Rottnest - West Australia's dream island

                                     

SE coast of Western Australia

Rottnest Island/Wadjemup Full-Day Trip from Perth The sandy beaches and wildlife reserves of Rottnest Island lie just off the coast of Perth. On this 7 hour tour, ride the ferry to Rottnest and take in all the highlights of the car-free island. The guided bus tour drops visitors off en route to landmarks like Lighthouse, Henrietta Rocks and Cathedral Rocks. Then take a train up to Oliver Hill WW2 site.  

Rottnest Island Grand Tour, Lunch and Historical Train Ride Feel Rottnest Island via a half-day guided tour by coach. Get a comprehensive look at its attractions with a historic train ride. Highlights including Kingstown Barracks, Henrietta Rocks, Parker Point and Oliver Hill Battery. A light box lunch is included.

Experience in all the highlights of Rottnest Island in AC comfort on this Rottnest Island Bayseeker Bus Tour. A perfect 2 hour trip for those with only half a day, hop off the ferry in Thomson Bay and jump on the bus. Then enjoy a guided commentary, taking in the old WW2 barracks, seals at Cathedral Rocks, shipwrecks, seasonal pink salt lakes and Wadjemup Lighthouse.

Rottnest Island Historical Train and Tunnel Tour After the sandy beaches and beautiful bays, find out more about the island’s military history on a full-day tour. Savour sensational coastal views on a 40-minute cruise from Hillary’s Boat Harbour. Then ride the train up Oliver Hill and venture into war time tunnels, used in WW2 and still armed with huge 9.2” diameter guns. Then head back to the jetty to catch the return ferry.

Wadjemup Museum is the essential point of the island experience to explore and grasp the local culture and history. See antique artefacts, incredible sculptures and explore the Old Mill and Old Hay Store building. Wadjemup was commandeered by the Dept of Defence as an WW1 internment camp for enemy aliens. The Memorial Stone remnant is a unique relic created by the internees to signify their period of confinement on the island and photos taken by of the internees 

Mother and baby quokka

Spotting native Quokkas Rottnest has the world’s largest quokka population. They are related to kangaroos and wallabies, and to see them in the heat of summer is fun. But it’s quite another to witness them in the cooler months when little joey quokkas take their first hops into the world as protective mothers supervise. At the light house they live at the base of the Hill, offering the perfect respite in clusters of tea trees, home to quokkas. Take in this iconic wildlife moment before climbing up to the highest point of the island. Quokkas are nocturnal creatures; they're much more active at dusk, night or early morning.

Rottnest Island Luxe Seafood Cruise Experience this sea-to-plate 4 hour cruise of the Island. Head out in search of western rock lobster with the crew. The lobster catch will be served for lunch in a 7-course feast that includes fresh local seafood delicacies eg Shark Bay tiger prawns, blue swimmer crab cakes and seared West Australian scallops. Margaret River's Howard Park wines plus local bottled beers accompany the decadent menu.

Wadjemup Museum is the essential point of the island experience to exp-lore and grasp the local culture and history. See antique artefacts, incredible sculptures and explore the Old Mill and Old Hay Store building. Wadjemup was commandeered by the Dept of Defence as an WW1 internment camp for enemy aliens. The Memorial Stone remnant is a unique relic created by the internees to signify their period of confinement on the island and photos taken by of the internees

Segway tourists relaxing and viewing the ocean

Rottnest Coastal Explorer Tour Experience the best of Rottnest Island with a 2-hour tour! The great tour guide will go on a thrilling Rottnest Segway Adventure Tours use self-balancing, two-wheeled transporters that allow relaxed riders to glide smoothly on trails. Discover the unique diversity of the island, from the occasional pink hue of the interior salt lakes to the stunning coastal bays in the north. Start from the base in the Settlement, the 2 hour tour will showcase the island like never before: via the stunning salt lakes and bushland, plus breathtaking northern coastal bays and beaches. It goes inland to colourful salt lakes and woodlands blooming with samphire plant. Then go along the sparkling coast to a range of historic land marks, including the popular, historic Bathurst Lighthouse and North Thomson Colonial Settlement with breathtaking views. Glide along spectacular Thomson Bay, filled with boats and bathers, to the iconic Rottnest pub and The Basin, picturesque swimming spots. 

Discover the unique diversity of the island, from the occasional pink hue of the interior salt lakes to the stunning coastal bays in the north.  Start from the base in the Settlement, the 2 hour tour will showcase the island like never before: via the stunning salt lakes and bushland, plus breathtaking northern coastal bays and beaches. It goes inland to colourful salt lakes and woodlands blooming with samphire. Then go along the sparkling coast to a range of historic land marks, including the popular, historic Bathurst Lighthouse and North Thomson Colonial Settlement with breathtaking views. Glide along spectacular Thomson Bay, filled with boats and bathers, to the iconic Rottnest pub and The Basin is a very picturesque swimming spots. And although the Segway take the physical effort out of hiking and bicycling, refreshments are offered in Geordie Bay. 

Bathurst Lighthouse

with breaktaking views

To stay on the island overnight, find Samphire Rottnest Hotel which has 80 spacious rooms that were designed to maximise the natural surroundings. Enjoy the simple, modern outdoors from the comforts of the room, marvel at the island from a private balcony or deck, and focus on expansive views across the bay. Then venture outside and roam across native landscaping. The room with 4 bunk beds offers the fairest price.

