Diaghilev and the Ballet Russes exhibition at the V&A. Diaghilev put ballet at the heart of the development of Modernism - causing a sensation in 1920's London. He involved Cocteau, Picasso (see his wonderful backdrop of women running on a beach below); Stravinsky, Chanel, Prokofiev, Nijinsky, Matisse, Bakst and Braque. The colour and drama of the costumes were highly influential on dresses for the fashionable classes.
Diaghilev owned virtually nothing and lived by his charm on credit in the very best of hotels - he died in the Grand Hotel in Venice.
Diaghilev owned virtually nothing and lived by his charm on credit in the very best of hotels - he died in the Grand Hotel in Venice.
The Glasgow Boys at the RA in what Brian Sewell describes as a wretched attic gallery - certainly the amount of pictures had to be reduced from the original Glasgow exhibition. An easy exhibition to disparage - after all if one is seeking to represent the poor why seek rural poverty when there was plenty to be found in the Glasgow tenements. This loose association of artists saw themselves as painting real people and real places but certainly cabbage patch art found a readier market than urban misery. However there is a sense that these are pictures of integrity and dignity, something rarely allowed the rural poor. Rebelling against the brown toned academic art they did not look to their avant-garde contemporary Manet, but to the work of an earlier French artist Millet. Maybe not pioneering, maybe tame compared to Cezanne's French peasants in the Courtauld - but there is a sense of fresh air and clean bright colours that has its own charm - and goodness knows sometimes it is just satisfying to look at something beautiful for its own sake.
Well here we are again frolicking along the beach in St Ives- but no it snowed! St Ives will need to wait until the spring.
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→From V&A to RA
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