Art exhibitions

Hilma af Klint, Tree of life n°5 (c) The Hilma af Klint Foundation

This week I have had the chance to discover two wonderful exhibitions.

One was centered around Hilma af Klint. Considered to be one of the first abstract painters, she painted classical landscapes and portraits for a living, but secretly painted abstracts, under the inspiration of Spirits. Her abstract paintings were revealed to the public 40 years after her death in 1986. She uses a lot of colours and geometrical figures, circles, spirals, triangles... More here.

Peter Doig, Milky Way, (c) courtesy the Artist and Victoria Miro Gallery

The other was about Peter Doig. A contemporary artist, he paints a lot of strange landscapes. Watching his work, I had the impression of seing spiritual messages everywhere, as if the landscapes and figures were distorted because seen through the eyes of the soul rather than the physical eyes. I fell in love with "Milky Way" (above) and "Grand Riviere" in which there is a white horse and... ravens ?

More on the artist here (Tate Britain).

Traces du Sacré

Yesterday we went to see the exhibition "Traces du Sacré", an exploration of the relations between art and spirituality in the 20th Century.

Many beautiful paintings were to be seen. I was moved in particular by paintings from the US psychedelic art movement. There were two major painting by Isaac Abrams : All Things are OneThing and Flying Leap.

(c) Isaac Abrams - All Things are One Thing

(c) Isaac Abrams - Flying Leap

And also by the famous Franz Marc painting :

(c) Franz Marc - Horse in a Landscape (1910)

TIF March

For the month of March, Sharon B has asked us to do as piece using the above palette or the following theme : "Do you ever notice the little things, the small moments, the details in life? This months challenge is to do just that, pay attention to the tiny details. Sometimes the small things become emblematic for something larger."

For me details are linked to spirituality, sense of humour and life itself. To notice details, you have to be aware of what is going on around you and inside you, you have to practice attention, which is a classic spiritual/meditative exercise.

It is life and fun, because often a detail is something you notice because it is unusual, unpredictable. For instance a plant growing in a pavement crack, an weird cloud, a strange insect. Or, as in the classic Robert Frost poem, a grassy road. On gloomy days I have often had my spirits lifted by tiny details, I even used to visit open air markets just to get a whiff of life as a teenager.

Details for me are also representations of the individual against the group, something that stands out, something that you use to stand out too, as in fashion... and art. Detail is probably what transforms something into art.

(c) Yayoi Kusama 2004, Naoshima Island, Japan

The other night I was watching a documentary about fashion icon Marc Jacobs (VOD available here), and they were talking about japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. She has been fascinated by dots since she was ten, and has made dotted art ever since. It's wonderful and I think she illustrated well the theme of details taken to a very large scope, have a look at her biographic slide show on her website here to judge by yourself.

So my piece will probably be around fashion...

Back from Holidays

Adam Elsheimer, "Flight inEgypt", 1609 - Alte Pinakothek, Munich

So I'm back from holidays. I'm stunned and exhausted. We've seen incredible castles, awesome landscapes, and stunning works of art. People were really nice and food was cheap so... can't say what I preferred. I have found many subjects of interest to follow but have to put some order in my ideas before I can talk about them ;o)


I managed not to buy a cuckoo clock, but bought some cute Bavarian handmade pewter figurines.


The trip began by a visit to textile museums in Alsace and Lorraine (French regions near the German border). France began printing cotton fabrics in the 18th Century, because of the ever increasing demand of the public for paisley printed fabrics from India. At first they used wood-block printing, and eventually it was with fabric printing that France began its industrialisation.

You can read more about this on the Mulhouse Textile Printing museum website.

We also visited the Wesserling textile museum. They have a stunning textile art exposition at the moment and until September, which is called "Jardins Réduits" (Miniature Gardens), in which Carol Lenthall participated. Each artist was asked to do a little piece including fabric relating to gardens. Unfortunately they didn't have a catalogue, but I'll try to find one to show you pictures.

Now I should go back to beading a little - I bought Alice's spirit doll and my seed bead case on the trip but didn't touch them at all :o)