Satday 10 February was officially declared Mr TLF’s kulture day. This upfront rejection of the beautiful game, in favour of my VIPs (very important partner and paintings) was of course NOTHING to do with the fact that the Mighty Saints were away or TLF’s desire to avoid the expected and televised humiliation of Lesta at the hands of Manchester City. Nooo. Not one iota.
Of course as TLF took in the fixture exhibition, ‘Impressionists in London – French artists in exile’ and wandered around the Tateiago Britabeu those little grey cells couldn’t stray too far from more usual Satday habits. The exhibition clearly showcases the talents of a group of French footballers, who escaped the miseries of the Franco-Prussian war, by plying their trade in London; being a century before eye-wateringly rich foreign football club owners would attract players oop north. These skilful players had learnt their football not in the rarefied atmosphere of football grounds but dans ‘la plein air’.
There’s the slight smartarse, Tissot who characterised by ‘a distant point of view’ according to the programme, sorry I mean catalogue, probably wore his collar up and came out with the occasional enigmatic bon mot at a post match press conference a la Cantona.
Meanwhile Monet Zidane is bossing the Impressionists, renowned as he is for being the most consistent and prolific practitioner of expressing one’s perceptions before nature even if that does occasionally take the form of a head butt on the world footballing stage.
And then there is Derain, the unknown quantity, producing art that is ‘radically different from anything done by previous painters of London’ like some bargain unknown signing from a La Ligue 2 outfit. I bet he even went AWOL occasionally.
But it wasn’t all about the foreign talent. Post-exhibition, TLF served up a masterclass of skill and verve that had the restaurant crowd transfixed. At the end of the season when they award the ballon d’or for tipping your salad all over a tapas bar in a dramatic fashion, the glory will belong to the very domestic TLF.
Tate Fox
Match day programme