France

London 2

Still no comments...oh well. It is a good thing that we are writing this primarily as an aide memoire.

So, what did we do the last two days...oh yes, we made out second visit to the Tate Modern, we did two sessions of about five hours each session just doing the permanwent collections floor 5 and 3. We also saw floor 2, the recent acquisitions, but they did not take so long, as they were mostly installations, a lot of space taken up with rather vapid one idea art in many cases. Can't really think now of anything worthwhile in the new acquisitions..oh yes, some good post modernist photography, slcik huge colour things if you like that sort of stuff..

But of course, plenty of good stuff elsewhere, Caro's highlight still the Rothko room, which I reackon also is fantastic. Also a lot of good Joseph Beuys, including the brilliant sleds escaping from the Bus and a huge sculpture of an elk struck by lightning (the elk represented by an aluminium ironing board...the lighting seemd to be a huge thin pyramid of fat...we liked the Anish Kapoor sculpture of half an eggshape painteda brilliant glossy tone that reflected a thin line of light...teamed with Barnett Newman Zipper paintings....Jackson Pollocks very good too. I also dug the Picabia room, had not seen any of them beofre, and they were all really good and subversive.

The Surrealist collection in general is great of course, many famous works. We saw a few surrealist films...even today Chien Andalou gets a crowd laughing..Caro started laughing and then everybody joined in...I think they were not sure if it was supposed to be taken seriously or not...it was the scene with the run away coffin and all the bourgeois dignitaries following at a full gallop.It was made in 1924, and like all good art, still rings the right bells today, although  it may be playing some different bells in the Carillon..

The building is a bit drear, an old power station on the Thames, and it needs some superb huge public sculpture I reckon to lift the facade.Even colour on the exterior would help.

( I must say that the Europeans are in very drear mode in cothing at present...wherever we have been Caro stands out like a psychedelic Christmas tree, as did the Outsiders in Paris, particualrly Gunther, who people kept asking if they could photograph him!He was drawing up in Montmartre, and attracted all the crowds, really pissing off the local footpath artists apparently! It was great to see Barry Humphries as Edna Everage on Parkinson on Sunday night, really taking the mickey out of those stupid Sloanish tarts Trinnie and Susannah who, like every other drongo in Europe were wearing black.He said it felt like a dreary funeral with them sitting in a row.Edna of course was wearing the same sort of clothes that Caro has on now...ouch she just hit me...I'll have a bruise there....Edna confessed to having an affair with a short artist the first time she was in France on the Cote D'Azur, and held up a picture he gave her...it was NGV's Weeping Woman, with a blue rinse and butterfly sunglasses.)

In the Tate..lovely Giacomettis, good Frannie Bacon triptych, the red background reworking of the figures at the Base of the Cross..works tremendously in the flesh, such a glowing warmth contrasting with the agony of the figures (teamed with Louise Bourgeois...many of the artists had a partner designed to show themes rather than chronological developments..therefore Monet  Waterlillies with Pollock and Rothko..perhaps a bit less subtle than the Pompidou attempt to do the same thing, but it still worked I think).Also a full room of hip Guerrilla Girls stuff.Good Derains...also IO was pleased to see a rehabilitation of Dubuffet...there were at least six of his works, and plenty of good wall text...something that was not the case when we vistied the Tate last time.I guess his day has come...which is great for Outsider Art too!We also saw some good de Chirico's of course, including the Paitners Family, which is the model ofr Orange's Imants Tillers, currently on show in Canberra. Strangely enough, at the British Museum today I realised that de Chrico got his perspective and drapery of the female figure from the figure of Demeter in the Elgin marbles from the Eastern Pediment.

We have seen so much art...which we not allowed to photograph, that I am afraid I have struck a mental block about what we actually did see...I will have to update this blog at some stage with the catalogue in hand...

Last night we went to the theatre, to see Ben Johnson's Alchemist, a jolly good farce, which to me seems more French than English (although it actually had Will Shakespeare acting in its first performance). The actors were Ian Richardson (of "You might say that...but I could not possibly say that" fame, and two younger poms who were fantastic at accents, it was done in modern style, with Subtle wearing a headband and beads and fondling a crystal etc...)Most enjoyable.

Today, the British Museum all day, very sore feet again, and we only did the Greek Roman Egyptian and a tiny bit of medieaval (Sutton Hoo and the Vandals and Visigoths.I particualrly like this period of history because of the great influence of the famous tribe of Alans.)My favourits remain the Assyrian Lion Hunting frieze, which is a bit tough on the lions, but looks like fun if you don't like lions.(and who does?, nasty biting things). For the same reason I love the cat mummies and the bull mummies. Bulls don't bite much I understand, but they can give you a nasty gore, as we saw in Manet's Bull fight picture.Of course we liked the gold and jewellery, those were the days when you did not have to be a drug dealer or decrepit old has been to wear gold.I am also keen on the Grand Death Pit of Ur, and have decided to have one myself, to be situated under my 80 foot cast stainless Steel statue. The trouble is that Caro will not drink poison, but the way she is going she will drop off way before me and I can just keep her body in fridge until I am ready to chuck her in the pit with all the Gallery staff and other necessites for the afterlife.

I must chuckle when I consider that stainless steel of the highest available grade will last for 100,000 years in the open air. This makes people like Ramesees and Sargon seem fleeting followers of frippery as ephemeral as baseball cards .

The British Museum is pretty damn good as you all know, and certainly holds hundreds of thousamds of things that you don't see anywhere else, and when the things are not uncommon in their form, they are uncommon in the quality of their decoration and manufacture...things like the Portland Vase.(.and many of the red figured vases from 5th century BC Athens., which I really liked from my archaeology days, Caro).

So, tonight, we go out for a cheap feed now, and than back to our hotel for some needed foot rest.Speaking of food, as you know, this is not an area in which the poms excel and this vist has done nothing to change my opinion on that score, but we did find a good place in Frommers called the Cork and Bottle in Leicester Sqare that offered the best value and quality so far. It was very like the old Johnnie Wlakers in Sydney, and the same sort of food with Australian and NZ wines if you wanted. I had a mammoth Lancashire Black Pubbing and Garlic Potato stack with cabbage which was actually bloody good, and Caro had Shepherd's Pie which tasted like a very good home made one with garlic mash. We shared a bowl of reasonable home made hokey pokey icecream which, like the first courses, was so huge that we could not eat one each. Caro , a stickler for honesty, has reminded me that I did in fact have a starter of a large bowl of pea soup, which was also very good.

