I really like this video short from Tate London featuring legendary fashion designer (and style icon of mine) Vivienne Westwood, talking about two paintings which capture her own vision of London.
In the film, Dame Viv discusses the works of the artists Frank Auerbach and JM Whistler who were both inspired by London Town and the River Thames.
It’s just a sweet, short film that’s quite inspiring in the sense it gets you thinking about art and makes you feel a little bit more cultured, even for just two minutes. It also makes you feel pretty proud to be a Londoner.
Not only that, but how (naturally) amazing does Vivienne Westwood look for 71? Gives us all hope that 26 isn’t the new 40, right? *cough*
The paintings Viv talks about in the vid are:
- Nocturne: Blue and Silver – Cremorne Lights (1872) by JM Whistler
- Oxford Street Building Site (1959/60) by Frank Auerbach
They can both be found in the BP British Art Displays at Tate Britain, and the film is part of the This is Britain campaign promoting the free collections displays there.
Comments
art novice
Ahhhh, this is really sweet. I love Vivienne Westwood also – and would really like to be better educated in the art world; I think I’m actually too scared to go to an art gallery as I wouldn’t know what I’m looking at and sometimes it can feel a bit like a members only club if you know what I mean? Would like to see other ‘culture’ posts like this – with you sharing your pearls of wisdom to us mere mortals!!!!
Anonymous
Yes, I totes agree. It’s good to have a website that can kind of throw us top line stuff about things we wouldn’t necessarily know about otherwise to keep us in the loop. And make us sound clever on dates.