Samphire Hotel balcony

overlooking the ocean

Located at one of the southern-most tips of the island, Little Salmon Bay is one of the more popular bays on Rottnest. Its naturally-sheltered location makes for calm, clear waters, perfect for families looking for a relaxing swimming experience. It’s an excellent spot for snorkelling and exploring under the waves where the water never gets too deep, so it’s perfect for families.—and be on the lookout for glimpses of starfish and crayfish. Follow the Little Salmon Bay snorkel trail to discover more about the island's sea life. 

renewed National Portrait Gallery, London.

 National Portrait Gallery entrance

The National Portrait Gallery in London first opened in 1856, featuring just 42 portraits. Then in 1896 it moved to the site of the St Martin's Church burial ground which later became Martin’s Workhouse. But even since 1896, there was damage. In Nov 1941, two bombs fell on the gallery: one demol­ished a staircase; the second fell in the courtyard outside the Director’s flat.

Planning permission was granted by Westminster City Council to launch the best redev­elopment project in the Gall­ery’s long history, the Ins­pir­ing People Project. The refurb­ishment was designed by Jamie Fobert Architects in partner­ship with Purcell. £31.5 million had already been raised out of the £35.5 million target, so the work commenced on time in 2020.

National Portrait Gallery, display area

The new entrance and forecourt on the Gallery's North Façade created a more welcoming entrance and relieved the existing congestion. Three windows were altered to form doorways leading to a new, open entrance hall, which linked with the Ond­aatje Wing Main Hall and better connected the building. The forecourt was to be a great civic space for both the public and for Gallery visitors.

The East Wing of the Gallery, part of the historical 1896 building, was re-opened to the public in 2023. This included converting the office space back into impressive top-lit galleries on the first floor. The ground floor and basement levels were re-done, providing a flexible space with its own dedic­ated entrance and the extension of the vaulted Portrait Café. The project improved the quality of education at the Gallery via a much-improved Learning Centre.

Today, the gallery has 11,000+ works in its collection. So the project had to improve accessibility to the entire collection as well as upgrading the gallery spaces, while celebrating the existing architecture and decorative feat­ures. Maintaining a chron­ological approach, this project displayed works that were rel­ev­ant to a wider range of aud­iences and presented missing or hidden stories from British history. Set amongst the Gal­lery’s best-loved paintings were more works from the collection of 250,000 photos, from 1840 to now.

For the first 100+ years of its existence, The National Por­t­rait Gallery in London had no contemporary collection at all. Al­th­ough the total display space remains about the same, contemp­or­ary and C20th portraits, which were often displaced or moved be­cause of temp­orary exhibitions in the past, will be more consistently displayed in the future.

This redevelopment will better display contemporary works. So I have created links to some of my favourites: royalty, East End of London, and Cecil Beaton. Nonetheless I have selected five of the old favourites that visitors to the Portrait Gallery have loved the most. 

Chandos Portrait of William Shakespeare

The Chandos Portrait of William Shakespeare (1600-10) was named after the Dukes of Chandos who used to own the painting. It is the only artwork considered by ex­perts to have been painted of the playwright during his lifetime. It was the first painting donated to London’s National Portrait Gallery when it was founded in 1856.

Queen Elizabeth I

unknown artist

Queen Elizabeth I (reigned 1558-1603), daughter of King Henry VIII, nearly didn’t become Queen at all. But when she did, she rallied her troops to fight off the Spanish Armada. She ruled for 44 years, never married, and fixed viewers on this painting with an authoritarian stare and her masculine-style doublet. This portrait (c1575) was painted by an unknown English artist.

Lord Byron (1788-1824) was painted by Thomas Phillips in c1835, presumably based on a painting done in Byron’s lifetime. The Rom­an­tic poet/politician travelled the world, became a Greek national hero after fighting the Ottoman Empire, had affairs with many women, died at just 36 and was famously summed up by lover Lady Caroline Lamb as “mad, bad and dangerous to know”. Byron sat for this portrait wearing Albanian dress, the portrait being recom­mended by his contemporaries for its likeness.

                                                  

Lord Byron by Peter Phillips

self-portrait of Sir Anthony van Dyck

The self-portrait of Sir Anthony van Dyck c1640, one of just three by the Flemish artist, was saved for the nation in 2014. The att­ent­ion to detail brought a piercing realism to his face, a cont­rast to the broader strokes on his dress. This disparity suggested eit­h­er that the painting was unfinished, or that Van Dyck was exper­imenting with his use of paint in this informal work.

The portrait of Thomas Carlyle was painted by Sir John Everett Mil­l­ais 1877. Carlyle was one of the great C19th intellects whose his­t­ory and philosophy were very influential. His harsh crit­ic­isms and uncertain temper became legendary. This recog­nised lit­erary leader eulogised heroes and strong govern­ments, mis­trusted technological progress and analysed the class struggle brill­iantly. Carlyle was a co-founder of the National Portrait Gallery. Exas­per­ated by the con­t­inued denial of women’s right to vote, suff­ragettes at­tack­ed museums and galleries in order to draw attention to their cause. In July 1914 his portrait was attacked with a meat cleaver by suff­ragette Anne Hunt. She was sentenced to six months in gaol, but was released early.

Thomas Carlyle, by Sir John Everett Mil­l­ais 1877

Alongside the architectural works, Inspiring People is the Gallery’s most extensive programme of activities to engage people onsite, online and across the UK. It is being achieved by building on exist­ing partnerships in locations from Plymouth, Belfast, Sheffield and Southampton.

The National Portrait Gallery had to remain closed during this major redevelopment project, re-opening in 2023.

Australia thanks Karl, Slawa & Eva Duldig

                     

Slawa on Sigmund Jaray furniture in the Duldig flat in Vienna in 1931

Slawa, with her sister Rella in Vienna, 1938.

Slawa and Karl in Vienna in 1938.

