Nick Drew and Dearieme could have bought works by these two painters. Had they been willing to sell up house and home, that is. The moment at which Angels does just that for a painting comes closer by the day.
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'I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free'
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Fallen Angels
- David Cameron (for risking the disorderly dissolution of the Euro)
- Giorgio Napolitano (for stance on Budapest 1956: Prague 1968: Italy 2013)
- Mervyn King (for bailing-out Northern Rock)
- Nicholas Kaldor (for inventing VAT)
15 comments:
I rather imagine this is yourself, HG, caught by JAG plotting your next horticultural exploit
ND, people who have visited my house in England will smile at that picture. I do not look remotely like that but the conservatory certainly did.
I had not known this artist's work but what struck me (second or third) is that he seems to have three distinct styles. The nightscape, the fairy stuff, and the mainstream (for then) worked with outstanding skill and lovely results.
I chose one of the pictures I liked the best, but what did you not sacrifice your car for? (House I can understand. Mr HG had once to be dissuaded from a Bonnard in the bathroom naked lady for which he was contemplating house, wife and child sacrifice).
Yes, but it's so worth it.
German expressionism caught me before I was 20, for which I am profoundly grateful; the ouevre contains many stunning woodcut prints, some few decent examples of which have fallen into my hands over the last thirty years, at (relatively) affordable prices.
Just once did I succumb to the madness - an original drawing by George Grosz, which I burned to possess. And possess it I did, for (then) three months' salary. It hung on my wall for four glorious years, until the need for another boat grew too strong. And it was worth every second.
I've had a few extraordinary finds, rummaging through bulging wads of indifferent lithographs and bookplates in a Berlin flea market to find a stained and dogged but unmistakeable Schmidt-Rottluff for 5 marks, and a rich seam of Dutch expressionist woodcuts amongst the dross on a stall in the University Alee in A'dam for a few guilders. A Burne-Jones sketch from Rotherhithe market - spotted, bought and immediately sold, as of no interest. And how many thousands of hours over thirty years have I pored over dross, cricked my back in dim booksellers over damp folios, got down on my knees to reach for ... rubbish.
But when you see a work that connects straight to your psyche, like a teenage passion, you cannot sleep or eat or breathe without it being in your mind, then throw all reason to the winds. Buy it. It will be worth it.
George Grosz's son played the guitar in a fine jazz band called Marty Grosz and Destiny's Tots. But perhaps that is not compellingly relevant.
We are so self-controlled. 'Burn to possess' does not consume us in the Bargello, engulf us in the Louvre, (though in Moscow I confess to returning three times to the Matisses, excusing this behaviour with 'I will not come to Moscow again'.)
We burn for what is possessable - just - not the museum pieces that belong from their very grandeur to everyone.
Part of the burning is to have it on our own wall. That puzzles me. I want it to be mine. My Turcato, (I do not even ask for a Balla, a Sironi) to name but one hanging tantalisingly out of reach.
There's something going on here.
Whereas with a jazz band, you just buy the CD.
"There's something going on here".
Indeed there is - and to us iggerent philistines wot come here to read and learn summat, it looks like a name-dropping competition among the illuminati! I am sure I am not the only one who has never heard of most of those mentioned! Maybe I need to get out more.
;-)
Please don't stop; one learns something new each day.
PS: Should "philistines" have a capital "P"?
The first one - over 25 years ago - was rather like this one, and actually would have cost me five times the value of the (rather clapped-out) car I was driving at the time
The second, a decade ago - in this style - would have cost, if not a house, then around twice the rather more stately motor of the time.
In the first one Mr Darcy will be there any moment to hand her his letter.
And yet - it's the second, the moonlit streetscape - that burns.
A cd is just a reproduction, D. Pictures on the walls, musicians in the gallery. Awfully grand to have musicians.
me, I'd like a Kandinsky
I refer you to Angels' list of Heroes, Botogol. We cannot burn for Heroes.
You must go to Kandinsky. We cannot ask for a Kandinsky to come to us.
Musicians aren't in anyone's gallery any more. Except for the Arts council's.
Angels are privileged when it comes to musicians. They have the t-shirt.
(and the rehearsals).
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