Abstraction

 

Always on the lookout for ways to broaden cultural horizons, Pip B and I took young Orson to see Abstraction at the AGNSW last week. I am happy to report that all these years later, seeing beautiful original pieces of art that I spent so many years learning about and reading about in text books back at school, is still incredibly thrilling. You see I've been very lucky over the years to have seen art at MoMA, the Louvre, Musee Rodin, Musee D'Orsay, Tate Modern, the Uffizi and a few others. Seeing so many of the beautiful works which so inspired me as a young art student has been, I reckon, one of life's great treats. As you know, my love of travel pushes me to have a trip in planning at any one time - even if it's for 2 years away, it's important to me. I don't function well if I don't have one in planning. And it's this travel that allows me to see these little treasures. But oh how sweet when the little treasures pop themselves on a boat (or more likely a plane) and get themselves all the way over here to my very doorstep!

There I was the other day, aged 35, finding myself in front of one of Paul Klee's best. It's still just so exciting. For $20 a pop, you really can't beat it.

The Abstraction exhibition has over 150 paintings by some of the most significant artists in the pre Abstract and Abstract period including Mondrian, Leger, Seurat, Klee, Kandinsky, Picasso, Matisse, Whistler and Monet and finishes on September 19 at the AGNSW. It's a MUST SEE.

Nb. The very abstract picture at top was taken on my camera with Pip's very clever kaleidoscope lens attachment. Cool huh?

And below are some art pics from my travels that I thought I'd share with you.

1. The Pieta, St Peter's Bascilica, Rome. I had no idea that this famous sculpture would affect me as much as it did when I saw it. It's incredibly moving and a very emotive tribute to a mothers love for her child.

2. David... the other David that is. The smaller version in Piazza della Signora in Florence.

3. Me and the Thinker (Le Penseur) at the Musee Rodin, Paris. So cool to see this one up close and situated in the most magnificent gardens as only the French can do.

4. Out front of the Cezanne exhibition in Florence. 

5. One of Gaugin's Tahitian delights. So beautiful. Has to be one of my favourite artists I think. This one from Musee D'Orsay, Paris.

6. The spare parts skull. Biennale, Venice. 

7. Me outside the Tate Modern having been swept away by the Rothko exhibition.