OLDART2

ROGER & FRANS PAGES

These are write-ups of art gallery visits which are no longer current, but which I didn't want to throw away.

OLD ART PAGES - 2

DEGAS, SICKERT & TOULOUSE-LAUTREC
The Tate Gallery December 2005

What a marvellous exhibition, focussed on the way these three artists influenced each other, and their wider circle of friends, including James McNeill Whistler - one of my favourite portraitists.
There were plenty of examples of Degas' pretty ballet dancers, along with some of his equine paintings. All cleverly constructed to "catch the moment" in very much the same way that a photographic snapshot does. Positions don't appear contrived, people have limbs cut off by the frame of the picture and the whole aura is one of spontaneity. However the structures are very cleverly contrived so that the painting space does balance and the eye is led to the essential detail.
The exhibition contains a lot of Toulouse-Lautrec drawings, as well as some of his more famous poster work. The drawings also have huge spontaneity, with whole shapes and movements captured in single pencil strokes. There is a very real feeling that none of these pictures was actually posed for - he just drew things as life went past him.
Sickert - the Englishman in this trio - produced much more sombre works. Heavy, unflattering portraits of nudes, hatched in brown tones, managing the capture the very seediness of some of the environments he painted in.
The associated works exhibited are wonderful too. There are several paintings by James Whistler, Jacques-Emile Blanche and Giovanni Boldini. One of the high points of the exhibition is Degas' extraordinary work, "L'Absinthe", which features on the exhibition catalogue cover - shown on the left.

EDVARD MUNCH BY HIMSELF
The Royal Academy of Art December 2005

It must have been horrible being Edvard Munch. His early works are good, a talented artist, good draughtsman, senses of tone, perspective and colour are all commendable and the only clue about the future was that there seemed to be a disproportionately large number of self portraits.
As he grew older the paintings changed, became looser and less well drafted and there was a definite tendency - if not obsession - toward self portrait. Some of his more memorable work - such as "The Scream" are very clear indications that the man was out of balance. Although I have seen quite a lot of his work before, this is by far the biggest single collection I have encountered. It spans part of the first floor of the RA and continues through the Sackler Galleries upstairs. It reinforced to me that this wasn't my favourite painter. While Portraiture is my favourite art form, this man somehow subverted it into a selfish and almost unhealthy style. A good exhibition, but a sad artist.

CHINA: THE THREE EMPERORS, 1662-1795
The Royal Academy of Art December 2005

Another abuse of RA space in order to make money! This is an excellent historic exhibition, and I would have applauded it if I had seen it at either The Victoria & Albert or The British Museums - but it was not "art" in the sense that Sir Joshua Reynolds would have seen it and most of the content was not construed as art when it was created.
The exhibit opens with some amazing costumes (which probably should count as art) but proceeds into a series of scrolls and hanging scrolls of Chinese prose. There are some temple chimes, a throne from the Forbidden City and a sedan chair. One notable section is of European eighteenth and nineteenth century furniture which had somehow found its way to Beijing ! A seventeenth century globe with America very disproportionately shaped confirmed that this was neither an art exhibition, nor actually a Chinese cultural exhibition; it was just a rag tag of bits and pieces of about the same era on display in a space which many of us think should be reserved for works of art.

Great exhibition. Wrong building.

HEADS - GRAHAM FISH.
Harbour House, Kingsbridge Devon August 2005

We found this exhibition quite by chance while looking for a restaurant. It is only on until 21st August and is at the Harbour House in Kingsbridge, Devon. The artist is a gentleman named Graham Fish, who is displaying large oil paintings of heads, plus a couple of sketchbooks of faces and human poses.
His work is quite striking and on such a large scale and achieving an oil version of the super-realism more often associated with commercial airbrush works. The picture to the left is probably three or four times life size, which is typical of the displayed works. I loved the exhibition and would very much like to see more of his work.

The exhibition was complemented by a display of small sculptured heads by an artist named Steve Baddeley. It was an interesting exhibit - one small clay head per day made over a period of a year. While it clearly displayed the evolution of artistic touch, it was eclipsed by the much more imposing portraits by Graham Fish which hung around it.

