Posted on 11/08/2014 8:08:29 AM PST by Fenhalls555
It’s rare that any piece of art – let alone modern art – captures the imagination, and the hearts, of the entire nation.
In my near 50 years on the planet I can’t think of anything that has come close to the impact of the sea of poppies at the Tower of london.
Earlier this week I saw for myself the astonishing spectacle of another sea – the sea of men, women, boys and girls who have queued up in vast numbers to see the poppies with their own eyes.
But even the majority of us who have seen the poppies only on TV and in the newspapers are awed by the majesty and the beauty.
Tom Piper, the theatrical set designer behind the genius idea – it’s an over- used word but surely merited – has managed something astonishing. He has created an artwork that is both breathtakingly beautiful and redolent with meaning.
So much modern art – defined even its loosest sense – is ugly. Many of today’s artists appear to think they are worthy of the label only if they shock the rest of us or create something that appals our innate sense of beauty.
(Excerpt) Read more at express.co.uk ...
How beautiful. In Flanders Fields the poppies grow...
As a Brit we (my wife and I) went to see this display. It touched us deeply. We wear our poppy with pride - and tomorrow is Remembrance Sunday, we shall all wear one - and I am privileged to lead an Act of Remembrance at a local village.
“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them.”
all reply:
“We will remember them”.
At our local cenotaph the names of 10 other young men who died in WW1 and WW2 have been added to the roll call. It shall be a moving experience.
warmest regards
vimto.
In WWI one out of every 25 Englishmen died in the trenches.
This is a very big deal for these people and I think we should give those fine soldiers the respect that we give our own.
Oops! Too late. (for some here, at least)
Red poppies are a symbol in the US also, for fallen WWI troops.
I remember them from childhood. My grandfather served in France.
McCrae's poem (In Flanders Field, from which the poppy imagery is drawn) was an exhortation to fight on to victory. I think he'd view this exhibit with bemusement.
Every time I see poppies I’m reminded of the final scene from Blackadder Goes Forth:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vH3-Gt7mgyM
Zhang Fei,
I am English. As you have shown in post after post, you don’t have a clue about our culture. You’ve had your say. Now shut up and b*gger off.
Please blubber away. I suspect McCrae would have found this navel-gazing quite foreign.
“As a Brit”
The “vimto” kind of gave it away. ;-)
My best for tomorrow.
And you are utterly nauseating - a classless clown - a disgrace to your family and your nation.
“And you are utterly nauseating - a classless clown - a disgrace to your family and your nation.”
Like.
Wow. Spectacular aerial views. Thanks for posting.
Engineer - see post #51 for great photos
It’s been a hundred years since the start of WWI. It was a terrible war and its effects were felt socially, demographically, and politically for decades, and still now really. I think it’s a beautiful way to commemorate the memory of those who served.
Bouguereau. I think he’s one of the all-time great realists. Unfortunately, he lived at the wrong time, during the ascendancy of Modernism.
That's kind of what I was thinking with respect to the people who fall for this kind of sentimentality, but you took the words right out of my mouth. McCrae's poem basically said mourn by winning, not weeping. A century later, folks like you are getting all mopey. I expect John Derbyshire (formerly of NR and the British Isles) is shaking his head at the current turn of events.
Yep. I can see it. Spectacular piece.
And Scotland. And Wales. And Ireland. And the Commonwealth and Empire.
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