Geoff Arnold

Mystery painting identified

Raj Premkumar has solved my puzzle of the mystery painting at the Salar Jung Museum. It turns out that it was mis-labelled: the actual artist was S. G. Thakur Singh, whose "After Bath" won a prize when it was exhibited in London in 1924. There's a JPEG on that web page, although it doesn't really do justice to the work....

Anyway, many thanks Raj!

Looking for M. N. Roy's "After Bath"

Among the most interesting galleries at the Salar Jung Museum was the one devoted to contemporary Indian art (i.e. since 1900). The works therein betray a real struggle to work out the relationship between Indian artistic traditions and the wide range of (mostly European) influences, from impressionism to cubism to minimalism. My favourite piece (which won't surprise those who know my tastes) was a stunning figure of a woman's back, caught in the moment after stepping from her bath and putting on a loose shift. The interplay of water, skin, hair, and fabric is exquisite. The title was "After Bath", and the artist was given as M. N. Roy. I've searched the web, and apart from various references to M. N. Roy as a political activist and occasional artist, I can find nothing. Does anyone know of an on-line image of this work?

Book recommendation: Japanese Graphics Now

While visiting the Museum of Fine Arts on Saturday, I picked up a Taschen book called Japanese Graphics Now. A big, handsome coffee-table tome (600 pages, around $40) covering all aspects of contemporary Japanese graphic design. And the piece de resistance: "We've also thrown a DVD into the package, on which you'll find a video tour of the coolest places to visit in Tokyo, interviews with art directors, filmmakers, and designers, and the latest and greatest television commercials from Japan."

(The Suntory "cherubim" commercials are delightfully bizarre, as is the one for WOWOW. As for the video tour of Tokyo, it brought back so many memories for me.....)

The Cuddly Menace

Take one saccharine-sweet children's book entitled "My Little Golden Book About God." Replace bland text with the horrifying truth. The result: The Cuddly Menace. Please keep beverages away from your keyboard while reading. (This means you, Alec.)

(Via Boing Boing.)

Sky Captain

We* went to see Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow yesterday. Wonderful! Visually it's an art deco treat, from the searchlights over the skyscrapers to Polly's aluminium-framed dark glasses, from the Royal Navy's "air ships" to the ray gun. ("Just shake it.") And film buffs will have so much fun identifying all of the references.... I'm sure that when the DVD comes out there'll be a "director's commentary" explaining all of them, but until then it's going to be a great game.

This is one to see again.

* "We" being The Fellowship, the group that went to each of the Lord of the Rings episodes together, plus my son Chris, who's visiting from Seattle.

My top 10 films

While looking up one of my favourite movie quotations*, I was inspired to try to put together a top 10 list. Several classic musicals, several recurring names. In no particular order:
The Lion in Winter [1968; K. Hepburn, P. O'Toole]
The African Queen [1951; H. Bogart, K. Hepburn]
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner [1967; S. Tracy, K. Hepburn, S. Poitier]
Summer Stock [1950; J. Garland, G. Kelly]
My Fair Lady [1964; A. Hepburn, R. Harrison]
Kiss Me Kate [1953; K. Grayson, A. Miller, H. Keel]
The Shawshank Redemption [1994; T. Robbins, M. Freeman]
The Princess Bride [1987; C. Elwes, M. Patinkin, W. Shawn]
Hope and Glory [1987; S. Rice Edwards, S. Miles]
On the Town [1947; F. Sinatra, G. Kelly, A. Miller]
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* The quotation in question is from The Lion in Winter; Katherine Hepburn as Eleanor of Aquitaine: I made Louis take me on Crusade. I dressed my maids as Amazons and rode bare-breasted halfway to Damascus. Louis had a seizure and I damn near died of windburn... but the troops were dazzled!