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FAVOURITE ART EXHIBITIONS
Roger is addicted to art galleries so we're very lucky to live near London which has some of the best collections in the World.
His favourite genre is portraiture, especially nineteenth and twentieth century stuff - but all art is welcome. He has fairly catholic tastes - most modern art gets a cursory glance, while pre-war portraits - especially Klimt, De Lempicka and Modigliani get significantly more - sometimes hours - of attention.
Roger has even tried his hand at painting - mainly copying other peoples stuff. Most of it gets whitewashed so the canvas can be used again, but some of it gets hung at home. If you're patient enough to wait for the download there is a link to some samples of his own work at the top of the page.
There is also a link to some older gallery visit reports for the really sad reader who wants to know what Roger saw years ago ! But here - immediately below - are REPORTS OF WHAT HAS ROGER SEEN RECENTLY....
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MAHARAJAH
The Splendour of India's Royal Courts
The Victoria & Albert Museum, London
December 2009
|
Hylas and The Nymphs |
This was a lucky break - I hadn't
intended to visit this exhibition, but a London based Christmas
lunch was so bad that I made my excuses before the sweet course and
headed for the V&A to kill some time.
MAHARAJAH The Splendour of India's Royal Courts is an impressive exhibition of "The Raj" - the regal life in India from the Murghal empire (late 1600's) until independence just after the Second World War. There are four galleries. The first is devoted to the Murghal Empire - an India which English traders were just coming to terms with - flamboyant and with significant cross-overs between state affairs and religions. The next gallery tells the history of the series of fragmented states and the tribal warfare which followed the collapse of the Murghal rule. An India which was increasingly influenced and eventually controlled by the British East India Company. The third gallery is devoted to the late 1800's when India became the "Jewel in the Crown" of the British Empire. There are a lot of old photographs and films of the British lording themselves around - when you see it as a modern observer you can clearly understand why the rest of the World despised these arrogant British invaders. The final gallery is dedicated to the Royal Indian Courts between the two great wars - the "roaring twenties" brought a facade of an East-West cultural integration which might have been superb if only it had involved the millions of inhabitants of India, rather than just the ruling elite. There are some excellent Man Ray photo's, an opulent Rolls Royce and some classic Art Deco style furniture and portraits. An excellent exhibition - it taught me a lot about Indian royal history, gave me a better understanding of the evils of imperialism, and ended up pleasing me with some of my favourite art styles. |
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J.W.
WATERHOUSE The Modern Pre-Raphaelite
The Royal Academy of Art, Piccadilly, London
July 2009
|
Hylas and The Nymphs |
The J.W. Waterhouse exhibition was
fantastic - this is my idea of art. Lot's of the literary critics
seem to have it in for Waterhouse because of his style and the fact that
he seemed to like painting pubescent girls without many clothes on -
sort of Victorian soft porn. However, in his defence, the young
ladies in question are usually actually key to the plot - so perhaps one
should perhaps ask why the critics a hundred years later are stung by them? Perhaps they have guilty
feelings themselves when they look at teenage tits? Or is it
perhaps because this is real art, and they feel that they have to
defend their pompous praising of the pseudo poseurs of modern art?
(ooh - I like that sentence!) Overall I think
Waterhouse's paintings are great.
