Jonathan Hull's Design Blog » 2009 » June

Details at Buckingham

Jonathan Hull — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 11:50:42 +0000

Again I was a bit touristy yesterday and visited Buckingham Palace. The State Rooms won’t be open for a few weeks, I went over to the Queen’s Gallery, not quite sure what I was going to see. Not that I’m normally into dishes, but the porcelain exhibit there was particularly interesting. One of those displays of intricate detail and really cool color. The French pieces involved some serious detail and fascinating flowing shapes in both the decoration and the shape of the dishes, vases, and such. The Royal Treasures were also tight with intricate detail, which I’m all over.

It’s always a shame when photography isn’t allowed that the supplied books on the exhibit are small on images, long on analysis, poor on reproduction color, and usually don’t print the pieces you really want to remember. I’m finding this to be a common affliction with so many museums, or maybe I’m just a bit picky.

Museum Overload

Jonathan Hull — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 14:14:06 +0000

Does anyone else ever experience museum overload? After two visits to the British Museum, three to the National Gallery, two for the Victoria and Albert, and one each for the National Portrait Gallery, Tower of London, Royal Observatory and Maritime Museum (plenty of fun navigational pieces), and not to mention all the gardens, architecture, and street color— I think I’m needing a day in the flat to simply process and rest from so much stimulation.

Last year in Manhattan, I made a conscious effort to photograph what I could in museums in ways that aren’t available in books, and have been attempting to carry on with that here. For instance, with pieces that are so often reproduced in books and easily available for viewing without my own photos, I try to take detail shots, or in cases like sculpture, shoot from angles that are not face-on. Incidentally, I’ve thought it peculiar that the V&A allows flashes. Only museum I’ve ever encountered that goes for that.

I’ve also tried to take a cue from friends and family that are so perceptive about noticing interesting signage and people around town. Views that are sometimes not always typically beautiful, but are otherwise interesting. There are always those situations that are difficult to make a good shot, like in a crowded tube train when you see someone dressed fantastically odd that you just have to record it, if you could… and without being too intrusive in their space. Also, I think I had a few odd looks for taking pictures of the tiled floor of the V&A museum the other day. I seem to have a focus on patterns lately. Must be the designer side.

Oh yes, and of course I’ve been enjoying the artwork. The other day I was going for the exercise of sketching from paintings and sculptures. Something I ought be making a better habit of. I was also spending time the other day trying to re-interpret a painting into my own style, attempting to craft the same edges from the painting with my pencil technique.

The British Museum

Jonathan Hull — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 06:27:35 +0000

During my visits to the British Museum this last week, there were a couple times that I was struck with how much history we have exemplified by rooms filled with categorized items which, of course, only make a small sampling of all physical evidence we now have of the course of history. I was also thinking how much of our historical knowledge is derived from artistic expression— paintings, sculptures, literature, clothing, architecture, music, etc. Obvious thoughts, perhaps, that have occurred to me before, but one of those ideas that has more depth to it when standing in a room with shelves upon shelves of books, artwork, sculptures, and cataloged history.

I also went and checked out the Shah ‘Abbas exhibit. I always enjoy Islamic calligraphy and was glad that BYU had such a great exhibit a few years ago. I’m drawn to the attention to detail and the beauty of letterforms intertwining and used not only for their verbal meaning, but for the design of the shapes. I had to be amazed at the detail achieved in the small format of the paintings also.

Good thing to be able to visit repeatedly. Last trip out this way, the one visit I had to museum was marked by being so tired from jet lag that somehow I managed to view the Egyptian collection and miss the Rosetta Stone.