Olsen Irwin Director Rex Irwin has been enjoying a few days in London ahead of being swarmed by the ten of thousand at ART15. Rex has touched base with the Sydney Gallery and provided some musings about his trip thus far.
"London dazzling in Spring sunshine, lots of walking, roses and geraniums everywhere, in Chelsea that is. In this area nothing much has changed since I lived here in the Sixties, except smart shops and delis have moved down the Kings and Fulham roads to Worlds End and beyond, like breads shops in Surry Hills and Alexandria in Sydney.
To the National Gallery to see the Wilton Dyptich painted for Richard II and the Leonado Cartoon both of which help to focus the eye when looking at great pictures after a year away. 
Artist unknown: Richard II presented to the Virgin and Child by his Patron Saint John the Baptist and Saints Edward and Edmund (The Wilton Diptych)
Lobster salad at Sheekey's with Katrina, helps to focus the palate after a year away, then back to the National Gallery to see Inventing Impressionism, pictures sold by the great French dealer Paul Durand Rue in the 1880's and 90's. He was the first great dealer in the work of the Impressionists,? particularly, Monet, Renoir, Sisley and Degas. It is so important to see early Renoirs which sparkle with life, youth and beauty,long before they became the much reproduced cliches of the modernist tradition, Monet's, Poplars of 1891, almost more beautiful than the later water lily paintings for which he is so famous. In 1905 Durand-Ruel organised an Impressionist show in London at? the Grafton Galleries , of 315 works, 196 of which were from his own collection but despite the crowds he only sold 13 pictures.? Am not sure young artists now would like that, would they? My favourite picture, a Monet, one I have never seen before, the Coal Carriers c.1875, small, misty with strong horizontal planks connecting the coal barge to the shore, the men bowed under the weight of the bags of coal, almost Lowry in composition, the figures repetitively delivering their load and returning for the next. 
Claude Monet, the Coal Carriers 1875
Today a sunny start and off to the Fair to hang. As ever, REX" Rex is joined In London by fellow Director of Olsen Irwin Tim Olsen and manger Katrina Arent for the London Art Fair Art15. If you're in London? from the 21 ? 23 May please come visit us at stand no. B14 