He has a fantastically well developed sense of composition - many of his
pictures are of mythical or classical tales - and these are not just
scenes from stories - every picture literally tells a story all by
itself. Some of his sketchbooks are also on display, and it is
very clear that his painting techniques (learned from Alma Tadema),
draughtsmanship and
clarity of brushwork are not - to him - the most important part of his
work. He could do them - and do them extremely professionally - but
his major artistic input was in
arranging and balancing the composition of his pictures. He died 92
years ago, but the works are still fresh and vibrant - I really enjoyed
this exhibition and fully intend visiting it again. |
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SOTHEBY'S
IMPRESSIONIST SALE
Sotherby's Auctioneers, Bond Street, London
June 2009
|
Monet for sale |
A brief visit to the
Exhibition of
Russian Art soon to be auctioned at Sotheby's
was fascinating - the works ranged from church iconography to
contemporary modern Russian artists, and there were some extremely
interesting works by artists - most of whom I had never heard of
(and probably couldn't pronounce). Luckily, there was also one small side room which had some exquisite works in it - items for sale in another forthcoming sale of impressionist and modernist works. There were only a dozen items in this small exhibition - but they included a magnificent Monet and a couple of major Picasso's. There was also a large granite work by Dame Barbara Hepworth. All were listed for between £2million and £12 million. I haven't been to a Sotheby's exhibition for many years - but they are always a great opportunity to get a rare glimpse of major works which otherwise spend most of their lives in private collections. |
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THE SUMMER
EXHIBITION
2009
The Royal
Academy of Art, Piccadilly, London
June 2009
|
Damian Hirst |
This was the preview of this years
Summer Exhibition and it
registered "good" on my radar. I used to complain that I only
liked about 5% of the works at first view, which would grow to about
15% after several views. This year I thought at least fifteen
percent was good at this first view. However, there was some of the usual rubbish - daubed works which might have been done by a child, most didn't even have the excuse of looking "fresh". Rubbish sculptures of "found" materials, which looked just like the original owners had been glad to lose them. Whoever had designed the architecture exhibition had made a huge mistake by putting everything up high on shelves - not only were there very few good architectural exhibits, but you had to be at least eight feet tall to be able to se them properly. There was lots of good stuff too. As well as new things which made me smile, my favourites were all there as well. Donald Hamilton-Fraser and Ken Howard, plus loads of others had great works hanging. My biggest surprise was an amazing sculpture/casting/statue which I loved before I found out who had been responsible. It is made of (apparently) solid silver - a slightly taller than life size flayed human male with amazing musculature exposed, and with his skin draped over one arm. The title of the work was Saint Bartholomew - Exquisite Pain. I was really surprised to find out that it was a work by Damian Hirst - an artist I have never really appreciated before. This was very good - in fact, it was the highlight of this years exhibition. I look forward to visiting again soon to see how my senses judge the exhibition when it is less crowded, and when there is not champagne available to numb the senses. Second Visit: My second visit this year to The Summer Exhibition revealed the exhibition as rather drabber than I remember or reported above. On reflection I suspect that I am getting more sceptical (or is it cynical?) about the skills of whoever hangs these shows. It seems to me that they are more interested in making an impact about themselves, rather than in showing art to the public. I am particularly critical of whoever spoiled the architectural section by sticking everything six feet above the floor level so only the very tall could see them. When I reprised my visit over a cup of tea in Richoux's cafe opposite, it occurred to me that the only things I really liked were by artists I already know and love - Donald Hamilton Fraser; Blackadder; Remfry; Cummings, and Ken Howard (and even he has been stuck in a rut for the last twenty years). The only revelation to me was, as noted in my earlier report, Damien Hirst's silver Saint Bartholomew - exquisite pain - which I confess I probably wouldn't have wanted to like if I had known who the artist was before I saw it! I also liked the work of one particular artist I hadn't come across before, Michael de Bono. |
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KUNIYOSHI
The Royal
Academy of Art, Piccadilly, London
June 2009
|
Hatsuhana |
This was the last opportunity to see the
Kuniyoshi Print Exhibition in
The Sackler Galleries on the top floor of the RA
because it
closed on 7th June (the day I visited). This Japanese artist lived
at the beginning of the nineteenth century and was influenced by
European works - and in turn had a massive influence on the Art
Noveau movement which blossomed in the second half of that century.
The culture in Japan was still very repressive with laws against
various types of art and expression - impacting the theatre as well
as art. Kuniyoshi made his name as a satirist - and many of
his prints have hidden (and in some cases, not so hidden) sub-texts
which thumb a nose at the authorities.
I went with my friend Stephanie. There were hundreds of coloured woodblock prints on display, and the place was extremely crowded, so we couldn't give the exhibition all the attention it deserved - we did however see the bits we knew we'd like! which included this amazing print of Hatsuhana praying under a waterfall. To find it was a revelation because a copy of this print has hung in Stephanie's downstairs toilet at her farm in Devon since the late nineteen seventies! At that time Kuniyoshi wasn't well known in the UK, or very collectable - the picture had been picked from a pile of old prints because it seemed appropriate for a toilet! An excellent exhibition - well worth the visit. |
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ORANGERIE
2009
The Orangerie, Paris
April 2009
|
Renoir in the basement |
This was my first pilgrimage to The
Orangerie since it was completely refurbished some three or
four years ago. What luck! The first Sunday of every month is
"free entry" and it was Sunday 5th.
