The Istanbul Modern

Istanbul is a city we have been meaning to visit for years and we finally arrived a few days ago. But what to write about. The architecture of the old city is amazing from the Byzantine Hagia Sofia to the seventeenth century Blue Mosque. But I have chosen the Museum of Modern Art a few…

Frank Gehry (1929-2025)

Frank Gehry was one of the great pioneers of architecture in history and certainly of the twenty first century. With his passing this weekend we think of some of the most innovative buildings of the world. His postmodern designs were characterized by their sculptural, often undulating exteriors and innovative use of materials such as titanium…

Ironbridge in Shropshire – Bridges in Art

Bridges can be found in many works of art such as Canalletto’s wonderful study of Old Walton Bridge in the Dulwich Picture Gallery or Turner’s Maidenhead Bridge which I wrote about here in 2019. But they can also be works of art in their own right. Some of the most beautiful examples of architecture in…

Maurice de Vlaminck, The Fauve at Chartres

Chartres is a city, some sixty miles west of Paris, that we have visited a number of times and we were there again this summer. It is a busy vibrant place and known the world over for its magnificent gothic cathedral, Notre Dame de Chartres. Like many buildings of the time its predecessor was consumed…

The Palace and Gardens at Versailles

The Palace at Versailles, just west of Paris, must be one of the most sumptuous buildings in the Western World. Although it is now only a shell having been stripped of its furniture and furnishings in the French Revolution in 1789, it is still a most wonderful tourist attraction. It is little wonder that some…