Must also mention the terrific afternoon tea at the British Museum, quite dear, about 8 pounds each, but first rate, cucumber and smoked salmon sandwiches and two huge raisin scones with clotted cream and jam, we had earl gray and darjeeling tea. This is why it is now 9.30 at night and we do not need to eat even yet!

See youse A and C

London 1

Got into London the day before yesterday after a tedious, but expected airport experience. I would truly prefer them to forget about security and just take our chances, it is so boring waiting around, and life is too short to be bored.In any case, the most cursory search of European history will reveal that we are in a relatively light stage of terroist activity, and there would seem to be no good reason for the stringent controls...not necessary before, but necessary now. Why?

So, we are here. The hotel, garnered from the internet after reading reviews is exactly as described, in fact, it is better than the reviews, which must have been written by some very choosy yanks.Mind you, it is still very expenisve, $69 per night for the double room with a good continental breakfast only. It is run, it seems, by Poles. I doubt if we have met a single English born person working at any restaurant or shop in the area around Victoria Station where we are located. Apparently it has been a Polish area for some years, so much so that the local church, where I went to sevrvice this morning, has a sign on the door in Polish and English.Only six people at 8.15, very high chruch and a distant minister, who said in his sermon (about the Lillies of the Field Bible reading) "of course Our Lord does not mean us to take him literally and not be concerned about food and clothing...!" Caro slept in.

I do object to London prices, but more, I object to the poor quality food you get for very expensive prices. France and Italy manage to provide acceptable food for their equivalent prices but one gets the feeling that in modern Britain, people just can't be bothered. The City is also generally filthy, much dirtier than Rome or France. People just seem to throw their food wrappers etc anyway they can...not pleasant at all.

We did get good value food yesterday, in Greenwich, where we had gone on one of thsoe Thames cruises which are part of the bustours. These are great, and we followed Don's recommendations by doing the tours on the first day as as to get our bearings. In fact, we rode the double decker top decks all day, at least when we were not on the boat or wandering around Greenwich, and the amusing commentrary from the East eneders who were the guides .Some of them were very funny indeed.At least I laughed, some people found them a bit ironic or ribald I think. The food we enjoyed was a traditional pie and mash shop in Greenwich, which had just celebrated 120 years in exactly the same decor and location.This was a place you could get jellied eel, but we settled for pie and mash of above average quality and quantity. Caro had a scrumpy with hers, and I am glad she had absorbed plenty of blotting paper. As it was, she punched the waitress.I had steak and kidney pie...for only 2.50 pounds...this is good value, but is the sort of unhealthy stodge that the British working classes are obliged to consume.

We photographed General Wolfe's statue at Greenwich Observatory, and sang the song at the bottom. By the time we had finished, we had eight pounds in Caro's hat she was holding behind her back!Yesterday was National Lottery day, and everything seemed to be free, we saw the Cutty Sark and the Observatory thuswise, and when I was chatting to the attendatnt at the Observatory he said this was great for the visitor numbers, and that Gordon Brown had asked for the figures...(election time).

This is now Caro writng, all lies and videotape...... about me anyway.

We do have a very snug local pub about 20m away where I ordered a cider on tap, well you get a pint and it turned out to be strongbow. Alan was very pleased they also have very good coffee.

We are about to head to the Camden markets, Alan hates markets how sad too bad..... then to the Camden Arts Centre evidently a major new art set up. hope to buy a snack for lunch at the markets, raining first thing now another fine sunny day, not at all like autumn.

 The boatman told us the tides have been so high lately that London would have been welll and truly flooded if they hadn't put up the flood gates( they have a special name which neither of us can remember) down stream.

anyway we will groove today and probably go to the pictures tonight, we have people to ring, tried to ring Hen's friend Rupert, no answer, also people we met in Paris. Tommorrow night we go to the play the Alchemist. written by Ben Johnson for the ignorant peasants among you (yes that means you Clive)

Caro the great and good and gloriously beautiful but fat and good(I'm lying) and wise King Alan.

Paris9

I am annoyed, because I updated this blog yesterday...about 90 minutes of frenzied typing, but I must have pressed the wrong button, and lost the whole thing!

Anyway I shall try and remember the gist of it.

Firstly, the Opening (Vernissage) of our show was on Tuesday night, and to my eyes it seemed to go down very well indeed. Quite a lot of people, including the Australian Ambassador, who met the six or so artists who came over and had them take her around the show. She said that it was great to have shows like this representing Australia, shows that are lively, and not the usual vapid stuff .

It turned out that she had overruled her conservative Embassay staff personally to insist that they give some money towards the show.

So, that was a good start, but also the leading French art critic of Art Brut was there, as was John Mazel of Raw Vision magazine, who came over from London. So was the Director of the Dubuffet Insitute, and the world's leading collector of Outsider Art, all the way from Switzerland for the show.

Phil Hammial is absolutely delighted, from his experience this is one of the best results he has seen, and he has been to France 13 times for shows and readings.Direct8 television interviewed Phil, and we were all interviewed by the Paris ABC radio stringer, although he was a bit inebriated and I am not sure they will use his interveiw!

Today I saw two of the posters on the French Metro, which is great! Our logo seen by millions of people every day (if they choose to look)!

So that was a terrrific opening, everybody staying till quite late, which is a good sign apparently...I forgot to mention that the Aussie critic Bruce Adams, who used to write for SMH and Australian was also there, and that I have been asked to write a piece for Raw Vision, so we should get some good publicity, perhaps even in Australia.

The rest of our time has been taken up in the usual way...museums, and getting to them and to restaurants from the musuems.

Gunther Deiz shouted us a meal last night in Montmartre. We could'nt get into the one he knew, so went to another on spec, and it turned out to be really good, as well as inexpensive, the sort of old fashioned joint where the patron pours Cognac by eye and ends up giving you half a balloon full!I know because I bought one for Gunther..the spiral staircase was so old it was one of those places you just know that Picasso and Max Jacob had trod the same stairs.Good tucker too, Gunther could hardly believe that the food bill was only 90 Euros for eight people, so because he was a little sloshed, gave the barman 50 Euros!

