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Nibbles – artistic sides to supplement the main course

Probably I should keep a closer eye on the art scene here, learn a bit more and move beyond just looking out for people painting flowers and landscapes.  Besides the Impressionists , there were a couple of smaller displays to enjoy.     Fernando Zobel: Order is Essential (National Gallery Singapore) This is the first solo exhibition of works by Fernando Zobel (1924-1984), a Filipino artist with a cosmopolitan spread in his experiences and art. Zobel's interpretation of van Gogh's A Wheatfield with Cypresses Penitentes Also on display were works by artists connected to him and by other Filipino artists. St. Thomas Aquinas, Alfonso Ossorio (Zobel's relative and friend) San Vicente Ferrer (artist unknown) Jose Joya And yes, order in art, please. Verse: A View of Things to Come (The Arts House)   A very interesting collaboration between art and poetry (my friend FS tells me it’s called ekphrastic poetry), with the artwork done by former prisoners and poems b...
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Stepping Into the Modern – Impressionism at National Gallery Singapore

National Gallery Singapore was conceptualised in the early years of this century, officially opened in 2015 and became another grand building I did not step into .  This one is a grand  old  building, more accurately,  two  grand old buildings (built in the late 1920s) – the old Supreme Court and City Hall – now functioning as one.   It was the Impressionists who brought me here!   With extremely poor knowledge and conventional preferences in art, this is no surprise, I suppose.  I do like the Impressionist style for its pretty, float-y feel, and I like knowing what I’m looking at.  For example, if it’s a tree, I need to know it is a tree, and if it’s the sea, I need to know that’s what it is.  This exhibition is just right for me!   Visit to a Museum, Degas, 1880 Enter... People were enjoying Renoir Pissarro, Monet, Renoir Monet more Monet, and probably the seats as well and some hands-on work Amo...

Playing on the global stage – World Aquatics Championships 2025

It was because a certain country launched itself at another that the World Aquatics Championships came our way.   It was because it was held here that I got to see today’s superstars.   It was because I was reading about our temporary pool that I realised I had been in the inceptive temporary pool at the Fukuoka World Swimming Championships 2001.     It was because I was thinking about Ian Thrope as the Big Story of Fukuoka (and a “rising star” there was none other than Michael Phelps!) that I thought of the Perth World Swimming Championships 1998, where he made a mark at just 15 years old (and I saw him swim!).     A ( The ?) huge story at Perth was a certain other country’s swimmers being caught, and not caught (syringes and empty bottles found in hotel room bins and so on), for consuming banned substances.  All quite exciting being near the thick of things but that was my first ever world sports competition so in itself, the...