Art in April

I've been planning a visit to see the major Van Gogh exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts since January. It is entitled 'Van Gogh: the Man and His Letters', essentially exhibiting the written correspondence between him and his brother and his gradual decline into 'madness'. The exhibition finishes this week and I haven't managed to get tickets - they were sold out since around mid-February and there are now three hour queues to collect one of the limited tickets released each morning. Anyway, I resigned myself to this fate and a friend and I decided to go and see Henry Moore at Tate Britain instead.

Henry Moore is a sculptor, famed for his amorphous, proportionally inexact sculptures of women or of mothers and child. He used a variety of materials - elm wood was a favourite but also varying types of stone and casts in bronze. I've seen his work before (there was an outdoor exhibition a couple of years ago at Kew Gardens) and I my indifference to him was reinforced. There is something sinister about those formless beings with pinheads and dots for eyes. I think his most interesting work were the sketches he did during the second world war of Londoners cramped together in the underground during air raids (these are actually figurative and have feeling and depth). I also like his metallic helmets, reflecting his fears around the time of the cold war.

Afterwards, we decided to have a wander around the permanent collections. Tate Britain has the most extensive collection of Turner paintings. Whilst, a lot of the large-scale landscapes are an acquired taste, there is no disputing the man's talent and level of production. I love that a lot of his 'unfinished' works are in themselves masterpieces and served to inspire the future impressionists.

So, to my next trip. Clearly, I have been smarting over Van Gogh and it was actually my boss's idea that I go to Amsterdam and see some of his work in situ - inspired! So, next weekend I shall be boarding a ferry from Harwich in Essex and heading to Holland. Must remember to pack my sea bands!