This afternoon we caught the bus in to Birmingham and went to the free museum to complete the Nativity trail. We picked up a leaflet and followed it round. In certain galleries I was able to show E a picture of the painting she was looking for and then went and found it. The girls enjoyed working out which part of the story each painting was telling. They are in order of gallery, rather than order of story! They cover about 500 years of art and are a variety of different styles which kept I interested as we discussed how they could have been created. We liked the vibrant stained glass window made as a memorial to the men of the congregation who served and died in the First World War. The window shows the angels appearing to the shepherds to announce the birth of Jesus. We also liked this small painting made to be a Christmas card showing a soldier, sailor and airman approaching the stable at Bethlehem and angels watching over a sky filled with planes and searchlights. The Latin inscription ‘Ipse est pax nostra’ (he is our peace) suggests Jesus is a source of comfort and hope, especially in time of war.
How are we looking at the paintings of Mark Rothko these days?
ReplyDeleteIs he old hat, replaced in America by more contemporary concerns? Looking at his minimal canvases and their enticing floating squares of subdued paint live at the MOMA recently, I had to stop to wonder whether he still communicates to a modern and younger audience.
Wahooart.com, the site that sells good canvas prints to order from their database of digital images, has many Rothko prints. I ordered this one, Blue and grey, http://EN.WahooArt.com/A55A04/w.nsf/OPRA/BRUE-8BWU7F
, that I have now hanging in my study. I can spend a long time looking at this elusive image that takes me to some other place not in this world.