I missed hearing John Major on the Today programme, but have caught up with Nick Robinson’s interview this evening. It’s an impressive exercise in restrained anger: someone who has been, and remains, a natural conservative, disappointed and incredibly upset at the direction the party is being taken: away from any sense or understanding of decency and morality towards a sense of self-serving entitlement. Of course, we know that the Johnsons couldn’t bear the John Lewis furniture they inherited and replaced it with overblown historicist nostalgia paid for in ways we still don’t fully understand, but will probably have involved the scattering of peerages. But at some point, won’t Middle England recognise that they have elected a monster who doesn’t in any way represent them ?
Author Archives: Charles Saumarez Smith
Gold of the Great Steppe
I had been told that the current exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum is amazing and, indeed it is: full of archaeological treasure from recently excavated mounds in eastern Kazakhstan which reveal the culture of the Saka people – horse-riding nomads with great skills in metalwork. It’s very beautifully displayed to give a sense of discovery. Many of the objects are very remarkable.
Arrowheads with gold cuffs:-
Hippogriffs:-
A bead necklace:-
An earring:-
Deer:-
Gold pendants:-
It seems particularly remarkable that so much of this material was only discovered in the last three years.
Highly recommended!
Hélène Binet
I have been looking forward to the exhibition of architectural photographs of Hélène Binet, one of the very best of architectural photographers: very austere, good on form, light and texture, the architectural equivalent of Peter Zumthor, also Swiss, although living in London. I had never seen images of Sverre Fehn’s Hedmark Museum in Norway which suits her aesthetic perfectly – a mixture of concrete bridges, stone walls and rough cobbles, all very deeply textural. She photographs Christ Church, Spitalfields from a distance and brings out its tonal and sculptural characteristics perfectly. I particularly admired her wonderful photographs of the concrete undercarriage of Sergio Musmeci’s Ponte sul Basento in Potenza in southern Italy. There are almost no people. In fact, it’s faintly shocking when there are. Instead, her photographs are records of the purest abstracted form.
What to see in London
I’ve been asked what is worth seeing in London post-lockdown. Top of my list would be two exhibitions at the National Gallery: Poussin and the Dance and the postponed Dürer’s Journeys opening later this month. The Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition will still be on, plus Late Constable and Hélène Binet. The British Museum is due to open Peru. Tate Britain has just opened a Hogarth exhibition. Then the Hayward Gallery has Mixing It Up: Painting Today (closes December 12). Frans Hals at the Wallace. Everyone says that Gold of the Great Steppe at the Fitzwilliam is amazing. Then, the new Courtauld Gallery opens this month, which should be wonderful. So, there’s lots to see. I’m not the best person to ask about theatre.
Owen Paterson
I’m glad that Keir Starmer has spoken out so clearly against what is happening round Owen Paterson (see below). It is completely obvious that he has broken the rules of the House of Commons which were put in place to stop corruption. He is paid more than £100,000 to lobby on behalf of Randox, a company which has benefited from his lobbying by gaining direct access to 10, Downing Street in March 2020 (the Chief Executive was involved in discussions with Dominic Cummings) and over £500 million has gone to them in government contracts. He has used House of Commons writing paper to lobby on their behalf. His snout is obviously so deeply in the trough that he is incapable of recognising it. Yet instead of accepting his wrongdoing, his mates in the House of Commons, including Jacob Rees-Mogg, have rallied round to change the rules in order to exonerate him. This is corruption on the most grandiose scale, only equalled by the Prime Minister without a mask snoring in the front row of COP26 next to David Attenborough, because the rules of the conference do not apply to him, only to everyone else.
All Saints’, Margaret Street
It’s always a treat to re-visit All Saints’, Margaret Street, Butterfield’s great monument to Anglo-Catholicism:-
Convent Chapel
I was taken to see a small Convent Chapel designed by G.E. Street in 1860 down a small lane opposite All Saints’, Margaret Street. It was very surprising, partly because of its unexpectedness. The nuns moved out long ago.
M+
I have watched Hong Kong’s vast new contemporary art museum, M+, come into being from when the West Kowloon Cultural District was first proposed and quite a few of us went from London arts institutions in Easter 2008 to discuss it. Directors have come and gone, as described in the article below, but it is impressive that a new museum on such a vast and ambitious scale should now be opening, consolidating Hong Kong’s position, as was planned, as a major centre in the international art world. I wasn’t over-enamoured of the Herzog and de Meuron building when I saw it from outside two and a half years ago, but let’s see. It’s certainly big and occupies a very prominent position.
Japanese Begonias
I never did post the Japanese begonias because I didn’t know what they were. So, here they are belatedly, a pleasure of the autumn:-
Sally Clarke
I don’t normally like to use my blog to promote things, but the greatest pleasure of this last weekend with the change in the clocks was when the doorbell rang at noon on Saturday. I had discovered that instead of bicycling over to West London, it was possible to buy products from Sally Clarke’s shops online and they are delivered by bicycle for nothing. I thought the offer had come to an end today, but it has been renewed for a month for November. Nothing could be nicer than a box of treats with a special note inside to say thank you. I recommend it !
https://www.sallyclarke.com/shop/
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