The Globe Theatre

An unusually warm day - we were a bit early - Starbucks had a nice air conditioned view of the theatre.

No photos allowed during the performance - so this was
quickly taken as the players arrived.

The Globe has a quirky history and has always been full of irreverent people wanting a bit of action. Attending a Shakespeare play here was on our Must Do list and finally we did it. My head was delighted but my buttocks protested greatly!  Even with a cushion for a pound I needed to stand up an hour in and got a prompt telling off from an eagle eyed usher. I wondered later if I was blocking her view. After intermission people seemed to be allowed to wander in and out of the groundling (at the peak of summer this was called the stinkard) space without showing tickets. 

An actor, Richard Burbage, leased land from a Mr Allen in London and built his amphitheater. It was based on the coliseum model but on a miniature scale. Plays were only staged in summer because the building had a doughnut roof.  This design allowed natural light in which illuminated the players much better than candle light but gave no protection from the weather. Those sitting on the afore mentioned torturous seats kept dry under the doughnut roof. It was built to entertain 1500 people paying a penny per play but it was not uncommon for 3000 to jam themselves in.

The Box Office.  This term was created in the original Globe - Money for tickets was collected in a chest(box) then taken to a small room at the rear of the theatre(office) to be counted during the performance. A world wide term courtesy of The Globe

Oh torturous seats - no backs on the front row and less leg room
than an economy airline sardine seat.

Mr Allen refused to renew the lease one year so while he was celebrating Christmas out of town, Burbage and his carpenter friend - Peter Smith, dismantled the building and stored the materials in the carpenter's yard - eat your heart out IKEA.  As the lease clearly said that everything on the land belonged to Burbage, Mr Allen was only able to fume at the fine print and loss of the building he thought he had tricked away for himself. To be fair Mr Allen may only have wanted to close the playhouse down. They were not popular with the more religious middle classes living in the area as the 'wrong' sort of folk were attracted into their streets.

Waiting outside the East door. Tar and thatch in view.

In 1599 Burbage found a site to lease close to the Rose Theater, the Swan Theater and a Bear Baiting pit on the other side of the Thames in Southwark.  The carpenter and his men reconstructed the oak frame then plastered it with a mix of animal hair, clay, chalk and sand. The structural timbers were tarred to protect them from the elements which creates the Tudor black and white look.

Unfortunately the tar and the thatch created a furious fire when some canon special effects, in the playing of Shakespeare's Henry VIII, ignited the roof.  It to burnt down to its brick icosagon (20 sided polygon) foundations in less than an hour. The Globe had lasted for 14yrs after opening in 1599. The only person injured was a guy whose pants caught alight but a true friend put the fire out with his pint of ale.

Today the Globe is always tied with Shakespeare's name, he had acted for Burbage and written plays but it wasn't until the rebuild in Southwark that he became a partner of the company and paid a sum of £10 (2 years of a shopkeeper's wage) along with many others for the privilege. He was only one of many authors that had their work performed there.

Left - Ben Johnson, Poet Laureate at one point.  Center: William Shakespeare  Left: A portrait found in the Corpus Christi College library (Cambridge) and thought to be of a young Christopher Marlowe.  Brilliant wordsmiths!

Thought to be a Self Portrait of Richard Burbage.
See an excerpt of an article about him at the end.

The Lord Chamberlain's Men performed many different plays at The Globe, on tour and when they became the Royal warrant players(now the King's Men) as King Jame's favourites, at Hampton Court and Whitehall. History tells us that Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603) attended the Globe both officially and in disguise in the few years she lived after its opening. And she would have seen many different playwrights not just the Bard. An estimation has been made that around 3000 new plays were written and performed between 1560 and 1640. In these 80 years around 40 of Shakespeare's are known to have been written and performed. Christopher Marlow and Ben Johnson were another couple of many famous playwrights of the times.

