Our first view of the hills after an interval of almost exactly six months:-

There were sheep to greet us:-

And lambs:-

I did a quick giro round Cambridge revisiting old haunts. It was cold, but atmospheric, with tourists eating on King’s Parade.

The Fitzwilliam:-

Through the gates of Peterhouse (the colleges are all closed):-

The Gate of Honour at Caius:-

Trinity Lane:-

King’s Chapel from the backs:-

The Gibbs Building:-

The chapel at Pembroke:-

My first outing from London (work) for nearly four months was a brief excursion to Cambridge to film a discussion about museums with Luke Syson, the Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum. I could not have enjoyed it more – partly the adventure of travelling, being in a museum again, and Luke had read the book very sympathetically, picking up exactly what I thought and felt even where I tried to disguise it. The event is broadcast on Sunday 25th. and I will be sitting on my laptop answering questions:-

https://cambridgeliteraryfestival.com/product/charles-saumarez-smith-spring-21/

We just went on our first expedition to see Rachel Whiteread’s new exhibition at Gagosian – by accident, as it opened. It was a strange experience being back in a gallery. The work is so different – so much less austere, the world exploded, but that is perhaps appropriate for these times:-

Just before Christmas, I read the statement made by Sarah Whiting, the Dean of Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, that in future no reference would be made to Philip Johnson’s design of his so-called thesis house on the corner of Ash Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts, but in future it would be known only as 9, Ash Street. I hadn’t know that he had been a late vocation student under Gropius in the early days of the Second World War, having spent the 1930s, first as a fervent advocate for Modernism – the International Style – and then as an equally fervent supporter of Nazism – no secret, but not previously known to me. This combination of beliefs struck me as deeply unexpected, but interesting, and the accompanying article is an attempt to interpret the conjunction:-

https://thecritic.co.uk/issues/april-2021/the-modernist-who-wanted-to-be-fu%cc%88hrer/

We went for our second vaccination in the Art Pavilion. There were cowslips in the park:-

And bluebells in the Novo Cemetery on the way back:-

A very nice review in this week’s Spectator – it says exactly what I would want someone to think of my book as a guide to the known and unknown amongst museums, not wholly logical in the ones I have chosen to write about, except that they are almost universally ones that I admire:-

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/from-temple-to-labyrinth-the-art-museum-today

There was a lively discussion last night organised by the Bard Graduate Centre about issues of museum display. Richard Rand, the Associate Director of Collections at the Getty Museum, spoke particularly interestingly about attitudes to display both at the Getty itself, where they are attempting to deal with the strange disjunction between the white austerity of Richard Meier’s architecture and the interior design by Thierry Despont, which was always an odd mismatch; and at the Los Angeles County Museum, where the new galleries are planned to be ahistorical – the works of art as ‘floating signifiers’. It looks like the new displays at Frick Madison are going to have a big impact on gallery thinking and gallery design. See the attached thoughtful article by Anne Higonnet on the differences between a psudo-historical and an ahistorical setting.

https://www.artforum.com/slant/anne-higonnet-on-the-frick-madison-85430

The campaign to save the Whitechapel Bell Foundry has entered a new phase, demonstrating how, if kept as a proper working Foundry, not just a tourist attraction attached to a boutique hotel, it can work with local artists on bell-related projects. What could be a better way to celebrate the easing of lockdown than for Robert Jenrick, the Minister responsible, to announce the salvation of the Bell Foundry and the repudiation of its development as a redundant luxury hotel ? Then, Big Ben and church bells throughout the country can ring out in celebration.

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/londoners-diary/londoner-grayson-perry-to-ring-in-postpandemic-world-b928249.html