Bakary Cafe

I’m so glad I managed to make it to this (free) exhibition!

This was my first time at the Gagosian Gallery and the space was perfect for Cy Twombly’s recent work: The Rose.

This is what they have to say about it: Each painting comprises four wood panels on which three roses in full bloom are depicted in pulsating colours, ranging from deepest burgundy to tangerine, gold, violet and crimson, set against a background of vibrant turquoise. Inscribed on the last panel of each painting are fragments from Rilke’s poem cycle “The Roses.” [Source: Gagosian Gallery]

But that doesn’t really tell you the story… Luckily, there was only a handful of us in the gallery when I went. And I didn’t rush, even though it was dangerously near closing time .

I loved it. I felt happy and contented. You can drown yourself in each painting; the vibrant colours absorbing your every thought. The numbering of the paintings dictacted at first the order I viewed the work: from The Rose (I) to The Rose (V). But then I found myself checking details and going from one to another; looking at each painting closely and from a distance.

The burgundy colour on The Rose (V) really reminded me of some of the Rothko work I saw at Tate Modern recently. Of course, the natural order of the paintings from young and vibrant to decaying roses could be seen as an allegory of life… but why go there! Why not just see them simply as they are…

Beautiful.

On a lovely sunny Sunday morning, you could do worse than take a walk through the East End, through Brick Lane to the Columbia Road Flower market.

I started my walk on Commercial Road. If you look around you, you’ll find constant reminders that this part of London was very much an industrial, working, part of the city.

In the Altab Ali park, just across the road from the Whitechapel Gallery, I came across a Shaheed Minar. And of course, this transported me back to Dhaka, Bangladesh, where last year, I actually saw the Shaheed Minar (the one in East London is a replica of it).

A short walk up Brick Lane, with the obligatory stop at the Brick Lane Beigel Bake, and through an estate and I’m at the Columbia Road Flower Market.

It’s always so colourful and noisy there. Traders plying their trade. People walking and chatting. Haggling. The road is lined with lovely Victorian buildings, most of them now either shops or cafes.

It’s the place to get flowers and plants in London I think… and if you get there just before the traders get ready to pack up (the market closed at 2pm), you can get yourself some real bargains.

You could be forgiven for thinking that I made the most of the weekend to travel to far away places…

Wrong… I only went to Momo, London, for scrumptious cocktails… the place has character, atmosphere and great music.