Today, we went to an exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts called “From Russia”. It presented over a hundred paintings from the collections of four leading Russian art galleries, of French and Russian painters, such as Monet, Renoir, Repin, Petrov-Vodkin, Chagall, Malevich, etc. Too much space for cubists, abstractionists and the like, for my taste, but a good exposition nonetheless, although probably not as fascinating as the erstwhile Russian Masters collection at the Guggenheim in New York.
We went with our friends. The kids expressed their reluctance to go look at paintings, and we decided not to insist. It illustrates how we reached a whole new stage in our cultural life, where we no longer feel that we should be forcing the girls to participate in our activities. Thankfully, we no longer fret much about leaving our children home by themselves for a few hours. They had their own cultural program: TV and computers…
On the positive side, we were free to enjoy the adults-only company, and topped off the gallery visit with a lengthy repast at a nearby pub. As always, nice conversation on a vast variety of topics left all parties pleased with the event.
We also popped in for a quick look into the nearby Fortnum & Mason, which is about plenty more than just tea: A multi-level department store that sells pretty much everything. And pretty much on the high end…