Plagiarism was a word that Shakespeare did not invent; in his day nobody cared if a new play was a rework of an ancient tale. Comedy of Errors has the same plot as a Roman story he would have studied at school by Plautus and The Taming of the Shrew was a rewrite of one of his contemporary's plays. Even Romeo and Juliet has lines in it copied from someone else - the original ending had them married with kids and a happy ever after.  What people wanted was action and new stories.  As only 30% of the male population and 10% of the female population could read it is quite understandable that oral story telling was still so important. Flags would go up outside the theaters to show that a performance was about to begin, red for a history play, black for a tragedy(sad ending - usually because of the main character's character flaw) and white for a comedy(happy ending - not necessarily because it is funny. We watched King John, a history play and the way it was acted had us laughing all the way through.)

Sweetie bags from Hardy's - who would have thought they could have caused such embarrassment .
Did anyone get a bruise by a Yorich white chocolate skull?

Playwrights earned a pretty good wage for the day, they got about £5 per play.  Sometimes these would be jointly written though so the funds had to be shared and royalties were never paid. Authors had no rights over their work once it was sold. It paid writers to take a plagiarism shortcuts if they found a plot formulae that worked or they didn't have time or inspiration to be completely original. Some summer seasons they didn't make a lot of money because of the plague. London mayors would order any large public places to close when there was a threat of an outbreak to reduce the amount of contact between people - hopefully stopping the spread of the disease. Really it is remarkable that Shakespeare's friends were able to find any copies of his plays( handwritten and scored over because paper was so expensive) to put in the First folio after his death in 1616.

Every play had to be approved by the Master of the Revels - a court appointed position that censored works before production. Of course jail and head chopping for politically incorrect plays meant that imaginary countries, foreign lands, euphemisms and histories that pandered to the ruling monarch and their ancestors were the order of the day. Political correctness in those days had nothing to do with religious niceties, controlled levels of violence or rating for sexual content.

Some of the plaster work inside the theatre. The woman looks as if shes saying - that'll be enough staring at me, that bloke over there is saying something important!

When the company had the Globe rebuilt after the 1613 fire, they were wealthy enough to insist on a tile roof instead of the cheaper thatch to prevent another fire and much more decorative plaster work. In 1642 the Puritans closed all the London theaters because of their immoral influence.  The Globe became tenement housing and was eventually torn down.

The flag at the top of the pole was red - indicating that the performance was a history play.

Today's Globe theater exists because an American came to England eager to celebrate the Bard's greatness.  He was stunned to learn that there was only one little plaque in Southwark in remembrance of Shakespeare and the Globe theater. Sam Wanamaker (this is his true name even though the temptation to say - 'he wanamaker Globe' makes it seem unlikely) was an actor and director. His first job in the 1930's was a Shakespeare play in a estimated construction of the Globe in Cleveland Ohio.

Sam Wanamaker next to the plaque he found in the 50's - photo from 
http://www.theguardian.com/stage/theatreblog/2009/sep/02/sam-wanamaker

After 23 years of persistence and assistance from others who bought into his dream, Mr Wanamaker was able to purchase some land one street closer to the river than where the original had stood. He saw the building begin but died before it opened officially in 1997. There is an attached indoor theater named after him.

The Shakespeare's Globe Trust did lots of research and designed a replica. The two pillars holding the roof over the apron stage are made from matching trunks of Oaks. One of the bricks uncovered by archaeologists in the original building's foundations was analysed and copied so the 20 sided theater would have the same base. Craftsmen were hired to build it in the same way as it would have been - with the edition of modern health and safety demands.  Health and safety made other demands that altered the design, it had to have fire escape doors and had to get special permission from the city council to go against the rule that no building in London should have a thatched roof (made in 1666 after the great fire of London). It was ordered to have fire retardant materials under through and on the roof.  They numbered seats to prevent authentic overcrowding and put higher barriers on the gallery seats.

Left:East Tower door where we began our ascent. Right:A shot through the ground floor door with the throne visible on stage.
In the shop earlier Petal chose a T'shirt with 'Something wicked this way comes' written on it and Willow choose the season's play list )Justice and Mercy) printed down the back.  M got a pen (not a duck feather quill) and of course I got the guide book .

And so the Globe rose again in London, the West End being the center of a modern theater culture today so the Globe is now surrounded by office buildings, restaurants, apartments and galleries instead of it's brotherhood of escapism. Across the river St Paul's still stands and a new bridge connects the banks.

