ART EXHIBITIONS IN THE EAST END ARE FANTASTIC. London’s art scene is “on fire.” A few months ago, I wrote a blog about a young artist from Eastern Europe whom I met painting on the streets near Trafalgar Square. I watched him paint every day for three weeks when suddenly I knew I had to have it. He told me about the excitement in the East End Exhibitions.
Well, there is another success story which has rocked the contemporary art scene both in London and in the States. And it all started in the East End galleries.
CHARMING BAKER has captivated the art world with hugely successful exhibitions in London, New York, and California. He has been discovered! CHARMING left school at 15 to dig up roads before enrolling in Central St. Martin’s Graphic School. He did odd jobs for various companies, but he struggled trying to raise his large family in a council flat on a limited income–yet painting all along. HE IS NOW A BRITISH ARTIST.
CHARMING was discovered four years ago painting in the bedroom of his council flat in Greenwich. In 2008 Tim Fennel, a graffiti art enthusiast, arranged an exhibition of CHARMING’s work at the TRUMAN BREWERY GALLERY in London’s East End. His anti-establishment attitudes toward contemporary urban art movements set him apart. The show was a success, and his career was assured.
Newspaper headlines state that CHARMING has taken New York by storm with a sell-out show, attended by some of the most famous art dealers and collectors in the world. Alberto Mugabi has been buying CHARMING’s paintings in bulk.
CHARMING’s paintings were selling between 16,000 – 20,000 pounds in 2008, and they are easily twice that price today.
I love this story because it highlights new art, found in the galleries of East London, in the old breweries. I really want to encourage my readers to explore London. The standard tourist sites are fantastic, but WANDER IN LESS TRAVELED-IN AREAS to see the excitement of art galleries, ceramics, photography. Wander around TRUMAN BREWERY in London’s East End. It is an entirely new experience for most visitors to London. But, it is in these fantastic new areas where the art world is flourishing.
I will be in London soon, and I am going to have lunch with my artist friend who wants to show me several of the new galleries and introduce me to some of his struggling artist friends. I am really excited about this.
My youngest son Richard is a thriving architect, trained at Columbia in Manhattan. He has a stunning sense of creativity. When he was only 16 years old, he published a graffiti magazine called KRIME TIME. It was sold at Tower Records and elsewhere. Let me tell you about this experience.
One afternoon, twenty-one years ago, a police officer came to our door and asked if Richard Moore lived here. The police officer knew the house, and he assumed respectable people lived here. I answered the door and invited the officer in. He held in his hand an envelop thick with photographs. The envelope had been opened. The policeman showed me the envelope which was addressed to MR. RICHARD MOORE, KRIME TIME MAGAZINE. I had no idea what this was all about. I opened the envelop and looked at a large group of graffiti photographs from all over the country. They were vibrant, rich, amazingly drawn, but they were GRAFFITI. They were a real contrast to the Benjamin West and Claude Lorrain paintings that hung in the room where I was standing with the policeman.
Well, the conversation became interesting, to say the least. I asked the policeman how he got the photos when they were addressed to Richard and sent to his post box which I knew nothing about. He said the parcel was put in the wrong post box, and the mistaken recipient called the police. The envelop was opened in the mail because too many pictures had been forced into the envelope. Well, the term KRIME TIME triggered an alert. The policeman talked to the post office lady who said she knew Richard’s family and assured the policeman that the Moore family was a very respectable, well known family. So, he decided to come visit us.
As the policeman was talking to me, Richard and his mother came into the room. I asked Richard what this was all about. He said they were photographs for a magazine that he publishes called KRIME TIME. I asked him: WHAT MAGAZINE, SON? Remember this is a highly creative young man 16 years old–talented and bright to be sure. He said he had been publishing a glossy coffee table magazine filled with world-wide graffiti. I went pale and asked him who had been funding this magazine. TO MY SHOCK AND DISMAY, HE SAID HIS MOTHER WAS BEHIND HIM. I looked at my wife who looked me straight in the eye with that SO-THERE grin. Well,the story thickens.
By this time, the policeman knew there was no CRIME in this event, but he was curious about where all the pictures came from. He wasn’t any more curious than I was. Richard said he had developed a network of friends who collected photographs of graffiti from all over the world. Some photographs were train graffiti; others were graffiti from walls and bridges. But for sure, they were amazing.