The place has been turned upside down - almost literally. The walls at the eastern end have been replaced with huge window panels, and the entire lead roof has been replaced by glass. The fabulous Monet Water Lilies have been moved from the basement to the main floor - in rooms of the same oval shape, but with natural light. The paintings are still vibrant and moving - but somehow the exhibition space is less sepulchral. The old springy wooden floorboards are now quiet modern flooring, and where people used be hushed and reverential in the huge cathedral like spaces - they are now chattering and the setting is no longer awesome in the real sense of the word. It's no longer a place to contemplate in peace, but the artwork is still mind blowing. By contrast the Guillame collection of impressionist works, which used to occupy the ground floor area, has been moved downstairs to the basement . The exhibition is in long corridor like rooms - which are a bit narrow, but which do give much more wall space. This is a more modern exhibition space and has some wonderful "old friends" hanging on the walls. I think this bit of the exhibition is an improvement. |
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ART
1250-1500
The National Gallery, London
January 2009
|
Venus & Mars c1485 |
Not a special exhibition - but a visit to
the regular galleries to see some of the oldest paintings on public
display in London. I was also lucky enough to be accompanied
by my mother, who was not only a teacher in her time, but since
retiring has achieved a PhD at The Open University focussing on such
subjects as The History Of Art. So I got a fascinating narrative as
we viewed the collection - at no extra charge. The available paintings of the era 1250-1500 are dominated by religious iconography - acres of amazing rich blues set against gold leaf and a very clear demonstration of the evolution of such techniques as linear perspective as the art "scene" developed. Most, if not all, of the very early religious works are "saved" from old churches where they were objects of devotion. The committee of Nicea didn't have a total thrall over the world of art during the dark ages and there are some refreshing ventures into other subjects - notably Greek mythology, evidenced by the Botticelli on the left, which is so crisp and clean that you can scarcely believe that it is five hundred and twenty five years old. The people who posed for such works look remarkably modern. |
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ANNIE
LEIBOVITZ A Photographer's Life, 1990-2005
The National Portrait Gallery, London
January 2009
| The National Portrait Gallery in London is one
of my favourite permanent exhibitions. In it you can trace the
elite, the famous and the infamous from the time of Cromwell through
until the present day. Currently there is an exhibition of
some of the last fifteen years of work by the renowned American
photographer Annie Leibovitz - and this was the target of my visit in
January - although I did take advantage of the visit to spend several
hours revisiting lots of "old friends" in the permanent exhibition
galleries. Leibovitz initially made her name photographing the famous in the sixties and seventies - Mick Jagger and John & Yoko Lennon being among her most iconic images. She then gained a name for photographing the uncomfortable truths of warfare - piles of bodies in Sarajevo for instance. This exhibition spanned her stay in the Balkan states during the uprisings of the nineties, but omitted a lot of her more stark (not to mention stomach churning) shots. There was one very emotional photograph of a little boys bike lying on its side in a pool of blood - the aftermath of a shell exploding nearby; and some more personal ones of her father and one of her friends close to - if not just at - the point of dying. Most of these pictures were of friends and family - and mostly were monochrome. Until I saw this exhibition I had thought of Leibovitz as achieving her fame through the shock of the picture - but I have changed my mind. All the photographs - even simple snaps of her family, in this exhibition evidenced an amazing eye for composition. |
Mikhail Baryshnikov and Rob
Besserer, Cumberland Island, Georgia, 1990 |
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ANOTHER
PLACE Antony Gormley
Crosby Beach, Lancashire
August 2008
|
Another Place |
The skies were grey and there were
occasional spots of rain as Stephanie and I walked out to the beach
at Crosby, just North of Liverpool - the final stop of our 2008 "art
tour". We crested the low sand dune and saw the vista of grey
sea stretching across to Wallasey on The Wirral peninsula. In the
middle distance was a farm of wind turbines with their arms lazily
gyrating in the wind. The foreground was a long flat beach with the
tide a long way out. Dotted over the beach as far as the eye could
see were figures. Some of the figures moved about, walking
dogs or minding small children playing in the sand, but one hundred
of the figures stood stock still gazing out to sea.
