'Bronze' at the Royal Academy, London

[Guest]

'Bronze' as an exhibition is impressive physically - there are so many large pieces, ranging from statuary of saints, to those celebrating ancient myths and a wonderful wild boar. However it is impressive because of its scope too - ancient pieces from Nigeria, China (the oddest elephant you ever did see ) as well as from Europe - and (relatively) up-to-date pieces by Brancusi and Remington (hitherto just a name in a book to me) and Picasso (which made me laugh) and Giacometti.

I spent three-and-a-half hours there yesterday with a friend and we only covered about half of it before we sloped off for a cuppa and a much needed sit down; but the hours had generally flown by.There are two silent film sequences about some of the processes involved in creating the models and in casting and finishing the final works, well worth sitting through for a rest and a change of emphasis.I knew quite a lot of it from a former life as a dental student and it all came flooding back.

We've got a date to meet up for round two to complete it, but I bet we walk through what we've already seen just to re-capture some of the wonder of our first visit. Well worth a visit even if it involves major travel.

http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/bronze/ for further details

[salymap]

It sounds fascinating ams51. Just wish I could still visit London, I used to visit Burlington House nearly every year for something.

[Serial_Apologist]

'Bronze' as an exhibition is impressive physically - there are so many large pieces, ranging from statuary of saints, to those celebrating ancient myths and a wonderful wild boar. However it is impressive because of its scope too - ancient pieces from Nigeria, China (the oddest elephant you ever did see ) as well as from Europe - and (relatively) up-to-date pieces by Brancusi and Remington (hitherto just a name in a book to me) and Picasso (which made me laugh) and Giacometti.

I spent three-and-a-half hours there yesterday with a friend and we only covered about half of it before we sloped off for a cuppa and a much needed sit down; but the hours had generally flown by.There are two silent film sequences about some of the processes involved in creating the models and in casting and finishing the final works, well worth sitting through for a rest and a change of emphasis.I knew quite a lot of it from a former life as a dental student and it all came flooding back.

We've got a date to meet up for round two to complete it, but I bet we walk through what we've already seen just to re-capture some of the wonder of our first visit. Well worth a visit even if it involves major travel.

http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/bronze/ for further details

Thanks for this, Ams.

I wish I'd made a note of this exhibition, as a friend who came to stay over the weekend is very interested in bronzes and as happens we visited the Horniman, which owns a fine but small collection of West African stuff.