I couldn’t get my head around the whole matter. First, graffiti to me was a public disgrace. Second, how could this all have been going on in my home without my knowing a thing about it. Third, what about this magazine KRIME TIME.
Our family travels a lot. When we were at home in Boston, Richard would take off on his own. He is a responsible lad who has traveled a lot, so we never worried about him. He would take the train to New York for a day to visit a friend and his family. In London he wandered the streets of the capital without our worrying because he knew this city well. When we were in California, he went off with cousins on a regular basis. Well, we had ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA that he was photographing graffiti wherever he could find it. BUT HIS MOTHER KNEW, and they both decided that Richard’s father, ME, would not be supportive of his activities.
Richard went upstairs and brought down a magazine or two that he had published and sold in various locations around the world. He showed me boxes of letters and photogarphs which his NETWORK had sent him for consideration for possible publication. By this time, Mrs. Moore was making sandwiches, and the policeman and I were enthralled by this amazing saga which by now I considered the FLOURISHING UNDERGROUND STORY AT WORK in THIS house.
The outcome: Richard had a bank account with several thousand dollars in it. He had made friends with young artists all over the world. He was becoming a graphic designer on his own. HE WAS PUBLISHING THE ONLY GRAFFITI MAGAZINE IN AMERICA, and he was 16 years old! Richard had been painting with oils and canvas since he could hold a brush. Our basement storage room is filled with his canvases even today. He entered his art in competitions during high school and junior high school. He won first prize time after time. When his school district art competition winners were announced one year, I attended with Richard. Again, first prize. This is a 14-year-old kid! He leaned over to me when he won the award and said: ”Dad, I am so happy I don’t know what to think.” He liked design and printing, so he went to work at KINKO where he met artists, designers, architects who eventually became his friends. His mother and I knew we had to trust Richard, that he knew where he wanted to go. So, we moved behind him and supported his art and design. Mrs. Moore and I attended his graduation service from graduate school SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE at Columbia; the dean stood and announced that Richard Weston Harper Moore had been awarded the AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS AWARD FOR TALENT AND PROFESSIONALISM. Mrs. Moore and I looked at each other and took a sigh of relief that our trust and faith in Richard’s judgment was greater than our understanding of his artistic ability.
Now, I wander in London galleries, the posh ones and the East End ones. I talk to the struggling artists. They are so creative and eager to put paint to canvas. I love all the REDS, YELLOWS, BRILLIANT BLUES AND GREENS. The young artists seem so be free and filled with creativity–sometimes without restraint. As you can imagine, I look forward to my up-coming tour with my new artist friend through the East End galleries. I want to meet his EASTERN EUROPEAN ART FRIENDS.
When I hear stories like the CHARMING BAKER story, I get tears in my eyes. My own son has taught me a great deal. I know you will all enjoy exploring the exciting exhibitions of London’s new art world in the East End. It seems the young artists start there and work hard to eventually see their paintings hanging in Mayfair and Covent Garden galleries.
My artist friend says he hardly stops for a sandwich when he is on fire with a new painting. Isn’t this the way to live and travel !?
Thanks,
Thomas Moore
http://www.londonconnection.com
If you are hungry and don’t want a sit-down meal–just a snack–and are near the Sloane Square Tube Station, we highly recommend THE PICCOLO BAR. The sandwich and drink bar has a small menu, but the best fresh sandwiches in Knightsbridge and Chelsea. You step into the bar, order your sandwich, and then either sit outside on a couple of tables or take off with your fantastic sandwich in hand. I eat on the street and ignore the looks from those who really envy my sandwich.
This spectacular English painting is a Victorian Narrative Painting of the period of William Frith. The setting appears to be in the National Gallery, London.
The FLORENCE NIGHTINGALE MUSEUM at St. Thomas’s Hospital has undergone a 1.4 million pound transformation. It is engaging and fascinating. Children learn about Florence Nightingale in school and will be eager to join their parents to visit this new museum on the ground floor lf St. Thomas’s Hospital. Visitors from abroad and Britain will be fascinated by the story of the LADY WITH THE LAMP.