I had been waiting until one of our favourite plays were announced but gave in to watch King John, one of Shakespeare's less popular plays, and consoled myself with the idea that being in the building would be enough. I was so surprised - the actors made this play funny and sophisticated.

King John was chosen as a nod to the anniversary celebrations of the Magna Carta this year. It was barely mentioned but we all know that King John was bullied into signing it by his barons. The document removed the monarch's right to take land or imprison people at will. After seeing his sneering at the Pope and his envoy in the play it is hard to believe that the Pope took John's side and abolished his responsibility to it because of his right as King.

Jo Stone-fewings played a superbly sardonic John and made you actually like the King and feel dismay as he was misunderstood(even though he ordered the death of a child). The fantasy 'Phillip the Bastard' (supposedly the illegitimate son of John's brother, Richard the Lionheart), played by Alex Waldman reaches into the audience and demands attention. Queen Elanor (John and Richard's mother) played by Barbra Martin looked and sounded as if she had just stepped off the boat from medieval Aquitaine.

Alex Waldman starring as Phillip the B.

There was a lot of Gregorian chants that were mostly in tune and the fight scenes carried their heavily organised structure lightly. A few of the actors played different main parts, who was who required more concentration(because of face recognition) than understanding the language. I am always amazed at how easy Shakespeare is to understand 1/2 way through the first act when it takes a lot of effort to get through a whole play when reading it. They are not for reading but for seeing and hearing.

A couple of my favourite lines:

Grief fills the room up of my absent child,
Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me,
Puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words,
Remembers me of all his gracious parts,
Stuffs out his vacant garments with his form:
Then have I reason to be fond of grief. (3.4.92) 

(When Constance - wife of King Richard hears her son has died jumping off a castle wall where he thought himself imprisoned.)

Life is as tedious as a twice-told tale,
Vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man. (3.4.108)

Walking back to the tube past Southwark Cathedral(since 1905) Trying to get just the right shot of the new Shard and Gothic tower, I lost the family so wandered back past the Bread baking school, the Borough markets to the stairs to the station and was surprised not to see them. I rang them and got a mouthful about irresponsibly getting lost! They were vexed because they had gone looking for me.  Oh dear I feel the Granny genes catching up!

The relationship between script and actor - an interesting theory about the lack of Shakespeare's fame upon his death.

"Richard Burbage is considered to be the first great actor of the English theatre. He achieved success as performer by the age of twenty and during his career he appeared in plays by Jonson, Kyd, Beaumont and Fletcher, and John Webster. He also played many of the major Shakespearean characters, including Othello, Hamlet, Lear, and Richard III. "It is likely that Richard III was the most popular of all Shakespeare's plays with the Elizabethan public; it provided a superlative part for Burbage" (Rowse, 130). 
Legend tells us that a woman fell in love with Burbage when she saw him play Richard III and begged him to come to her chambers that night under the name of King Richard. But Shakespeare overheard the proposition and, as a joke, left the theatre early to take Burbage's place. Shakespeare was "at his game ere Burbage came. Then, message being brought that Richard III was at the door, Shakespeare caused return to be made that William the Conqueror was before Richard III" (Rowse, 130).

The shock and sadness over Burbage's passing may be the key to our understanding of why so little was written on Shakespeare's death just three years earlier - a theory put so eloquently by C. C. Stopes in Burbage and Shakespeare's Stage:

"Shakespeare was out of it all now - away in the quiet Stratford Church he lay. And Richard Burbage, having a son at the end of the year, in memory of him called the child by the name of '"William." It has often been noted by enemies that the world did not seem very much distressed about the death of Shakespeare. No one seems to have grasped the true reason. Shakespeare had retired from the stage, as an actor, some time before he died. His personal appearances in London were rare.
And when the end came, and the creation of plays from that source ceased, we have every reason to believe that there was an increase in the number of the performances of his plays. For in the characters Shakespeare wrote for him Richard Burbage attained his greatest glory. Men did not realize that Shakespeare was dead while Burbage lived. His power of impersonation was so great that he became his characters....We have only to turn to the poems referring to Richard Burbage to realize that it was in the death of Burbage that to the world our Shakespeare died.” "

Mabillard, Amanda. Richard Burbage. Shakespeare Online. 21 Nov. 2000. (28.6.2015)

Rowse, A. L. Shakespeare the Man. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1988.
Stopes, C.C. Burbage and Shakespeare's Stage. London: A. Moring, Ltd., 1913.