They were Antony Gormley's work of art - Another Place. They looked very enigmatic and formed a far more focused piece of art than had I imagined they would. The rusting iron figures, now encrusted with sea moss and tiny barnacles fit very well with the bleak flat vista and stand in contrast to the modern windmills half a mile or so out to sea- at which the strange iron figures are gazing. I imagine that this installation can evoke all sorts of different
emotions depending on the weather and the lighting. I think we
were lucky to see it on a dull cloudy day - it fitted well with my
mental image and limited experience of Lancashire. I apologise
to Lancastrians, who I'm sure know better, but my image is very much
like the Giles cartoons of Blackpool - grey, glistening and not very
welcoming. These rusting iron men seem to fit well with that
visualisation as they sombrely stare out across the grey waves.. |
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KLIMT
The Tate Gallery, Liverpool
August 2008
| On the second stop of our 2008 art tour,
Stephanie and I visited the Klimt
Exhibition at the Tate Liverpool.
Neither of us had visited this neat little gallery before so we
arrived early to take in the free exhibition which occupies the
second and third floors of the gallery.
Rodin's The Kiss sits in the
entrance hall - a wonderful piece of sculpture, and you are greeted
at the door of the first gallery by one of
Degas' Little Dancer
statues (he made around a dozen of them). After
that the exhibition gradually lost impetus, working through
twentieth century sculptures, through
Bomberg colour smudges and
Warhol photographs into a jumble of things which may one
day be called art, but which I'm afraid didn't do anything for me at
all. I must be getting to be a grumpy old man because I felt
that The Tate were wasting good exhibition space which
could have been used for "real" art - even though my logic tells me
that contemporary viewers felt exactly the same about Impressionism
and Art Deco and stuff which really inspire us now. We returned to the Klimt exhibit on the ground floor of the gallery. The whole ground floor exhibition space is taken up with a full size replica of his Beethoven Frieze. The original was destroyed in the second World War, but this reconstruction was undertaken using the original drawings, original materials and original techniques. It is a fantastic work and I spent the best part of three quarters of an hour just gazing. This may be a modern copy - but it is a work of real art. The story line is Beethoven's ninth symphony, ending with The Ode To Joy - now the European national anthem. I found this a very moving work of art - I hope it finds a permanent exhibition space somewhere, I would love to spend more time seeing it. After the frieze, the exhibition continues on the top floor of
gallery - and is one of the most amazing exhibitions I have
experienced. There is a lot of furniture and architectural
models - showing how the Secessionist movement linked across Europe
- primarily in Vienna, Brussels and Glasgow - to drag the world of
taste from the organic entwinements of Art Noveau to the clean,
almost commercial, grid structures of Art Deco. As one of the
movements leading lights, Gustav Klimt's
work can be seen to be bridging these styles as it develops.
The early works show very clear influence from both pre-Raphaelite
and Art Noveau sources. It developed through the decorative
gold and black of the first decade of the twentieth century and
developed into an almost pointillist style which became looser and
more ragged as he grew older. The amazing range of
Klimt's painting talent is summed
up in two paintings which hang side by side in the exhibition.
One of them, The Naked Truth is an almost
impressionistic portrait of a naked girl, swathed in loops of
colours, lots of gold and a classic Secessionist frame bridging the
Nouveau and Deco movements. Hanging next to it is a
portrait of Joseph Pembauer which is an excellent example of
almost photographic super-realism. It is amazing that the same
artist could produce both these works - both of which are absolute
classic examples of their genre. |
Water Serpents 1 |
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LADY LEVER
ART GALLERY
The Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port
Sunlight
August 2008
|
The Beguiling of Merlin |
In August 2008 I undertook a brief art
tour with my friend Stephanie. We started at Port Sunlight on
the Wirral, where Lord Leverhulme had built a wonderful gallery in
memory of his late wife. The Lady
Lever Art Gallery stands in the model village of Port
Sunlight - very reminiscent of the town of Letchworth where I grew
up. Lots of green space, few hedges and that
fin-de-siecle atmosphere which bridges Art Nouveau to Art Deco -
which turned out to be a theme for our little art tour. The
Gallery was purpose built and has a lot of roof window light, which
helps reduce the reflection and glare of internal lighting.
The gallery was built "for the people" and has no entrance charge. It contains a superb collection of statues and furniture, and some wonderful classic paintings by the likes of Sir Joshua Reynolds and JMW Turner; but it also contains one of the finest collections of Pre-Raphaelite paintings in the world - rivalling even The Ashmolean at Oxford. We spent the afternoon marvelling at paintings by Frederic Leighton, Edward Burne-Jones, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Lawrence Alma-Tadema and many famous others. The gallery also includes some fantastic tapestries dating from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and fine collections of Chinese art and Wedgwood pottery, as well as a huge collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities - mainly pottery and statues. We stayed until the place closed and wished we could have stayed
longer. A magical collection beautifully displayed in a
peaceful setting. |
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THE SUMMER
EXHIBITION 2008
The Royal Academy of Art, London
June 2008
| As a rare treat I was accompanied by my
friend Stephanie to
Royal Academy of Arts in Piccadilly.