Prior to that we had been to the Musee Jacquarmart Andre, on the Boulevard Haussman. Andre was a banker, and a Napoleonic Protestant, so was one of the first to buy some space on the new Boulevard, which the meglomaniac Haussman had put in after demolishing

 numerous working class suburbs. The house he built, palace really, is full of terrific art, and he certainly had a lot better taste than many of his flashy contemporaries. He was a conservative sort though, and did not buy contemporary art, in fact, mainly Italian art, although he also had terrific German and French things from the middle ages to about 1740.We saw three Donatellos (he is still my hero, he can do as much in three milmetres as many artists do in three metres.) Speaking of metres, there are numerous Tiepolo ceilings, and a huge mural by him at the top of one of the best middle sized staircases I have ever seen (French 1845 can't remember the architect's name ).

NOt only those, but also two Botticelli's, two terrific Rembrandt's, Hals, Rosa, and superb decorative arts and marble sculptures, Chardin, Vigee LeBrun, Boucher, Fragonard,etc, etc, and all in sumptious luxury, as the house is as the widow left it in 1912.

We also had lunch in the restaurant, a terrific lunch of salads and Tiepolo surrounded by some upper crust frogs, who must realise this is terrific value...about 15 Euros for a salad such as I have not had before, Fois Gras, figs, Mesclun, thin smoked duck like proscuitto, preserved pears, green pepper corns, tiny tomatoes...sounds wierd, but it blended beautifully..I recommend this for a very good lunch in Paris.Then the patisserie trolley....

So, that was good, today we did the D'Orsay, which I rememberd surprisingly well from our last visit, but still saw a hell of a lot of new things, including five Sisley's they did not have out last time..(I think some new collections have been gifted...likewise a few new Cezanne's, who remains my other hero.) I always like the Symbolists and the decorative arts of that period too, and the Art Nouveau..I still think it is a bit hard on the feet, but there is no doubt that the quality of the D'Orsay contents is first rate...I must say though, that I would like more in depth analysis of the works, the wall texts or handouts  are virtually non-existent, and furthermore, there are a lot of gaps in the Symbolists, nothing to be seen on the Hermetic schools for instance.Still, saw some new Ensors, and a Bocklin...

Then we went to an Opening in the Latin Quarter of a leading European Outsider, whom I met. I would have liked to buy something, but was rather surprised to find the cheapest work was 1800 Euros and this was only about 6 inches high!He finds lovely shaped sticks in the forests where he lives, and puts carved heads on them. He used to use moulded bread, but has moved on! He just started making these figures when he was twelve and lonely, and has been able to live as an artist ever since, compleltly untrained. He was a most urbane chap now, spoke five languages without much accent at all...

We had lunch today at Cafe Constant, our one really good meal of the stay. It is only a bistro, but is recommended in all the good food guides, as well as Gourmet Traveller in Australia!It cost us 61 Euros, but was very good indeed, and well worth the quids. I knew the bloke at the next table too...had been to a Galleries Conference with him many years ago.I had the 26Euro formule, choosing Something delicious I cannot remember for entree, than Magret of Canard with Salad and three peppers, then a  Red Fruits Melba, which was propbably a lot closer to the dish that Escoffier created for Dame Nellie at the Savoy than the tinned peaches and rasberry syrup we are used to in Oz. Mine was marinated rasberries and strawberries, with a delicious home made iceream flavoured with I know not what and also a sort of vanilla flummery.It was quite a big lunch, but we waddled back to the D'Orsay for more foot punishing walking.

We have also spent a full day at Pere Lachaise since I last blogged, a very pleasant spot, like Montmartre cemetry, with hills and lots of trees. You can actully stop and have a picnic, as we did, without baking in the sun like one might at the bare Vaucluse and Maroubra cemetreies.Saw numerous famous tombs, indeed we sought out some, saw others en route. Jim Morrison of course, the most popular grave there, now with a permanent gendarme, as the hippes were alwyas partying there, and someone stole the bust of Jim.

Victor Noir, the anarchist poet and journalist killed during the Commune, is no 2 most popular, because of his legendary fertility powers, but also because of the great sculpture by Dalou and the fact that he was an extra cool anarchist. The third most popular is Edith Piaf. Interesting that it is always the artists and creative types who get remembered.I must say however, that France also remembers and honours its scientists and engineers, and many of the graves of famous peopel like Laplace, and Lavoissier are maintained by the state, as are the artist graves. Some however are not. Poor old Daumier, his grave could barely be read the inscription is so worn. Even today, the bourgeoisie have not forgotten his acid eyesight!

Oscar Wilde's Jacob Epstein grave is a surprise, not only because of its deco form, but because it is covered in lipstick kisses and inscriptions "Je T'aime Oscar", "you have changed my life" etc...odd .A few years ago, a crazy English woman broke the penis off the tomb...odder still.

Anyway, I am writing at midnight on our last evening in Paris, we go to London tomorrow afternoon, just time to go to Halle St Pierre in the morning and pick up some catalogues and posters, also take a quick trip to a metro station where I can photograph the poster on the walls.

See youse all later.

Paris8

Dear All
Alan is off lunching with artists, I have been to a gorgeous shop called Printemps
spending money. I came back  to find Alan still out, but I was highly entertained by a
fire 2 doors down in the 1st floot apartment. 5 fire trucks including a fire ambulance,
lots of smoke, the fire was quickly put out and a woman and 2 small children were
rescued and placed in the ambulance for 15 mins or so then they went back to the flat.
When it was all over the police arrived and closed off the street, better late then
never I suppose, then 2 women had a fight, the police took notes, I suppose they were
blaming each other for the fire. I was rudely hanging out our 5th floor window watching
this all take place.
The firemen had  gorgeous silver helmuts and were very handsome.
 
