Monet, Paul Bucose and the National Art Centre.
Last Wednesday, Tim and I went to the National Art Centre in Roppongi to check out the Monet exhibition..
The gallery was an amazing building, it only opened this year - very swish.
Before seeing the show, we decided to grab lunch at Paul Bucose's restaurant on the 3rd floor. There was an 80min wait to get into the actual place, but the food was well worth it.
Duck terrine entree with white white.
For my mains, I had the chicken confit with greens and almonds.
Tim went for the beef with creamed potatoes and beans.
And for dessert, the most perfect crème brûlée.
All up, the meal cost us about AU$70 for the both of us. It could've been done a little cheaper I suppose, as we did get wine and coffee to finish up. I thought it was pretty reasonable, considering the quality of the food.
After lunch, we set off to the exhibition. It took about 45min to get into the gallery (queues here are nuts, for everything!) and once inside, there were just swarms of people everywhere. It was actually quite a horrible atmosphere to be viewing art. I much prefer quiet galleries where you can take your time and relax while viewing the art, rather than being hustled and bustled in a queue about 3 people thick moving ever-so-slowly from one piece to the next.
The collection itself was impressive. They had a huge amount of paintings, far more than anything Australia could ever hope to get, and they spanned Monet's whole career pretty much. Highlights of the show were the haystacks (they had about 6 or so paintings), the waterlilies (so beautiful in real life, reproductions in books do them no justice), and the London Parliament series. Tim also really loved the
Rue Montorgueil.
The gallery was divided into sections with broad themes such as light, rhythm, Japanese influences etc. The art which was inspired by Japanese wood block prints were really interesting as they were hugely different to what you'd expect from Monet. I loved some of the shoreline pictures from that period.
All in all, a very rewarding day. We left Roppongi feeling a little more cultured, which was a nice change from the usual feeling you have when leaving Roppongi...
More pics of the building itself can be seen here!
The gallery was an amazing building, it only opened this year - very swish.
Before seeing the show, we decided to grab lunch at Paul Bucose's restaurant on the 3rd floor. There was an 80min wait to get into the actual place, but the food was well worth it.
Duck terrine entree with white white.
For my mains, I had the chicken confit with greens and almonds.
Tim went for the beef with creamed potatoes and beans.
And for dessert, the most perfect crème brûlée.
All up, the meal cost us about AU$70 for the both of us. It could've been done a little cheaper I suppose, as we did get wine and coffee to finish up. I thought it was pretty reasonable, considering the quality of the food.
After lunch, we set off to the exhibition. It took about 45min to get into the gallery (queues here are nuts, for everything!) and once inside, there were just swarms of people everywhere. It was actually quite a horrible atmosphere to be viewing art. I much prefer quiet galleries where you can take your time and relax while viewing the art, rather than being hustled and bustled in a queue about 3 people thick moving ever-so-slowly from one piece to the next.
The collection itself was impressive. They had a huge amount of paintings, far more than anything Australia could ever hope to get, and they spanned Monet's whole career pretty much. Highlights of the show were the haystacks (they had about 6 or so paintings), the waterlilies (so beautiful in real life, reproductions in books do them no justice), and the London Parliament series. Tim also really loved the
Rue Montorgueil.
The gallery was divided into sections with broad themes such as light, rhythm, Japanese influences etc. The art which was inspired by Japanese wood block prints were really interesting as they were hugely different to what you'd expect from Monet. I loved some of the shoreline pictures from that period.
All in all, a very rewarding day. We left Roppongi feeling a little more cultured, which was a nice change from the usual feeling you have when leaving Roppongi...
More pics of the building itself can be seen here!