While it was raining I was happily wandering round Africa and Asia in the Branly museum. The gardens are very grassy, watery, and reedy, and it takes a while to realize that the brown reeds are actually an iron fence -
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_RHI5JVIjM5FG26lSNVqjQOIyH6V0BDxw2OReL22BDRnSi62poHCJyDr4cjxoShZU8ZPvID3-venO8CEB_qIM6BijJax89Io21RmwfxSRE2Xz3sc68Kd-o8aZIaQhgKE5478JGg/s320/paris+branly.jpg)
Another of my favourite museums is the Guimet -- wonderful Asian art. The current exhibition is Hokusai and showed that he did much more than those many views of Mount Fuji -
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiybfN6VcB-klL9LKyvWvSEX2YVsF5iVblJbGIxmX9JiMSEzybTB_NF_NazjWDpfjB1mv38tAMVKWhQs4LkyJooCAh3NIQM0eUnBATF0saVtULOTGLQu0n9ZifyjQZSteHzI0CwKw/s320/paris+145hokusai.jpg)
It also had his sketches, which showed how he used collage (of thin rice paper) to move elements around when preparing to do a print.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrHlX-fuq6suEKqf7xWaEPjlVJc-GB4MN57BVD9LQ2JAhjqf2ZIm8a_wVvgI8aEWrVUPfcaJJFPoNu6xj4lNmUc7i_7YM6KbD3UmT7kxpQ1K-lKgVnyeft_JdpuYGJImo1UPaCyA/s320/paris+hokusaisketch.jpg)
I didn't buy the catalogue (too heavy!), nor did I indulge in any of the silks on view in the fabric shop area (metro Anvers), which
Tonya showed me round after lunch on my first day there -
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVg_7MyUJeb2R-z2buFg8DYqwIqQ2p2BHa4VOg2TTsvSit2zXAPYH9sEBLgbx-Vi7tQryAMmkoduJOKdOF_Lq9cbtEltOpLxzwDJ4aw9XnaY_IiQvX8EeeIgAoX2IWP3mCk4shsw/s320/paris+soie.jpg)
And speaking of fabric, here's an update on May '68 - 40 years after the student uprising, we're being told "nicely" to "stay politically incorrect" --
that photo of the silk is lovely - makes me wish I'd bought every one of them.
ReplyDelete