We saw The Prestige, continuing the fine run of Christopher Nolan films... God, he's only 36, apparently, and he's made some seriously, seriously good films. It was strange, in that none of the lead characters was particularly appealing or sympathetic and yet, and yet... Christian Bale was fabulous, Hugh Jackman also good and Scarlett sported a surprisingly realistic and good London accent AND was not too showy or dopey, but just right. It was impressive. David Bowie's turn also very good fun, as acknowledged here (in an article about how he's usually boswellox in films but the author simply does not care). It's not going to mess with your head and haunt you as Memento still does, but as a blockbuster it was intelligent, thought-provoking and emotionally engaging. Recommended!
We also saw two art thangs - the Hopper and Picasso's influence on Americans at the Whitney, and the opening of Draw at the Fuse Gallery. Of the former, it was interesting. I thought, as always, how ridiculously evocative the Hoppers are; I don't know if it is because I've got them embodied in my subconsciousness, but whenever I am on a trip in the countryside here, it just looks like Hopper, as the French south so often looks like Cezanne. It's bizarre, but true. They are like photos from afar, but I prefer the Hopper paintings up close, with the smudgy brush strokes, the roughness visible.
As for the Picasso, it was a crowded, badly hung exhibition, in my opinion. However, it was extraordinary to see the range of styles and different artists so distinctly influenced by the great man. He was clearly a freak, a one-off. My favourites were definitely the Roy Lichtensteins, which somehow did a great deal with the Picasso-style... However, there were a couple of rip-offs of Les Demoiselles D'Avignon which were, frankly, terrifying - Man Ray and Max Weber just pinching the exact format and making the women a bit more blurred or overtly sexual, if that's possible. What I find about Picasso is that the man was extraordinarily well-grounded in classical art - apparently the postures for Les Demoiselles came from El Greco's painting of the Apocalypse, which is amusing given that he used that for brothel workers. His painting Masacre en Corea is based on Manet's Execution of Emperor Maximilian, which is in turn based on the Goya painting of the 1808 uprisings against the French. Yet, somehow, these references are just those - references that twist into something else. Maybe the closest thing is Las Meninas... I dunno. I realise I don't actually really know anything about art. I'm just making this up as I go along.
Draw - well, Maria Nielsen's piece was bar none the most beautiful thing there. Nuff said. But interesting, plus free beeeeer! It was really interesting - hers was so beautiful, and finished, whereas others just submitted pieces of paper. And maybe that was the point. I think that one of the reason I don't go out on a limb with art and I don't find modern art easy is the suspicion that I'm just not getting it, and it's all a bit above me and there exists some hidden joke that I'm just too stupid to get. Rightly or wrongly, I don't get that with old-school painting...
Flowing, by Maria Nielsen
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