FEATURE | THREE THINGS
THINGS I'VE SEEN, LEARNT OR THOUGHT ABOUT THIS WEEK
This week is feeling a little long - it's the weather. Does anyone remember sun? Here's how I'm going through it..
WARHOL BY WAY OF NEEL AND LAING
I've been thinking about Andy Warhol this week. A lot. This is not a usual thing for me. It's because of Olivia Laing. And also because of Alice - but that is usual, isn't everyone always thinking about Alice? - Warhol is one of those people you think you know about, you probably learnt about him back in school, but really, do you know about him? Maybe *you* do. But I really didn't.
I think because of his status as "celebrity artist", there were so many outside voices colouring the world's opinion of who he was; and because of this, I had this belief in him being just an idea of a person, someone to whom gathering beautiful people was akin to collecting stamps. I always had the image of an interesting, amazingly creative but vapid narcissistic man.
But reading Laing (The Lonely City) I'm beginning to feel a little differently. To learn more about him is to glimpse a deeply introspective, self-conscious and lonely man, who almost found a way to use these less-than-positive characteristics as a kind of superpower, to push with his whole being his creativity to somewhere new. And then to live it, brazenly, constantly hiding his truths - his flaws, in plain sight. Bold.
I'm still not saying I'd have liked him - but that's not the point, I'm not here to judge - but I feel more.. invested? Inspired? In common? With him.
Naturally, seeing a markedly different side to him led me to remembering the Alice Neel portrait. I've looked at it a lot. And while I have always understood there to be a deep vulnerability to it, I don't think I comprehended quite what it must have meant. For who he was, to allow that, so deep an unguarded moment to be immortalised that way. I can't.
I guess it speaks only to her unwavering force for truth in her painting, for her ability to poke her fingers right down to the doughy souls of sitters. Her sincerity meeting his vulnerability to ultimately make one of the most revealingly human portraits of a man. It maybe gave me a moment of thought on what it means to be truly open and honest in an art practice, and I love them all all the more for it.
AN EDUCATION
This story has been pushed to me several times this week, I'm wondering who gave the algorithm the sense I'm someone who this relates to, but anyway. Told from a slight pivoting of angle each time, and some without the little anecdote that had me laughing and therefore really investing time on this thought - it was about Victoria Beckham's boutique displaying art in conjunction with Sotheby's.
There's just something lovely about Victoria Beckham's attitude to art. From a place of genuine interest, eager to learn and to share the knowledge journey with David (Yes, I am casually calling him David.) It's unpretentious and unassuming, naivety in a great way. She speaks confidently, happy in her opinion and taste but crucially with no pretence of expertise.
Quite the opposite, she seems happy to share her foray into the subject. And seemingly her interest when it comes to owning art is also for genuine enjoyment, rather than "investment" - In fairness, she's a Spice Girl fashion designer married to, well, David.. is cool something she needs help with? No, so she probably doesn't need artwork to impress anyone. But as someone whose work involves beautiful things, it seems a fair assessment that she would also enjoy and appreciate the art world.
I like it. I like this look at someone learning in public, but not in a bad way. Of someone owning their lack of knowledge but eager to participate. It's quite, almost vulnerable, in a world where society likes to tell people to stay in their lane, and more so where people like to pretend they know everything.
My favourite thing is that they are learning alongside their children, getting into it with their school work. Though not all 13 year olds get given a school project and then luckily "we've just been to a friend's house, who happens to have a James Turrell on the wall". Lol. This may be where the relatability ends for me, and where I laughed, sending tea spilling down my chin in a less than chic way - I've not quite got this quiet luxury aesthetic covered just yet.
WHEN IN DOUBT, LEMONS
I was going to share this nice thing I heard about how the Welsh language is closer to Finnish than it is to English. GREAT fact! But it turns out that is not at all true. While the Celtic languages are remarkably different from English and the Germanic languages, Finnish belongs to the Uralic language family, which is also very different, and more different than Germanic. So...
As a natural segue, I found myself reading about Lemons. And as a favourite subject of the still life painter, and a staple in my house - for health, not gin - I thought this topic bore a little thought.
The earliest mention of lemons seems to be from an Arab document in the early 10th Century. Bearing in mind earliest documents seem to only go back to some time in the 7th Century, in the grand scheme of things, humans didn't seem to be noting too much before someone found lemons worth mentioning. It's believed lemons originated in Northern India, in the humid warmth which never surrenders, and documentation notes that the "laimun tree is sensitive to cold" - me too laimun.
Cultivation of the lemon in the Mediterranean was a consequence of Arab initiative after the creation of orchards in North Africa, Spain and Sicily. And from there it is believed that Arab traders travelled eastwards to China, where they met oranges and mandarins originating in Assam and Myanmar, and from China to Malaysia who produced limes and pomelos. I love this description, of it being "a fruitful exchange". A positive thought to linger on to bring a little sunshine into this week.
So thats just three of the things I've been thinking about this week. Seen or heard anything interesting?
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