Otherwise more galleries have been visited, yesterday the Musee De Beaux Artes
reopenned after being refurbished, free entry, it was terrific, it is part of the
Louvre but separate. We wandered around the Montmartre cemetry yesterday arvo, lots of
famous graves, we hope to go to Pere Lachaise later in the week, that is the other
famous cemetry.
Have had one full day at the Louvre, saw only small amount we concentrated on the
Object D'arte and archaeology, no paintings yet, that took all day. The Mesopotamian
stuff is overwelhming. I really like one of the new parts, Medieval Louvre, where they
have excavated the foundations of the medieval castle with moat, you can go under the
foundations to see this. Tuesday or wednesday we will go back and see the paintings.
Also still the Musee D'Orsay to do, must see all those lovely impressionist painters +
old Alfred Sisley.
 
We have the press preview of the exhibition tonight and the proper opening tomorrow
night.
We go to London on Friday.
Please send some emails, no one has written to us. 

 Caro

The Private preview of the show was very good, around six of the artists, and some who came from England being freinds of Liz Parkinson. A couple of heavies were there too, one very nice one being John Mazel the publisher of Raw Vision magazine, who came over from London speically and has asked me to write something for the magazine. We are going to visit his house in Hertfordshire next week.

The exhibition looks excellent, very different from Orange, and because of a lot more discrete spaces, probably makes the works look better. Also the walls are not as high, (although the ceiling above it is very high indeed) so there is more intimacy.Of course things look different wherever they are, but Martine is a good hanger, if not a good communicator.

The food was excellent consisting of hundreds of little shot glasses filled with saumon fume and caviar on mousse, or pickled peppers or pesto, also some shishkebabs and croque monsieur. There were also a lot of sweet shot glasses about eight different types of creme anglaise and c reme caramel, and trifles of various sorts. I had about twenty of everything, because Martine, for some reason, probably because she did not reply to our emails, expected more of the artists t5o come, there was a huge excess of food. However enopugh artists did come viz>Gunther Deiz and partner, Liz Parkinson, partner and English artists, Stavroula and Travis, Also the woman who discoverd Javier Gomez in Long Bay prison (Sue Paul) and her p;artner, the art critic Bruce Woods, and of course Phil Hammial. It was all good fun actually, and the artists got some recognition that they deserve. Tonight is the actual Opening, we expect a lot of people for this and some more artists as well..Janine Hilder and David Morgan for instance. Phil has arranged a show for six of the artists at a very smart commercial gallery that specialises in Art Brut, so who knows what this may lead to?

Had a good time all round yesterday just wanderingaround Montmartre after photographing the entire show, with Phil, talking about the vie boheme and visiting Bateau Lavoir and Lapin Agile (which has not changed one iota).

Phil did a tv interview yesterday which was funny, his fifteen seconds of fame.

We are off to Pere Lachise now, can't get enough of dead Frenchmen and Women, yesterday we photographed Berlioz, Nijinsky, Durand Ruel, Nadia Boulanger, and Degas in Montmartre cemetary, today...who knows where the spirits will lead us?

Paris7

Spoke to Fred Lachaise finally...it has been very hectic for him because Madlaine has had a cardiac infarct, the operation is over and all looks to be good, but he cannont come to the Opening unfortunatley. Madelaine was transferred by helicopter out of Royan to a big hospital, and everything was touch and go for a while...but she is OK now we think.

I have not yet spoken to Roger, but finally got through to his number and left a message, will ring him tonight. The roving mobile phone service we have only works intermittently, and the stupid Indian git who runs our local internet shop had told me the wrong way to use the Paris phone system, so I was always getting an engaged signal. Finally found a good internet place, and voila! Fred said to ring him tonight, but we have already sent him an invitation to the show tomorrow night.

Yes, it is tomorrow, with the Press Preview tonight. So the Aussies are turning up. {Phil Hammial and a number of the artists, Gunther Deix amazingly, Phil ran into him twice on the streets of Paris). I am going up[ there in a minute to have lunch with Phil.Richard Perram is bringing four or five friends as well including some aussie artists who are here.

Anyway, I had better sign off now, will add to this Blog later, to update the last two days.

Paris6

Thanks Brenda for Richard's address, I emailed him straightaway. A few other Aussies will be turning up in the next couple of days..Geoff Levitus and his charming partner get here tomorrow, and Phil Hammial and some of the artists a day or two later!

We have been doing what we always do when OS, and that is to spend all our time either in museums, restaurants, or travelling to museums and restaurants. This will be different in London, as I am going to hit some electronic music concerts. But in Paris, we have the city of museums and the electronic music is quite hard to find, at least I can't find any of the experimental stuff I like, despite Paris having the longest established institute for this sort of thing.

Sorry to hear about the small minded posturing by the mini politicians in Orange. Pity all this happens just after I get an article on local liberalism into the LOOK magazine! Have they published this yet?

It seems to me that the Mayor and Deputy Mayor deserve censure on racist grounds...have Neil Ingram or  Jody Chester issued a statement that informs the world that the Jirrawun girls are an authentic voice of Aboriginal youth, and to censor this painting is to censor aboriginality and its mode of expression? That is in fact exactly what they have done, and the white creeps must not be allowed to get away with this racist and fascist insult simply to gain some non-existent political gain. One thing I have learnt from previous censorship happenings is that the public are very annoyed by it..in Hamilton the creepy councillors who had Don Stewart censored both lost their seats at the next election...this may well also happen to the gibbering cretins in Orange ..

Anyway, back to the slightly larger world, where one can see tee shirts on sale in the best department stores in Paris (for $85 Euros) with the slogan Too Drunk to Fuck emblazoned  in sequins.. Before my aged mother expresses disbelief, we saw this shirt in Gallerie Layfayette today, along with  the latest styles in torn jeans!

Yesterday we spent entirely in Centre Pompidou looking at a large exhibition loosely themed around Movement in Art, and showing how cinema and discoveries by Muybridge and other photographers have altered our ways of seeing for good, and had huge influence in all contemporary artforms.

It included early films, mobiles and other experiemental artforms by just about everyone, from Brassai, Muybridge, Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp, Maholy Nagy to Bruce Naumann, Cindy Sherman and hundreds of others. You would know of most of the artists, but there were a pleasing number of Europeans unknown to me, and I had not seen very many at all of the films and artworks before. It was good to see the curators had put, say a Man Ray film (back projected into the wall) right next to a Braque or a Leger, pointing out various correspondences, without making them too obvious.

