Seeing straight
As soon as the brochure dropped through the letterbox, I knew I wanted to see the exhibition at least once. I've always been fascinated by Bridget Riley's work and a chance to see it alongside some other interesting pieces in Compton Verney's fascinating style was too good to miss.
It really didn't disappoint and the exhibition was designed in a way that made the most of those compelling, eye-boggling works. The first room, with a few Seurat pointillist paintings and a cabinet of colour theory pages was a kind of warm-up for the main event. The prep continued into the next room, with some Escher drawings and other works on a similar, gently confusing theme.
No photographs allowed in the gallery, but a google image search for Bridget Riley soon produces a page of examples!
All of this was a precursor to the really boggling designs in the main gallery, where the volunteer steward reassured us that their rota is currently scheduled for half hours rather than the hour long rotations they normally operate. For these artworks are curiously compelling. Even though they do peculiar things to our senses, can induce nausea at times and most certainly overcome any efforts to apply logic to what we are seeing, we just couldn't stop looking at them. Maybe it was my brain telling me to stick with it; be patient and it will work it out in a tick? I don't know, but both of us were drawn into these fascinating works of art and we loved it all.
I find it hard to imagine the astonishing age of my favourite vessel - 1200BC? Wow.
The exhibition continued in the other part of the gallery, necessitating a visit to my all time favourite vessel, mentioned in so many previous posts. Reputedly the most valuable item in the whole collection, I never fail to marvel at the intricacy of the patterns, the cute characteristics and the sheer beauty of this Shang Dynasty creation. Love it!
Anyway, having regained some kind of stability following all of that mesmerising art, there was one further exhibition I wanted to see.
It involved a walk through the permanent exhibition downstairs, a gallery we frequently overlook when we're here, because it's kind of familiar and doesn't have the pulling power of the short-term, temporary exhibitions we usually come to see. When we do make our way down there though, the reward is immediate, for these galleries are so beautifully designed, each work of art effectively lit and shown to best advantage. Doesn't St George look great here, freestanding and not hung against a blank wall?
Whilst browsing the books on display in the museum entrance, one title in particular had caught my eye.
Even more intriguing when I'd read the blurb on the back cover. Maybe I should add this one to my list? A possible book group read?
now there's a surprise!
But how would my book group manage this format? For that matter, how would I manage reading a book like this? I suppose I should try. Or?
The Library is housed in the prettiest of rooms, where the corner bookshelves lend themselves so well to housing these 100 titles.
There are some surprises amongst the tried and tested, but most are books I've read or at least knew of already, but I learned that this is an ongoing project, so it will be interesting to see how it develops.
A large table in the centre of the room invited visitors to sit and read, or write a few words prompted by the cards, reminiscent of the Chicago Writers Museum we visited recently.
But we were getting hungry, the dark clouds were gathering and we were keen not to get soaked walking back to the car park. One of the benefits of membership here is that we can drop in at any time and spend the whole day here or just an hour. Right now, lunch was definitely calling us!
It's been a fun few days!
I hope that the gremlins really have gone now and everything is functioning as it should. Please, let me know if it isn't! I'd really appreciate it if you'd leave a comment (so that I can check how that function works at my end) and maybe try to "like" a page (or a comment) by clicking on the small heart icon. Thank you! Oh, and to clarify the navigation stuff, clearly the means of switching from one post to another depends on the device you're using!
