Reopening this summer: National Portrait Gallery

In 2020, Sir Paul McCartney unearthed a treasure trove in his own archive. Almost a thousand personal photographs taken on his 35mm camera between 1963-64, when Beatlemania went global, goes on show at the National Portrait Gallery this summer.

Following the British band’s very first visit to the USA the four lads from Liverppol were metamorphosed into the most recognisable people on Earth. And this phenomenon took place in a pre-digital world. The previously unseen photography was taken in six cities, Liverpool, London, Paris, New York, Washington D.C and Miami, and reveals the reality behind the making of four music legends. What was it really like to be a Beatle, or indeed a global celebrity in the Swinging Sixties?

This week the Gallery announced a new programme for 2023. Read on for the treats in store when the gallery once again throws open its doors on 22 June 2023, following the largest redevelopment in its history.

hashtagtravellingJanuary 29, 2023January 29, 2023Leave a comment

Art and culture, Travel

Review: Spain and the Hispanic World

Starting off the year as I mean to go on, I visited the first major exhibition of 2023 which opened in London this weekend. Over 150 items arranged chronologically, from antiquity to early 20th Century, provide a visual narrative of the history of Spanish culture. On display at Spain and the Hispanic World: Treasures from the Hispanic Society Museum & Library at the Royal Academy, are pieces from the New York museum presented for the first time in the UK.

Favourite pieces included a Map of the Ucayali River, which brought to mind the Bayeaux Tapestry, with its delightful borders featuring fishermen, flora and fauna; the rather gruesome The Four Fates of Man; and the life-sized Duchess of Alba, in all her magnificent glory.

hashtagtravellingJanuary 22, 2023January 22, 2023Leave a comment

Travel

This week… escape from lockdown

So the UK is more or less out of lockdown. It feels weird. Or rather it’s a strange experience trying to revert back to life-as-usual. After over 100 days of lockdown the world has turned and it feels we’re like waking up in another dimension altogether. Stepping outside your front door and picking up where you left off simply isn’t an option. This week I visit the dentist for a check-up and the experience leaves me a little shaken, I have to admit.

Despite a careful process of masks, face shields, sanitiser and more, lying captive in the dentist’s chair with someone inches from my face, after weeks of isolaton, is a little scary. This is the new reality. We have reemerged from hibernation and the goal posts have moved. I wonder if Cinderella felt this way after 100 years of slumber?

hashtagtravellingJuly 5, 2020September 2, 2021Leave a comment