On the eve of my birthday celebrations I thought it would be a good idea to wonder around and take in some art to satisfy my cultural mind.
I started the day off with a trip to one of the coffee shops on the list, Milk Bar, which is located in the heart of Soho. I always enjoy wandering around this area of London to check out all the quirky food and drink places- now I just need to find a perfect gay husband to enjoy the walk with! The coffee itself was fantastic but the service was less than enthusiastic, clearly to the barrister his IT magazine was way more interesting than my money!
Caffeinated up I decided to walk to Somerset house however along the way mother nature called so I decided on a pit stop at the National Portrait Gallery. On my way out I spotted an exhibition by two Indian twins which was based on their mixed lives of westernized culture and Indian heritage.
A little background as to why I thought I would look at this exhibition, I am currently reading a book called 'Shantaram' which is just short of amazing. It’s a true story about an Australian man who escapes from prison for armed robbery and finds a new life in India. The book is rich in detail describing day to day life in India, the passion of the people and the crazy adventures that the author gets up to. It’s witty, thoroughly entertaining and just mesmerizing. This book has made me a little obsessed with India and I want to soak up all the information I can about this country.
Hence the pull to wander into this exhibition and I was not disappointed. The artistic ability of these women, the Singh Twins, was phenomenal and the way they paint their traditional art forms is fascinating. This exhibition fueled my obsession with this country and culture just a little more!
I then moved onto the Michelangelo exhibition which was centered on ‘The Dream’ drawings he made for his ‘lover’ (I assume it was his lover) Tommaso de' Cavalieri. The amazing detail and talent of this artist absolutely blew my mind away, not to mention the fact that these original drawings have been preserved from the 1400’s- amazing! When comparing the original’s with the replication drawings by artists who were inspired by his work you get a sense of the legend that is behind his artistic reputation.
I absolutely adored the fact that Michelangelo was so keen to impress Tommaso that he drew and redrew these images to his lovers satisfaction- can you imagine responding to Michelangelo’s letters and telling him that his first attempt just wasn’t good enough!
This exhibition has made me so hungry to visit Italy which I hope to do early next year. I am so keen to see more of Michelangelo's work and understand the full scale of his raw and dedicated talent.
Any artists that have blown you away?
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