“Cultural Activities and Beyond”
The pendulum swing from “duty” to “whim” has happily been accompanied by a kind of “homecoming to one’s better selves”. The spirit of the house of Georges Bloch has led to me to rearrangement of some artwork with a more limited focus on “drawings” and “sculpture”.
Quite unexpectedly – of course I say this tongue in cheek – a renewed passion for collecting has turned the house – through a special kind of Imagination – into a small museum. This led to the idea of “The Musée”, which complements the idea of “The Salon”. Undertaking the building work for the small art collection reconciled me to the irritation of converting the whole house. The friendly support I received put me back in touch with gallery owners, collectors, artistic institutions and artists for whom, as the saying goes, I had too little time in my previous existence. This activity led me to reassess the collection to preserve what is best about it and take some hesitant steps towards including contemporary works. It was in many respects “a homecoming to one’s better selves”. I should like my work to be undertaken in the midst of the arts, including consultancy, and to test the true meaning of Arno Schmidt’s professional saying, which for years I have had hanging up in my offices, “The world of art is the true world; the rest is a nightmare”. That I will be trained as a dilettante in classical singing gives the house a special groove – books, drawings, sculptures, music and the acitvities in the Salon more and more outweighs the consulting activities.