The Great Art Debate

[William the White]

I'm betting you'd really enjoy the 22 second Tracey Emin reel...

So... to continue...

On Saturday we went to Dulwich Art Gallery (beautiful building and grounds - my first visit) for an exhibition 0f two 'Arcadian' painters - Cy Twombly and Nicolas Poussin.

Twombly died two months ago and there were loads of fawning obituaries in the serious press... I didn't know his work at all but he is clearly regarded as a master of modern art...

Poussin is a famous 17th Century realist...

I thjink Poussin is a fine painter but emotionally pretty sterile...

I can't find anything at all in Twombly's work that even vaguely interests me... crap... imho...

check it out...

Twombly...

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=cy+two ... 23&bih=698" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Poussin...

http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/artis ... as-poussin" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This was not £12 well spent...

[TANGODANCER]

I'm betting you'd really enjoy the 22 second Tracey Emin reel...

Decidedly not Will, decidedly not. I had a late lunch.

[thebish]

I'm betting you'd really enjoy the 22 second Tracey Emin reel...

Decidedly not Will, decidedly not. I had a late lunch.

Tango... just out of interest, have you actually ever seen any of Emin's work "live" (ie - not a grainy photo in the Daily Mail)?

[TANGODANCER]

I'm betting you'd really enjoy the 22 second Tracey Emin reel...

Decidedly not Will, decidedly not. I had a late lunch.

Tango... just out of interest, have you actually ever seen any of Emin's work "live" (ie - not a grainy photo in the Daily Mail)?

Not one single iota, but I've seen countless debates, write ups, dozens of art-reviews, her websites and a couple of hundred pics on the internet over quite a few years. Enough for me to decide it isn't for me. Have you?

[thebish]

I'm betting you'd really enjoy the 22 second Tracey Emin reel...

Decidedly not Will, decidedly not. I had a late lunch.

Tango... just out of interest, have you actually ever seen any of Emin's work "live" (ie - not a grainy photo in the Daily Mail)?

Not one single iota, but I've seen countless debates, write ups, dozens of art-reviews, her websites and a couple of hundred pics on the internet over quite a few years. Enough for me to decide it isn't for me. Have you?

yes. glad we cleared that up.

for someone who is not interested in her work and thinks it is an utter sham and worthless..
reading DOZENS of art reviews and looking up 200 pictures of her work is a noble effort! i suspect you have a secret liking for it - and are too ashamed to admit it lest you damage your no-nonsense plain-man image wrt art!

[TANGODANCER]

I'm betting you'd really enjoy the 22 second Tracey Emin reel...

Decidedly not Will, decidedly not. I had a late lunch.

Tango... just out of interest, have you actually ever seen any of Emin's work "live" (ie - not a grainy photo in the Daily Mail)?

Not one single iota, but I've seen countless debates, write ups, dozens of art-reviews, her websites and a couple of hundred pics on the internet over quite a few years. Enough for me to decide it isn't for me. Have you?

yes. glad we cleared that up.

for someone who is not interested in her work and thinks it is an utter sham and worthless..
reading DOZENS of art reviews and looking up 200 pictures of her work is a noble effort! i suspect you have a secret liking for it - and are too ashamed to admit it lest you damage your no-nonsense plain-man image wrt art!

Correct. Love it. Glad we cleared that up. ( Mind you, since she makes Katy Price look like a recluse where publicity is concerned it's very hard not to know and love her.). As you were.

[Lofthouse Lower]

You two

[TANGODANCER]

You two

[Lofthouse Lower]

[William the White]

Yep...

Thank God for that.

Postcards and coasters; all he's good for.

And very good - it is, after all, a beautiful blue...

[William the White]

The third gallery we visited was, without doubt, the best experience... The National Portrait Gallery is free (though the Tories may be altering that soon) and so good...

I'd never been before, though it's a long-term fave of my partner and she was able to shove me in front of the unmissable and prepared to be patient when other stuff caught my eye...

We went from early Tudors to the start of Victoria... all we could manage in three hours...

So we went from a time when only royalty was painted... to paintings of men who signed the death warrant of a king... to persistent astronomers... to poets... to reformers and philosophers...

We were, in a sense, looking at the democratisation of our country... In room 20 we ended... in front of a huge painting of the house of commons on the day the Reform Act of 1832 was passed - a very slender step but essential for what was to follow...

