In the gallery - again

Went to the Henri - Cartier Bresson expo at the Belgian Museum of Jewish History yesterday.  Great show - aside from being an excellent photographer he was witness to many of the key events of the 20th Century - from the Spanish Civil war, through the liberation of Dachau, the communist victory in China,  the independence of India, Paris '68, the civil rights and anti-Vietnam movements in the USA and much more.  He got to photograph Picasso, de Gaulle, Marilyn Monroe, Eisenhower, Gandhi (the day before he was assassinated), the Mountbattens  and so many other iconic figures of the 20th Century. A rich life well lived, although I always thought (and still think)  his best work was of street life in his adopted home city of Paris (see below).  In all a highly recomended show.

Getting in was a bit creepy - the museum was the scene of a fatal shooting last year in which four people were killed.  Getting in there now is like flying - full scan as you enter (but, then, that's the same at my local library these days) and four highly-armed army guards outside (the library doesn't have those).

After the Bresson expo I watched a harrowing film about the deportation of Jews from Belgium between 1942 and 1944 - detailig every train that deported more than 25,000 Jews from Belgium to Auschtwitz. Very few survived.  The whole video was particularly harrowing to me as some of the street scenes of the places where the Jewish community lived and were rounded up in the middle of the night are places where I regularly  shop.  One elderly Jewish guy described all the shops and houses in one street where his friends were taken from, half way through the interview he turned away from the camera, broke down and cried.

Tomorrow is freedom day in Wageningen: the place where the German army surrendered in the Netherlands.  There's a parade, a fly past and a big party.  I shan't be going this year - but think I will set aside a few minutes silence in memory of the Holocaust and pray that such a thing will never occur again.

In the gallery: a review of the Constant Permeke retrospective

On Sunday I went to Bozar with a friend to see a retrospective of Constant Permeke, a Belgian expressionist from the first half of the 20^th Century (the gallery we wanted to go was closed on Sunday). It had been heavily promoted (Bozar is among Brussels’ most prestigious galleries) and was well attended. His work work is  a mixture of sea and landscapes, nudes, drawings and painting of everyday peasant life (especially fisherfolk) and some bronze sculptures.  So in one sense he was quite a renaissance man, with a broad oeuvre.  He sold truck loads of art in his lifetime.  Half way round my friend asked why some artists made it – and by implication why others didn’t (Van Gogh only sold one painting in his lifetime). It was a good question as I was equally underwhelmed by his work.  His paintings of people’s daily lives were sombre and somewhat depressing (in the style of Van Gogh’s ‘Potato Eaters’), his land and seascapes lacked the luminosity of (let’s say) Turner and his nudes seemed derivative of other artists of the time (Picasso in his earlier days and Matisse etc.).  There were some OK pieces in the collection (the acid test is would you like that on your wall and few passed muster). At the end of the exhibition there was quote from the artist saying his life had been extraordinarily unremarkable. We both left the gallery feeling that the same could be said about his retrospective.  Maybe one needs to see unremarkable art sometimes to appreciate the remarkable stuff.

Sustainable transport

A few days ago I went to visit a centre for NGOs and non-profits to look at getting some deskspace on a flexible basis. It looks like a good place to network and keep in touch with development / environmental activities in a new city. Downstairs they had an exhibition of cartoons from an African artist. Many of them were about corruption and election rigging but I particularly liked this one.

For non-French speakers the caption reads 'our transport system is ecological and creates employment for women' . Just shows you have to be careful when formulating development policies - its not just a case of ticking a few boxes.

Back To Brussels part 2

Other highlights of my visit to Brussels included getting familiar with, and beginning to master, the city's labyrinth of road tunnels - with roller coaster contouring and multiple entries and exits.


I wouldn't have felt at all confident about mastering (or even taking on)this network without my newly acquired Tom-Tom. I do wonder how they work underground when they refuse to work, or give a location reading, when I am in a building.

A friend came to join me for the last couple of days and we enjoyed a couple of galleries and I was able to demonstrate my new-found prowess in navigating the metro and trams to get us to an out-of-the city centre gallery. Located in a former brewery in a run down neighbourhood, WIELS had a wonderful exhibition by Wangechi Mutu an artist with African roots who explores the paradoxes of a world in flux and the changing and conflicting identity of African women. We were both captivated by her subject matter and the broad range of styles and the techniques that she employs. Definitely a name to watch out for (tip for London-based readers- she has a solo exhibition there in the autumn). The afternoon was rounded off by a healthy, hearty and extremely cheap lunch in the gallery cafeteria that almost floored me and left me wanting a light and late supper (not that such a thing as a light supper exists in Brussels).




On our last night in the city the cycling theme reemerged as hundreds of skaters and cyclist congregated on the inner ring for a 'critical mass' ride. These events -which started off as protest bike rides - have now turned into regular social nights in which the young and fit reclaim the streets - effectively bringing large parts of a city's road system to a grinding halt and creating a safe environment for cycling and skating and one hell of a party.

In the gallery

Over the last few days my office has started to resemble an art gallery. I have been assembling the 2010 TextualHealing calendar and didn't have photos of all the works we wanted to include so this year's chosen artist bought the missing ones over here - so we could do a shoot on a sunny day. We had to wait almost week and now (reluctantly) I'll have to return some very lovely and colourful paintings.

In the tradition (established last year) of tempting readers without spoiling the suprise, here is one image that didn't quite make it on to the short list.

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Choosing a set of images is not just a matter of finding seven 'nice' images but of balancing themes, dominant colours and matching the images to the seasons. Unfortunately this one got edged out on all those criteria. I loved the shape of those gnarled old trees and the fortitude they display.

An uknown masterpainter

Some months ago I wrote about seeing a stunning painting in the Stadel Museum (Frankfurt). I eventually tracked down the painter (Charles Daubigny) and its title (Le verger) - but alas there is little about him on the web. Even Wikipedia only have a little more than a stub about him - which makes no mention of the painting - which I consider one of the finest impressionist era paintings I have ever seen. Almost worth a trip to Frankfurt in itself. (Hint to the Stadel please commission some posters or even postcards of it - you have an unknown gem there!!). A few weeks ago I came across another of his works in the Kroller Muller Museum but it wasn't nearly so heartstoppingly good.

The Kroller Muller is mostly famous for its Van Gogh selection - not the largest in the world - but by some accounts the most impressive and diverse. I visited it with my former PhD Supervisor, who had been to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam the day before and he concurred that it may have a larger collection but that there are more gems at the Kroller Muller.

The Netherlands has a history of producing outstanding world class painters and this is often attributed to the quality of Dutch light but the Kroller Muller gives you the chance to see how Van Gogh's painting completely changed when he moved to the south of France. In the space of two years he shifted from using a palette of browns and yellows and greys to employing the full spectrum of the rainbow, as if the absinthe mediterranean light had lifted a blind from his eyes. Which leads me to reflect that Van Gogh (like so many others) found his unique talent and greatness through becoming an ex-pat

In the gallery

This woman makes interesting e collages that are curiously retro and have a fifties or sixties, quilt embroidery feel to them. Check them out