Review: America's Cool Modernism at the Ashmolean
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-43502394
“A quick glance at the form-book of blockbuster exhibitions will tell you we like paintings with people in them. Rembrandt's portraits for example, or Da Vinci's Mona Lisa, or - currently - Picasso's depictions of his young lover at Tate Modern. They all get us going.
“True, we don't mind the odd landscape, but usually only when it reminds us of Nature's great power and beauty and our place in it. And yes, we'll happily tip up to a show of abstract art as long as it's packed with Matisse or Rothko-like emotion.
Mostly, though, we like to look at ourselves.
Which makes the Ashmolean Museum's decision to mount a major exhibition of inter-war American paintings - on the basis that they are aggressively unpopulated and as emotionally charged as a paving slab - appear quite bold.
It's called America's Cool Modernism, but that's a misnomer…”
A girl mesmerised by the Saxophonist playing Nature Boy
“The greatest thing you’ll ever learn / Is just to love and be loved in return.”
Leaving; Left; To take leave