Karl Duldig (1902-1986) was born in Przemysl (now Poland). In 1914 his family moved to Vienna where he learned to love sculp­ture, studying later at Kunstgewerbeschule under An­ton Hanak (1921-5). Karl saluted Hanak’s teaching in Crouch­ing Fig­ure 1923, car­v­ed from soapstone.

He continued studying at the Akademie der Bildenen Künste (1925-9). In 1931 in Vienna, Karl married fellow art student Slawa Horowitz (1902-75). Sigmund Jaray, famed Austrian furniture des­igners, was com­miss­ion­ed by Slawa to design furniture for their flat, decorated in the Vien­nese Workshops style. Mean­time Sl­awa invented amodern foldable umbrel­la, hold­ing the patent for 10 years.

The musical examined pre-war Vienna, with fluky ev­ents that helped them survive, starting from Nazi Austria af­t­er the 1938 Anschluss. And 1938 was the year daughter Eva was born! In 3 con­­tinents & 3 gen­erat­ions, the musical reflect­ed both the losses that dis­located fam­il­ies suff­er­ed, and the ch­all­enges faced when ad­apt­ing to new lives.

Like others in 1938 & 1939, the Duldigs had to give their surviv­ing assets to Nazis and flee! Sl­awa's adored sister and bro­ther in law Aurelie & Ignaz Laisné survived the Holocaust by hiding in Paris, with Karl’s artworks stashed in their cellar.

There was a brief time in Switzerland when Karl was playing in a ten­n­is tournament. In 1938 the fam­ily grabbed the chance to get to Singa­p­ore, working in an art school in the British colony. But in Sep 1940 they were decl­ared Enemy Aliens by the Br­it­ish who dep­ort­ed them to Aus­t­ralia.

Because Australia was also at war, the family was interned at Tatura Camp in rural Victoria for 2 years, The camp was peace­ful but isol­at­ed. While Karl did kitchen duty in 2nd AIF 8th Employment Co., he carved Mother and Child 1942 from pot­atoes with a pocket knife. Later he cast them in bronze.

Released in April 1942, the family settled in urban Melbour­ne and be­c­ame Aust­ral­­ian citizens post-war. Karl held his first solo show at Koz­minsky’s (1947) and became art master (1945-67) at a prominant Mel­b­our­ne gram­mar school, while creating a small ceramics busin­ess. Karl ex­hib­ited re­g­ularly with the Victor­ian Sculptors’ Soc­iety and the imp­ortant Ad­el­aide Festival of Arts from 1960. Slawa’s work app­ear­ed in the major NGV 1990 exhibition, Vienna & Early C20th.

Eva de Jong-Duldig's book, 2017

Driftwood: escape and survival through art, was a book written by Eva Duldig in 2017. It followed the artists’ lives in pre-war Vien­na and their es­cape from Europe to Melbourne. And it offered an insight into the cultural life of Aus­t­ralia at a time of enormous political and art­is­tic change; a profound tran­­­sforming cont­rib­ution to the life of the nation through tal­ented immigrants. Note the enormous contr­ib­­ution mid­dle Euro­peans made to the national art scene. Yosl Berg­ner (left War­saw 1937); Wolfgang Siev­ers (Ger­many 1938); Ludwig Hir­schfeld-Mack (Berlin 1938); Mark Strizic (Germany post-war).

Driftwood was a new Australian musical, based on Eva’s book. Ad­ap­t­ed for the stage by play­wrig­ht Jane Bodie, it featured original music by Anthony Barn­hill, with lyrics by sop­rano Tania de Jong, and a fine cast directed by Wesley Enoch. Note that Eva’s real daught­er, Tania de Jong with the fabulous voice, played Eva’s mother Slawa in the musical. 

Karl and Slawa continued their art careers. Af­ter high school, Eva did physical educat­ion and arts at Mel­b­ourne Uni and worked as a teacher. Then her father, himself a highly ranked sports­man, en­couraged her into competitive tennis. The family moved near the Kooyong Tennis Courts, and in 1961 she reached Wimbledon’s quarter finals.

At the 1961 Maccabiah Games in Israel, she met her Dutch husband Henri and went to live in Holl­and. She became Nether­l­ands’ Na­tional Champion and repres­ented her new country at Wimbledon. They didn’t move back to Australia until after the bir­th of Eva’s first child in 1964.

With the talented European artists who were liv­ing 12,000 ks from home and speaking little English, Dul­dig helped de­fine the place of sculp­t­ure in Aust­ral­ian culture. He was very supp­ort­ive of younger artists, bec­oming first president (1962) of Ben Uri Society for the Arts aka Bezalel Fel­lowship of Arts. He was pre­s­id­ent (1977) of the Assoc­iation of Sculptors of Vict­oria. His last work was the Raoul Wallenberg monument 1985 at Kew Junction.

Duldig Studio in Melbourne

Before Karl died in 1986, he and Eva discussed what would hap­p­en to the house and collection. As custod­ian of her parents' leg­acy, Eva opened the home, sculpt­ure garden and art Studio in Malvern East up as a pub­l­ic mus­eum in 1996, showing the large coll­ection of fine and de­c­orative arts. And in the National Gall­ery Victoria.

In Karl Duldig and Vienna, Alison Inglis presented a paper at Vienna Art and Design symposium, NGV 2011. She show­ed his experience as an art student-scul­p­tor in Vienna pre-1939 was full of Secessionist values. The unex­pected recov­ery of all their Vien­n­ese art and other possess­ions in Mel­bourne suggested the Duldigs’ old lives wouldn’t be lost forev­er.

