| Just got back from visiting my favourite all round museum the Ashmolean at Oxford. The reason for the visit was to visit the Master Drawings exhibition and I would really recommend this if you like portrait drawings. Now I’m going to say something that I find somewhat difficult to say…as a result of visiting this exhibition I feel sorry David Hockney. I know I know what as he got to feel sorry about well the final drawing in the exhibition was a Hockney from 1973 and compared to the greats in the rest of the exhibition it really looked ordinary. Perhaps it is too early to judge but maybe that is how the rest of Hockney’s work will be judge but posterity.
To be far to Hockney he was up against a virtual who’s who of western art from Michelangelo, Raphael and de Vinci to Valentin Serov, an artist I’d not heard of before but clearly some who can draw and paint. However, the artist that stole the show for me was Rembrandt, what a surprise! He produced a little drawing of his ageing father that was so perfect you believed that it was a sculpture rather than a small sketch. After all this excitement what better way to pass an hour or so that to sit down with the classic sculptures and produce you own art work. However, there was only one problem, people kept looking over my shoulder and after a while this got too much. Now I wouldn’t claim my work came anywhere near the standard of the exhibition but I enjoyed myself which is the main thing. Simon Marchini |
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