Conversations

Jane: I know you are fond of painting. What interesting exhibitions did you visit last year?

Monica: So Jane, I didn’t get to see as many exhibitions as I’d hoped to last year. I only went to a couple. I saw the Matisse exhibition. It was fantastic – so inspiring. I was really impressed by it.

Jane: I didn’t get to see that, but I heard it was something special. I also heard the Monet one was excellent, but I didn’t see it.

Monica: No, neither did I. The only other one I got to was the Pop Art exhibition which didn’t really live up to my expectations. How about you? Did you see it?

Jane: No, I didn’t actually, but the reviews weren’t very good.

Monica: You didn’t miss much at all. And the entrance fee was expensive.

Jane: Oh, I’ll tell you what I really liked – the Rembrandt exhibition at the start of the year. It was excellent, although it was really packed. I ever had to queue up for half an hour. It was one of the best exhibitions I’ve ever seen. But I think the other thing I really enjoyed last year was the portrait photos exhibition. And what are you going to see next year? What’s on that looks interesting?

Monica: The ‘Tomorrow Now’ exhibition in January looks fab! If it’s anything like the exhibition I saw in Moscow last summer it should be wonderful. I’d really recommend it.

Jane: What about the Cynthia Marlow exhibition?

Monica: Oh, let’s give that a miss – she’s boring.

Jane: OK, then.

***

Maria: John, you are interested in contemporary art. What do you recommend to see?

John: I recommend the Savanna Charles exhibition. She’s an American sculptor living in London.

Maria: What is she? I mean, what sort of thing does she do?

John: Difficult to describe really. She’s got such an original style. She makes huge figures out of glass, aluminium and other metals. They’re mostly exhibited in large halls or open spaces. They’re amazing. Absolutely breathtaking.

Maria: Sounds interesting. What’s she best known for?

John: She did something called ‘Spiderwoman’. It was exhibited recently at the Rockefeller Centre in New York. It’s over 30 metres high. I also can suggest a young artist Alberto Cassini. He’s from Argentina, about 28, living in Florence at present. He’s an abstract painter, a bit similar to Kandinsky, but with his own style.

Maria: OK, tell me a bit about his style.

John: Well, the shapes on the canvas have a lot of movement and drama, like Kandinsky. But Alberto Cassini likes darker colours, and he doesn’t use as many geometric shapes. His best-known work is called ‘Chaos’.

Maria: I’d like to look at a few photos of his work.

John: By all means, I’ve bought some along for you to see.

***

Marta: I enjoy taking photos and I’d like to know about the work of famous

photographers.

Paul: Well, how about Ingrid Tauber, a young German photographer?

Marta: Tell me about her.

Paul: She’s based in Hamburg. Married, husband also a photographer.

Marta: What sort of photos does she take?

Paul: She’s fascinated by faces. So she takes lots of photos of people’s faces, showing different emotions, happiness, sadness, loneliness, despair, that sort of thing. People of all ages, anyone, not just celebrities.

Marta: I think I’ve seen some of her photos in a magazine. It seems to me her most famous photo called ‘Homeless Woman’.

Paul: Yes, it’s a compilation of about 50 shots of a very old woman, showing all kinds of emotions. It’s incredibly moving.

Marta: OK, I must look at more of her work.

***

Jim: I can suggest very interesting artist John Leach. By the way, he’s British, a graffiti artist; you can see his work all over Europe.

Erica: A graffiti artist, now that would be interesting. What sort of stuff does he do? Is it very abstract?

Jim: Not at all. He does murals, usually images of war, starving children, crowds out of control, that sort of thing. There are a lot of walls in Berlin, Paris and Amsterdam covered with his art.

Erica: What’s his most famous mural, or should I say, piece of graffiti?

Jim: When he went to Brazil, he did an astonishing piece of graffiti in one of their cities, maybe Rio or São Paulo. It’s over 20 metres long, let’s see, it’s called ‘Battleground’, you must have seen it on postcards.

Erica: Yes, it rings a bell.