Simply..more of the real thing....

6/5/2015

I always think there is nothing like the real thing.

As we stood in front of the original Leonardo da Vinci cartoon of The Virgin and Child with St Anne and St John the Baptist in the National Gallery I read that in 1501 crowds gathered in Florence to view it. The knowledge that today crowds gather in London to look at it thrills me - and that in relation to this drawing i am standing where Leonardo stood.

Other originals, other thrills - the Matisse collages in Tate Modern, Daniel Barenboim playing there on the stage in front of me in the Usher Hall in Edinburgh, chinese artist Fu Wua creating a brush painting with such energy and panache as I stood beside him, discovering a neolithic axe head on an archaeological dig in Cyprus...

Facsimiles are disturbing. The intention of the maker is very different from the intention of the original creator of the David in Florence or the Four Horses of the Apocalypse in St Mark's Square in Venice. I believe the quality of the intention of the maker becomes the spirit of the artwork. (My theory is that that is why we are drawn to children's art - their intention is so pure.)

Holograms are disappointing. The culmination of the Yorvik exhibition in York was supposed to be the Viking helmet found on the site. In it's place was a hologram. I can still remember my dismay.

Of course experiencing the real thing is not just about famous or cultural things....

12 Comments

Penny L

6/5/2015 07:27:49 am

Have just returned from hearing Verdi's Requiem. It was being broadcast live on Radio3 at the same time. It doesn't matter how sophisticated people's radios were, their experience won't be a patch on mine!

Freda

7/5/2015 05:48:37 am

I bet you are still on a high!

Madeleine

6/5/2015 07:36:22 am

Oh, this strikes a chord with me. What a thrill I have had to hear some of the great musicians of the world playing at the Sydney Opera House! I agree with Penny, but would also add that I think hearing something live to air on radio is better than hearing a digitally remastered CD which is often quite lifeless.

And doesn't technology mean that young people (and older) are often not experiencing 'real' today - they spend hours looking at pictures of everything instead of getting out in the world and actually experiencing the love,beauty,sunshine etc...

I could go on and say that 'real' also takes time - to travel to the venue, to cook the meal from scratch, to make a pot of tea from leaves and drink it from a lovely cup....ahhh, I love 'real'. Thank you, Freda, for reminding me. Art Gallery for me this Saturday!

Madeleine.x

Freda

7/5/2015 05:49:49 am

Enjoy the Art Gallery Madeleine.

elaine link

6/5/2015 04:16:13 pm

I felt the same thrill when I stood in front of Van Gogh's Sunflowers - I think it must have been the Nat. Gallery and they had put the picture on an easel so that it was almost as though he had just left it.
I have long been an admirer of Kurt Jackson's work, I have lots of his catalogues but never seen the real thing. An exhibition came to Rutland which isn't too far from us. I was nervous because I wanted his work to live up to my expectations - it did - the first thing I did was burst into tears when I stood in the room. That is what the real thing does for me.

Love the tulips mine are on their way out - I shall miss them.

Freda

7/5/2015 05:51:09 am

Real experiences can be so moving. Wasn't that a good touch - putting the Van Gogh on an easel....

Gail

6/5/2015 09:55:44 pm

Real thing. Truly "mo" better than replica
1/when I lived in Fla., we went to Cape Canviral numerous times to see shuttle launches. To hear the roar and have the sound waves rock me to & fro -awesome.
2/ Natural Bridge in Va-looks nice enough in photos, but in real life, I am struck with God's handiwork. How blessed we are that He made world both functional but beautiful for our pleasure.
3/ current exhibit of Van Gogh, Matisse, Manet flower paintings, to see the brush strokes, the colors up close, I can feel the painters, passion.

Freda

7/5/2015 05:54:40 am

Wow! Those shuttle launches do sound really awesome!

cath

7/5/2015 12:17:35 am

Real things: a drawing made by Saenredam; pencil, plan for a church. Meeting Thich Nhat Hanh. The Kyoko series of kimono made by Itchiku Kubota. A holloway in Ireland; fuchsia blooming on either side.
The patchwork that is The Netherlands seen from above.

Freda

7/5/2015 05:56:28 am

There is a beautiful Saenredam in Kelvingrove Gallery in Glasgow which always moves me, and looking down at the landscape from a plane (or a balloon)...fabulous.

Maggie

7/5/2015 04:53:33 am

Viewing original paintings by Paul Klee in an Edinburgh exhibition in 2000 was an amazing experience. Hockneys’s exhibition in London, - although an overcrowded melee- was spectacularly impressive.
Prints by these artists that are hung in my home – I love seeing them – but scale, size and colour is never quite the same as in the real thing.
It is my original Waldapfel painting, ‘‘Moon Meadow’ that speaks to my heart and sings to my soul every time I I see it.
Viewing hand-crafted antique and contemporary patchwork and applique quilts at exhibitions around the world has also been heart-warming and inspirational.
Cath- I regret having missed Thich Nhat Hanh when he was in the UK - that must have been a very special meeting.

Freda

7/5/2015 05:58:47 am

Oh, thank you Maggie! Haven't we had lots of thrills looking at, looking for and making quilts. Inspirational indeed.

Simply..more of the real thing....

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