We walked miles today - excellent day out first at the V&A - one of the most amazing museums, such grandeur and such opulence and thats just the building. we went primarily to see the Frida Kahlo exhibtion - and it was very interesting, there were less of her personal artifacts then I had expected and more (very beautiful) photos of her and her (less beautiful ) husband Diego Rivera.
It was nontheless a very good exhibition and gave a deeper insight into Kahlos life and how the pain and misfortune she suffered influenced her art. She was indeed a very beautiful, talented woman and in spite of recovering badly from polio, being bedridden for over a year due to a serious motor accident, and having serious problems with her leg she managed a full and productive life .
She undertook lots of travelling, considerable paintings and it seems quite a large number of lovers. Her injuries sustained in the bus crash incident left her body very damaged and she wore a plaster corset for much of her life. She also identified very much with her Mexican heritage and affected to wear the traditional Tehuana dress all of the time. This was in keeping with her colourful and obviously vibrant personality - it also served to hide her misshapen body and leg, and this look became synonymous as the Frida Kahlo look. The V&A had lots of her dresses on show, they were gloriously colourful with a lot of hand and machine traditional style embroidery - flamboyant flowers, beading and all in bright colours. Kahlo was also very fond of huge wrap round shawls and wore a lot of big jewelry - some of which was on show. Sadly photographs weren't allowed in the exhibition so I bought a poster and a couple of postcards... I was tempted by the book but in the end didn't succumb..
We wandered around the quite a bit more of the regular V&A exhibits and I took a really eclectic collection of photographs - its such a beautiful building full of such inspiring things and spaces...
We may have got carried away in th iron work section but the shapes were so lovely and were crying out to be transposed in some design work..
And then there were the stone heads taken from Salisbury Cathedral - they were just hanging there looking quite surreal - defo some potential for drawing
There was quite alot of inspiration for my (currently latent) mythical creatures series - lots of Asian art works, embroideries, clothes, statues and caskets depicting strange beasts - all photographed to be used at a later date for drawing and design ideas
actually there was just inspiration everywhere you looked - fab fab place - and then we went to the Natural History Museum - thats for tomorrows blog post...
It was nontheless a very good exhibition and gave a deeper insight into Kahlos life and how the pain and misfortune she suffered influenced her art. She was indeed a very beautiful, talented woman and in spite of recovering badly from polio, being bedridden for over a year due to a serious motor accident, and having serious problems with her leg she managed a full and productive life .
She undertook lots of travelling, considerable paintings and it seems quite a large number of lovers. Her injuries sustained in the bus crash incident left her body very damaged and she wore a plaster corset for much of her life. She also identified very much with her Mexican heritage and affected to wear the traditional Tehuana dress all of the time. This was in keeping with her colourful and obviously vibrant personality - it also served to hide her misshapen body and leg, and this look became synonymous as the Frida Kahlo look. The V&A had lots of her dresses on show, they were gloriously colourful with a lot of hand and machine traditional style embroidery - flamboyant flowers, beading and all in bright colours. Kahlo was also very fond of huge wrap round shawls and wore a lot of big jewelry - some of which was on show. Sadly photographs weren't allowed in the exhibition so I bought a poster and a couple of postcards... I was tempted by the book but in the end didn't succumb..
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| random flattened brass section suspended from the ceiling - this picture taken from above.. |
We may have got carried away in th iron work section but the shapes were so lovely and were crying out to be transposed in some design work..
 |
| one of many pics of various iron works... |
And then there were the stone heads taken from Salisbury Cathedral - they were just hanging there looking quite surreal - defo some potential for drawing
 |
| bodyless heads.. |
There was quite alot of inspiration for my (currently latent) mythical creatures series - lots of Asian art works, embroideries, clothes, statues and caskets depicting strange beasts - all photographed to be used at a later date for drawing and design ideas
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