I love the work of Lorenzo Quinn.............

Todays Insert Maglet inside the Saturday Times has made me think about sculpture. It features  the  Mexican- Italian sculptor Lorenzo Quinn. I've always enjoyed the visual arts, and though have not roamed the world and taken in many architectural gems or sculptures to make me competent to discuss them I can easily tell the world What I like and Why.

The massive marble statue in the stair well of the Hull Church Institute used to fascinate me in the 1950's.  I wonder what happened to it. I cant remember its subject, though It must have been something Biblical.  It certainly was of epic proportions from the eyes of a small girl.

The Body Parts above are the remains of a colossus of a statue . I took this picture during my Grand Tour in 1974. Actually I saw so many statues, bits of statues, backs and rude fronts , Etruscan vases and fountains that I was immune to them after a few days. When I lived in London it was the same with the V and A. It did not take me long to work out a strategy for viewing the Visual Arts, and getting the most out of the experience. It used to go like this

• take a bus to town  that stopped right outside the  gallery or museum of choice
• Decide before going in which  room(s) were the plat de jour
• follow the plan and go directly to room of choice.  Do not get sidetracked by glimpse of another room.
  
• Enjoy. Sit down on every available seat, bench or plush ottoman looking thing. 
• Go back to object you really liked  and have another good look. Buy a Postcard
  
• Find coffee shop and powder room. Spend as much time as like  watching the world go by.
• Go home via Laura Ashley or Biba (that was in 1968-72) or Peter Jones (this is now) Another bus is necessary.
  

 I spent most of the School Holidays doing paintings, sculptures, stained glass, furniture, drawings and what are now known as installations, f k a kinetic art.

It still goes like that. Now it is much more fun.  I do not have to pay for the buses.

The Saachi Gallery off the Kings road is now a firm favourite. That is because they do not mind if you take photos. Their exhibitions are free. They are foreign mostly , and you come out thinking that people are the same the world over.

I am already planning my trip to see the Lorenzo Quinn sculptures .I think I can fit it in en route to Brighton next month. In Berkeley Square the above 'Give and Take ' will be on display. It is a celebration of the Sculptors 20th Wedding Anniversary. The man is a genius, and I can tell that from just looking at Google Images. My definition of a genius is someone who thinks of something so simple you wish you had thought of it.  The online catalogue is a good idea. Not quite such a page turner as the one of the Lindisfarne Gospels, but a symphony of black and white.

Writing this has enthused me. I want to tell you all about my trip to the Walthamstow tapestry  last month, the colour is a clue.I want to be reminded of my first trip too to the Degas Little ballet dancer , complete with her tattered tutu. I want to show you the Plaster bust of my ancestor, archived here on an earlier blog. I want to show you the latest creations of my spouse from his Ceramic mornings. I am going to show you a small sculpture done by my second daughter when she was a teenager. It will get you thinking.