It was a strange experience this morning going down to the V&A for a 10 am lecture. I was early and walked a bit

I was in Bloomsbury, who knew? and found a lovely little block called Lamb’s Conduit where there was a branch of a cheese shop I want to try called La Fromagerie, the other branch we have seen was in Marylebone and they seem also to be located in Highbury. Thestreet felt quieter and is partly pedestrian and around the corner I found a lovely road lined with flower pots.

But the odd part was it was a scholarly lecture. Attended by 30 some odd people, including a handful of men in suits. The featured speaker was to talk on the blurring of the paint in Munchs paintings, i dont think that’s what she was talking about at all.

She seemed to spend more time talking about his self portraits via photography, early selfies. And how he would manipulate the background. AS he then did in his paintings.

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In this self portrait print there are many versions. the one on the left has been transformed through rubbing out of the background and if you look closely, the white across the bottom is the skeleton of an arm.

The more interesting part of the morning for me though was the man from Oslo where they are moving the Edvard MunchMuseum into its new and larger home. He talked about the 13 story building, 500,000 visitors a year, 6 spaces for concerts, and I am thinking “really, for Edvard Munch?” then the news… There are currently only 18 PhD’s working and studying Munch and his goal is to get more…”there is so much to learn and know” and I am thinking “you need more than 18 PhDs?”

Thats the sort of thing I really enjoy finding out about. How weird a world we live in.