I have been to most of the Barbican exhibitions over the last ten years and I have to say that I found the works by Beatriz González now on display have been some of the most affecting …
The Guardian reviewer wrote as follows: The art of Beatriz González is drenched in light, strong colour and blood. Her sprawling, uneven retrospective reflects the turbulent politics and violence of her native Colombia, and the breadth of a body of work that addressed art history and popular culture, provincialism and universality. At times she is as biting as a cartoonist, depicting generals as a row of anonymous blank-faced parrots. “I did not want to be a lady who paints,” she once said. Born in the provincial town of Bucaramanga in 1932, González died this January in Bogotá, shortly before the current exhibition travelled to the Barbican from the Pinacoteca in São Paolo. She was 93.
I am going to post some of my images from the exhibition here. The Guardian reviewer describes González’s work as compelling and that is certainly the case.
Los Papagayos (The Parrots) 1987 …
The exhibition closes on Sunday 10 May 2026.
Some recent images of mine.
I’ve been out and about at dusk again …
A blue sky for a change …
The Hi-Viz jacket team meet up at the end of the day at 2 Aldermanbury …
Silhouettes …
Brake light reflections …
‘It’s pouring rain so we’re having a lie-in’ …
St Paul’s Cathedral on a sunny day – what could be more beautiful?
Combination – spire, dome, plane and golden pineapple …
This time with a bird in flight …
The Phoenix and Resurgam – ‘I shall rise again’ …
At Bunhill Burial Ground …
The Silk Street flower bed cheers me up every day. Planting in October last year …
Yesterday …
Final reminder …
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Atop the Barbican’s main theatre, wrapped around the fly tower, sits a two-story conservatory filled with lush greenery, somewhat at odds with the dull grey of the rest of the estate. This conservatory is the second largest in London (after Kew Gardens) and home to over 1,500 species of plants, but is one of the city’s lesser-known green spaces …
It was opened in 1982 and was intended to be a major visitor attraction and indoor green oasis for Londoners. However, visitor numbers were low. Over the years, the City Corporation reduced opening hours and instead leased the conservatory out as a venue for private parties and corporate events. Visiting is restricted to Friday evenings from 6:30 to 9:30 and Sundays from mid-day to 7:00 pm and you need to book a timed ticket. I went last Sunday at 1:00 and it was quite a comfortable viewing since ticketing has obviously led to good crowd control (you can book here).
Here are some of my images, starting with a resident terrapin (apparently ‘liberated’ from Hampstead Ponds) …
Images from the main tropical house …
I thought this was quite spooky and serpentine …
Some rather shy coi carp to finish with …
There is also an arid house, which is filled with cacti and succulents, but this was closed, so here are some pictures I took there when I visited back in 2018 …
Now, a few local flowers to celebrate Spring.
Tulips in Silk Street …
Little beds at the junction of Gresham Street and Wood Street. So nice when building owners plant flowers and look after them …
Work by the wonderful City gardeners on London Wall …
Finally, I couldn’t resist this shot of the Moon …
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I first wrote briefly about this building in June 2020 saying that I would return later to write more and I have finally got around to it!
Lloyd’s Register began as The Society for the Registry of Shipping in 1760. In that year, eleven men met in Edward Lloyd’s coffee house to talk about publishing a list of ships, a register to define their quality and safeguard life and property carried on them. Much of the Register’s history, including its origins, has been preserved in the organisation’s Archives which contain over 1.1million digitised and catalogued assets including ship plans and surveys.
It has now eveolved into a charity, the Lloyd’s Register Foundation, whose objectives remain the same as those of Lloyd’s Register: to protect people from harm and to ensure the infrastructure that we depend on for day-to-day living is safe for society both now and in the future. The Foundation also strives to provide the right skills and education to achieve these objectives.
It can be found at 71 Fenchurch Street, EC3M 4BS on the corner with Lloyd’s Avenue …
The north and south turrets …
There are numerous maidens holding models of different types of vessels …
The second maiden from the left holds the model of a steamship whilst the figure immediatly behind her holds a model of a galleon …
This panel also contains six maidens. Those in the foreground hold a ship’s telegraph, a hammer and a propeller. A cog or ratchet wheel emerges behind the leg of the right-hand figure …
The central panel contains a standing female personifying Lloyd’s. She wears a crown of sails and stands on a ship’s prow, holding in one hand a caduceus, in the other a book. Behind her is a Zodiacal sphere, and to either side of her are two mermaids ..
A series of bronze maidens holding model ships …
The impressive entrance …
The panel on the left may represent ‘Trade’. At the centre stands a naked youth, wearing mercury’s winged bonnet and holding the caduceus in one hand and in the other an orb surmounted by a galleon …
At his feet are waves bearing a symmetrical arrangement of sailing-ships laden with exotic fruit. Behind the youth is a representation of the globe. Four maidens stand to the left and three to the right, some wearing ethnic costume. One holds an elephants tusk, another a sheaf of corn. An Indian woman holds a war axe whilst the remainder hold closed caskets.
In the panel on the right there is at the centre another naked youth holding a sextant and a compass …
At his feet are waves bearing a symmetrical arrangement of sailing ships laden with packages. Behind the youth is the sun, its rays projecting to form a pattern in the background. The sun is flanked by ornamental columns, with compasses at the finials. There are three maidens on the left and four on the right, carrying navigational instruments, a globe and the model of a ship.
The spandrel above the right hand window on Lloyd’s Avenue. At the centre, from left to right, are the Arms of Cardiff and the words VILLÆ CARDIFF, the Arms of Hull, and the Arms of Southampton, with the words VILLÆ SOUT(HAMP)TONIÆ …
Flanking these are cross-sections of the engines of steamships and pairs of maidens to either side, holding tools and navigational instruments.
Above the left hand window …
At the centre, from left to right, the coat of arms of an unidentified towm, with motto …S…COMMUNI.TATIS V, followed by the Arms of Dublin and the Arms of Belfast with its motto (PRO) TANTO QUID RETRIBUAMUS, surrounded by a trophy of machinery connected with shipbuilding. Pairs of maidens to left and right hold plans and a model of a steamship.
There are also some amusing figures nearby, children playing with dolphins on a leash …
I haven’t been able to capture all the great aspects of this building, so I do recommend a visit, particularly on a sunny day …
In my descriptions, I am extremely grateful to Dr Philip Ward-Jackson and his comprehensive guide Public Sculpture of the City of London from which I have quoted extensively.
Some miscellaneous news and images.
New Moon above St Giles …
The Big Egg Hunt is on in the City (these two are at Aldgate and Barbican respectively) …
There’s a new image on the Tower 42 screen (but so far I haven’t been able to find out what it’s about – maybe something to do with Turkey?) …
Tulips are emerging in the Silk Street beds, hooray …
And, in the middle of them, a Camassia. Maybe from last year …
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