Last week I went to "Brilliant Women - 18th Century Bluestockings" at the National Portrait Gallery. There aren't many works of great artistic merit in the main part of the exhibition itself, but it tells an interesting story with some fascinating supplementary materials.
It includes a photographic work commissioned specially for the exhibition, depicting notable women in various professions. That's worth some time. From the nearby rooms, not part of this show, I took away the puzzling question of how many Judi Denches one gallery needs.
What really made my day was the possibly-Japanese young lady working in the cloakroom who had passed some quiet time turning used tickets into tiny, tiny, teeny little origami cranes.
Tuesday, 18 March 2008
18th-Century Bluestockings
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3 comments:
Is the exhibition worth the effort of going to, do you think?
Yes, I think so. It's only two rooms, plus the commission, and the interest is mainly historical rather than directly artistic. But it has a lot to say about how these women were portrayed, and why. It's also interesting for the subjects themselves - women who had an important cultural influence in their time, but who are now largely forgotten. And it's free, and it's one minute from Charing Cross tube.
Ooh, if it's free I'm there!
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