The Summer Exhibition
opened a week ago and this was our first chance to visit. I
usually like about 5-10 percent of the exhibition at first viewing, and
go on to like about 20% after several visits. This year I was
definitely at the 5% end of the initial assessment scale. The
favourites were there - Kitaj, Elizabeth Blackadder and Ken Howard - but
only a handful of other exhibits really interested me.
A key one was a huge mirrored egg, with the top broken off, The outside was blue and had amazing reflections in it, the inside was silver and acted as a curved mirror showing the ceiling - a brilliant work of art (though I suspect it would be a bugger to dust and keep clean !). There was one room dedicated the works (I use the term loosely) of Tracy Emin. I cannot see where the art is in any of her exhibited work in this exhibition. I found the whole lot puerile, and one exhibit (a zebra fucking a lady) to be absolutely offensive. We scoured the exhibition and enjoyed most it before doing a quick tour of the Madjeski Fine Rooms (one of which is the room in which Darwin first presented his paper on the Origin of the Species.) I expect I will refine my views about this exhibition in
subsequent visits, but my initial view was that out of the twenty
four such events I have now attended, this was probably one of the
weakest. |
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INSPIRING
IMPRESSIONISM
The Denver Art Museum
May 2008
|
|
While on holiday in Colorado, USA, I
visited the Inspiring Impressionism exhibition at the Denver
City Art Museum. I saw some old friends on holiday from
Tate
Gallery and even some that usually lived in America, but
which I had seen on tour in the UK. Best of all there were one or two others which I had only
ever seen in picture books
before.
The exhibition was based on the premise that the
Impressionists had all learned their trade by copying old masters in
The Louvre, and that each had
somehow reflected their favourite old master in their works.
Anyone who has painted anything knows that the techniques and
methodologies which you practice have some influence, and you may
even be proud to "paint in the style of" a master - but
I'm not sure I agree that the link is as strong as this exhibition
tried to make out. However, it was a good collection of pictures whether you
agree with the curators theories or not. |
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CRANACH
The Royal Academy
March 2008
|
Cranach - Venus |
The Lucas
Cranach the Elder lived from 1472 until 1533 - quite a
remarkable age for that period of history. His exhibition
opened the day before I visited it, so it was still quite crowded.
His work was renown for portraits and his work helping
Martin Luther illustrate some of
the earliest printed versions of the New Testament, and also
known for his erotic works (see Venus on the left).
His drawings were finely detailed, exhibited excellent linear and tonal perspective and were clearly representative of real models. What was even more remarkable was that many of them were executed as woodcuts. The fine detail was fascinating - especially in such an unforgiving medium, where one slip of the chisel could screw up the whole work ! His paintings were equally amazing. The colour was vibrant and the portraits were almost "modern" in their style of clarity and eye-contact between sitter and viewer. Some of his set piece religious scenes were also interesting. Cranach clearly had a fascination with beheading. There were at least three versions of St Catherine about to be beheaded, and three versions of Salome with John the Baptists head on a plate, all had gruesomely realistic neck wounds and one had a horribly vivid body lying on the ground pumping blood which was being lapped up by a dog ! Ugh ! Technically, however, it has to be one of the earliest surviving pictures which use movement lines to indicate motion (of the pumping blood). The exhibition had about seventy paintings, drawings and woodcuts in it - and all were interesting. The vivid colours and absolutely clear details belie the fact that these works are five hundred years old. |
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FROM RUSSIA
The Royal Academy
March 2008
|
Malyavin - Peasant Woman Dancing |
The
From Russia exhibition has been the subject of some
international speculation, and was almost cancelled at one point.
the issue being the sensitivity of some old European families to
some of the works which may or may not have been forcefully "sold"
during the second World War. Until recently the UK had laws
which would have enabled claimants to freeze such assets pending
legal review - and Russia wasn't prepared to lend the artworks from
their four greatest galleries until the law had been changed to
secure the return of the whole exhibition after showing.
