Apu, Lucien and a Magpie

There is a new show at Transition – Apu150 by Paul Murphy. It features 150 (or near enough) drawings of Apu; the loveable storekeeper from the Simpsons. The drawings are very nice and are selling fast so get on down to Hackney this Easter, have a walk in Victoria Park and take in some art.



I went to look at a couple of other shows on Friday. Lucien Freud at The Wallace Collection and Joe Currie at James Coleman. I love the very fashionable Wallace Collection and having a show by a living artist there is a really interesting thing to do. The small room that his work is in has a slightly down at heel green flock wallpaper on the walls and this somehow enhances his paintings while at the same time making them seem more ‘homely’. While I was there, the room was pretty much full with most of the people seeming like Wallace, home counties regulars. I overheard one lady saying “ I’ve found his portrait but I don’t know why he had to make his face so red”. When I first walked in I thought wow, this is great and then almost immediately I thought no it’s really bad. Then I settled down and quite enjoyed the little portraits and the weirdly cropped horse’s bum. The colours were nice not as dour as is his usual want with some lovely fresh peachy pinks.

Joe Currie’s invite card has a bird (I think a magpie) on the front and this work is in the show as is a kind of vinyl sculpture of Steve McQueen crashing his motorbike and a nice Persian cat watercolour.