Cultural life
Aperson of note tells us what they’re watching, listening to and more…
Having studied traditional Japanese woodblock printing in Kyoto for six years, the British abstract artist is renowned as a painter whose work combines Western and Eastern traditions. Salter has had several international solo exhibitions and was artist in residence in 2003 and 2011 at the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, Connecticut. Her work is in the collections of institutions including Tate, The British Museum, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Victoria and Albert Museum, and Yale University Art Gallery. In 2019 she became the first woman President of the Royal Academy of Arts. ‘In View: Rebecca Salter’ at Gainsborough’s House is her first UK solo museum show and presents her practice in a selection of large-scale paintings in the new Sudbury Gallery. gainsborough.org My favourite pieces of music are Bach’s Cello Suites played by Yo-Yo Ma (2). Years ago I took several CDs with me on an artist’s residency in a forest, and it was the clear voice within the complex beauty of those compositions that Iwanted to listen to most. When it comes to books that have had a major influence on me, there are two, both exploring the aesthetics of texture and touch: The Eyes of the Skin by Finnish architect Juhani Pallasmaa and In Praise of Shadows by the Japanese novelist Junichiro Tanizaki (6). Elegant and eloquent. The film I most admire is Double Suicide directed by Masahiro Shinoda (5). It draws on traditions of Japanese puppetry but the stylised interpretation is very contemporary. My favourite paintingis St Jerome Reading a Letter (7) by Georges de la Tour in the Prado in Madrid. I’m not sure wh
