A Grand Day Out

Finally caught up with the Annie Liebowitz photo exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery last weekend. Awe-inspiring! Particularly liked her black and white portraits; the one of Mikhail Baryshnikov and Rob Besserer is particularly striking, and so is the one of her mother. And I thought the colour photo of Johnny Cash & June Carter Cash with their family was tremendous . . . we found time to look at some of the paintings, too. The Tudor and Stuart galleries are like a painted photo album of the great and good (I was delighted to spot John Donne, the metaphysical poet, and a young and arrogant-looking Judge Jeffreys). Amongst the more modern works there was a lovely depiction of Emmeline Pankhurst showing her as a feisty old lady, and one of Beatrix Potter done in the late 1930s when she was a pensioner in the Dales. Also a moving depiction of the late Mo Mowlam. Thanks to a demo outside in Trafalgar Square we were shut in for a while in the gift shop so I came away with more postcards than intended, plus one of Annie's books and a fridge magnet! it was a great day out.