Impressions by the Seaside

Royal Academy of Art Summer Exhibition
Before the Tate Modern, I got distracted by the Royal Academy of Art. Very close to Piccadilly, the Academy was hosting its annual Summer Exhibition of new work, a lot of it available to buy. This brought in the crowds and the place was packed. The art, as you would expect, was variable. It takes a very good portrait to interest me, and landscapes had better be damn excellent. Abstract and other less representational generally fare better with me, but overall I saw enough to please me.

I wandered into some free rooms of work by early Academy members, but with the exception of an interesting 'Thor slaying the Serpent of Midgard' by Fuseli and a slugger Samson by Rigaud, nothing really struck me as really interesting. Even the only statue by Michaelangelo in Britain, a Virgin and Child, hardly seemed worth the display. Happily the other exhibition running was 'Impressionists by the Seaside', a collection of works by the likes of Courbet, Manet, Monet, Renoir, Whistler, and even Gauguin highlighting the coastline of North France. It attempted to cover some of the precursors of Impressionism as well, hence Courbet, Whistler, etc., but the pictures that really struck me were those of Manet, and some sunsets by some lesser figures.

Before I came to England I had gotten a collection of minimalist piano music and, in an experiment, I put some on my player now. It suited the Manet very well, particularly some Variations by Part. Courbet too had some beautiful works on show, and I am really getting to like Whistler. In contrast, I know now that I do not like Renoir's rosy cheeked kids etc.. There's an element of sentimentality there that makes me queasy. Anyhow a very likeable show.

I wandered London for much of the afternoon, before returning to my room to change for dinner and the Tate Modern.