I have the catalogue for this show, so will not write much about it, this blog serving as much as an aide memoire as anything else. Suffice it to say that it was quite an involving show, and it had been well curated by team of about six curators...no wonder the Pompidou spaces are  closed for half of the time! Sure it was good, but, as with most of these European productions, one wonders why they take so bloody long to do the blasted thing. The catalogue and wall text scholarship was nothing special, and although the works were very well chosen to make subtle points, I can't see they needed the huge team acknowledged in the catalogue...they must have gotten into each other's way.The physical wall construction etc surely does take time, but I suspect the teams are just too awkward to make decisions.

Fortunately the Pomidou is so big that even with half of it closed (they were establishing a huge Raushenberg show for October) there was still a lot to see apart from the Movemnet show, including a highlight for me, some late Braques that were terrific. Internesting that both Picasso and Brque developed much greater skills as colourists in their later years.Interesting too, that try to differ as they might, they still remained roped like mountaineers, just that in later years they were using elastic ropes that pulled them back together more and more frequently.

So that was a whole day, just some time left to walk around that area a bit, tube home and have some cheap roast chicken in a bag with home made salad. Note however, that the chicken was excellent, not a hint of driness, and the smoky  flavour and skin crispness was just right. It had been cooked just up the road from our flat on a sort of outdoor barbecue thing. A huge chook too..we are eating it again tonight, hopefully followed by a nice Baba au Rhum or Tarte Citron from the local patiserie (caro is off shopping).

I reckon we are lucky to be in Montmartre, although it has certainly increased in popularity for tourists in recent years, of course it always was a destination ,but they tell me the film Amelie has made a big difference to the number of people coming. Every night there is a moving tide of people going up to Sacre Coeur but they seem to come down the hill again and go elsewhere pretty quickly. It is still comparatively inexpensive for a meal of quality, indeed our experience is that the food here is the best value we have seen, the up market areas are really just absurdly expensive...although there is no doubt they are good..(I suppose, we have not tried any ...yet...).OF course there are good cheap restarants in other areas too, but we will probably stick with Montmartre because we are getting familiar with the place.

Today we ate luch in Gallerie Lafayette cafeteria, also a good place for a cheapish meal. A smorgasboard sort of a set up, efficiently and cleanly run, as it is a grand magasin, but the tucker is surprisingly inexpensive..well shall we say $20 for two pretty good large courses and drinks. This is inexpensive for Paris.

We went in the morning to the Musee Gustave Moreau, an artist who has alwyas interested me because of his technique as much as for his esoteric philosphy and refined poetic aesthetics in his writings about his work. Apparently he was a good teacher, and had quite a few students who went on to be leading modernists. As afar as I can ascertain Moreau did no try and force his opinions on anyone. He was a stubborn old coot though..if he got sick, of an idea, he would leave the work unfinished, and even the Rothschilds could not get him to finish the commission for the Ladies with Unicorns. Most of the works in the Musee are more or less unfinished, but he regarded them as complete, and nearly all the huge ones are signed, although we can see areas that are very sketchy still.

He set himself huge challenges, and I would like to read more about him, but the books they had in the Musee were a bit light on, especially about his philosophy and how come he beat the Order of the Golden Dawn to the punch?

The museum has some fantastic works, and very many cabinets of drawings and watercolours one can slide out, all more or less preliminary for bigger pieces, some of them in the Musee. I was impressed by the landscapes and found it likely also that his habit of not "Finishing" works might hadve been influential on modernism.I also discovered that his watercolours have quite a different feel...although he was pretty good at everything, he was surely one of the all time greats of watercolour technique.

In the Musee, I loved the one of Ulysses shooting all the suitors with Minerva's help, and variousx Leda Pintings, but also the risque Hercules paintings, where he is faced by the gift of the fifity daughters of (what's his name?). The Saturn revealing himself in his majesty is deservedly famous too, cracker of an expression on the God's face.

They have many of the rooms in the house set up exactly as he lived there, and that too was very interesting, he seemd to have a lot of prints of his own works amidst the nearly wall to wall paintings and prints, but he had great ceramics as well as things like cabinets of medals including his Legion D'onnheur and Academic uniform at the end of his bed.

Any way. after Gustave we had lunch at Layfayette, bought a few presents there, and then on to Musee Delacroix in Germaine des Pres, which was a bit disapointing, not really a lot of his works, alrthough those that they had were very interesting of course. The Museum is in his last Paris dwelling, where he died, and he designed the studio himself, and it has a lot of his accoutrements intact, so quite interesting and worth seeing. I noted that the first President of the Society of Freinds of the Delacroix museum was Maurice Denis, in 1929.

Then, we just had enough time to tube it to the Museum of Arts and Sciences, where we filled in the last two hours of the day in its fascinating displays, which have hardly any audiovisuals, and suit me to a t.

Then, back to Montmartre, write this blog and chicken dinner...It seems we have spent a lot of time on the Metro, but it is a terrific system, and usually only takes about ten minutes to get anywhere.I forgot to say that last night I went to a Meeting, in the American Church near Invalides,  great place to be at night, with some impressive views...also I met some interesting and very freindly people, English speakers, although many are French.It seems that many people, if not most who deal with the public regularly, do speak English, but I try to speak French wehre I can, and that seems to be appreciated.

Anway I now leave you for my Poulet al Marocc and Flan Citron.

Paris5

Today, now what did we do...ah yes I remember, but perhaps I had better start with yesterday, as this has eventuted to be a two day blogfest.

We arose at sparrow fart and dashed by tube to the new Quai Branly, the anthropological arts museum that features some ceiling murals by Aboriginal artists. These are not in the museum part, but the offices, but they are pretty much visible from the street outside, particualrly at night I believe.We had to walk quite a distance along the Seine to get to the Musee because it is beween two Metro stations, in fact it is not far at all from the base of Le Tour Eifell (sp?). (Oddly enough Halle St Pierre is is steel, and made as markets by a student of Eifell's, perhaps it is possible to see his influence in a couple of the iron motifs).

