Day 0026

Feeling keenly the dislocation between the semi-sacred spaces of the museums and the miserable, ugly reality of my bed, desk, lamp life at home. I spend all day reflecting in front of the finest works of art that humanity has the power to produce then I jump on a grotty subway to go back to the incandescent gloom of my little box. Contrast the self-righteous beatitude I get from gazing at art with the despair of the mundane and the guilt of not having done the work I should have done when I'm confronted with it all back here. Only relieved by tuning completely into a book or focusing properly on drawing. Surfacing back to reality is dreadful and it takes me time to adjust to it.

Went to the Cloisters today to look at some medieval art and architecture. Enraptured by the Hunt of the Unicorn tapestries. I've never seen anything like them. Gorgeous textures, colours, intricate and diverse flora and lovely little birds and animals everywhere. Enchanting, other-worldly.

The cloisters themselves, and the various chapels, windows, arches, doorways, sculptures, are imported from Europe and re-erected together with modern stone made to look old in a new syncretic structure that left me feeling unsettled. Having spent a lot of time in the real ancient churches of Italy and England I feel like a huge part of their aura is lost when they are ripped from their original place. The location of a building is integral to it; the kind of air you breathe when you're there, the sounds you hear, the way the light falls at different times of day. The first thing I noticed when I entered the museum was how warm it was, despite it being freezing outside. Never have I been in a temperature-controlled medieval church, and it felt all wrong. Part of the essence of an old church is its coolness, its smell. All that is lost, and it makes me think how much is lost from all works of art when they are moved from an environment they were made to be in. I'm thinking of the temples on their lone and level sands, the altarpieces, the predelle and the stele that I've been looking at recently. I understand why they have been moved, but it is important to remember how much context is left behind.

Started work on copying a Rembrandt etching, Landscape with Three Gabled Cottages Beside a Road. Gave up on the portrait, will have another go. For now I want to try my hand at some landscapes.