Astonished by Goya; Creeped out by Goya

Astonished by Goya; Creeped out by Goya

The excellent catalogue that accompanies the excellent exhibition, Goya: the Portraits, at the National Gallery contains a passage that is key to understanding Goya’s power as a portraitist.

The catalogue refers to the series of etchings that Goya published at the end of the C18, Los Caprichos (not included in the Exhibition). In Goya’s own words (promoting the collection commercially): “He [Goya] has selected from among the innumerable foibles and follies to be found in any civilised society … those subjects he feels to be most suitable materials for satire…”. One of the etchings shows a monkey painting the portrait of an ass.

I am not unwell; I am off to Hospital

I am not unwell; I am off to Hospital

I am spending increasing amounts of time having bits of me checked out. I don’t know whether it’s my age, or a policy adopted by my GP surgery, but I keep getting referred to specialists. This is not because of illness. They say that this or that should be “investigated”, just in case: cholesterol, moles, eye, blood pressure – that sort of thing. Specialists require other specialist input to do their work – scans, blood tests, dieticians.

Hepworth; Greenwich; English Touring Opera - an Autumn Miscellany

Hepworth; Greenwich; English Touring Opera – an Autumn Miscellany

Tate Britain – Barbara Hepworth

Tate Britain on a rainy Monday is not crowded, even when it is hosting a fairly prestigious exhibition of works by Barbara Hepworth. The clientele, if that’s an appropriate word, are pretty homogenous – or, to be precise, fall largely into one of two homogenous groups. One group comprises art students, A Level students I should guess at the time of my visit, equipped with sketchpads. They had a tendency to block access to one side of sculptural exhibits by standing immobile, absorbed in drawing.

Cambridge by Train and Bike

Cambridge by Train and Bicycle

If you take away the crowds, the railway station at Cambridge could be admired for the pleasing Victorian structure it is, low rise and far-flung (an extremely long “double” main platform where two trains can pull up nose to tail).

Alas, the crowds cannot be taken away, and, so it seems, forever congest the small ticket hall and jostle through the narrow doors to and from the platforms.