Quick note on the Velazquez show: I finally went to see it - it's very good and you must go see it. It's on at the National Gallery, London until 21st January 2007. Yeah, there's no Las Meninas - that was never going to happen - but the Prado has been very generous.
The Water Seller (1618-22) is a masterclass in representation, and his early tavern scenes - painted when he was 18! - show men and youths honestly and without judgement. They look so modern too. There's a sense of the everyday en-nobled. There's a Goyaesque female in the background of the Temptation of Saint Thomas Aquinas (1632-3), curious random brushstrokes in the background of Don Pedro de Barberana y Aparregui (1630s). Amazing things he's doing with paint and with politics in every painting.
The late court and quasi-mythological scenes are extraordinary: by then he was interested in the making itself, and he had an amazing economy of style. In Camillo Massimo (1650), the moustache is just two brush strokes, making you think of those other trickster-artists Dali and Duchamp (LHOOQ). And there's a foreshadowing of Manet in these expressionistic paintings, and of course of Manet's Olympia in the stare of Venus in the mirror in Venus at her Toilet (1647-51).
Two great reviews: Of gods and monarchs - Jonathan Jones reviews the show (and he did an audioguide). You can’t take your eyes off them - Waldemar Januszczak's review (and he did a video guide).
- I haven't quoted anything from those reviews because they're chock full of gems. Jones signs off: "seeing this exhibition come together over the past few weeks has been the most worthwhile experience of my career. Time spent with Velázquez is never time wasted." And Januszczak: "I’m going to stop there. I’m gushing. It’s all useless wordage. Go to the show. You’ll see what I mean."
I doubt there will be a Velazquez show like this in the UK in next fifty years. See it if you can.
(PS: Januszczak's short films on art are starting to go up on Youtube. Watch the one of absinthe through to the end - it's funny.)
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