The meek shall inherit the earth, but not the mineral rights
Today we went to the Royal Academy of Art which was doing an impressionist showing full of Manet, Monet, Renoir, Cassett, Daubigny, and Courbet, just to name a few. The paintings I saw there were a nice showing of the ‘turn of art’ that happened shortly after the industrial revolution. The beginning of the show contained paintings that looked like something out of the renaissance period, dark, brooding, and full of chiaroscuro. During the progression of the room each painting dealt more with capturing the moment like “The vague” (the wave) by Gustave Courbet. To paintings that brightened up their color scheme like “The Chemin de la Lavee, Pourville.” The show was full of really beautiful stuff, full of inspiration, movement, color, life, all the things not found in mechanical, precise, reproducible things. Also, outside in front of the Academy was a sculpture titled “The meek shall inherit the earth, but not the mineral rights.” It was a huge sculpture that had a resemblance of a child’s interpretation of three dinosaurs made of 1 in. thick steel, and standing 40 ft tall. Although the many impressionists contained inside, this was one of my favorite pieces, because of the huge scale I found myself reflecting on my own existence. The child-like line quality of each one was warm and inviting; I wanted to touch each of them. I hid under the tyrannosaurus while it rained and the uninhibited child, full of life, was relived, if only for a brief moment.
Later that day, we visited a local artist, Jullian Stare, who has been practicing in London. The tube station we took was the Westminster Station, one which I’d never seen, and man was it cool. I felt as though I was in a futuristic urban mall or some titanium space station. Even the train was encased in another set of doors. It was very modern. I enjoyed some of the philosophies of Mr. Stare. He stated the need for a unification of the arts, not the competition we’re currently involved with. How many of the terms we use in pottery are represent human body parts, lip, foot, neck body. He also spoke about post-impressionist ideas of a primordial/primitive abstraction being ever present in pottery through out its life.
Most of his exhibition work dealt with death, and the preservation of the body through sarcophagi. Death in the celebration of the life that has taken place, rather than the mourning eastern culture is used to. Although I enjoyed the talk, his work was simple, easy, without glaze. He appeared to be all talk, which was great for a classroom setting.
Later that day I went to a small playground and sat on the swings, took a trip down the zip wire. It was fun.