The Globe also sends out troops of travelling players in the summer season - much like in Shakespeare's day. Willow and Petal went to see their production of Romeo and Juliet at the Cambridge Arts Theatre on the very hot 1st day of July. They were both impressed with Mercutio - played by Steffan Donnelly.

The theatre is a good size but goes mostly unnoticed behind a tiny street facade.

Tripping to London

Piccadilly Art Market
Hung on the fence of Green Park

... London, that great sea, whose ebb and flow

At once is deaf and loud, and on the shore

Vomits its wrecks, and still howls on for more

Yet in its depth what treasures! 

- Shelley
‘Letter to Maria Gisborne’ (1820), from Posthumous Poems (1824)
http://www.cf.ac.uk/encap/skilton/poetry/shell02.html for the complete, rather comprehensive communication.

We would need so many more years to find all those treasures. However we are valiant in our efforts and travel down to the capital as often as time and finances allow. It would seem that everyone in England travels up to London, regardless of their geographical position- this grates, so in my antipodean ignorance I maintain that we trip down to London from Cambridge. Once returned to Sydney, there will be plenty of time to dream of travelling up!

The entrance created for the Museum. The war entrance was through an internal staircase from the government offices above.

On the weekend of the V.E. day (Victory in Europe - end of WWII but not the Pacific) anniversary celebrations, we got down in time to miss the crowds but enjoyed the barricades across the Mall allowing free reign to pedestrians. We joined a long queue to visit Churchill's War Rooms whose museum access is opposite St James Park Lake. This gave plenty of water fowl entertainment as we waited. Walking there from a parking station just off Trafalgar square, we passed the Horse Guards parade ground which had been busy with the official pomp of the day. 10 Downing St overlooks this area, the newly reelected Mr Cameron would have had a pretty good view from his ensuite window.  

The Mall all dressed up for VE day.

There have been a lot of documentaries aired on Churchill recently, most have enjoyed lifting the lid on his heroic status to show all the chaff that really stuffed his suits. Surely this age of cynicism is populated by very few who believe that heroes are faultless so why is the venom so pungent in these docos? It would seem that for many around these green isles there is an inherited hatred of the man who engineered the disaster of Gallipoli in WWI, ordered the military in to break the miners strikes and struggled to understand that the masses were unwilling to maintain their 'place'. 

Left: The map room Right: His popularity did not lead a Tory victory at the next election - Labour won.

Waiting to be let in beside the Clive Steps

The War rooms celebrate this Noble Prize for literature winner and celebrated artist's 'finest hours' which many argue were those leading the allies to a teeth grinding victory against the Nazis. His celebrated speeches filled the air as we walked around looking at the exhibitions. He supported the huge cost of the unlikely Enigma experiments, he pushed intelligence gathering through human efforts as well and it would seem he made the lives of those serving the country around him - unpleasant because of his absolute determination to never give in and his capacity to work fueled by cigars and brandy instead of sleep. His aim was to get the job done. With a few dirty tricks the Americans and Russians jumped in and helped a limping UK and Commonwealth free Europe from the foe. 

We found the War rooms, that Hitler and his Luftwaffe were completely ignorant of, absolutely fascinating. It is a miracle that any of them survived the living conditions and the work hours demanded over those 6 years. Churchill once said, "We are all worms, but I do believe that I am a glow-worm." Was he arrogantly observing his brief moment of brilliance or was he referring to his ability to work long hours through the night? This was the strangest, out of context phrase displayed around the museum paths.

Plaques in the pavement lead around special walks.

The Canadian gates leading to teh Canadian war memorial in Green Park.

 Afterwards we walked through St James park toward Buckingham Palace then up through Green Park to the Bomber command memorial. After WWII the bomber crews were dumped by the motherland faster than they had ever been able to drop the bombs they were ordered to.  The post war horror of huge civilian deaths from bombing cities like Dresden and Berlin resulted in the cold shoulder for the thousands of men who died or survived, doing their duty. Churchill didn't acknowledge them in his VE day speech and there was no medal or memorials made for the campaigns. Finally a memorial was unveiled by Queen Elizabeth II on June 28 2012; but even then it was paid for by the veterans themselves. Close by is the Wellington Arch surrounded by other memorials including the New Zealand and Australian ones. 

