Not One Original Style

Up after restless night at 9:00.  James Mayor urgently calling - we were always late because it was always so boring we weren’t in a hurry.  Visited a Kuwaiti artist atelier.  Three artists in each room.  This time tea or orange pop.  Visited each stall, had to.  One guy painted in Picasso-Chagall style.  Not one original style.  They sit on the floor and paint on rugs and pillows, it looked like hippie streetwares, like the sixties.  It was the only nicely designed building in Kuwait because it was a copy of the Ford Foundation. Got a tour of the building.  The man said it was very Kuwaitian.

Picked up at 4:30 for the opening of the exhibition in the Arts Council Hall.  We had to meet the minister of state there. I think his name was Ahmad Al-Adwani - have that name written down.  But maybe that name goes with someone else. I had sent him a copy of the Philosophy book and he said he’d read it and that it had clever ideas, he was old and cute.  There was a red ribbon in front of the door, I had to carry a pair of gold scissors on a red pillow to cut the ribbon. A lot of TV and press there.