And, above all, this gallery seems to me a tribute to that most valuable human impulse... curiosity...

So good... so free... I'll be back, there are two centuries still to be explored...

[TANGODANCER]

Now that really does sound interesting. Somewhere I've never been.

[William the White]

Now that really does sound interesting. Somewhere I've never been.

It's really excellent, Tango... The quality of the paintings is variable, but mostly very high and sometimes outstanding... But the sense of our country I got from it (and my partner - why she loves it) is extraordinary... And doesn't matter if you are from the left or the right, you are there somehow...

And, of course, the portrait is one of the truly great art forms - witness thebish's posting of the Lucien Freud a little earlier... the video couldn't kill the painting star...

[TANGODANCER]

On Saturday we went to Dulwich Art Gallery (beautiful building and grounds - my first visit) for an exhibition 0f two 'Arcadian' painters - Cy Twombly and Nicolas Poussin.

Not sure what's Arcadian about the Twombly fellow Will. That's definitely one in the eye of the beholder. Poussin yes, but Twombly?

[William the White]

On Saturday we went to Dulwich Art Gallery (beautiful building and grounds - my first visit) for an exhibition 0f two 'Arcadian' painters - Cy Twombly and Nicolas Poussin.

Not sure what's Arcadian about the Twombly fellow Will. That's definitely one in the eye of the beholder. Poussin yes, but Twombly?

Mystifies me as well... The idea that the two go together in any way is pants of a very smelly order... The gallery describes them that way, not me (hence the quote marks)...

What do you make of the artists?

I have to say that even Poussin leaves me cold...

[TANGODANCER]

Don't actually make anything of Twombly, but Poussin is interesting. His "En Arcadia Ego" has had some fair publicity because of legends, Holy Grail, Templars, Cathars, Languedoc, Mont Segur etc, Sauaniere (sp?) etc, but his detail is very good. Not saying I like all his stuff, but I can appreciate his skills. There's a lot of painting/artists linked with "sacred geometry" theories including some of the Dutch school. I find it interesting without getting carried away.

[William the White]

Don't actually make anything of Twombly, but Poussin is interesting. His "En Arcadia Ego" has had some fair publicity because of legends, Holy Grail, Templars, Cathars, Languedoc, Mont Segur etc, Sauaniere (sp?) etc, but his detail is very good. Not saying I like all his stuff, but I can appreciate his skills. There's a lot of painting/artists linked with "sacred geometry" theories including some of the Dutch school. I find it interesting without getting carried away.

Yep - interesting is where I am also...

Poussin is, I feel, very considered in what he does, and then does it well... sacred geometry sums it up well...

[TANGODANCER]

Don't actually make anything of Twombly, but Poussin is interesting. His "En Arcadia Ego" has had some fair publicity because of legends, Holy Grail, Templars, Cathars, Languedoc, Mont Segur etc, Sauaniere (sp?) etc, but his detail is very good. Not saying I like all his stuff, but I can appreciate his skills. There's a lot of painting/artists linked with "sacred geometry" theories including some of the Dutch school. I find it interesting without getting carried away.

Yep - interesting is where I am also...

Poussin is, I feel, very considered in what he does, and then does it well... sacred geometry sums it up well...

Try following up on it with a few searches. There are actually many geometrical shapes to the paintings that are only obvious when pointed out. Again, interesting enough to check out.

[Bruce Rioja]

I can hear the sound of 'the piss being taken'. (Which in itself is a pretty good title for a painting.)

Mate, I'm actually aching with laughter. Thank you so much. What a superb start to the day.

[Lofthouse Lower]

The third gallery we visited was, without doubt, the best experience... The National Portrait Gallery is free (though the Tories may be altering that soon) and so good...

I'd never been before, though it's a long-term fave of my partner and she was able to shove me in front of the unmissable and prepared to be patient when other stuff caught my eye...

We went from early Tudors to the start of Victoria... all we could manage in three hours...

So we went from a time when only royalty was painted... to paintings of men who signed the death warrant of a king... to persistent astronomers... to poets... to reformers and philosophers...

We were, in a sense, looking at the democratisation of our country... In room 20 we ended... in front of a huge painting of the house of commons on the day the Reform Act of 1832 was passed - a very slender step but essential for what was to follow...

And, above all, this gallery seems to me a tribute to that most valuable human impulse... curiosity...

So good... so free... I'll be back, there are two centuries still to be explored...

Sounds horrendous