Thursday, April 03, 2008

Turner to Monet

As this blog will soon change from ranting about Sydney Evangelicals to describing my wanderings around Europe I might as well begin with my visit yesterday to the National Gallery of Australia to see the Turner to Monet Exhibition. It only began about 2 weeks ago and will be finished by the time I return. It is not visiting Sydney. Therefore I drove the 600km in one day to see it. 7 hours driving and 2 hours at the Gallery with another 2 hours at war memorial and lunch. Sometimes I think I need my head read.
When I went to school we had the choice of music or art and I chose music so I always feel a bit at a loss when describing art especially when I know that my good friend Davis will be reading. He uses his blog Audacious Deviant to give us the most informative description of religious art which is spiritually uplifting and educational. I will wish he was by my side as I visit art galleries in Europe.
My first degree major was in Geography which I taught for 25 years so Landscape art is particularly appealing. I was a bit disappointed with Turner's later works which are more abstract. I liked the detail in his earlier works such as "Crossing the Brook" on loan from the Tate.

I have been in love with Monet's art since visiting his garden in 2002 and again last year. Even his more abstract art impresses me. Morning Haze is one of two artworks on loan from the Philadelphia Museum of Art so is probably familiar to Davis.Australian works were also included with some by overseas artists who lived here for a while
Particularly terrifying to me considering I live on the edge of the bush was
Eugene Von Guerard Bush fire between Mt Elephant and Timboon 1857

7 comments:

Doorman-Priest said...

And will you be visiting the motherland?

Brian R said...

Sadly no. Mainly in Das Vaterland :-)
Was interested you mentioned going to the Baltic States (was it Tallinn?)
These are also on my itinerary but in May.

Doorman-Priest said...

It is Tallinn. Lovely place. Take the ferry to Helsinki, a train (and your swimming togs) to Parnu and a train to Riga.

Davis said...

Wow that Bush Fire is right out of Turner! Splendid. We see far too little Aussie painting in these parts.

June Butler said...

Brian, my lack of knowledge and expertise don't keep me from writing opera reviews and art exhibit reviews, so my advice is don't hesitate. Go right ahead.

Intrepid fool that I am, I am about to review a whole museum, the Frick Museum in NYC, one of my favorites in the world - a limited number of masterpieces in a rather small space but arranged beautifully. I love the large museums, but they can be overwhelming. At the Frick, you can take your time and still see it all in a half day.

Giverny is lovely, isn't it? I love the bright colors in the house, too.

Have a safe and lovely trip.

Brian R said...

Thanks Grandmere, I will take your advice.
You may like to visit
http://home.pacific.net.au/~brianralph/monet.html
to see some of the photos I took in 2002. That was before I had a digital camera. The photos from 2007 would fill a book.

June Butler said...

Brian, the pictures are lovely. I have one from Giverny that I had enlarged, and it's hanging on my wall. It shows the water and the willow trees but not so many flowers in bloom as yours.

I have wonderful pictures of our travels. I should dig up the negatives and have them put on discs and load them into my computer. I could have a picture with every post.