See artist Karl Duldig: Mitteleuropa in Australia

Ivor Weiss: talented UK artist.

 The Waiting Room, 1964

The Discussion, 1968 

Spitalfields Life introduced Ivor Weiss (1919-86) who was born in Stepney in the East End of London near Cable St, son of Romanian Jewish immigrants who came from Bucharest. Ivor’s talent for draw­ing was apparent from an early age and en­couraged by his parents. 

His studies at the Northampton Rd Polytechnic London, were cut sh­ort by the outbreak of WW2. He ended up in the Royal Corps of Signals and was posted to the North African campaign in Egypt. He then spent most of the war with the Brit­ish 8th Army in Malta where he was all­owed to study at the Malta School of Art in Valetta. There his tal­ents were first recognised at a serious level. 

When demobbed in 1946, he enrolled at Heatherley’s School of Fine Art in Chelsea, where he gained a diploma in painting. It was his time there and its long tradition of figurative art that had the greatest imp­act on his art. And then St Martin’s School of Art in Charing Cross Rd, where he studied paint­ing and art history, like many other Eastern European artists. And he met his future wife, Joan Dare, also an art student and painter.

Ivor’s brother was a pilot in the RAF who had been seconded to Mont­gomery USA. After graduating in 1950, Ivor and Joan in­vited to Al­ab­ama to live. There they set up an art school called the Weiss Gall­ery. And he had 3 exh­ibitions in the Montgomery Museum of Fine Art. To supplement their income they undertook commissions from commerc­ial clients, creating large murals and mosaics. And two of the child­ren were born in US. Unfortunately the normal family practice of holding multi-racial classes was at odds with Alabama’s segregated society. But only by 1955 had they saved up enough money to return.

On returning home, Ivor Weiss designed glass windows for the Stock Ex­ch­ange in Johannesburg S.Africa and a large mosaic in Maid­st­one. Ivor was offered a locum art teacher position at Lanc­ing Coll­ege near Brighton for six months. Then he and his family decided to move to Brightlingsea Essex, a sea­side town where he taught art at the local high school. In 1958 they had their third child.

To supplement his income, he moved into teaching evening classes and into art dealing from the Brightlingsea home. By 1965 they’d made enough money to buy a big house in Colchester Essex. Ivor con­tinued as the art dealer, while Joan did the restoration. Weiss was a mem­b­er of Colchester Art Society in the 1950s and again later on.

In the 1960s Weiss’ mature work came to the attention of the prest­igious Mayfair Gallery in Carlos Place, near Lon­­don’s Conn­aught Hotel. There he exhibited several times, plus in Cambridge, Harlow and at Ben Uri Gallery London.

Four Drinkers, 1968

The Onlooker, 1968 

Stylistically Weiss’s paintings provide an evident love for the feel and texture of the paint itself . The black lines, which form a st­ructure to contain the paint, have soft contours softened by square brush strokes. Line and colour merge together with dramatic effects.

Note his most powerful works, of Jew­ish rituals and traditions, con­veying streng­th of faith. These works showed the importance of family and communal ties. They were characters who, alth­ough grouped in social acts like eating and drinking, often appear isolated. Their eyes disappeared into the black lines, a metaphor for avoidance of eye contact and distance. For a non-religious man, Weiss was prod­ucing an impressive body of works of orth­od­ox Jewish men at prayer eg he had a solo ex­hib­ition at the Colch­est­er Art Society called Rabbi and Ritual in 1971. More recently one of Ivor Weiss’ rabbinic paintings was hung Sandys Row Synag­ogue, Spitalfields.

Ivor was multi-talented: he taught pottery and made enamel jewell­ery, text­iles and fur­n­iture. His work was exhibited at the R.A and the White­chapel Gallery as well as inter­nat­ionally, and some pictures are in the collections of Cambridge Uni and the Montgomery Museum of Fine Art. In the last decade of his life he became ins­pired by Judaic scenes probably influenced by Mark Gertler (1891-1939). 

A long struggle against cor­onary disease evoked memories of Ivor’s youth. These scenes expressed a need for an identity. And his trip­le bypass strengthened ever further his need to go back to his Judaic heritage and his East End child­hood. 

Ivor’s eldest son Mark took on the family business and Ivor was able to spend more time paint­ing both at home and on Italian holidays. How­ever in 1986 he died, at 67. His emotive paint­ings remained hang­ing in the family houses in storage with Joan, until she died at 92. Weiss Gallery was filled large bold paintings that possessed a tender hum­an­ity. These pictures embodied the cultural memory of the Jewish East End, speaking movingly of a good life and a great tal­ent.

Albemarle Gallery, in London's West End, organised a post­humous exhibition of his work in 2005, accompanied by a richly il­l­ustrated catalogue by Julian and Debra Weiss: Memories of a Jewish Artist.

Mark moved the Weiss Gallery to 59 Jermyn St, one of the last truly grand gallery spaces in London, where the Ivor Weiss show opened on Oct 2017. This Portrait of an Artist: Ivor Weiss Exhibition showed 31 works, many of them featuring Jewish symbols. 

I enjoyed reading Ivor Weiss: Memories of a Jewish Artist exhibition catalogue.

 Ivor Weiss rabbinal painting,

 donated to Sandys Row Synagogue. Dec 2017

New Hampshire's Hood Museum of Art

Eve Kahn wrote that Dartmouth College in Hanover N.H  gathered much of its experimental architecture along the edges of its cam­p­us, which was otherwise dominated by Georgian and colon­ial quadrang­les in brick and white clapboard. At the SE corner, a few imagin­ative buildings dedicated to the arts are hud­dled together. The best so far is the Hood Museum of Art, which was originally de­sig­n­ed in the 1980s by the influential post-modernist Charles Moore. Its gabled brick pavilions are crowned in a domed finial with a necklace of raised copper triang­les. Moore laid out a meandering path from the campus’ main green, meant to pique curios­ity. He flanked a gateway with layers of square columns, which all­owed glimpses of courtyards and galleries beyond. But the signage was poor, and the gateway’s brick, con­crete and copper surfaces aged poorly in winter.

