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Paul Nash (1889-1946).

There’s just too much to see in one visit to Tate Modern. Here’s a few works that captured my interest during our recent visit

From Louise Bourgeois’ Artist’s Room

From the Living Cities exhibition

Untitled (Ghardaïa) 2009 Kadar Attia. A city made of cous cous (I’ve seen this one before in Tate Liverpool)

You can walk on this map of Beiruit

Mogamma, A Painting In Four Parts: Part 3 (2012) by Juli Mehretu

Back over in the “Boiler House” (as the original building is now called)

Abstract in White, Green, Black, Blue Red, Grey and Pink (c1963) by Victor Passmore

Quarante Huit, Quai d’Auteuil (1935) an early abstract work by Winifred Nicholson

Holes (1954) by Shozo Shimamoto

Guano (1958-62) by Judit Reigl

Pictures of Spatial Growths – Pictures with Two Small Dogs (1920-39) by Kurt Schwitters

Carlo Carrà (1881-1966).

Cafe Central, Vienna

„Central is not a coffeehouse like any other – it’s a philosophy.“

(Alfred Polgar)

If you want to rub shoulders with the likes of Sigmund Freud and Trotsky, you should visit Café Central in Vienna. Though, you’ll only see Mr Freud & his friends if you can see ghosts! Today this historical beautiful coffeehouse is overrun with the tourists but they don’t diminish its old-style charm.

The café culture is still strong in Vienna so during the week and off-season (if there’s such a time of the year when there are less tourists in Vienna) this café is still frequented by the locals. But if you’re visiting during Christmas season be prepared to wait in the cold to get in this very popular café/patisserie.

Housed in a grand old palace (Palais Ferstel) Cafe Central has been opened since 1876. It offers breakfast, lunch, dinner, desserts and…

John D. Lyons is the professor behind the Cambridge Companion to French Literature and I bet he spent long hours deciding how to whittle that tome down to 132 pages for this French Literature, a Very Short Introduction for the Oxford University Press VSI series.  Since I picked this up from my stash of VSIs at this time because I was interested in Maupassant (my review of Like Death is coming shortly), I went straight to the index, but woe! Zola and Balzac are there, but not Maupassant.  Bother! I was hoping to have erudite things to share about his place in French Literature…

That brief disappointment aside, this VSI is most illuminating.  The Introduction made me realise that I have a limited view of what French Lit is.  I thought of it as novels and poetry coming from the geographical borders of France, with a proud history of 19th century authors like Zola, Balzac…