Anyway, the Branly is a fairly radical design, made so by a long and narrow block of land, space being it seems at a premium in Paris and most of the tired old cities of Europe.(It is fun (as we did today) to catch a bus past the bourgeois areas of Chantilly past a high walled villa with an acre of tree studded grounds, and feel rather sorry for them at being so cramped and without a tennis court.)

Alors, Branly begins with a sort of snail shell up winding section , quite a winding ramp studded with light projections of more or less meaningful aphorisms such as "the finger pointing to the moon, is not the moon" and Wittgenstinian acrostics more or less obscure.Infact, as Basho knew, the moon is not the moon either, but I left well enough alone on that point.

When one has wended ones way up- the ramp the long thin museum begins and the exhibits are marvellous and very well displayed. truly excellent qulity Oceanic and Asian, African and American tribal arts as good as you will see anywhere I think, more and better where France had a strong colonial or missionary presence in the 19th and earlier centuries, so not much from India for instance or Australia, but what there is is pretty good stuff, in fact they have a bark by Wandjuk on display that is very similar to the one I rescued from under the sink at a school in Balmain years ago.

The place is only wide enough for four or five showcases, but these are very dramatically displayed, and a winding wall, which serves also as a bench, is recessed frequently with audiovisual touch screens, so it is pleasing to rest for a moment and plunge a little deeper into the subject. Indeed, this is the best use of audiovisuals I have encountered, nothing much is flashy or showy for its own sake, but has the oeverarching purpose of providing useful and fast information. Many of the audiovisiual museums in Australia are designed to shut children up I think, encouraging the visitor to press buttons, but not really providing useful information easily.This is not audiovisuals that dumb down, mostly in Australia, they are.

Not only do they have these bench screens, but many larger kiosks that fit it between six and ten people comfortably with wides screen panoramic videos of tribal ceremonies, all with excellent sound systems, the next best thing I guess, to being thre. The sound is never too loud, but is a constant accompianament to the visit, insturments clicking, chanting, singing, lively stuff.

This narrow section must also be slightly sloped, because one eventually finds oneself on the upper level and walking back the way one arrived. 

So, a fine building, beautiful objects and excellent educational displays, not authoratative, but mostly simply letting the peoples of the world speak for themselves.Like that famous book the Patterns that Connect however, the viewer can easily draw certain Jungian connections, that are I think a hidden sub text to the museum...have not yet read any comments on its semiotics, so am interested to hear what the brains think of it.

The exterior is pretty amazing also, one section of the facade is completely covered with growing plants, the windows are just vacancies in the vertical living carpet of rainforest mosses and small shrubs. I guess they got the idea from Geoff Koons' famous puppy...any way, it works, looks great, although if it were in England the health and safety nazis would stop it, as there is a small amount of water that runs from it over the footpath.

Inside, I turned around to discover my counterpart from Bathurst Richard Perram! I said in my best French accent "Richard, qu'est-ce tu fais a Paris?" He was equally amazed by the co-incidence...small world indeed.

That visit took all day, we walked back under the Eifell Tower and we just had a cheap meal in the cafe below our flat and I was in bed by 9 pm for the first time in many years.

Today we left early, tired of museums, so we got a RER train out of town to that medieval walled town out of Chantilly called if I remember rightly Senli. Lovely 12th century cathedral, which had bits modelled on St Denis, and in its turn influenced parts of Chartres. It had suffered the odd fire, but the restorations were very good, and the most recent was in 1508, also a good amount of the original had survived, including the stained glass, which though not exceptional gives a very nice clear light filled interior.

Nice little town, now a bourgeois enclave, many travelling for an hour each way into Paris to work. I was pleased to find that it was not as hilly as many of these medieval towns, although it did have a complete wall around the centre of town.Quite a lot of interesting buildings, and four museums, which we avoided I am pleased to say, as we are going heavily museum wards tomorrow.We saw a lot of good things, including the house where Marshall Fochs drew up the terms of the Armistice in 1918.

We then bussed back to Chantilly, wal;ked through a small forest park to the race track with the Princely Chateau and Stables attendant. I suppose that is one of the top race courses in the wolrd, I think I have seen it on telly. Certainly there were a lot of racehorses wandering around the nearby paddocks. I don't know if French horses are any good, but if Delacroix is any guide, they are tres vicieux and must be nearly impossible to ride, as they ambulate by putting their two front feet in the air at once. They also eat lions, so I think I prefer to walk.

Then, into the metro for three or four stops to some obsucre English bookshop Caro had heard about called Tea and Tattered Pages, as she had run out of books. I was clever enough to bring books that are so "heavy" they take months to read..(Ted Huges translation of the Orestes and other Aeschyllus on the cursed house of Artreus, Eco's Kant and the Platypus...well at least I though they would take months, I have nearly finished the Aeschyllus, and will buy a version of Eurpides version of the Orestes to compare the treatment. I must have reached a tragic stage in my life...I have also read Nicholai Leskov Lady Macbeth of Mitensk...anyone read Leskov, I had not heard of him, but Walter Benjamin turned me on to him via his high praise essay The Storyteller. Leskov is great!)

Caro bought a Terry Patchett.

See youse all, got to go back to cook some pasta...but I must just tell you that we had a very good lunch in Senli at the Vielle Auberge, a place speicalisng in Roti...I had a great thick Charolais steak, potatoes, herb butter, mushrooms, breadcumbed tomato..simple, but very good indeed, the staek was sprinkeled with tiny bits of cubed tomnatoes and fresh herbs, not really for taste, but more for colour. Lovely bread rolls, great service, nice patron, only spoke French so good practice.Caro had Roast Lamb chops, also very good. As we left we noticed the restaurant was an accredited member of some culinary society featuring crossed Cuirasses, very good place.

Bye for now.

Paris 4

This time it is Caro writing for a short time until Alan gets sick of waiting for me to finish anyway.

What a glorious couple of days the weather is still really hot and we have walked miles, no one wears hats very strange. all in all the women are dressed much the same as Sydney, they are  mainly thinner than in Orange,( but  they are thinner everywhere than Orange) The women famous in literary circles in Paris were older and fatter than most which is also good news for me. I finished the book by Lucinda Holdsworth  about women in Paris and its been great seeing the places she talks about.