The four galleries are The Pushkin, The Tretyakov gallery, The Hermitage and St Petersburg State Museum. The exhibition was breathtaking in its scope and magnitude. The exhibition showed French Impressionist and other 19th/20th century genre art works which had been acquired by great Russian collectors (such as Diagalev) and then contrasted them with the Russian generated art of equivalent genres, evidently influenced by - and complimentary to - these Western styles. The sheer breadth of numbers of styles in a single exhibition was amazing - and the juxtaposition of European influence and Russian homogenous artworks was fascinating. The impacts of Monet, Cezanne and many others was very evident. Some of the more modern works (Tatlin for instance) left me a little cold, but it is an excellent exhibition and I shall be making sure I have some London meetings with long lunch gaps in the near future ! Update at end of march 2008 - I have managed yet another visit to this fantastic exhibition and even at second viewing it blew me away - one of the best presentations I have seen at The RA for many years. |
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MILLAIS
The Tate Britain Gallery
November 2007
|
Ophelia |
Millais
is one of the best established artists of the nineteenth
century - his statue at the rear of the Tate Britain gallery
is a reminder to everyone walking from Pimlico tube to the art
gallery just what an important artist he was in the development of
British Pre-Raphaelism. An excellent draughtsman with an
absolute eye for detail - some of his landscapes look so real that
they could be photographs - except that photo's weren't invented
when he started his work.
This is a major exhibition and a fascinating one - I'm sure I will need to visit it again. There are many "old friends" from other galleries and previous exhibitions - and many beautiful paintings which I have never seen before. As well as his more famous Pre-Raphaelite works, there are rooms dedicated to romance, aestheticism and even his works in "The Grand Tradition". There is a section of "fancy pictures" including "Bubbles" the painting which sparked an intense Victorian debate about the potential commercialism of art when it was used to advertise Pears Soap. This section also includes the famous Souvenir of Velasquez and the infamous Cherry Ripe, which led to Millais being denigrated as an artist who pandered to popular sentiment. There is a very pleasing (for me) gallery of portraits - which included two of my favourite British portraits - Hearts are Trumps (Tate) and Louise Jopling (National Portrait Gallery). Finally there is a room of his late landscapes - breathtaking and uncannily real. What a magic exhibition ! |
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GEORG BASELITZ ;
PAUL MELLON'S LEGACY ; MAKING HISTORY
The Royal Academy of Art
November 2007
|
This visit to the Royal Academy took in three separate exhibitions: Georg Baselitz is one of Germany's most famous and prolific artists. He made his name by painting things rather scruffily and upside down. I'm not a fan of this sort of art, or of the people who justify it as "his motif's are upside down as a strategy to liberate the subject matter". It was interesting to see how much acreage was dedicated to this sort of painting - and how few people were looking at it ! Not to my taste, I wouldn't go out of my way to see another exhibition of his work. Paul Mellon's Legacy is subtitled An American's Passion for British Art. A nice little display in the Sackler Gallery of this collection. Some lovely JMW Turner's, a couple of Reynolds and a superb Canaletto of Warwick castle. It also contained the lovely Stubbs - but this time a Zebra rather than a racehorse - on the right. Making History, an exhibition of how the fascination for British Antiquaries has developed from the early eighteenth century antiquarians through to today's hi-tech archaeology. Some nice Celtic and Roman jewellery and weaponry, a display of the evolution of recording the monument at Stonehenge and a lot of really interesting historic documents - but, is it art? Not sure why this exhibition was in an art gallery instead of a museum - but it was fascinating and well worth the visit. |
Stubbs - A Zebra |
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ANTONY GORMLEY
The Hayward Gallery
June 2007
|
Antony Gormley is already an established contemporary artist with such well known works as The Angel of the North and Another Place (the iron statues on Crosby beach near Liverpool). I didn't actually visit the exhibition inside The Hayward Gallery - the queue was long, it was a hot day, there was a much more interesting carnival going on outside, but I did get to see a lot of Gormley's work because you can see the best part of the exhibition from outside ! A key feature of this exhibit is the placement of 31 metal statues on the roof's of key buildings around Central London - all facing toward The Hayward, and (theoretically) all visible on the skyline from there. We couldn't get on top of The Hayward because of the carnival, but from the vantage point of the concourse in front of the Queen Elizabeth Hall Stephanie and I counted sixteen of them. |
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THE 2007 SUMMER
EXHIBITION
The Royal
Academy of Art June 2007
|
Hockney with his painting |