The Bonber Command Memorial is tucked up the end of Green Park opposite the Piccadilly under pass.

The statues were modeled from photos of men from Bomber Command.

 

The Australian Memorial - The large words list the battles fought at and the tiny words list all the towns from Australia that soldiers called home.

The New Zealand Memorial - each post has a different aspect of Aoteraroa. The fantail need a good dusting!

 Not sure that Peace(One of many statues around the Victoria monument outside the gates of Buckingham Palace) would go to war for a flake cone ice cream but she is certainly looking interested!

Watford Sation

Another weekend, we grabbed a filled roll from the Watford station after Messy Church at St Johns, and headed in to see 'The Wallace Collection'. M had heard about this from G(a regular visitor to this free museum when working in London years ago) and was keen to see the biggest collection of armour in Britain. They claim to have the 'finest museum collection' of Sevres in the world including many pieces from the country bankrupting dinner service Catherine the Great ordered form France's premier porcelain artists. The ice cream cooler from the Tsaritsa's (whose name wasn't even Catherine -this Polish royal was christened with a first name of Sophie) service is the coolest and Madame de Pompadour's perfume burner and egg steamer the most useful! 

Left:  Catherine the Great's Sevres ice cream cooler.  She designed the colours and demanded the cameos which were all individual and very difficult to make.
Right: The Perfume burner and egg steamer. The chicken lid lifts and the eggs are placed in a wire basket that is suspended above the steam coming form the pot below that also contained oils to scent the room.

Sir Richard Wallace left all his property to his wife who outlived him by seven years.  His son had died three years before him and left four grandchildren. Lady Wallace left Hertford House and its art collection to the nation and most of the remainder of her inheritance to her secretary.  I think there may be a story there - why didn't her grandchildren benefit? Sir Wallace(dubbed for charitable deeds during the siege of Paris) was the illegitimate son of the 4th Marquis of Hertford; a distant cousin inherited the title. The 4th Marquis was a great collector of art.  Living most of his life in Paris he was able to procure so much rescued from the French revolution in auctions.  His son became his secretary and art adviser and was bequeathed the entire collection and properties in France. He bought Hertford House off the new Marquis and refitted it for display instead of storage.

Snuff (powdered tobacco) boxes,
small and perfect

Horse armour - did they teach the horses to head butt?

Hertford House

The Stables were converted into galleries and the courtyard was roofed
with  glass and has become the cafe.

Strong memories of Christmas boxes of Roses chocolates surged as I wandered around the galleries. It is a shame that copyright laws or change of taste means company logos replace famous portraits on today's boxes. They were the beginnings of my classical art appreciation. I especially remember "The Swing" and "The Laughing Cavalier". On close inspection the cavalier seems more smug than amused, the trick being his upward turning mustache. This title was bestowed by the Victorian public when the painting became very popular after being put on display when Sir Wallace bought it to England in 1872, 250 yrs after it was painted. I overheard a tour guide telling a group that it was an engagement portrait yet the identity of the sitter is unknown. In Baroness Orczy's novel she claims he is an ancestor of the Scarlet Pimpernel.

Left: The Laughing Cavalier by Frans Hals 1624                                     Right: In black Cap c.1637

Rembrandt painted himself so many times, Europe is scattered with these earliest 'selfies' - he produced around 50 paintings of himself and nearly as many sketches and etchings - perhaps he couldn't get enough models to sit for him. The Wallace Collection has 'Titus' a portrait of Rembrandt's 15yr old son and the Rembrandt Research Project, who has become the authority on whether a work of Rembrandt is genuine, have confirmed that 3 other paintings in the collection are also his. In 2012 they released a film titled ‘Out of the Shadows’, which documents their recent techniques and discoveries.

Left: Perditia has Petal's 'what now?" face on.                               Right:  I didn't know the Pompadour painted.

