Saturday 16 July 2011

Quite Too Utterly Utter

The title is from this song sheet cover, satirising a follower of the Aesthetic Movement, the subject of The Cult of Beauty exhibition at the V and A (video here.-take a look just for the fantastic curator) The phrase made me smile. I can just imagine saying it and adding 'daaaahling' on the end. In fact I may start to do that! The exhibition was really interesting and full of beautiful objects- paintings, furniture, ceramics, clothes and jewellery. I seem to have been coming across the art of this era a lot recently-the Red House visit, the novel I am currently reading (The Children's Book by A.S.Byatt) (Interesting articles on this book here and here), newspaper and magazine articles. The idea of 'art for art's sake', that is purely to provide beauty in our lives, is so appealing. We had to wait an hour to go in, so sat and had a coffee in one of the amazing tiled rooms of the museum-it had tiled scenes of the seasons and each of the months. (It is called the Poynter Room) (picture here-if you scroll down a bit) Everything is so richly decorated that it is easy to while away the time just gazing around. On the way to the exhibition-lovely ironwork lettering on South Kensington Tube.



Pictures were not allowed in the exhibition but are in the rest of the museum. This is Thuner-Saxon god of Thunder.




He brought the weather. On the way home-some of the tube stations are so deep underground. Best not to think about it too much!

6 comments:

Linda Sue said...

Well that was a splendid trip- Thank you for taking us along! Yes the underground gives me the heebie jeebies- Especially having gone on the Universal studio experience of the earth quake and it's effect on the NYC subway...that was just creepy and no fun at all. Don't ever go there!

Leenie said...

Yes daaaaaling, quite TOO utterly utter! All of it, the whole museum scene and the heebie-jeebie tube ride. Just remember when you take Linda Sue to see the show--don't take her down to that underground tube station.

rochambeau said...

Yes, thank you daaaaaaaaaaling for including me too! It's fun to see where you went. I've also learned a bit about the movement years ago through reading this book: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/776534.Pre_Raphaelites_in_Love

The life of William Morris especially fascinates me!!

Have a great day creating beauty~~

xox
Constance

ps
Your blog looks nice!!

Jenny Woolf said...

A friend dragged me to this just before it closed I got membership of the V & A and it's the first time I've used it. One advantage is you get in without having to book or queue. Also, there's a members room but the Poynter Room is much nicer .Guess it must be a similar period to the things in the show actually.

Glad your followers button has now appeared.

rebecca said...

every day with you is like
postcards from paradise!

do pop over anytime and share your beauty on sundays.

i am sure you will bring great joy to everyone.

Diane Rooney said...

Oh I absolutely love the V&A. One of my fave places to go when we're in London. And what an interesting exhibition. Sounds like you had a good time minus the underground.. ugh! Some of those escalators are horribly long. I know. LOL