An Oasis

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I've been a bit of an art tourist for the last couple of days. It started when I was killing time in Glasgow waiting for a thing and so I visited The Burrell Collection in Pollok Country Park, only a mile or two from the centre of the city. It's an amazing collection of art and artefacts collected throughout the life of Sir William Burrell and gifted by Burrell and his wife to the City of Glasgow. Highlights were probably... Rodin's The Thinker (or one of them anyway (there have apparently been at least 21 made from the original mould), the Edgar Degas collection of Ballet scenes though I didn't have a huge amount of time there so I did spend more time on the parts I recognised.

Next up we have the Dean Gallery just a hop, skip and jump from here in Edinburgh des-res-ville, the Dean Village. If you are big into Dada-ism and the later surrealist movement then welcome home baby - you'll get off on this place, it is said that this is an 'outstanding collection'. Some nice stuff, the Rosemary Foccacia with Parma Ham, Mozzarella and Tomato which I had for lunch in their nice cafe was for me the highlight though!

Across the road is the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art which is a whole other kettle of fish. Really cool place, loads of great stuff with an emphasis on Scottish work but great Picasso, Warhol and other well known creators.

Even if I had unlimited millions there were probably only 20 pieces out of the thousands on display that I would give houseroom to, but the thing I love about Galleries is how it lets you step back and think about the artist, where they were, what their life was like in their society. You can look deeply into a painting and see much more than paint and canvas. Respect. :-)

Posted by Paul at July 6, 2003 02:01 AM |