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Though hardly a dry January, life was relatively quiet as we recovered from Victor’s visit and the Christmas festivities. Marsha returned to Norwich, I took down the Christmas decorations and Hannah and I continued work on the picture research for In the 80s, the follow up to my In the Sixties and In the Seventies memoirs. I like working with her because she is very decisive in her choices and there is no messing about. The pictures are either in or out.
My wonderful neighbour Valerie had me over for dinner and we also had an evening at the Colony Room Green followed by Zeidel – here she is tackling a tough lettuce – which rather wiped me out for a day or two.
And all this time Theo and Mina were in Japan. I followed their progress via a stream of photographs and also, in a parallel Japanese experience, reading Asako Yuzuki’s Butter, accurately described on the cover blurb as ‘a vivid, unsettling exploration of misogyny, obsession and the transgressive pleasures of food in Japan.’ It’s a book filled with tempting descriptions of food, recipes and a terrific storyline. I haven’t read such an interesting fictional work (though it’s based on a true story) in several years. Highly recommended.
Jesse Goodman and I met up with Luke Ingram from the Wylie Agency to discuss plans for the 100th anniversary of Allen Ginsberg’s birth which will be celebrated on July 11th at Queen Elizabeth Hall. There will probably also be panel discussions, film screenings and the like at the October Gallery and possibly other venues. Here are Jesse and me in Soho.
I received an e-mail from Marella Paramatti, whom I hadn’t seen since she invited me to attend the 2013 Mantova Festivaletteratura that September. I had very fond memories of the festival and of her, so it was great to hear from her. She was passing through London on her way to Liverpool with her daughter Olivia to some Beatles event – they are both big Beatles fans; (Olivia is the biggest). I had no idea that a 16-year-old girl from Mantua would know all about different vinyl pressings of Beatles records or manage to dress and look as if she just stepped out of the mid-Sixties. Her hairstyle, which she does herself, was totally accurate for the period. Astonishing. Here is Olivia with a Paul McCartney print. She turned 17 the next day.
I had to go to Basel at the end of the month to see my old friend Luzius Martin who is working on the restoration of what remains of the Ian Sommerville archive. It was cold and wet but another old friend – Udo Breger, whom I’ve known for more than 50 years – lives in Luzius’s building, where I was staying, so it was a very social visit.
In Basel I was fortunate to coincide with the truly wonderful Cezanne show at the Fondation Beyeler of 80 late oil paintings and watercolours. The show is of perfect size. I don’t believe you can take in much more than 80 pictures at any one viewing so it was just right. Many old favourites were there, including the Card Players from the Courtauld, but displayed next to another version of the same subject, and there were many pictures I’d not seen before. It runs until 25 May. Next day we visited the Kunstmuseum, one of the greatest museums in the world, not just Switzerland. We concentrated on modern works as a follow-up to Cezanne who was, as Picasso said, ‘the father of us all.’ It was great to see Cezanne’s influence on Matisse and so many of the other artists represented there. I’d been there the year before with Luzius when we’d concentrated on the older work: Leonardo, Holbein and co. so it was good to be selective. They have a beautiful tiny Pollock, a great Franz Klein, two huge Rothkos; rooms of Picassos, of Paul Klee, of Leger, one and a half rooms of Giacomettis – my favourite rooms in the museum – and an enormous Helen Frankenthaler – they have a Frankenthaler show coming up: April 18-August 23 featuring over 50 pictures which I hope I can get to see. I wrote my NDD essay on her work at art school back in 1963.
According to the latest figures released by the Gaza Ministry of Health (GMoH) on December 23rd 2025, Israel had killed at least 70,937 Palestinians and wounded 171,192; of those identified fatalities, 53% were women, children or elderly. When will talks about reparations begin? When will the Palestinians get their country back?
