Sunday 11 July 2010

Fitzwilliam museum- waving at the sea


Dearest Minions,

As I like to review museums in my domain and make sure that they will be useful as bases of dictatorship, I was delighted to find the Fitzwilliam museum is perfect for a winter palace. (It really does look like a Russian dictator's winter palace, although I think the lion statues should wear party hats.)

At the moment the Fitzwilliam has gone with a water theme, in the Japanese Art area there is currently an exhibition on the sea "gifts of ebb and tide" which features the famous wave print by Hokusai. I was really interested to see this image as it is so iconic. Like the Mona Lisa it is small and while the sea is still vibrant in it's shades of blue the sky has faded to a pale grey. It is stunning a well worth seeing as is the rest of the exhibition, esp. the print which depicts a famous Japanese legend in which crabs with the faces of dead soldiers on their backs battle a monk and a warrior..... if that is not inspiring for mad scientists then what is?

Maggi Hambling's The Wave is also an awesome display of the power of the North sea or the big blue wet thing to coin a foozie bear ism. However what really floated my boat was something that I normally avoid as it reminds me of bad gift shop presents. There is an exhibition of 21st century engraved glass I was surprised at the how much I liked some of the display (there were some expensive crap gift shop things.) Hopefully it has inspired some molecules, with the layering of images inside the glass.

Do have a peak at Maggi Hambling's work if you get the chance it does for the sea what Banksy does for concrete.

EE

4 comments:

peggy gatto said...

My favorite painting is still the Wave, Hokusai and this painting is a beauty!
thanks!

Gina said...

Wow What wonderful inspiration Mistress, I have a large painting(library copy) of the sea in my kitchen. The sea is a deep stormy green with white foam spewing forth....oooww:( it looks much nicer than that sounded haha! XXX

Evil Edna said...

the word spew tends to make things sound more purid.EE

Lori Saul said...

This has such powerful movement and depth. There is nothing quite like the abandonment of water and spray. The Japanese art is very beautiful but more tamed and woodblock like. This piece flows freely!