Hello
How are your Christmas preparations coming along? The advent calendar fairy has filled our calendars with chocolate and is a bit forlorn that the Cultural Young men are still far away and the drawers remain uneaten. As I walked through Trafagar Square on Monday the Christmas tree had just been delivered from Noway and was being winched into place. I was on my way to See Peselino: A Renaissance Master Revealed at the National Gallery, small, exquisite and free. After that I meandered over to Christies and up to Sotheby’s to see what they have on offer in their Classic and Masters Week. There was a Bruegel that I really, really liked but Mr CW says that he bought me a lavishly illustrated Bruegel book two Christmases ago and that must suffice. Over at Westfield the Gingerbread City has opened and the Garden Museum is staging its first ever Winter Flowers Week. The book that kept me company was Steeple Chasing by Peter Ross.
Yesterday evening it was announced that Jesse Darling has won this year’s Turner Prize. Mr CW and I are heading down to the Towner in Eastbourne to see his work and of the other nominees later this week. The Turner Prize 2023 will be on show at the Towner until April and is free to visit, if you fancy a cultural seaside jaunt.
If you are heading west then Elizabeth Frink: A View from Within at the Dorset Museum looks rather special. Dame Elizabeth lived and worked in Dorest. When her son died he left a large trove of her works to the nation with the express wish that they be displayed. Dorset Museum received 300 works and this is the first exhibition devoted to them. I confess that I haven’t visited Dorchester since I made my Thomas Hardy pilgrimage there when The Mayor of Casterbridge was my O Level set text. Time to revisit I think.
Happy Culturing
Catherine