Abdulnasser Gharem

The museum was also hosting an exhibition of pictures by Abdulnasser Gharem which we really like. As well as being an artist he is a Lieutenant - Colonel in the Saudi army. It is difficult to properly describe these pictures. Firstly they are big, 6or 7 feet. secondly the have a texture running through them raised against the surface. Much of this appears to be arabic text although some is just dots. Hidden in this and printed backwards so it is difficult to read are quotes in english, so in "Camouflage" (above) we were able to decipher quote from several famous people eg Machiavelli about war and for example "ISIS is the enemy. Without uniforms we cannot tell who is the enemy"
I love this combination of scale and minute detail you get in modern arabic art art, like the artist at the British Museum who made pictures of rolled coloured paper but on each strip unseen when completed was a handwritten quote from the Q'ran. I bet the arabic on Gharem's pictures include Q'ranic quotes.

LACMA - Africana

We went to the Los Angeles Museum of Modern Art which is a vast 7 pavilion place on Wilshire. They were having a special exhibition of African Masks and Statues, mostly from Congo,Mali and Gabon.

A drive round LA

Today was a national holiday so it seemed a good time to drive round LA. It was no particular place to go so perhaps not as profitable as could have been. The thing about LA is that it was built at the right time so whilst it is no Miami Beach you keep getting rewarded by glimpses of good deco buildings between the modern blocks.

We started past the Westlake towards downtown

 and then up to Hollywood Boulevard which was a big disappointment. Blackpool without a focal point of the tower and the same "attractions" that come and go round Leicester Square.

 We couldn't even be bothered to get out to go pavement star spotting. Then Beloved wanted to go down Sunset Strip. I agreed I wanted to see 77. He asked why, was there some significance? Turned out he wanted to go to the Whiskey-a-go-go because of the Doors but that that was in the 8900s. We were at the 4/5000s during this conversation so we abandoned the enterprise and went up

  which was much nicer

Then we thought we had better go down Santa Monica boulevard to the sea because that was the end of the old Route 66. We got a bit lost and went a long way down Beverley Boulevard to get there which took us past some posh places.

Strangely R66 did not end at the sea but a bit inland which took away some of the romance.

We went to see the ocean anyway which was a mistake because so did most of southern California and they had got there before us.

But we did see some sea although a bit north towards Malibu where the cars were only two lanes thick bumper to bumper

We came back by Topanga Canyon which shows how you can be built up one minute and in the middle of the country next

and then you come down into the city and go deco spotting again.

The Bugattis

As the Bugatti family were designers  the collections contain their boat

 and Carlo's furniture 

and Rembrandt's sculpture

  and Barbara's sculpture

 but the main focus is CARS.