Islam and Art Fun

A very interesting day today. I went to the Islamic Centre of England and the Courtauld Gallery.

I got up later than I meant to (my alarm just isn't waking me up anymore) so I ended up not taking a shower and eating breakfast instead. I decided to walk to the Islamic Centre (picture 1). It was about 3 miles and it took me 50 minutes because I walked super fast there. I left kind of late. We met up a Tube station and then walked together as a group over to the Centre. We had to remove our shoes and all the girls wore head scarves (literally their own scarves over their heads). We went upstairs to a conference room place and waited for the speaker to come. He arrived and while he introduced himself some people brought up coffee and pastries. So good! I don't the speaker's name or where he's from but he is a Shii Muslim (as is the centre but any muslim can come in and worship). It is not a mosque because mosque's are holy places and have different rights and such. People can still pray in the building though. He told us about Islam and some of his beliefs. He said that 9/11 was a conspiracy to turn the tide against the gaining power of Muslims. He also said that Saudi Arabia is one of the most opressive countries against women and other rights but is friends with America. There were some other mildly surprising responses. I wasn't offended really, I don't know why. He was definitely fluffing everything up and promoting all the good things about the Shii faith. I reminded myself of the fact that he was sugar-coating and promoting, not telling all sides of the story. I don't blame him for that though. It was just interesting to hear someone say that stuff.

He told us that he was in the US (Alabama) and ended up getting arrested, spending 3 months in jail, and then getting deported to the UK. Crazy story. I felt bad for him that that was his impression of the US. It's much better than that, I think. Anyway, we talked about a few other things but time was running short so we went down into the main room. There was a stage for conferences that they have in there. Since it's a Shii place, they have the names of twelve Immans lining the walls (picture 2). The room used to be a bingo hall, dance hall, and movie theater before its current incarnation. The wall behind the stage is very important because it is the only type of thing like that made out of wood, usually its out of tiles or something else 9picture 3). Very cool. We had our picture taken as well (picture 4). I learned a lot and it was an interesting experience and place to go.

I took the Tube back (I wanted to have time to eat lunch). I ate lunch and went to Art History. We met in the classroom (for the first time since the first class) because our prof wanted to show us two videos about the Impressionists. They featured pictures and told stories about them and the artists, just like our prof does in the galleries. These were more cohesive though because they could use art in different galleries. So we watched the videos and then made the journey to Courtauld Gallery which is in Somerset House (picture 5). Somerset House is a very classic building and was built in the 18th century I believe. The Somerset Gallery has a bunch of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings.

The reflection in the mirror is of a concert hall and The first paintings we saw were a bunch by Monet. The one I liked best was "Antibes" painted in 1888 (picture 6). Monet would spent the winters of 1884-88 on the French Mediteranean Coast. He went there to get different lighting and subjects. He described his work from there as "pure gentle sweetness:some whitess, some pink, some blue and al surrounded by the fairy like air". I loved this painting as well. Its just as Monet said, pure gentle sweetness. We looked at Manet's last great piece "A Bar at the Folies-Bergere" (picture 7). It is a bar maid who is looking very bored and sad with the mirror behind her.her helping a customer. So the mirror reflection is her "public life" and what we see is the "real her". I didn't like this one as much but it was still really good. We walked by a few Seurat pointilism paintings. I loved them still. They are just so vibrant and bright. They really stand out in a room. There were also some paintings by Cerzanne who worked with multiple viewpoints which lead to pretty weird looking paintings.

The main thing we looked and talked about was Van Gogh though (nice rhyme!). For those who don't know, he only lived for 37 years and only really painted for about 15 or something and painted 900 pieces. He only sold one while he lived though. He was from the Netherlands originally but his most famous paintings were done in Arles, France from 1887-90. He had huge mental problems. One of his friends came and stayed with him for a couple months. The friend decided to go out on night and the two got in a fight. Van Gogh went back to the house, cut off his lower ear and then went to bed. He almost died. After that, he was committed to a mental hospital for a while but eventually left, shortly after that he killed himself. He lived in relative poverty almost his whole life. He is famous now because of that story about his life and because his paintings are really cool. He did a self-portrait that was painted, obviously, soon after he cut off his ear (picture 8). We saw it today which was cool.

After Art History, I walked back to the flat and ate dinner. I had spaghetti noodles with a can of ratatouille mix. It was pretty good. Different than the pasta sauce I always have so that was nice. Then I did a little homework and now I'm here. Tomorrow is Senior Sem and then I don't know what I am going to do. Depends on the weather as usual. It was pretty chilly and windy today. No rain though!! Woo!!

Cheers!!