It being Mother’s Day, I have inevitably been thinking of mine, who died nine years ago, aged 96.

After she died, I wrote a short obituary of her for the Guardian, based on what turned out to be inaccurate recollections of her life. In fact, when I was sent the short obit. which appeared in the Girton Annual Review 2010 (her college), I discovered that she had gone to university late, aged 23, which I had never known and read, not Arabic, which was a myth, nor Chinese, as she had apparently tried to change to because her then boyfriend was working for Jardine Matheson in Hong Kong, but Part 1 Modern and Medieval Languages and Part 2 Archaeology and Anthropology.

The obit. says diplomatically that ‘one of her prime interests was sport and she played hockey for the University Women’s Combined XI and for Cambridgeshire County, in addition to tennis for the University and lacrosse for Girton’.

Here she is on the ski slopes in, I guess, 1936:-

https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2010/jan/25/betty-saumarez-smith-obituary?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_WordPress

As hoped, my copy of Boom Cities was waiting for me, Otto’s detailed and scholarly exploration of the politics of 1960s town planning (its subtitle is Architect-Planners and the Politics of Radical Urban Renewal in 1960s Britain). It’s a historical account as much as a purely architectural one, looking at how the radical changes to cities in the 1960s came about and who was responsible for them – the politicians, town planners and civil servants, at least as much as the architects themselves.

Of course, I strongly recommend it, apart from OUP’s outrageous price:-

My last shots of Hong Kong before heading back to London are three shots of buildings under reconstruction, all wrapped up and with bamboo scaffolding, a feature of the city:-

Back to the Fair.

A nice Elizabeth Peyton at Barbara Gladstone:-

I realised that some of the more interesting work is in the smaller galleries at the back, including work by a French artist, Julien Segard, represented by a gallery in Kolkata:-

Another Callum Innes, shown by Fox/Jensen, an Australian gallery:-

I admired a work, Mühe Kopf U, by Andreas Mühe on König Galerie, based on a digital record of a decaying clay head (he’s about to have an exhibition at the Hamburger Hof):-

I actually preferred the Fair second time round, when I had a bit more time to explore, without the pressure of feeling that I had to see it all.

I have been looking forward to getting my copy of Boom Cities, which I hope is waiting for me in London.

Meanwhile, I was pleased to read the well informed and sympathetic review of it by Lynsey Hanley in this week’s New Statesman.

See @OSaumarezSmith’s Tweet: https://twitter.com/OSaumarezSmith/status/1111164294790557698?s=09

My next stop was Wan Shai, another of the older neighbourhoods, closer to the centre and a short tram ride away past Happy Valley.

It has a wonderful street market in Stone Nullah Lane:-

Otherwise, it consists of back streets stretching up the hill off Queen’s Road East.

I called in on another temple:-

And explored the back streets:-

Since the Fair doesn’t open till 1 o’clock, I thought I would explore a bit of Hong Kong I don’t already know, helped by the invaluable Neighbourhood Walks at the back of Monocle Guides.

Tai Hang is basically just a small grid of streets just above what was the old shore line which gives a feel for what Hong Kong must have been like in the early post-war period, still densely packed, less prosperous, with small backstreet industries.

I started at the local temple:-

Otherwise, I just wandered around as none of the coffee shops were yet open:-

Downstairs, a Milanese gallery, Lia Rumma, has an early-ish Kentridge drawing (1999). Impossible to photograph. And a beautiful Marina Abramovic print.

I liked the big installation of hanging cloths by Joël Andrianomearisoa:-

And the unexpected Richard Long being sold by Lorcan O’Neill (again unphotographable).

Grayson Perry’s image of the Battle of Britain (2017), which was shown in the Serpentine (it’s the current battle):-

And Victoria Miro also has an early-ish Peter Doig, House of Pictures (2002-3).

I liked the work of an Indian artist, Savia Mahajan, shown by a Mumbai gallery:-

Then, I realised that I had run out of juice, literally and metaphorically.

I got into trouble at home for not taking any photographs in Maastricht, so to compensate, here goes as I go along.

There’s a very beautiful Chiharu Shiota at the entrance to the Fair:-

An Ego Schiele drawing of a Seated Boy (1910) with Luxembourg & Dayan:-

More Schieles with Richard Nagy.

Two Girls (1912):-

Two more – or are they the same (1911) ?

A Self Portrait (1915):-

Balthus is at the fair.

A Study for Le Salon (1940) with Luxembourg & Dayan:-

And The Three Sisters (1954) with Acquavella:-

I’ve always liked the very refined work of Callum Innes, mostly only seen in Edinburgh. This is Exposed Painting Deep Violet (2015):-

Then I was encouraged (I didn’t need much encouragement) to travel to the moon, courtesy of Laurie Anderson, which was artist-in-residence at NASA and Huang Hsin Chien, a Taiwanese, working together for the Louisiana Museum – a VR experience beyond anything I’ve experienced before. Scary.

A whole new building has opened at 80, Queen’s Road, full of contemporary art galleries, bigger and slicker than the old Pedder Building, which now feels like old Hong Kong:-

On the ground floor is a rather fascinating documentary exhibition of the work which Monika Sprüth did to support the work of female artists in Cologne in the mid-1980s – Barbara Kruger, Jenny Holzer, Rosemarie Trockel, Cindy Sherman. There is a picture of Andy Warhol with Louise Bourgeois (very hard to photograph):-

And the young Iwona Blazwick:-

Upstairs are multiple galleries, including two floors of work by Louise Bourgeois shown by Hauser and Wirth:-