Shall we discuss the latest step toward my Covid booster? I finally got through to the NHS information line after a frustrating several hours figuring out the strange rules and rubrics of my UK pay-as-you-go phone’s top-up process. This morning, I called a special Covid Vaccination line and found that because I had received my Spring 2023 booster in Florida, I would first have to visit a hospital several miles away with several pieces of information. If all the information added up and they had an appropriate vaccine available, I might get vaccinated on the spot. If not, a wait of 10 days shall ensue. If nothing else, it will get me out of bed and dressed early on a Saturday.

My adventure of the day was my journey to the Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art. If you plan a visit, it’s an easy trip on the Victoria line to Highbury and Islington, (one stop past Kings Cross) on the train toward Walthamstow . There are quite a few steps to ascend from the train to exit the station. You exit the station to a large plaza with a restaurant, shops and nearby cafes. I crossed a well-marked set of crosswalks to start down Canonbury Road, I passed Highbury Corner Garden, a strip of garden adjacent to

the roundabout at the north end of Compton Terrace, it commemorates those who were killed, injured or bereaved as a result of a 1944 bomb that caused significant loss of life. The Estorick Collection is just a short walk away.

Once I reached the building, my memory of a previous visit several years ago with my friends Nigel and Gwynne was confirmed. I entered the building through a lovely conservatory that led into a lovely caffe, offering wonderful Italian specialties. The walls were adorned with a wonderful collection of posters from previous exhibitions.

I particularly liked these because they were so evocative of the style that I always associate with the Italian cinema during its neo-realism or golden age after the second world war.

The special exhibition on the main floor of the Collection’s rather impressive, listed premises was titled “Luigi Pericle Rediscovered”. The Collection’s website and material provided to visitors describes Pericle in this way: “Luigi Pericle (1916-2001) was a fascinating and singular artist. A Swiss painter of Italian origin, he was also an illustrator, writer and a scholar of esoteric philosophies such as astrology, theosophy and alchemy. During the early 1960s his intense, enigmatic and multilayered imagery was the subject of numerous exhibitions in Britain, where it was greatly admired by important figures such as Herbert Read and Ben Nicholson.” He seemed to have stopped public appearances in the last part of his life, while maintaining contact with friends and fellow artists. But the exhibition’s use of the term “Rediscovered” seems appropriate in that they say that it was when his home was sold in 2016, ‘a treasure trove’ of his work was discovered, beginning the process of bringing it to public view. For me, his work was fascinating, but a bit like coming to terms with a new engineering or scientific concept, as I often did in my career at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. I could see that there was elegance to the concept, and I could understand how the process or procedure, but getting to a real understanding was hard work. At the end, it was worthwhile. Below are some examples of pieces from various periods in his career.

These designs obviously meant a great deal to him. The later ones increasingly reminded me of Science Fiction movies of the decades following his death. I can only wonder if his communication with like-minded artists might have resulted in some cross-pollination into the entertainment world.

This wonderful collection also provides a bit of aerobic exercise as it challenges visitors to visit its permanent collection on two additional levels with more Modern Italian Art.

This is just a sampling of the wonderful collection on the upper floors. I recommend a visit to this lovely place. You can get a great snack or lunch and their shop is outstanding. The fellow staffing it was friendly, and if he wasn’t busy was happy to engage in conversation. I noticed an old favorite book, “Italian Folktales, by Italo Calvino. I mentioned how pleased I was to see it in print and still available. This led us to a brief discussion of Calvino’s works and the period he worked in. I also left with a delightful poster about an Italian Cinema exhibition.

Bonus London Fact

While ‘fact checking’ the information on the memorial sign at the garden mentioned near the beginning of this blog, I came across an interesting fact the neighborhood in Bloomsbury, London, that I have called home for three months of the year, for each of the last several years. I’ve mentioned The Brunswick Centre, a brutalist style complex of accommodations and shopping that sits in the middle of the neighborhood. Here are pictures of some of the stores on the left and the exterior on Marchmont Street Side, showing some of the flats.

What I found in my surfing was that the original urban plan was to basically demolish the whole neighborhood of lovely 18th and 19th Century buildings and replace them with more structures like the Brunswick Centre.

Building like these would be gone. How the good guys finally won, to borrow a from an old Jimmy Breslin book title, is because Britain’s Territorial Army (like America’s Army Reserves), owned a building right across the street from the Brunswick Center and refused to move. They are still there, and I think every neighbor owes them a debt of gratitude for saving this lovely place.

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