These ladies are both famous royal mistresses. Perditia (Mary Robinson 1757-1800) had an extraordinary 43 years, bouncing between poverty and riches. The Prince Regent (soon to be George IV) saw her acting on stage and promptly offered her a huge sum of money to become his mistress - the affair didn't last long. She remained in these exalted social circles through other relationships and became the leader of fashion and popular mode. When ill health put an end to this giddy life she became a novelist, poet and women's rights campaigner (she was close friends with Mary Wollenstonecraft). Being put in house arrest with her children because her husband was sent to jail for bankruptcy(before her acting career) and being discarded by the love of her life for a wealthy young heiress when she was no longer the toast of the town, gave her some expertise about the poor lot of regency women.  We loved this portrait because something around her mouth and eyes is sooo familiar from Petal's face when 'unamused'.

Pompadour was displayed in this room too. The woman in white is Mrs Elizabeth Carnac painted by Joshua Reynolds in 1775. She and her brigadier husband were urgently called to India and had to leave before the portrait was completed.

Louis XV's longest and most influential mistress, Madame de Pompadour(1721-64), is the subject of many historical novels. As with many other powerful women, she has been painted as both a saint and a demon. "It seems absurd that while an ancient pen-pusher, hardly able to walk, should still be alive, a beautiful woman, in the midst of a splendid career, should die at the age of forty two." Voltaire April 1764.   Some people seem to pack in an awful lot of life into their forty odd years.

"The Swing" I always imagined it to be a big picture but it is the small one hanging on the right side of the room. The original has a depth and range of greens that do not show well in this photo!
The piece of furniture at the front is a beautifully decorated lady's writing desk.

All sorts of things to be seen in London. Top centre - Grosvnor Park Bottom left - a piece of the Berlin Wall outside the USA embassy which had a warning poster on the security guard's box telling people that bombs were not allowed inside!

We walked down to Piccadilly and popped into Fortnam and Mason. When we came out we realised we were running late to meet GF so we looked regretfully at the wonderful Hatchards - England's oldest bookstore. It opened in 1797. If we weren't on the way to the theatre it would have been better to buy the book first then go to the grocer for a snack to take home for the reading! With five floors to peruse, Hatchards needs 1/2 a day or so sacrificed to it, perhaps with afternoon tea booked down the road at The Ritz to give our eyes a rest.

We took the girls to Miss Saigon at the Prince Edward Theatre.  They knew the sound track so it was a good opportunity when cheap tickets were available from the Leicester Square booths.  The opening act was a lot raunchier than the staging I had seen in Sydney 20 yrs ago - the representation of the war time sex trade left little to the imagination.  The Chopper scene was accompanied with heart pounding sound effects and tears were jerked at all the right moments.

The following Saturday night we fortuitously caught a show on TV called - The Royal Academy Summer exhibition 2015. It was really good so we decided to go the next day.  I went to book tickets on line but so must have many other viewers because the website had crashed. Early the next morning things were back up and running so we took off back down to London for the afternoon. There is no congestion tax on Sundays so we drove right into Russell Square - not far from Harely St and caught the tube into Piccadilly Circus. Petal had a flash back of her first exit from subterranean London when she looked up at the Eros statue.

Walking back to Piccadilly Circus Tube

The Royal Academy is opposite Fortnum and Masons and Hatchards no time for the later but the former were having a sale so we helped ourselves to some of Paddington's favourite preserve and some specialty teas which I then had to cart around the exhibition; luckily I had purchased a F&M tote so I didn't rustle whilst doing the art view spin in each of the rooms.

Left: Oldsest Bookshop in London 1797- now owned by Waterstones      Right:  Front door to the Queen's Pantry.1707

The five iron clouds are meant to provide dappled light in the courtyard but there has to be sun for that! It is still an impressive installation!

Looking up at Conrad Shawcross's 'The Dappled Light of the Sun'.
The title suggests that the sculpture is a tool to make nature create the art.

Willow and Petal at the entry to the Royal Academy

Vinyl tape was laid on the stone steps as an artwork by Jim Lambie and his many helpers.  He called it Zobop?!

Caught out - the girls thought it was the right place for him.

 

Some modern art in action - I think the artist himself is more interesting than the lie of legs and arms in blue tissue -  the faces of the girls that were rolling had eyes doing the same and while out of shot broad grins - not very serious!