Hood Museum of Art, 

Dartmouth College Hanover, New Hampshire

Hood director, John Stomberg, says that for many students and visitors, Moore’s scheme was too obtuse. Stomberg supervised a $50 million renov­ation and expansion by the Manhattan firm Tod Williams and Billie Tsien Architects (of Barnes Collection in Philadelphia fame) that added badly needed classrooms, gal­leries and an atrium. The ever-growing permanent collect­ion (c65,000 pieces) spans from Assyrian palace reliefs to C19th Native American battle­field sket­ches, Papua New Guinea head­dresses, and a 2018 painting by Ethiopian-American artist Julie Mehretu.

Each year, thousands of schoolchildren visit the gal­leries. There’s no entry fee, and few rival institutions nearby. Dartmouth und­er­grad­uates have to take some art classes, and have to visit a museum.

We pass the New Guinea wooden drums, masks and shields in poly­chrome swirling patterns, and through a forest of cross-hatched poles car­v­ed by Aboriginal Australians. A teacher and her class choose an elab­orately coiffed Af­rican mask to sketch. A 2016 teepee-shaped sculpture was made by Choctaw-Cherokee Jeffrey Gibson, topped with a birdlike cer­am­ic head and draped in bells.

Side galleries have more predictable works: Calder’s mobile, Rot­hko’s abstraction, Picasso’s Guitar on a Table (1912). In Perug­ino’s C16th tableau Virgin and Child with Saints, men gaze up at Mary and her infant on a pedestal; the paint­ing is studied in various Renaissance classes. Under-appreciated masters from the 19th and early C20ths were also displayed.

There are calm waterfront scenes by the African-American painters Robert Seldon Duncan­son and Henry Ossawa Tanner, and luminous por­traits of women by Cecilia Beaux and Lilly Martin Spencer. A grey-green stoneware jar was made in South Carolina c1830 by enslaved potter David Drake. Snakes sprout from the forehead and ribs of Harriet Hosmer’s 1850s marble bust of Medusa, near Lawrence Alma-Tadema’s C19th painting of an ancient Roman sculpture gallery.

Dartmouth School opened in 1769. soon starting collections eg fragments of mastodon tusks excavated in Kentucky and a ruffle-edged silver bowl made in Boston. Over the centuries, museum displays were installed at var­ious buildings, incl at neigh­bouring Wilson Hall, a 1880s turreted Romanesque former library. The Hood’s construction in the 1980s was financed by rich al­umnus Harvey Hood.

The Hood site is sloped and narrow, tucked between Wilson Hall and a 1960s theatre building, Hopkins Centre for the Arts, designed by modernist Wallace Harrison. The Hop has concrete archways and cantilevers. Moore described his contribution to the campus as unobtrusive, in reaction to modernists’ macho construct­ions.

The Hood attracted many gifts e.g New Guinea woodcarvings from L.A collector-dealer Harry Frank­lin and Native Amer­ic­an drawings from art historian Mark Lansburgh. But there was lim­it­ed room to show them. Classroom space was cramp­ed as faculty incor­p­orated art into the curricula and there was little flexible in­door space for events.

Stomberg arrived in 2016 from Mount Holy­oke College Art Museum, when construction plans and fundraising were underway. Charles Moore’s defenders were protesting against TWBTA’s partial eras­ure of the original building and gateway. TWBTA has pointed out that the firm has the greatest respect for Moore’s oeuvre – Tsien had been one of his architecture students in the 1970s.

Much of the 1980s brick skin has been preserved, along with the signature domed finial. The galleries and staircases still have Moore’s expanses of raw concrete and quirky ziggurat forms sculpted on the column capitals and light fixtures. A variety of dark and pale oak floorboards adds a sense of patina to the redone galler­ies. Sunlight streams in through skylights, staircase windows and the bay, which keeps visitors oriented as they roam through disp­lays that explore continents and millennia.

Reactions to the renovations have been fav­ourable, albeit with some traces of nostalgia. The lofty atrium, lined in the same brick, is already serving as a major campus attraction for stud­ents. Live saxophone music wafts upstairs. Stomberg says he is hop­ing to schedule some dance performances in the window, which has a sweeping view of the Georgian and Colonial campus.

Thank you Apollo for the history and the photos.

African Art
architecturalrecord.com

Modern American Art
Artforum

Assyrian Reliefs and ancient Greek pottery

artscope

An art critic, who visited the Hood since it re-opened in Jan 2019 after nearly three years and $50  million renovations, wrote this response: Clearly the old gallery was too dark, too small and poorly equipped for students and outside visitors. The gallery literature says the space of the old Hood was greatly expanded, and there are now 16 galleries instead of 10. Even more importantly the galleries are now beautifully light-fitted. And the Hood is much better connected to the university campus.

But the contents on display and the flow of visitors are less satisfactory. The new director clearly wanted to map and display the entire world of art his­tory, within one gallery! When I go to a gallery it is to see what they special­ise in eg Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painters, or Rus­sian decorative arts during the Czarist reigns. I can broaden my horizons in art history, but I don’t want to be involuntarily moved from one era to other eras within a single room, from cont­in­ent to continent without a cup of coffee in between. I agree with Murray Whyte: “In one of the mus­eum’s few unavoid­able paths, you have to pass through a coll­ect­ion of contemporary Native American art to reach the Hood’s trad­it­ional American collection”. It was confusing.