As usual this blockbuster exhibition comprised so many variations of art that you are equally likely to find stuff you love as well as stuff you hate. My old favourites were there - Ken Howard, Elizabeth Blackadder, Eileen Cooper and Donald Hamilton-Fraser - and the exhibition was worthwhile just to see them alone. There were some quite interesting works by newcomers, especially a huge triptych drawing set outside number ten Downing Street. In the left panel is an American soldier clubbing hooded prisoners with a baseball bat ; in the right panel is a pile of dismembered bodies and in the centre, standing outside the door to number ten are Cheri and Tony Blair, naked and with blood on their hands. Not very subtle, but reflective of a popular opinion about his war crimes in Iraq. Another feature was a massive collage of paintings by David Hockney, making up a single scene of some woodland beside a house. It was impressive, but not my cup of tea. I guess the most impressive bit is that Hockney must be in his seventies now, but he is still experimenting with different techniques - well done ! There were also the works which made me come over all "grumpy old man-ish" and want to snort "what idiot thought that was art ! " But perhaps not as many as usual, and I internalised my immature urges because I might change my mind when I see them again.. On the whole my first impression was that this 239th exhibition was an average sort of Summer Exhibition, but I'm sure that view will be tempered by subsequent visits. |
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RENOIR LANDSCAPES
The National
gallery May 2007
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La Yole (1875) |
The National gallery has excelled itself with this exhibition. One of the best collections of Renoir's work I have ever seen gathered under one roof. The exhibition spans his early works (from 1865 to 1883) and has some vibrant classics, such as The Rowers at Chatou; The Luncheon at Fournaise; Claude Monet painting in his garden at Argenteuil and - my favourite - The Skiff (La Yole). This is my favourite because it is the first classical painting which I tried to copy. This was following a drunken exclamation at a 1984 works gathering in a wine bar about how easy painting must be (The words I recall are "Piece of piss - only a load of dotty brushstrokes") and a subsequent gift of an otherwise unwanted "oil painting set" from my secretary . I quickly learned just how hard it is to be a good artist and this painting must be the picture which I have most copied - mostly very badly. But I feel now as if I know every brush stroke which Renoir laid on that canvas and seeing it in an exhibition was like unexpectedly meeting a really good old friend. Joyful. This exhibition is entitled "landscapes" but it covers virtually all his work except portraits ! His use of colour and the aura of his soul - 140 years later - still moves me. His painting of waves (1882) are incredible - they really seem to be rolling toward you out of the canvas. A fantastic exhibition, on until May 28th. I shall try to find time to go again. |
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THE UNKNOWN MONET
- Pastels and Drawings
The Royal
Academy of Art May 2007
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Waterloo Bridge (1901) |
Another understated Sackler Gallery exhibition. This collection is mainly of Monet's workbooks, sketches and pastel drawings - many of which were done in preparation for some of his masterpieces. The exhibition also includes several of his final oil paintings in order to demonstrate the development from initial sketches to finished work. A fascinating corner of the exhibition included some interactive computer screens on which you could bring up nine or ten of his sketchbooks and page through them at your leisure. I spent a happy hour exploring them and being surprised by the juxtaposition of some drafts of which the final works were produced many years apart, but the sketches were obviously contemporary. Some works obviously took longer to develop than others. The exhibition starts with some tone compositions in greys and blacks from his youth which are very mature for a ten or eleven year old boy - and ends with some tone compositions in blues and greens - his London Bridges series and his Water Lilly series. |
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CHOLA -
Sacred Arts of Southern India
The Royal
Academy of Art January 2007
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This exhibition in the Sackler galleries of the Royal Academy is very peaceful. A collection of ancient bronzes from Southern India. Some were four armed representations of Shiva, although some were also unmistakably female and one was a Ganesh (Elephant head). There were also many bronze "saints", who just had the regular human number of limbs. Some have been revered for hundreds of years, and the practise of washing them at every ceremony has left them very smoothly polished; while others had been buried for hundreds of years, and looked suitably crusty, although not badly corroded. The bronzes were designed according to established traditions with the appropriate hand positions, dreadlocks, belt accoutrements etc. and were initially modelled in wax, which was then coated in clay. The whole assembly was fired and the wax melted and drained out through strategically positioned drain holes, leaving a hollow mould made of fired clay. This was then filled with a mix of gold and bronze and left to set before the clay mould was broken away. The idol makers don't appear to have been particularly committed to Shiva because apparently they also made Buddha's and any other images any local religion might want ! |
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VELASQUEZ
The National Gallery November 2006
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The Rokeby Venus |
A fascinating exhibition covering the whole of
Velasquez's working life from 1616 through until his death in 1660.
