Tag Archives: rebirth

Portrayed between lives in a Mayfair art gallery

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FRANCESCO CLEMENTE IS an artist born in Naples (Italy) in 1952. Since 1973, he has been visiting India regularly, and has worked there. He has developed a great interest in Asian religions including Hinduism and Buddhism. The 8 paintings in his exhibition, which is showing at the Lévy Gorvy Dayan gallery in Mayfair’s Dover Street until 27 September 2025, are evidence of Clemente’s interest in these belief systems.

The exhibition is called “Francesco Clemente: Self-Portraits in the Bardo”. The Bardo in the title is a concept of Tibetan Buddhism. It is the state of consciousness during the period between death and rebirth. The artist is depicted in the forefront of each picture. Behind them are fantastic depictions of both the peaceful and the angry deities that are believed to inhabit the Bardo. Whereas Clemente paints himself mainly in shades of grey, the deities are painted in vivid reds, yellows, and black. The artist insisted that the gallery walls be painted purple. This makes these vibrant paintings look even more dramatic.

Hung in a lovely large room with a patterned stucco ceiling, this small exhibition is definitely worth seeing.

Demolished thrice but still standing and fully used in Pondicherry

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FIRST THE DUTCH demolished it in 1693. Then, it was replaced on the same site,  only to be demolished again in about 1730. Once more, a new one was constructed on the same site, and this was then demolished by the British in 1761. The current version of this building, the Immaculate Conception Cathedral in Pondicherry,  was completed in 1791, and is still in use today. Regular Roman Catholic services are held here in the Tamil, French and English languages.

 

Today (3  February 2025), while waiting for a nearby shop to open, we sat quietly in the cool aisle of the Cathedral. After a while, some beautifully dressed people entered. They walked up to the front of the church close to the high altar, and posed for photographs.  It was obvious that amongst them was a just married couple. The bride was wearing a sari, had flowers in her hair, and a luxuriant flower garland around her neck.

 

As they walked away from the altar towards the open west door, they passed us, and my wife asked them if they had just married. They accepted our congratulations and asked us to join them. We did and as we stood next to the newlyweds,  who had just married in another church, the four of us posed for photographs. Then, the bride asked us to bless them by touching their foreheads.  We were moved by this request.

 

The marriage party went on their way, and we crossed the road to enter the huge bookshop that had just opened.

A city reborn

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We used to spend a night in Arras in northern France when we made driving holidays to stay in rented houses on central and southern parts of the country.

To casual visitors, such as we were, the centre of Arras looks like a perfectly preserved old baroque city.

Yet, it is not.

During WW1, Arras, close to the front line fighting, was almost totally destroyed. Pictures of the city taken after the “War to End All Wars” resemble pictures of Hiroshima after the atomic bomb was dropped on it.

The reconstruction of the old centre of Arras was so successful that if you were ignorant of its history, you would believe that you are seeing the original city.

By the way, Arras is one of the few places in the rather bleak north of France really worth visiting.

Photo taken about 15 years ago.