Siena: The Rise of Painting 1300-1350

Siena: The Rise of Painting 1300-50 is at the National Gall London June 2025. This might be less of a popular success than previous shows featuring paintings by eg Vincent Van Gogh, but then the C14th was a while ago. The National Gallery had mixed popular and academic shows before.

Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300–50,

book cover

The early C14th in central Italy was a golden moment for art and change. Artists Duccio, Simone Martini and the brothers Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti were forging a new way of painting. They painted with a drama not seen before. Faces showed vibrant emotions. Bodies moved in space. Stories flowed across panels.

Name a key Renaissance Italian city-state and many people will say Florence. But C14th Siena was wealthy and had a stable government, with plenty of patrons, both religious and secular. And as a centre for trade and pilgrimage, Siena artists were exposed to new ideas and styles. Ideal for talented artists to grow and to foster fame in Florence.

This London exhibition makes the case for the 1300-1350 era being a critical moment in Siena’s art history. Firstly, Siena was an important banking centre in Western Europe, leading to prosperity and to art patrons. This was true for private devotional objects or for more public displays of faith and wealth. Secondly Siena was a cosmopolitan place to meet new ideas. Eg see how Sienese artists encountered Gothic works from France and adapted them into their own context. Thirdly there is a whole section on textiles which came from the east and found their way into art works. Siena’s status as a trade centre and a pilgrimage route stop from Canterbury to Rome enabled this cultural exchange.

In the decades pre-1350, Siena was the site of fine artistic innovation and activity. Drawing on the quality collections of  NY Met and National Gallery London, as well as loans from other major lenders, the exhibition includes 100+ works by remarkable Sienese artists. It features paintings, metal work, sculptures and textiles. And this shared exhibition with The Met focuses on the artists noted above.

Simone Martini, Christ Discovered in the Temple, 1342

National Museums Liverpool

Why did the glory era end in 1350? The Black Death/bubonic plague was ruining Europe, Asia and Africa’s people. And being a trade centre, on a pilgrimage route, became dangerous; Siena suffered as most cities and towns did. It had been easier for artists to work on commissions in times of peace & stability. Fortunately Siena’s artistic efforts did have a lasting influence, post plague.

A public display of intimate objects was created for private devotion. With 100+ exhibits made by artisans working in Siena, Naples, Avignon and beyond, see some of Europe’s earliest, most significant art works. The London and the Met’s shows are used to bring together the very best.

It is important to focus on the artists singly. By seeing many examples of their work, visitors can examine their style, themes and the commissions the artists received. Focusing on artists who knew each other personally and professionally also gives a sense of Siena’s artistic community. The exhibition’s individual biographies allow viewers to consider how each career met the city’s civic, religious and political institutions. Each depiction of the Virgin Mary, patron saint of Siena, was important.

The art space suits the biographical approach and the curators’ notes are great. The visitors can set the scene with a few Byzantine-style icons helping them understand why these Sienese paintings are innovative and thematic. Duccio was the earlier of the artists, so start with him and then, in the central space, see the other artists...and their legacy.

What was confusing was the change of individual artists and broader themes eg the artistic and historic background first, followed by Duccio. His masterpiece, the Maestà altarpiece for Siena Cathedral, occupies the hub of the hub and spokes. 2 of the spokes focus primarily on major works by Simone Martini and Pietro Lorenzetti. But look at connections between this Lorenzetti and sculptor Tino di Camaino. Then at religious devotional objects and the depiction of textiles, and work by the Lorenzettis.

Alas the exhibition kept switching to broader themes before it finished with the biographical approach. Surely the layout is chronological, explaining why the artists come in order, with contemporary trends inserting themselves in between. 

Ambrogio Lorenzetti, The Annunciation 1344.
Tempera and gold leaf on panel, 122 x 116 cm
Pinacoteca Nazionale, Siena

One of the interesting legacies of this generation of Sienese painters is how their influence extended beyond Siena eg to the Papal Court in Avignon. Martini played a pivotal role there, taking Sienese painting to Avignon in 1330s and dying there in 1344. His works helped transmit the elegance, linear refinement and emotional nuance of Sienese painting.

The emphasis on grace, storytelling and beautifully controlled surfaces marked the International Gothic style. While the rest of the exhibition shows Sienese artists featuring French Gothic & Northern European styles, see Siena’s influence on France’s, Bohemia’s and early Dutch art.

The Sienese commitment to story-telling and decorative richness left a clear mark, separate from the Florentine emphasis on anatomy and emotion. So while Siena’s Golden Age was short, its visual language lived on in courts and church settings where visual rhetoric overcame naturalism.

Duccio’s Maestà panels haven’t been together for ages. A great example is Simone Martini’s Orsini Polyptych where the diptych and triptych joined together in a multiple altarpiece. This devotional work was done for Card. Napoleone Orsini. Close it like a book, open it to an Annunciation scene or totally unfold it to reveal Christ’s tragic end. This show reunites them after being in the Louvre, Belgium and Berlin.

Duccio 's Maesta altarpiece, 1308-11

Siena Cathedral 

After centuries of separation, the exhibition reunited panels that once formed part of Duccio’s monumental Maestà altarpiece. Panels from Martini’s glittering Orsini work finally came together. Gilded glass, ivory Madonnas, illuminated manuscripts, rugs and silks show the creative energy flowing between European artists.

