London is crowded, expensive, with restaurants serving smaller portions for more money. However, the museums and galleries are free and there are lots of them!
This year I’ve had to good fortune to see two exhibitions of collectors’ amazing works. In New York I had the good fortune to see Giants: the Dean Collection of African American art at the Brooklyn Museum. This collection has been gathered by Alicia Keyes and Swizz Beatz. The show includes 100 works by nearly 40 artists of color. Since I’m in London I’m not going to talk about it though it reminds us what a gift such collectors give us with their generosity and support of artists. If you want to learn more about who and why they collect here is a link to an interview they did in connection with the show.
The image you see is an iconic photograph by Richard Avedon of a Beekeeper in California. It’s the opening work in “Fragile Beauty” an exhibition of photographs from the massive collection of photography owned by Sir Elton John and David Furnish. Here is a link to an interview they did when the show opened.
American photographers appear prominently in the collection by some of the most important photographers such as Robert Frank, Diane Arbus, Irving Penn, William Eggleston, and Lewis Baltz. Two of the most compelling images are Chet Baker with the trumpet and Malcom X in the hat. It was one of the best and comprehensive photography exhibits I’ve seen.
In the UK museums and galleries are interchangeable, unlike in the US where galleries are usually considered commercial enterprises. Saatchi Gallery has built a reputation over the years for exhibiting cutting edge artwork. You may remember that a show that came from Saatchi to the Brooklyn Museum so outraged Mayor Giuliani (remember him) that he threatened to close down the museum. The museum ignored him and it made such an uproar that people flocked to see the exhibit and the museum had its most successful show ever. The gallery was established by Charles Saatchi a wealthy collector to showcase his collection. Now various theme shows of works not necessarily in the collection fill the spaces in the gallery, a building dating from 1801. Honestly, I was underwhelmed with what I saw though there was one touching show about homelessness which is an issue here as well.
A makeshift shelter, a wall of panhandling signs, and a montage of the things women have to leave behind when they enter a shelter including baby bottles, toys, and personal hygiene products. Homelessness is supposedly one of Prince William’s big projects.
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