that the building is being refurbished and gives a clearer impression of the original intention.
The pictures of the refurbishment work show the cleaned up the Cite Radieuse has some good points its still not an excuse for brutalism.
