Labels: Art Blog, Blue Flapper Dress, Carey Mulligan Tobey Maguire, Odeon Cinema, Sartorial, The Great Gatsby, Twenties, Vermeer Blog, Vermeer's Sponge

Somerset House: The best place to spend an evening?

SPRING HAS OFFICIALLY GRACED US WITH ITS PRESENCE!

Britain is actually experiencing a heat wave at the moment, so today's sartorial decisions were rather drastic. For the first time in 8 months, I had to abandon the 80 deniers in favour of bare legs. It was actually terrifying. Especially as I hadn't even made it to the bus stop before a tiny gust of wind blew my sheer dress up past my hips, thus baring my pale white ass to the entirety of East London. A fantastic way to start the new season, I assure you.

Spring and Autumn are my favourite seasons by far, I quite like having to carry a blazer or some other light cover-up around with me. I like warmth, rather than excessive amounts of heat resulting in having to show more  flesh than should be deemed necessary for someone of my figure.


So in what is the first hot day of the year, it's actually been really great. I visited the Hajj exhibition at The British Museum before it opened to the public that morning, and found it all incredibly interesting and rather informative. There is so much I didn't know, like in 2011; 2, 927 719 Muslims from all over the world took pilgrimage towards Mecca each year, with 23,000 of those hailing from the UK (about half of those that take pilgrimage are from Saudi Arabia) The mixture of films, architectural models of Mecca and clear diagrams made it really easy to engage with the entire exhibition, thus resulted in me staying there for around 2 hours.

Whilst checking my e-mails later that afternoon (admittedly, it was in the local beer garden, rather than office) there was a homage to Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe on the Google homepage, which then made me remember that it was Late Night at the Courtauld Institute to celebrate the success of their Mondrian/Nicholson in Parallel exhibition. I know little about Nicholson's practice, and even less so about his relationship with Mondrian... thus, 2 hours later, I was at Temple underground station.

It was a really interesting exhibition, although a lot smaller than I had originally perceived. There were a few key pieces which really stood out, like Nicholson's 1935 White Relief , which he hand crafted from a mahogany table he picked up at Camden Market. It's really worth having a look around, especially the archival material that they've chosen to include. I know it's not really useful in terms of art history here, but still found it really interesting that Mondrian went out of his way to go to the Snow White and the Seven Dwarves launch during his time in Paris, back in 1938.

The Courtauld's late opening events were totally engaging too, I will undoubtedly be going to another one. On arrival, I was given a voucher which entitled me to a 10% discount at the Café, which admittedly I didn't use- I'm far too much of a sucker for their home baked chocolate brownies! A really great evening though, many people donned their thirties dresses in order to nab free entry! In addition to the usual exhibition talks, I went along to Dr. Livia Carvalho's Another Way of Seeing talk, where she discussed how the eye experiences shape, colour and line. Her words were really captivating, describing in great detail how we actually view colour in art. Basically, humans aren't the best at looking at paintings, as our visual senses are limited in places. There was also a mention of how Alexander Calder was possibly colour blind, as those artists who are naturally drawn to brighter colours and believe that can see them better are likely to be restricted in terms of the whole colour palette.

As exhibitions go, this one's incredibly informative, and I find that I know much more about Mondrian's friendship with Nicholson. The title of slightly pushes the idea of comparing Mondrian with Nicholson, which is quite inevitable anyway; their work shares similar qualities and is clearly influenced by the same artistic movements. On the other hand, I think that what the exhibition is actually evoking is by and large, their friendship. Little information is supplied about the works in the exhibition, and there is much more focus towards Mondrian and Nicholson's life events. Which is no complaint at all- it makes rather compelling reading!

Mondrian || Nicholson runs until 20th May 2012.

www.thebritishmuseum.org
www.courtauld.ac.uk

Labels: Another Way of Seeing Talk, Art Blog, ART DESIGN AND ARCHITECTURE, Courtauld Institute, Dr. Livia Carvalho, Hajj British Museum, Mondrian Nicholson in Parallel, Somerset House, Vermeers Victoria Sponge

With F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic novel The Great Gatsby premièring this Autumn, Art Deco fever has already sprung a little prematurely.

Gucci SS2012

I love how films and television programmes inadvertently determine what fashion choices we make. Mad Men has (re)given us Peplums, fitted shift dresses and a whole array of pastel tones to our wardrobes. Twilight has appeared to create a whole new wave of wannabe adolescent vampires. Not that I'm complaining or anything, I find it interesting really, but as I haven't actually watched either of these two... my wardrobe is lacking that shot of lemon-tinted blouses worthy of Betty Francis.

©TOPSHOP

However, I will be seeing the Gatsby adaptation later this year. Hence, GATSBY FEVER. I am totally feeling the raring twenties and all its ephemera. My love for René Lalique glass vases has increased tenfold, and I'm suddenly lusting for embellished waists and ephemeral motifs. Gucci were first on board with this trend which is going to be huge this year, here's what they had to offer us during their SS2012 Campaign


(& if that is slightly (or heavily) out of your budget, then Rare at Topshop are retailing a similar dress at £60!)

If you happen to have a spare £6120...

© French Connection

© Mulbery Hall

Feather hair piece: Topshop

Personally, I think the high street brand that's leading this trend is French Connection. Albeit a little pricey (the dress above is £160), their collection is unique and extremely well thought out to the minute detail, and what I really like about this dress is that it's totally wearable, you could probably get away with wearing it continually every winter until you're practically supergluing those sequins back on to get your wear out of it. I was lucky enough to attend this year's  Swarovski Art Plus Opera Party at the Whitechapel Gallery last Thursday, which was spectacular. Being 1920s themed, there was so much glitz flowing through the gallery spaces that I've already decided on how to wear the Gatsby look this Autumn.

Want to start working this trend early? With Summer on the horizon, it's going to be a little tricky to work the fur coats and flapper dresses, so get into the accessories instead. I bought these from Topshop last time I went to Liverpool- that store is the best one I've came across for the huge sales it has. The mark down on shoes is actually phenomenal too.

I've also just started re-reading my battered copy of The Great Gatsby for the first time since studying it since my A Levels. It's nice to rekindle the hatred for Daisy Buchanan...

I bought this from Henry Bohn Books by Lime Street Station 2 years ago- it's a bargain for old books!

www.gucci.com
www.whitechapelgallery.org

Labels: Art Blog, Art Deco, Art Plus Opera, Daisy Buchanan, Gucci Campaign, Gucci SS2012, René Lalique, Sartorial, Swarovski, Vermeer, Vermeer Blog, Whitechapel Gallery

Labels: Art Blog, ART DESIGN AND ARCHITECTURE, Da Vinci, Leonardo, Moleskine, National Gallery, Painter at the Court of Milan, Resolutions, Sponge, Vermeer, Victoria