Thursday 24 November 2011

non flamenco activities in my life...

It's been gallery week! Of course, I've had all of October and November to get these visits in, but no, left it all till the last possible moment! I am fitting 3 gallery visits in in a week as the exhibitions I want to see are over before I get back in January!!!

Wednesday I went to Bata Shoe Museum to see a Roaring '20's exhibit. Can we just say major drooling! Did you know the ankle strap and t-strap became necessary so women wouldn't lose their shoes while dancing the Charleston? The Louis Vuitton travel trunk that housed 30 pairs of shoes in individual compartments was fantastic. How posh!

As well, there was an exhibit entitled Art in Shoes-Shoes in Art. Dating back to the 1500's, it combined lithography and wood-block prints (which I LOVE) with historical artifacts from their permanent collection. Didn't know St. Crispin and St. Crispinian (very religious cobblers) were the patron saints of shoemakers. And it concluded with print items i.e. caricatures/advertising posters from the Victorian era through to current day photography and sculpture...foot fetish anyone?

Yesterday I visited the Gardiner Museum specializing in ceramics. The Tsar's Cabinet, from a private collection of decorative arts, included work of Faberge, gilded dinner services, serving pieces, imperial porcelain eggs and historic court photos. The extravagance of life in palaces and yachts during the Romanov era is mind boggling. Also from a private collection, were pieces owned by the Grand Duchess Olga, the younger sister of Tsar Nicolas II, who spent her final years living in Toronto.

A second exhibit was the Twelve Trees of Christmas, a yearly event of trees decorated for public viewing and then donated to homes and shelters for the holiday season. All I can say is, "oh-high-end-decorators-of-Toronto-which-I-thought-would-mean-fabulous-trees", so sad, so sad! Took a picture of the worst one EVER and someday, when I figure out why my phone and computer tell me they can't connect, I will show you and you will laugh!!

One more to visit, coming up...the ROM!

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