Last night was exquisite, we went to a comcert in the most beautiful church I've ever been in Sainte Chappelle on the Isle de Cite. The music was Mozart and Borodin and played by a string quartet with a clarinet for one of the peices. You normally have to queue for ages to get in and it was very special with only a few people and as dusk fell and the light through the windows slowly went.

Today I went back to look at it during daylight and it was just as lovely even with the many tourists, I then went to the Musee de Moyen Age and then on to shop at Gallerie Layfayette. This was a great opportunity to spend money while Alan worked.

He is back from getting his coffee and is a presence at my elbow so I will let him get you up to date with his stuff.

Hello all, this is Alfonso, and I am hugely annoyed  by the news that Orange has censored one of the paintings from my show Flaming Youth. They are lucky I was not there, because the last time this happened, when I was in Hamilton, I made sure that every newspaper in the country made Hamilton out to be the backwater that it had proved itself to be. I would certainly have refused to cover the work, and made it a cause celebre...oh well, so be it.

Today I was working all day at Halle St Pierre condition reporting the works and talking to an ancient artist who is showing downstairs, a Polish woman Kalinsky, who survived Concentration camp but lost 200 members of her family. Oddly enough, her work still bears many traces of this experience!

Tonight, we go our for dinner somewhere...we allow ourselves only one meal out a day, and so tonight it is it...for a cheap meal somewhere that is, probably to the same one we went to in Montmartre on our first night here, which was very good and not too dear.

We are about to ring Fred Lachise and his freinds in paris, and will make a rendez-vous when we can. I have put them both on the invitation list for the Opening next Monday also...

I should tell you that yesterday we firstly went to the Bastille market...well worth it for food, although not everything we bought was as good as it looked. Just the same, we had the best Lebanese food I had ever had..great hummous and kiibe, which made tasty additions to our Baguettes and rochqefort pastries  eaten in the nearby jardins des Plantes, which for early Autumn had a lot of blooms happening. Parisians tell us that it is not in fact unusual for the hot weather to continue to mid Setember, but to me it seems postively hot...too hot surely!

we then continued our Literary walk around the left bank, of course getting side tracked here and there by places like the Cafe de Flore (where Satre and De Beauvoir spent the huge professorial slaries they must have had to have been able to drink there) and cheked out Ginsbergs and Kerouac's fav places. We also saw the St Germaine de Pres and the bust of Apollinaire, which must surely have been made by Picasso, although no label is on it...perhaps for good reason!

We saw millions of lovely small galleries and quality shops, but not a great amount of good art, as they say in the song...we don't know how lucky we are! (Except in Orange, where the good burghers are complete morons it seems, OR AT LEAST THEY ARE WHEN I AM NOT THERE).

France 3

We have been as busy as a one armed croissantier the last two jours.Yesterday we went in the morning to Halle St Pierre, but they were not quite ready to begin the condition reports, so we  walked down the hill to the Metro and headed over to a place the staff had told us about...the Maison Rouge, no...not what you are thinking...in fact it is a private Foundation devoted to the latest brilliant contemporary art, and other not so rare forms of life.

This is near the Seine in the Marais district, a shortish walk from Musee Picasso and many other groovy things.

Maison Rouge has an amazing permanent sculptural exhibit in an open courtyard consisting of twelve animatronic large crows, which are programmed to flap their umbrella folded wings and make a ghastly cawing whenever a large white inflated beach ball makes its rounds on a wooden track which runs right around the sides of this small red house, the old core of a larger modern complex. With typical French engineering skill, the beach ball , amid a frightful flapping of caws, is lifted by a motroised ascenseur and the process begins again. Apparently the artist got carried away and made the project much more complex than was asked in the commission. Can't remember his name, but clearly one of those Biennale type artists who make interesting theings that have absolutely no point beyond the moment.

But we were there to see the Henry Darger exhibition, amidst Outsider circles it is the talk of Paris, indeed of Europe.Nell, who showed in Flaming Youth told me about it in Orange, as she had seen it recently when on one of those six month jaunts that the best of the young artists seem to be able to score quite easily.

Darger was a weird American, since recognised as one of the 3 pillars of American Art Brut, who died in 1970 leaving this amazing archive of disturbing and disturbed  writings and paintings, he had obsessively kept since escaping from his psychiatric hospital when a young adult. He lived in Chicago, and seems to have lived a tragically lonely life completely dominated by his fantasy world which featured the torture and salvation in turns, of young girls. There is no evidence that Darger did kill children in real life, but if not, it is further proof for the efficacy of Aristotelian Catharsis because he surely was skating close to the edge of complete insanity.

Very disturbing, but well worth seeing, as his fantasy is peculiarly pretty as well as occaisionally ridiculously violent.A bizarre mix indeed of comic characters and book illustrations like the Bobbsy Twins playing merrily in fabulous spring time gardens (he taught himself to paint by copying and tracing such things) with imagined massacres of the same characters by sadistic armies !

Well for some light relief we walkd down to the Yacht Club of Paris for some home packed lunch of bread and cheese watching thed various crew prepare some massive Seine cruiser for a gourmet dinner that evening.

And then to the Musee Picasso, as you all know, a superb collection of works by the indisputed master. Still don't agree with John Berger and Clement Greenberg that he declined into grotesque self parody, after the 2nd war. Sure, he got a bit slapdash in the sixties, but there were still plenty of discoveries and innovations as far as I am concerned.

I must say though that I wasmost  staggered by an analytical cubist work, Man with Lute, of about 1913 I think, which was so heavily fractured that it was almost impossible to detect a single correponsdence with the physical world. Nonetheless, when standing a certain distance from this work I was overwhelmed by the presence of the luteplayer, and his posture, his instrument being lightly strummed...yet I could not discern hand, lute, arm, or even head of the man!Amazing.

There was nothing as amazing in the sixties it is true, but his head of a woman of 1961 is still a marvellous bit of "minimalist monumentalism" that reflects his profound ability to see what others do not.I was staggered by one painting where the  attention of the viewer seemed to be directed to the strange stretch of webbed skin that lies between forefinger and thumb of his subject...has any other artist really seen this so clearly before? It may sound trivial, but for some rerason it showed me just what a seer he was..