Many thanks to saltertonartreview. And enjoy Joanna Cannon’s book Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300–50, 2024 

stolen art WW2: Cassirers, Camille Pissarro

 

Camille Pissarro, 1897

Rue St Honoré, Après-Midi, Effet de Pluie

Wiki

Millions of European Jews were forced to quickly sell their hom­es and businesses with WW2, their assets being confiscated by the Nazis. Works of art often seemed very significant to war heirs; they represented a last cultural conn­ect­­ion to their dead families. I particularly thank Marilyn Henry.

Sadly there had been an intentional campaign of con­fis­cation and destruction of European cultural prop­er­ty. Post-war, Allied Forces uncovered cac­h­es of looted goods and the U.S military returned mill­ions of art objects to the countries of the works’ origin. But those nat­ions were responsible for locating the actual heirs. Did they find them?

Once the Nazis sold the objects, the works entered the art market and were dispersed. Both the pre-war owner and the current owner may have had moral claims to the works, but legal ownership varied. Most Western legal sys­t­ems couldn’t deal with losses from other decades, and from oth­er coun­tries. Claims could be barred because Statutes of Lim­it­at­ion expired. Or claims and the rights of a curr­ent possessor were con­fused when art crossed borders. Add­ition­ally most nations had laws that protected good-faith pur­ch­as­ers. And who could define a forced sale? Only Germany recog­nis­ed some sales under duress.

In the U.S, most museums are private so ownership disputes were and are civil matters. The New York State Banking Dept estab­lish­ed its Hol­ocaust Claims Processing Office in 1997, to resolve claims without litigation. Since then, it accepted 142 art claims covering 25,000 objects. But the small staff of lawyers, linguists and hist­orians only secured the VERY slow return of 12 art works!

Camille Pissarro, 1897, Wiki

Boulevard Montmartre, Morning, Cloudy Weather

NGV Melbourne

Also in the U.S, the Nazi-Era Provenance Internet Portal created a database linked to American museums, identifying thousands of items that had been in Europe from 1933-45. But while the portal could be searched by an artist’s name, country of origin and a painting’s name, it could not be searched by the family own­er.

An artwork’s ownership chain was often patchy. There WAS a res­ponsibility to participate in provenance research, but it was exp­ensive. The paper trail about prov­enance history was often deposited in: multi-national settings, private family memorabilia, govern­mental or museum arch­iv­es.

Some museums did no additional research to clarify the history, until a claimant came forward. Others eg North Carolina Museum of Art, took the initiative. Artworks with uncertain gaps of war-time ownership were reviewed by prof­essional provenance research­ers.

Museums and collectors are more willing to acknowledge legitimate claims than they were a decade ago, and to settle them without lit­ig­ation. But of course museums and collectors still dispute ten­uous claims. Most museums have put their entire collections on Web sites so now the assertion of claims is much easier than it was.

The size of wartime art thefts will never be known. The size of their return, through some heroic post-war efforts, was very great. But those efforts were eventually seen as incon­sistent with foreign policy, or reflecting cold war ten­s­ions by the 1960s. Only West Germany paid partial com­p­en­sation to some claim­ants; read Nazi Confiscated Art Issues.

Camille Pissarro, 1897

Boulevard Montmartre Spring
Courtauld Institute of Art

These days attention to war-era ownership is emerging in the art wor­ld. Major auction houses and museums have provenance re­search­ers, so sellers and buyers routinely check objects with the Art Loss Reg­is­ter - an international database of lost and stolen art formed in 1991 by auction houses and art traders. Un­for­t­unately this did not happen 50 years ago.. when scrutiny could have helped.

As more artwork is identified and located, other nations are quest­ioning the ownership of their holdings. A number of European count­ries eg Austria and Britain have enacted restitut­ion policies or established independent panels to review claims. However these re­view processes didn’t ensure the recovery of loot­ed art, even with clear evidence. Many claimants, especially the children whose parents died in the Holocaust, continued to be frustrated at the expense and time required to pursue a work.   

The same Pissarro painting in Lilly Cassirer’s Berlin flat, c1930.

artnet news

There were 15 Camille Pissarros (1830–1903) that were painted from his Paris hotel room window. One version was called Boulevard Mont­martre, spring morning,  moved through the hands of two of my favourite art dealers: Galerie Durand-Ruel in Paris who acq­uired it from the art­ist in June 1898; and Paul Cassirer in Berl­in who acquired it from Durand-Ruel in Oct 1902.

Now consider Lilly Cassirer and her second husband Otto Neubauer, who swapped a beautiful Camille Pissarro impressionist painting for their free­d­om. A Nazi-appointed appraiser forced her to sell Rue St Honoré, Après-Midi, Effet de Pluie for $360 then. But when the coup­le fled Munich in 1939, they could not take the funds. Lil­ly’s first husb­and Fritz Cassirer, from the prom­inent German Jewish family of publishers and art dealers, had bought the painting from Pissarro’s agent in 1900.

Although the post-war German government voided the sale, Lilly nev­er re­covered the Pissarro. It was sold multiple times. In 1993, the Sp­anish government paid $350 million for the col­lection of industr­ialist-Nazi supp­ort­er Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza and placed in their Museum.

In 2001 in the US, grandson Claude Cassirer (1921-2010) found the painting after years of searching and spent five years trying to recover the Pissarro through diplomatic channels. Finally Claude filed a federal lawsuit in California against Spain and against Thyssen-Bornemisza Foundation to recover the paint­ing, now worth $40mill.   

