Without any true sense of purpose, the day had knitted together perfectly, full of contemporary explorations of race and culture in the context of British history and empire. This is what art does, it pulls on a thread and makes connections between exhibitions, helping form a meta narrative, a singularity. Day two gave us sunshine and a new-found optimism to tramp across London, from the Royal Academy, to the commercial Cork Street galleries, The Photographers’ Gallery and the Wellcome Collection. Francis Bacon was moody and dark, Cork Street was full of wonder and amusement (it is always such a mixed bag and it is not every day you get to see a giant David Hepher painting get carried across a busy London street) and The Photographers’ Gallery had the excellent annual Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize. A lovely and more leisurely paced walk across Bloomsbury saw us reach the final destination - the curious and always bizarre Wellcome Collection. It was definitely time to stop, have a drink and take stock of what had been a full two days. Plenty of contexts, notes and drawings for sketchbooks. With Covid receding we can hopefully get back to the regular trips to London and further afield as there is nothing that feeds the soul quite like a day of art. By Mr Lonsdale 43
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