“Gentlemen only”. London. 2023 The Eiffel tower from the Trocadéro. Group in the foreground is “La joie de vivre”, The joy of living, by Drivier. 1937. Holborn station on the Piccadilly line. The sarcophagus on the right is a photo of an original at “The British”. London. Where else? Tour (Tower) Saint-Jacques, from a side…
I spent most of my childhood in Africa, from 1959 to 1970. First in West Africa, then, after a brief Dutch interlude, we went to Kenya, East Africa, in 1967. Kenya’s independence was quite recent: December 1963. The first president was Mzee (old man) Jomo Kenyatta, the leader of the Independence movement. For us kids,…
November sky, New York. Women washing (Les lavandières), 1888, by Gauguin. MOMA. In Arles, (thanks to Gilles Labruyère for the correction), during Gauguin’s brief stay with Van Gogh. Shine on. South of Houston. “Retrospective bust of a woman”, 1930. Salvador Dali. MOMA. The two peasants praying on top of the baguette remit to L’angélus by…
Sawadee kraap. Hello. If you’re a man. If you’re a woman you say “Sawadee kaa”. Welcome to Bangkok. Those Thai Khon masks are used during theatre/dancing representations of a Thai version of the Ramayana. A very old Indian story that tells the story of Prince Rama and his fight to recover his beloved Sita. Artist…
Pont Alexandre III. One of the most beautiful bridges in Paris. (If not THE most beautiful…) African masks, Quai Branly museum. Fang or Pahouin, Gabon. (I think.) White was often associated with death and mourning in Africa. Monument to Human rights, Champ de Mars. The Eiffel tower is to the right. (Not on the picture,…
Where have all the flowers gone, long time passing?Where have all the flowers gone, long time ago?Where have all the flowers gone? Young girls have picked them everyone.Oh, when will they ever learn?Oh, when will they ever learn? Where have all the young girls gone, long time passing?Where have all the young girls gone, long…
Shanghai Li, member of the Red Lanterns triad. By Hugo Pratt (c). In “Corto Maltese in Siberia”. “Tercera llamada” (“Third call”). Ernesto Cabral. 1926. A talemnted Mexican artist, Cabral sketched those daring young ladies who threw away their mothers’ long dresses and long hair by the window. Quite “osé” in 1926. De Gaulle. By the…
Kabul, 1953. Long before the many wars. My father Cyril was Air France General Manager in Pakistan. Karachi was the road to the Far East. Paris sent him to Kabul to investigate the possibility of opening a line to Afghanistan. My parents had lived in Pakistan for 6 years already. They spoke Urdu fluently. He…
A Paris sky. The Eiffel tower as seen from the Trocadéro, across the Seine. Summer 2022 A gentleman from Punjab maybe? A restaurant somewhere in Marylebone, London. Chicken Tikka Masala was excellent. Brussels, at the Mont des arts. A monument to rectitude? No. The statues are called “Musique et chant”, Music and song. By Oscar…
“From the faraway, nearby”. Georgia O’Keefe, 1937. Met. Born in 1887, she was fifty when she started experimenting with those paintings. I didn’t realize she’d lived until she was almost a hundred, she died in 1986. Sadly, she lost most of her eyesight in the 70’s which must be a curse for an artist. She…
Equinoxio 