The first ever London phone box has been moved to the gates of the Royal Academy.

Inside the Galleries - a few painted boldly for this year's exhibit.

Willow was keen to see Tom Phillips' room full of artmented(think augmented with art) novel pages.  49 yrs ago he decided to use the first novel he could buy for thrupence in a second hand bookshop as a lifelong art project. I bet he thought he'd find a thin book for three pence! He found a leather bound copy of the Victorian novel 'A Human Document' by W.H.Mallock. and now, 367 pages later, he is finished. We were both frantically taking photos of the pages that were amazing but luckily in the gift shop found a copy of 'A Humument' to take home.  Inside the dust cover the artist writes "I took a long forgotten novel found by chance. I mined and undermined its text to make it yield alternative stories, erotic incidents and surrealist catastrophes which lurked within its wall of words. I replaced with visual images the text I'd stripped away. It began to tell, amongst other memories, dreams and reflections, the sad story of Bill Toge, one of love's casualties."

Top - original pages, Middle 1970s work  Bottom: latest redo.

 Words say "Play the shadow of fifty years only imagine a century. At last - welcome! My own sayself"
I assume the image is of the artist at his half way point.

Petal was really pleased to be going because 'there will be some new stuff - what artists are thinking and doing today - not all that old fusty(perhaps inject a slightly more hip adjective here) stuff in gilt frames like you usually drag us around."

One of the celebrated 'new' (graduated with a BA in fine art in 1982) artists that is very popular with the media at the moment is Grayson Perry.

 Left: Una Stubbs, best known for her role as Mrs. Hudson in the television series Sherlock has a watercolour, Grayson and Measles, which depicts fellow artist Grayson Perry and his teddy bear, Measles. (about 15cm square) Centre: As for Perry, it's hard to miss his supersized tapestry(4x3m - £69,600) that is a modernised, vibrant rendition of Grant Wood's American Gothic. Perry does away with the sullen-looking farmer's original pitchfork and gives him a glass of red wine and a tear in his eye. The woman stands next to him with a bouquet of flowers. Laura Rutkowski, 9.6.15 in GQ Magazine.  Right: Claire (Grayson’s transvestite persona) at the Preview party. His recently completed ‘House for Essex’ had its own documentary screened on Channel four.

 

Architect Charles Holland and Designer Grayson Perry of The House for Essex.
Inside is art work telling the story of the tapestry folk.  

Three Towers

There was a room of architectural art which M liked the best. His favourite was this 3D perspex model and embroidery thread of three towers by Victoria Watson.  It sold for £2000. The photo doesn't do it justice.

I'll leave you with some of our favs but at this website you can go for a browse for yourself.  It is the first time the RA has made every piece in the exhibit viewable on their site, it may only be available until the end of the exhibition or until all the pieces for sale are sold perhaps.  https://se.royalacademy.org.uk/map 

Franklin's Morals of Chess (Jade) by Karl Singporewala
The jade pieces are the old classic buildings of London and the White are the modern buildings.

My favourite - 'Into the Park' by Bill Jacklin
It is still for sale but at £63K I'll just have to get the exercise instead.

Luther Road by Donna Mclean - one of Petal's choices.  This image doesn't do it justice, the original was full of detail and the black background didn't look monotone at any point.

A short life and its trouble by Clyde Hopkins

Frank Bowling - Circles for Lucas and his mum. Still for sale - £78K
Willow would like a floaty dress made with this pattern on fabric.

Fire burnt the land like a language x by David Firmstone  The title is a lot more surreal than the painting!

Gentle Horse by Cathie Pilkington. This little Hand coloured Lithograph sold out! The exhibited work for £480 and the other 24 prints for £390.  There was an owl companion piece which also sold well.

I can't figure out how this was done

Richard Long - Mississippi River Blues

One room featured many older artists who are still creating.  Morning is by Rose Hilton who is 85 yrs old.

Baby Jackdaw by Tim Shaw

Single Horse by Alicia Rothman

The photo I took of this sculpture by Tim Shaw 'Man on Fire II" didn't show it very well.
 This is from his website http://www.timshawsculptor.com

Pity we don't carry nuts on our adventures, maybe another thing to try and fit in my copious handbag.