Tuesday was a very nice day in London, which was convenient because I decided to walk to my two appointments, which were quite far apart.
First I met with a PR firm. You know their founders are into art when in the meeting room we were in (one of many) they had a J. Opie and a W. Hewett. Nice. Bonus points.
Then I walked to the Japanese Embassy, where I had been invited to a symposium on big data research for dementia (actually, I chuckled when I thought that, in a way, it could be argued that “big data seems to cause dementia in some vendors”) 😉
Sunday November 8th we went to the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Science Museum for some educational fun weekend.
I love the V&A for its interesting variety. We saw sculptures (although lot more Rodin than Bernini), Medieval objects (from reliquaries to clothing and drawings), and some fine examples of Japanese design.
In the Science Museum we went to see the small but extremely interesting exhibition on Ada Lovelace’s history. We learned a lot and I believe it was a great inspiration to my son.
On Friday November 6, on my way to a meeting, I stopped by the British Library. It had been quite a long time since I had been there.
You need a special permit to use their volumes, but they have a very active schedule of events and presentations, and a wonderful museum.
Amongst the “treasures” they have, there are manuscripts from Mozart (‘Verzeichnüss aller meiner Werke’), Beethoven, Magna Carta, John Lennon, Percy Bysshe Shelley (‘The Mask of Anarchy’), and many other historically relevant documents, like the first printed music in western musical notation using Gutemberg’s movable type (Southern Germany c.
Last Thursday, on my way to a business meeting, I stopped by the Southbank Center, to view the World Press Photo 2015 exhibition. It was a great collection of pieces, but I particularly liked (or was most shocked by) the work of Tomas van Houtryve (2nd prize stories), Cai Sheng Xiang (1st prize singles), Turi Calafato (3rd prize stories), and Arash Khamooshi (3rd prize stories).
Definitely worthwhile visiting.
On Sunday October 31st we went to the World Illustration Awards Exhibition at Somerset House (London). It was a pure delight. Not only it was hosted at one of my favorite venues in London, but the selection of works by contemporary illustrators was quite good. The one I liked the most was Malika Favre’s Futurist-inspired posters for the BAFTAs 2015, but there were many remarkable ones, like Bartosz Kosowskis perfect poster for Kubricks Lolita, the cheerfully cute drawings of Chris Haughton for the Royal London Children`s Hospital, the super busy “Larger Than line” by Mattias Adolfsson, the powerful and colorful “Alice in Wonderland” art by Grahame Baker-Smith, or the iconic “Autism” work by Aad Goudappel (one copy of which I acquired for our private collection).
October 25 we were invited to attend the Affordable Art Fair in Battersea (London), where 110 galleries showcased work by 1,100 artists.
There is always something interesting, and it is always a pleasure to attend art shows, but art in NY tends to be more daring and exciting. Sometime I miss living in Manhattan.
In any case, here you have a few pictures of works that caught my eye for one reason or another:
On my way back from the amazing Sankeien Garden, after attending (but honestly not paying much attention to) a Japanese-only BioInformatics lecture (seriously, I enjoy those things), I went for something fun and quirky: the Cup Noodles Museum.
Founded by revered Momofuku Sando-san, Instant Noodles (Cup Noodles) has a very interesting story behind its world wide wild success. I learned that Sando-san spent two years in jail for tax evasion. That he invented the instant noodles in his 60’s.
