Saw the play at the Lowry (National Theatre on tour).

I liked hugely. Lee Hall once more paying homage to his roots (after Billy Elliot - which, on balance, I preferred).

Slightly sentimental, nostalgic, but great story of working class men coming to grips with art.

There was a south bank show interview with Lee Hall, showing the process and inspiration of the production. A few years old, but should be about somewhere on 't interweb.

Well I was glad to be here and not at the Reebok on Saturday afternoon.

Ok, it is a bit sentimental and preachy, but actually very uplifting and thought-provoking, in the non chin-stroking sense of the term. And for something so 'worthy', it's brilliantly entertaining and funny. There's even some life model nudity in there - result.

I enjoyed the first half more than the second - the set pieces that feature the miners rather than the professor or the rich collector are the most entertaining and moving. I thought Trevor Fox in particular, playing Oliver Kilbourn, was fantastic.

Anyone interested in the question of what art is and who and what it is for would enjoy seeing it (I wish I could get hold of the script and just quote a couple of passages to help this thread along). It's also a great bit of nostalgic social history which looks at socialism, community and a working class pride and dignity that seems largely lost today.

The best seats in the house are now available for £22.50 - definitely recommended if anyone can make it.

Oh and I was pleased to see that Lee Hall, the writer, is a fellow alumnus of Fitzwilliam College, which is something I was not previously aware of - am definitely going to try and meet him at some point, though I expect his time is in demand these days after his successes with Billy Elliot (film and musical) and the War Horse screenplay.

Interesting article on the front page of the FT arts section today about John Berger's seminal TV series 'Ways of Seeing', first shown in 1972 and about to enjoy a screening at the BFI in April. Any of our left-leaning art lovers remember this from first time round?

I've seen it several times (though born fifteen years after it was aired). I'm very interested in Berger both as man and as a writer. Lannan Foundation have a great filmed interview (conversation, really) between Berger and Michael Silverblatt: http://podcast.lannan.org/2010/03/29/john-berger-with-michael-silverblatt-conversation-1/

I hear a call from afar...

It's fab...

The book from the series remains on the reading list of many a Uni art department - including my daughter's (Lancaster). We have two copies here - mine and my wife's. Purchased before we met.

Do not miss. What is the date - I might come down myself.

FT says it's being shown 3-17 April at BFI Southbank - let me know if you're coming down. Plenty else to see at the moment too - Picasso, Freud, Hockney...

Yeah - three good reasons to visit London - they all look really good. Have you seen any? I see the Hockney is nearly over and they've stopped selling advance tickets and are opening until midnight from next week... Bollocks!

No, have been meaning to get to all three but haven't got round to it. Hadn't realised that about Hockney, but of the three that's the one I'm least bothered about.

Hockney seriously good, I reckon... But not looking poss for me... Shame... I'd really like to see what he did with landscapes...

Picasso obviously the unmissable...

Heads up for mummy - move v quickly if you want to see the Freud...

First available are May 2.

I'm hoping to go later - just waiting for my wife to return my call and confirm... Want to combine with the national theatre of southern sudan producing Cymbeline at the Globe in 'Juba Arabic' - a kind of patois, hardly ever written down... But I spent a while as a volunteer in Sudan, and feel an affinity with the place and really want to see this...

Google are launching an Art Project website tomorrow (You can see some of it now). It is a bit like the Google Street Map of museums and galleries around the world. You will be able to zoom into some of the better art pieces and see individual brush strokes if that floats your boat.

You can also view individual painting by searching by Artist.

http://news.sky.com/home/showbiz-news/article/16201547

http://www.googleartproject.com/

Not quite the same as visiting the museums but interesting nonetheless.

That looks like a fantastic resource... Are they really going to list artists alphabetically by their first names?

And not have the Prado under their galleries list?

William... many many thanks indeed for the Hockney nudge. I managed to bypass the four-hour queues yesterday by siging up to be a 'friend' of the Royal Academy, for which I just sneaked in the 19-25 age bracket and got for a bargain £45, including two tickets for the exhibition (which would have been £14 each anyway) an hour later.

Anyway, tt's amazing how easily we can dismiss things on limited evidence.

For years the only Hockney painting I have really known is this in the Walker in Liverpool which does nothing for me... http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/pict ... ue=2&id=82

The landscape exhibition though... wow. Not really all that challenging in any sense, and I suppose those who like the naked young men in swimming pools vibe that he built a reputation on back in the sixties might find it all a bit safe, but I found it very enjoyable.

Firstly, I thought it was a really well-conceived exhibition - it starts with an interesting retrospective that invites us to consider Hockney as a landscape artist and to give us a reference point for what comes later. Huge canvasses of the Grand Canyon and Los Angeles also make it all the more thrilling that parochial Yorkshire scenes should get the Hockney treatment.

As I say, nothing terribly profound, but it's great to look at and a reminder that there is beauty in the mundane. We've all had that feeling walking around England in the sunshine and thought "bloody hell, this place is a beautiful as anywhere when the sun shines - shame it looks so miserable in the rain". Well, for Hockney to paint a place is for the sun to shine on it, and all of a sudden Yorkshire is as uplifting as California. He paints an old Salt Mill that looks like an imperial Viennese palace in the light he catches it in.

From there, the rooms are arranged by motifs... I think you would appreciate his tree stumps in the forest, William, given your apprciatiom of the Richter forest imagery.

At the end, two special treats... Hockney capturing the changing of the seasons by producing a picture of roughly the same place by doing a picture a day, January - May on the iPad. It might be a bit gimmicky for some people's tastes, but I think what he does with iPad, instantly recognisable as his work, is in the same character of virtuoso genius and playful innovation as that which Picasso did when he too was in his seventies (this work that Hockney did in 2011 is all the more amazign given that he was 75 at the time). And then, 9 or 18-screen video collages using footage cleverly obtained via various cameras strapped to his jeep. Brilliant - kept people watching in awe for several minutes.

I'm sorry you missed it William. I have taken your advice and booked Freud for May.

Feel jealous on that one, mummy, but thanks for the post. The exhibition sounds great. I'm looking forward to the Freud also.

Perhaps a negative review like this might help ease that jealousy - I have a feeling you'd agree with some of it.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/ ... eview.html

Been down in London and South Coast for five days. Mostly doing sad things - helping to clear houses of family recently passed on. And still loads more to be done.

But yesterday managed to get to the Picasso and Britain exhibition at Tate Britain. Here the influence of Picasso on six major British artists is examined, with work by them and Picasso collected and displayed in alternate rooms.

This is very, very good. The Henry Moore especially is stunning.

There is a photographic reproduction of Guernica (half size, so very big) which goes with two of Sutherland's depictions of the Crucifixion, which are outstanding. There are also some preliminary studies of Guernica that are moving - the opportunity to see the artist working towards what will become the most famous painting of the 20th Century.

Some of the Picasso is humdrum, it's true, but some is wonderful. Some of the British art is dull and uninspired, but some, the Moore, the Francis Bacon especially, is exceptional.

The exhibition is too expensive (£15) but I spent three hours there - was just about to leave and went back to the Moore for a second taste - so a bargain £5 an hour.

It's just said on the news that one of four versions of Munch's The Scream is up for auction. How the feck Dickens does that work?

What do you mean?

Apparently he did his first version in 1893, his last in 1910, two others in between... The one to be auctioned is in pastel and was created in 1895..

Wikipedia is a wonderful thing...

As is Google Art:

http://www.googleartproject.com/collect ... seum-oslo/