Lilly Cassirer Neubauer and her beloved heir grandson Claude, born Berlin 1921

Claude's mother died flu 1921; Claude's grandmother loved and raised the child

itsartlaw

Claude Cassirer learned the painting was at the Thyssen-Bornemisza in 2000 and petitioned Spain and the museum to return it. See the legal proceedings: the District Court case was in 2006, the first appeal was 2009-10, the second appeal was 2013, the Spanish Law case was 2015 and a last decision was in 2019. Whose law should app­ly, Spain’s or the USA’s? In 2024 the U.S Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit awarded the painting to the Spanish museum; it was legally bound to decide the case using Spanish law because the thefts occurred there. The Cassirers appealed the 9th Circuit ruling to the Supreme Court which vacated the Circuit Court of Appeals decision. It will now have to reconsider the case in light of the new California law on holocaust survivors' right to reclaim looted art.

Bishop of Durham in Auckland Castle.

William the Conqueror did not instantly dominate the whole of England in 1066. His trickiest problem was the muscular Earldom of Northum­b­r­ia. After discovering that nobles could not be trusted, William I pl­aced his faith in the Bishop of Durham instead. From 1075, the role be­came a Prince Bishop, giving the holder unmatched secular powers to raise their own army, mint coins and levy taxes.

After the Auckland Project was completed in 2021

the crowds arrived to visit the Castle

Bishop Auckland was a small town in County Durham, so much of Durham City's early history seems to have been influenced by the Bishops of Durham and their estate. First established as a hunting lod­ge, it bec­ame the principal country resid­en­ce for the powerful Prince Bishops of Durham who for cent­ur­ies were virtual rulers of N.E England. In fact the power of the Prince Bishops of Durham was second only to the Eng­lish monarchy. Commissioned to defend that monarchy, the Bishops were placed strategically close to the border between England and Scotland, so they needed a home to match their status.

It was no surprise then that they enjoyed Auckland Castle and its lush surroundings as their countryside estate, when the pressures of London, York and Durham became too much. While their role has changed with the passage of time, the Bishop of Durham still has influence in modern life.

The gateway

England's North East

In the subsequent 750 years, 56 different Prince Bishops presided over County Durham as an independent state, answering on­ly to the king and God. But with great power, came great responsibility. Were the Prince Bishops inspir­ing or deceptive leaders?

St Peter's Chapel

Historic England

St Peter’s Chapel was one of Europe's largest private chapels. Originally a medieval banqueting hall, it replaced the orig­in­al C12th chapel, later lost in the English Civil War. In the 1660s Bishop Cosin transformed the Great Hall into today’s beautiful sacred space. He added the decorative ceiling, carved woodwork screen and pulpits, to inspire people to feel the glory of God and the beauty of holiness.

Discover the Bishop Trevor Gallery, named after Bishop Richard Trevor (1752-71). In 1756 an English ship seized looted cargo from the Spanish, including the old master paintings. The captured works were sold in England and the only one of the 13 port­raits not bought by Durham was that of Benjamin. Bishop Trevor was de­lighted, having bought the series of paintings of Jacob and his Twelve Sons by Francisco de Zurb­ar­án (1641-58). They have hung in the Long Dining Room at the Castle 250+ years.

Chairman of Bishop Auckland's Civic Society, Dr Robert McManners, said the timing of the Bishop's purchase was vital. Zurb­ar­an’s income largely came from commissions from the estab­lished Spanish Cath­ol­ic church. Yet the artist meticulously painted these Jewish symbols at a time when the practice of the Jewish religion was outlawed by Papal Bull and enforced by the Spanish Inqu­is­ition. McManners noted that Zurbaran had sympathy for oppressed Jewish people in his local community, and admired the great risks that Catholic artist took to his reputation and livelihood. See my blog post or read Robert McManners, The Zurbarans at Auckland Castle, available at Bishop Auckland Town Hall

The Zurbarans paintings in the Long Dining Room

The Guardian

Bishop Trevor and other bishops had sponsored the Jewish Naturalis­ation Act of 1753 which gave disenfranchised immig­rant Jews, often escaping persecution in their own countries, the same rights as those born in England. Alas this progressive legis­lation was rep­ealed the next year, and soon the Durham bishop bought the paint­ings! Dr McManners believed Bishop Trevor and Francisco de Zurb­aran were both thumbing their noses at their Establishment Churches.

**
In 2001 money was short and Durham's Church Commissioners decid­ed to cash in their easily sold art assets, for £20m. While those with a sense of nat­ional history and art heritage wanted to keep the coll­ec­t­ion together in the Church. It took 9 years of intense lobby­ing be­fore the commissioners conceded, due to a £15m donation by art collector-investment manager Jonathan Ruffer via a new charity, the Zurbarán Trust. His gallery opened in 2021.

The Castle is one of the best preserved Bishops’ palaces in Europe, sit­­ting at the heart of multi-million conservation Auckland Project which started in 2012 and continued until 2019. The goal was to coord­inate the col­l­ection of galleries, gardens and parkland, all organised around Auc­k­land Castle. After discovering the C18th wall colourings, furn­iture and textiles that decorated this elegant castle, they were res­t­ored to their for­mer lux­ury. The team of restorers and conservators show­ed the scope of the power, wealth, infl­uence and faith held by the residents. The most major conservations occurred when the State Rooms were rest­or­ed to their original Georgian Gothic splen­d­our, as de­signed by ar­ch­itect James Wyatt. Now the Prince Bishops’ private resid­ence at Auck­land Castle is rev­eal­ing 8 centuries of opulence and influence, seen in 1,000 years of forgotten pol­itical, economic and religious history!

The deer house

Apart from the stunning castle/Bishop’s Palace, the town (pop 24,000) has a thriving arts and cultural centre – library, cinema, theatre, arts complex and specialist boutiques.