The guy was obviously an extremely clever artist. The very first
picture in this exhibition - The three musicians - was
painted when he was only sixteen or seventeen. The examples
displayed show how his mastery grew rapidly, first in painting still
life and liquids, and then being able to present space around his
subjects - initially foreground and eventually background.
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RODIN
The Royal
Academy of Art October 2006
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The Kiss |
I'm not deeply into sculpture, but if I was then August Rodin would be my favourite. I have revelled over The Kiss when it used to sit in the Tate National (now banished to the Tate Modern), and loved the hard lines of The Thinker when that has been on display in London. I have also appreciated his work at The D'Orsay in Paris, and at his own museum just down the street from the Eiffel Tower. My first taste of this exhibition had been a couple of weeks previous when Jacky and I had skipped into the courtyard on our way to another gallery just to appreciate The Gates of Hell - which stand thirty feet or more high in the courtyard. Jacky had commented that it just seemed like a lot of fornication going on - but it didn't look to me as if it was very pleasant fornication. Nobody was smiling, and most were sinking into quicksands. Very moving. In fact some of his seminal works - including The Thinker - were originally prepared for this massive work. When I eventually managed to view the whole exhibition I was intrigued at the painstaking research and practice which Rodin put into his works. There were sketches, small models, larger models and then the final work. The number of models and pre-works which make up the Burghers of Calais occupies an impressive square footage of the exhibition. Another factor which fascinated me is that he used a technique I have always associated with portrait painters, in that he often worked from nude models and then "clothed" the resulting works before rendering them as sculptures. My favourite items - apart from The Kiss of course - were the white marble works he made of society ladies in the early twentieth century. |
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MODIGLIANI
The Royal
Academy of Art August 2006
| One of my favourite artists - this is the
first major exhibition of his paintings in London for over forty
years. (There was an exhibition of his drawings and some sculptures at
the RA in 1994 - but not his major painting works.) Amadeo's main work was - of course - portraiture, which is perhaps why I like it. Among the works were six of his "Grand Nudes" including the Seated Nude from the Courtauld Gallery, which was one of my first lessons in appreciating art. When I worked at Euston in the late nineteen eighties I used to take my sandwiches to the old site of the Courtauld and sit in front of the picture for an hour - amazed at all the new things you could see if you looked long and properly. There were also many of the twenty five portraits he did of Jeanne Hebuterne, his partner who committed suicide on the day of his funeral. I am biased toward this painter and love his style, even so I was quite surprised to find that I liked ALL the works on display. Overall an amazing exhibition - I hope I get to see it again. |
one of the "Grand Nudes" on show |
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THE 2006 SUMMER
EXHIBITION
The Royal
Academy of Art June 2006
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I cannot believe that I've been too busy to
visit an art gallery for six months - but it's true. I broke the
fast on 11th June by attending a preview of the 2006 Summer Exhibition.
It was a sweltering hot day, but the galleries were cool. On the whole
this year promises to be a good show. I normally only like less than 5
percent of the show at preview, and then it grows on me during subsequent
visits until I end up liking about 10 to 15 percent of it.
This year took a quantum leap and I found that liked about 10% at first sight ! Firstly, there are some excellent sculptures ranging from small bronzes through to eight foot tall women made out of tiles (the same artist who did "Dominatrix" last year.) Next, there are my old favourites, Ken Howard, John Ward, Elizabeth Blackadder and Allen Jones - I like most of their stuff and there seemed to be more of that sort of style about this year. Then there are the "gems" - new artists who do something really eye-catching, but not so avante garde as to be outrageous. There seemed to be a lot more "pleasing" art this year. Finally there is the architecture section, which has been slowly working its way into my zone of interest for the last twenty years. This year I found myself positively enjoying it, and even laughing at some of the designs. Then of course there is the other ninety percent. The smears and scrawls. The pretentious "art for arts sake", rubbing shoulders with the "new respect" artists (whom I don't respect !) like Damien Hirst. His current work is professionally finished and on the surface has some classical dimensions - but actually the main drive is to shock rather than to please. I don't believe that art should do that. A second visit in August reinforced my view that either there was more "proper" art on display - or perhaps I am getting more liberal in my tastes ? |
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Earlier reports relegated to another page to help optimise download speeds....