Back from London

I'm back from a long weekend trip to London on business.  'no internet access, unexpectedly, so I'll need to be catching up with everyone (online and off) over the next few days.  The weather was (also unexpectedly) sunny and warm, so it was a nice chance to enjoy London on Saturday and a music festival in Cambridge on Sunday afternoon.  Summer brings out the crowds in both cities, and it's nice to get out and jostle among everyone out enjoying the weekend.

The British Museum has a wonderful exhibition of prints which is worth a visit.  The American Scene, which really is worth a visit (I appreciate TH's recommendation).

I thought that Martin Lewis' prints in the fourth section were especially good: he textured the shadows with amazing skill.  Spring Night, Greenwich Village (above left) is a good example.  The lines and roughness in the pavement run right through the shadows cast beneath the people.

Edward Hopper's lonely prints play with light in more interesting ways than his classical Diner paintings.  Some, like Evening Wind, below left, reminded me more of Edvard Munch's drawings.  And, finally, John Ward McClellan's Entrapped also caught my eye (below, right); an apt metaphor for today's working world.

 

Finally, I got a smile from Louise Bourgeois' third plate from her collection of prints He Disappeared into Complete Silence.  I think it sums up the way my mind works sometimes.

  Once a man was telling a story, it was a very good story too, and it made him very happy, but he told it so fast that nobody understood it.