We also loved the Vallauris ceramics, which too are belittled by Greenberg, but for mine these are great works that can stand in any ceramic company of any time.The collection here is more concentrated than those in Nice, and makes just as strong as impression although fewer and smaller in scale.

I also think that Picasso imporved as a colourist greatly in the laste fifteis asnd sixties, as though he no longer needed to be different from Matisse, but could shamellessly explore some of the avenues of the older artist.

WE too are spending nearly all day on our feet, and by six thirty or seven when we get the tube back to Montmartre, we can barely walk, very sore feet.. This is the curse of the artlover. Apart, that is, from not having the money to buy anything much.

Today we set out to visit as many as we could of the Galleries and Passages, Arcades, of Paris, that I had read about in Walter Benjamin's amazing book. We visited about eight of these structures, most of them in the area around the Louvre...the first buildings designed to literally reflect the consumer looking at consumer goods on either side....to place you among the produce of capitalism, your image seen through as though to flesh it out you needed to consume the contents within. Benjamin makes many similar analogies which concern both modern marketing and post modernist thought.Fascinating book, and an excellent thing to do for us, some fascinating shops are still in the arcades, although they have lost a lot of their glam since the early 19th century... other simulacra have won the day.We  found some bargains in the arcades nevertheless!

Then, caught a tube to Quartier Latin and began a walk from Lonely Planet Guidebook around the literary pilgrimage sites of the Left Bank, saw Hemingways pad and all the honorific Restaurant Papas, saw George Orwells little walk up, and James Joyces flat (all from the outside, they are not preserved as shrines, although I suspect it might be possible to get the oweners to open up for cold cash, I can't imagine some American enthusiasts taking no for an answer!

We were going to continue to Collete's and many others, but got sidetracked by the Pantheon and an amazing exhibition by Netto, the Brazilian guy who we have seen in Vencice and in Sydney, who hoists huge stockings full of spices up to the ceiling to make pendulous alien flowers with associated Prousitan contiguities.He had not finished this work, it opens in a few days, as it was fun watching him set it up, only about half finished, but it will fill the Pantheon, which is of course now a  secular monemnet to the heroes of republican France, despite its Puvis de Chavannes and other fin de siecle muralists life of St Genevieve!Good to see Voltaires grave in the crypt, opposite Jean Jacque Rousseau's crypt (I understand they did not at all get on, and now indisposed to eternity..!) .Whenever I see a crypt I think of the cat that crept into the crypt, crapped, and crept out again.Sic Transit Gloria Mundi.

Then in the immense civc buildings nearby, the Mayoral offices of the Arrondisement, we were further distracted from our literary search by what is the by far the largest collection of Goya etchings I have ever seen. All of the Proverbs, the Caprichios and the Disasters of War, along with many other obscure prints. I had not seen many of these beofre, even in books, and certainly did not see so many in one place  in the Prado, so this took us about two hours to get around. Fantastic of course, but particually funny was the way , on the exhibition labels and panels, that the French curator disagreed with everything that Harris (the English expert on Goya) said!

So, really tired by now, we staggered over to the Luxembourg Gardens and settled on the stone edge of the carp pond to rest our bones and cool off.. Alan was obliged to push two horrid noisome  children into the pond after their silly boats had nudged him in the back. You may know that the French  give a huge amount of licence to les enfants in France... amd sure enough, in no time a jabbering crowd of irate Frogs had gathered and drove us out of the Park. Not before Caro had hurled one or two into the chestnut parterre  I can tell you!

Anyway after this excitement, which really aggravated the sore feet, we luched and snuffled to the Metro miles up in Montparnasse (the last of the crowd had stopped chasing us) and returned to out wee flat for a home cooked dinner of spaghetti alla pesto, with proscuitto and grana pava.So nice to have some good Aussie tucker after all the froggie stuff we have been eating, I can tell you!

Au Bientot chumps!.

France 2

Thanks for the  comments stay at homes!

For you to keep up with our news, such as it is.

Paris is very warm , much warmer than Orange at the moment or in summer even.

Our flight was long and cramped but all in all not too  bad, customs going into transit in Singapore and London was excessive, but non existant coming into Paris, very odd.

 We got the train and metro to our apartment. It is very small, but clean and airy and close to the metro. We are at the base of the big hill in Montmartre called the butte where the famous church is Sacre Coeur. We are close to good restaurants, shops and the Museum of Erotica.

We  have already been to  the gallery Halle st Pierre where Alans exhibition is being put on, the staff are very nice and the space is large, we have been invited to an opening there tonight. Also have been shopping and Caro bought purple shoes, Alan bought a Junior Gaultier Suit, and we had lunch on the Champes Elysee today with Jean Paul Belmondo..

Yesterday we went to the Musee Carnavalet (history of Paris..tres gruesome mostly, which is always fun) and wandered around the Marais, the gay and hip district, which coincidentally also contains the strict jews with their silly hats.

We went also to Place des Vosges which is pleasant, but the Galleries, although expensive, have really ost the plot, only one of about ten had decent art, the rest was "left bank" crap.

We also went to the Isle St Louis and the Isle de Cite, Notre Dame of course, which Alan had not seen before.

The weather is most pleasant, tres chaud for this time of year, and it is great to walk around in the Parisian light with trees and flowers that are confused by global warming.

France

Well we are leaving for FRANCE TOMORROW AT 3.40. I am far too tired to write anything tonight, as I have been packing my bicycle repair kit (know what I mean Janda?) and other tools of the trade...

As you know, I have a loyal army of colleagues, bicycle repair men mostly, who have been planning my arrival for some years. They have ordered seven million cubic metres of road grade base rubble, eucalypts and wattles (pre blackened) and a particualrly nasty gravel top, so that Mt Ainsley can be erected with astonishing speed and remarkable tromple l'oeil wherever I believe it to be necessary.Mwhooooarrrr, snuffle, lurch...

Keep blogging Janda, but know this, that your misguided attempt at humour when you took the mickey out of the Ubermenschen Martin Heidegger was GOING TOO FAR!

All that great man was after was a simple, elemental  philosophy of a purity of expression akin to the pre-Socratics. And what is wrong with that?

And who amongst us has not put on a Generalleutnant der Waffen-SS uniform and struck a few powerful poses before the mirror?

See youse when youse least expect it....

BR