Compared to September, last month was slightly less “culturally charged”. This is mainly due to the fact that my sister got married, an event to which I dedicated a bit of time as well as a stay in Belgium, of course.
I did, however, manage to do and see the below (listed in chronological order).
Swan Lake at the Royal Opera House
Swan Lake, ROH (Photo: © Bill Cooper/ROH)
Who doesn’t like a good Swan Lake? It had been way too long since I had been to the ballet, and my friend Charlotte had never seen one in London, so back in July we had booked tickets for what is probably the world’s most popular ballet.
It was my third “Lake”: I had seen it twice at La Scala, once with Svetlana Zakharova, who is the ultimate Odile/Odette in my opinion, and once with Alina Somova, whom I had found a bit too athletic for my taste. The Royal Ballet’s version of Petipat’s ballet was, of course, very good. Sarah Lamb (pictured above) proved to be a gracious Odile/Odette, and I found the costumes and sets really beautiful.
But oh my, the audience! This is one of the rare ballets that has really beautiful music (if you don’t see what I mean, try to listen to Coppélia’s score on its own…). So I was a bit frustrated that people kept clapping at all times, not letting the music flow, let alone breathe.
The Frieze Art Fair at Regent’s Park
I have devoted an entire post to Frieze, which you can read here.
A Walk & Talk with Richard Wentworth, with Love Art London
The walk/talk through SW3 with British sculptor Richard Wentworth was one of the best Love Art London adventures yet. Witty and enlightened, we chatted with the man about architecture (with a special mention for Richard Rogers’ house), bridges, garage doors, terrible public sculptures and whatever else he could think of at the time.
We ended our walk with a very quick tour of the Royal Academy of Art studios in Battersea. These strongly reminded me of the Teatro alla Scala workshops, which is kind of normal since they also have foundry, painting and sculpture workshops. Rumour has it that we might pay a more in-depth visit to the RA studios with Love Art London in the future: I am keeping my fingers crossed!
Adam Neate at Elms Lester Gallery, with Love Art London
Exclusively represented by Elms Lester, British graffiti artist Adam Neate had a solo exhibition at the gallery last month. Rather shy but very friendly, he explained his background and his practice to us. His work really needs to be seen in the flesh, because a lot of it is tri-dimensional, as he often incorporates wooden or plastic elements with painting.
Adam Neate at Elms Lesters Painting Rooms (Photo: © Love Art London)
When we finished chatting to Adam Neate, the gallery directors opened the doors of the Painting Rooms, which are adjacent to the exhibition spaces. Elms Lester is located in the ancient parish of St. Giles between Soho, Covent Garden and Bloomsbury and was built in 1904 by Mr Elms Lesters. It originally served as (then) state-of-the-art scenic painting studios, which were supplying all the West End theatres with their theatrical backdrops. Apparently it is idiosyncratic of British set makers that they paint sets vertically; on the Continent these are painted horizontally.
Elms Lester Painting Rooms (Photo: © Love Art London)
As the use of painted backdrops declined, the painting studios were more often than not being used by the gallery’s artists, often producing site specific works for their upcoming shows or as photo shoot locations (for the likes of Blur and Kylie Minogue).
Edward Le Bas: Inside an Edwardian Studio in Chelsea, with Love Art London
Some of Love Art London’s activities feel more exclusive than others. This one wasn’t bad. We were ushered into one of London’s only three houses designed by Sir Charles Rennie Mackintosh, in Chelsea. If you know my enthusiasm for Art Nouveau (or more precisely in this case, Arts and Crafts), you can easily imagine how much I enjoyed that particular event.
Saloon Bar, Edward Le Bas, 1940 (Photo: © Tate)
Why were we ushered in that house? Well, it’s because it used to be Edward Le Bas’s private studio. Since you probably don’t know much about this painter, I thought I’d copy and paste (duplicate content alert!) some of Love Art London’s information:
“As well as being an avid collector of contemporary art at the turn of the 20th century, Edward Le Bas was one of Britain’s most talented painters who, despite being an elected member of the Royal Academy and awarded a CBE, has been slightly failed by the history books. Le Bas’ style owes much to the French tradition, Post-Impressionism in particular, and to the work of his great friend Duncan Grant and the Bloomsbury Group, a circle of British artists with whom he was associated. As a collector Le Bas amassed a hoard of important works The Camden Town Group (a London collective which included heavyweights like Walter Sickert), The Bloomsbury Group (in particular his friends Duncan Grant & Vanessa Bell) and the celebrated French artist Edouard Vuillard. Le Bas’ impressive collection, including around 200 of his own paintings, (the ones which aren’t in the Tate, Royal Academy, the Arts Council or other important institutions) hang in the original studio in which Le Bas lived and worked.” (With thanks to Love Art London)
Additional information about Edward Le Bas can be found on Tate‘s website.
Some arts-related digital stuff
Because having written all this leaves me with the feeling that I did little in October, I should probably add that I attended one of the monthly Art of Digital London meetups, which I heartily recommend to anyone who is interested in digital communications and the arts. They are hosted at the Photographers’ Gallery and the line-up of speakers is generally excellent. I also made a very late appearance at the Culture Geek meetup, a “spin off” of the Culture Geek conference.
Arts and Sprouts 
I went to Adam Neate too. I ended up in the pub having a chat with him — very interesting. I’m going to do a blog post myself soon about how my own attempts to see what it’s like to use spray paint on cardboard.
I’m going to the olefactory Love Art London event in early December, which looks brilliant. Are you?
I missed the “post Adam Neate pub”, sadly. I have booked myself for ALL the events in December, so I should be at the olfactory one too. Look foward to reading about your attempts at spray painting!
Wow. I’ve just rejoined Love Art London on the one per month option but was tempted by the next level. We’ll have to say hello at the next event I’m at — maybe I’ll ask Chris or Lindsay to introduce me. (I was the one who asked Adam Neate something about his real taxi sign.) He was a really nice person to talk to — extremely modest. He was telling me about where he lived and his family.
I’ll tweet my next blog post — some amusingly amateurish attempts at spray painting.