British Museum: The Celt Show

I've had several days without class this week, so today Kristin and I had an outing to the British Museum to see their Celt show. With my Art Fund card, I got half price on admission, which made is only eight and a half pounds. Otherwise known as: REALLY EXPENSIVE. But it's been a show with some buzz and we decided it would be worth a look.

To sum up my feelings on the show I'd say that it wasn't equal to the sum of its parts. They had some great objects. Some really beautiful work, some interesting reproductions, and an interesting starting point. What they did with these things ended up feeling a little half-hearted and a little confusing. They failed to answer a few key questions such as Who were these Celts, anyway? Where did they live? The organization made it hard to tell what the point was. There were artifacts from Scotland and Ireland, sure, but they also had things from Spain and Portugal and Germany. They had Roman stuff. They had Victorian stuff. They had comic books and Celtic jerseys. All and all... what exactly were they doing?? Plus, the whole thing was horrendously busy.

Despite this, here are some pictures of my favorite shiny things from the show. Not pictured: The St Chad Gospels.

 The top broach is more Anglo-Saxon than Celt, the mystery of this show's purpose continues... 

There was also an Arkansas razorback hanging out at the British Museum. Who knew??

And finally, look at the Christmas tree that's gone up inside the Courtauld Institute! Christmas is on its way!