Saturday, September 14, 2013

Michael Landy and The National Gallery

That Plinth
Michael Landy is an interesting guy and YBA (still?) as well as being the guy who destroyed everything he owned (Break Down) and being  the partner of Gillian Wearing (another YBA?).he's the National Gallery artist in Residence.
Nice shop- helpful assistants
  On Friday the weather meant that I would be limited in what I could do on the allotment so I decided to use the time for a gallery visit and found that rather surprisingly for me (and it seems for him at some level) he has a display of works under the title 'Saints Alive'  in the Sunley Room of the National Gallery in the heart of London's fashionable West End .
The exhibition and accompanying film are a great experience and as Landy observes the Saints have some amazing stories which are for many of us forgotten or never known - before seeing this I only associated St Catherine with the fireworks seen on November 5th in England.
It's sometime since I'd visited the National Gallery and it was for me a bit shocking to know that Michael Landy was not a visitor ahead of his appointment.
Highlights from this particular trip (apart from the 4th plinth outside) were Joachim Beuckelaer's 'The Four Elements and The Execution of Emperor Maximilian  by Edouard Manet what fascinated me about this was they way the painting had been rebuilt.
Also pleased to give some trade to Cass Art in Charing Cross Road here's a youtube about the Four Elements.

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