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Manet and Degas

Our art course resumed for its autumn term yesterday on Zoom. We studied Edouard Manet and Edgar  Degas. Both came from wealthy families. Manet’s father was a lawyer and judge who – it is said – was reluctant for his son to be an artist until he married his father’s mistress [...]

September 23, 2020 // 0 Comments

Coming to terms with Tempus Fugit

There can scarcely be a Ruster alive who missed the big event of the weekend – the seismic, life-changing news that the BBC has axed chairperson of its iconic but safe and cuddly peak-time evening sports quiz programme A Question Of Sport (Sue Barker) and its two captains (Matt Dawson and Phil [...]

September 14, 2020 // 0 Comments

A farewell to two notables

At our stage of life – it comes with the territory – brushes with mortality in one form or another attend Rusters all too often but it is fitting that today we salute two Brits whose deaths were announced on Thursday. DAME DIANA RIGG Diana Rigg will remain an iconic figure in British [...]

September 11, 2020 // 0 Comments

A view at Christies

Almost all of my posts have been reviews of arts programmes so yesterday I was delighted to view the Picasso ceramics at Christie’s. Particularly if you are a buyer it’s essential to view and inspect to assess condition. The ceramics were displayed in a airy space that only heightened their [...]

September 10, 2020 // 0 Comments

Cezanne/Sky Arts

Last night  the Sky Arts series featured Cezanne and his portrait exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. Cezanne is renowned for his landscapes and still life and in art history – the bridge between nineteenth century Paysage together with Impressionism and the modernists. He is less [...]

September 8, 2020 // 0 Comments

The art of being paid your true worth

As preachers might say “My text for today is …” a report by Bhvishya Patel upon remarks chippy made by Sarah Sands, the departing editor of Radio 4’s Today programme, about the disparity in salaries between BBC presenters and other staff who contribute to programmes – see here, as appears [...]

September 7, 2020 // 0 Comments

The Truth about Franco/PBS

This PBS documentary on General Franco was thorough enough but you could see it was not made by Ken Burns as it was not nearly as even-handed as his work. The two experts most used were Franco’s biographer Paul Preston, who is resolutely anti-Franco, and the distinguished writer historian Anthony [...]

September 6, 2020 // 0 Comments

The demise of ITV and the rise of Talking Pictures

ITV has dropped out of the FTSE 500 which reflects a broadcasting company in trouble if not in crisis. Covid has ravaged advertising revenue and new productions. Britbox has not taken hold. It’s sad as ITV in its time though its local franchises like Thames produced much popular successful [...]

September 3, 2020 // 0 Comments

Maintaining reputation in art

I read Michael Stuart’s piece on Bruce Springsteen with interest and it inspired me to think of painters who maintained their reputation established when young and those that did not. The list of great painters who were never well-known in their lifetime is as impressive as it is long: Van Gogh, [...]

September 1, 2020 // 0 Comments

The day I finally got “The Boss”

This is another in my occasional series of musical items I have either discovered or returned to in the period since the Covid-19 pandemic began its tiresome journey around the world. Bruce Springsteen needs no introduction – he’s one of the USA’s all-time biggest musical icons and I’m not [...]

August 31, 2020 // 0 Comments

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