IMPRESSIONISM ABROAD - BOSTON AND FRENCH PAINTING
The Royal Academy of Art July 2005

This is an amazing little exhibition. I visited it on the second day of public viewing, so it was still quite crowded. A rare chance to see some works which normally hang in Boston. There was a good representation of the Barbizon School (Couture, Millet, Camille-Corot etc) and some American sourced works by artists like William Morris Hunt who are much less well known this side of the Atlantic. The exhibition also sported some beautiful works by Sisley and a decent size collection of Monet landscapes

INTERNATIONAL ARTS AND CRAFTS
The Victoria and Albert Museum July 2005

The Arts and Crafts movement was one of the most pervasive and influential art movements of the recent times. Initially led by characters such as John Ruskin and William Morris, it bridges "Art Nouveau" and "Art Deco" and leads inevitably to the art forms of the middle part of the twentieth century. The style encompasses the emancipation of women and the creation of modern society out of the more structured class system of Victoriana - in fact intellectuals argue that it grew out of a concern for the effects of industrialisation. It harks toward a utopian "rural" charm and a delight in personal design. Having grown up in Letchworth - a town founded on Arts & Crafts ideals, I found the exhibition both fascinating and nostalgic.
The movement started in the UK in the 1880's, quickly spreading across Europe (The Viennese Secessionist movement) and America (Frank Lloyd Wright), culminating in the Japanese Mingei movement in the years immediately preceding the second world war. This beautiful exhibition follows the movement as it spread around the World over a sixty year period.

Stained Glass Window

THE SUMMER EXHIBITION
The Royal Academy of Art June and July 2005

Fran and I visited the preview day of the Summer Exhibition this year. I usually visit this show several times during each season, not liking much at first and gradually admitting to liking more until, by the end of the exhibition, I usually like about 10% of it.

This year I liked loads of it first time. Of course there were plenty of examples of "why on earth did they pick that one" and "is it art?" stuff to bring out the Mr. Grumpy in me - but there were also significant quantities of high quality work as well. I reproduce Will Barnet's "Woman Reading" because it made me smile I enjoyed the regulars which I know I like, the huge Ken Howard pieces, Eileen Cooper's cartooney looking stuff and the colourful Donald Hamilton Fraser works. I was impressed that the latter has started to revert to portraiture - which he moved away from several years ago. The main hall contained a series of striking Hockney portraits and a fair collection of the incomprehensible "corporate art" pictures. These are huge and pointless works which can only be afforded by huge corporations, and which are bought by the acre rather than by the quality. I'm really surprised they ever get exhibited.

Even the architecture section didn't leave me cold. There was an impressive series of designs for the new Kings Cross Station, and a diorama of a fairly awful looking building, but with a canal containing real water - and model shopping trolleys !

MATISSE
The Royal Academy of Art March and April 2005

Reclining Odalisque 1926

My second visit to this exhibition was more controlled. It is not only a fascinating display of Matisse's work, but of his inspiration. At least half of the exhibits are examples from his extensive collection of materials and clothes - the texture and patterning of which were the very heart of his work.
In pride of place as you walk through the entrance to the exhibition is his Tulle de Juoy - the "Blue Tablecloth" which figures in so many of his works either as a backdrop or as a source of patterning.

In the section below, which describes my first visit to this exhibition, I was vain enough to reproduce one of my own copies of a Matisse painting. When I painted this I was unaware of the mans inspiration, and had in fact unwittingly copied the fabled Blue Tablecloth, which is hanging in the background of that particular picture.

Also in the exhibition are a series of clothes, coats, skirts and blouses - all of differing ethnic origins. Some of them figure in well known pictures - others were just because he liked the material. The exhibition was a real eye-opener, and I wherever I went for the rest of the day I found myself far more aware of textures and colours than I had been before. Thank you Henri Matisse.

========================================
First Visit to the Exhibition

Not an original !

I was very ill when I first visited this beautiful exhibition - so all I will say here is that it looked fascinating. A brilliant collection of fabrics, drawings and paintings all celebrating pattern and colour.

I collapsed in the gallery with a high temperature and had to be tended in the RA's sick room before being bundled into a taxi and sent home.

I shall definitely have to go again when I am repaired.

Until I can do it credit, I post a picture of my own version of a Matisse painting which I think he called The Green Towel, or Odalisque with Tulle Trousers. There is a drawing in the exhibition which is not a dissimilar pose to this painting and when I can attend properly to the display I will tell you all about it !

I've never been too ill to appreciate an art exhibition before !

TURKS
The Royal Academy of Art February 2005

This is one of the most disappointing exhibitions I have seen at the RA for years. It was a fine historical show, utilising some relics of the various Turkish empires over the last couple of thousand years to provide an apparently well researched overview within historical contexts. It would have been superb in the British Museum - but it was not what I perceive as art.
The exhibition has one or two items which were intrinsically beautiful - some 500 year old kaftans, one or two nice sculptures and a few small paintings - but most of the exhibition was carpets, copies of the Koran and a selection of large boulders that someone had scratched words on a thousand years ago. All were strictly displayed within a historic framework and all the exhibit descriptions were factual about the history of the Turks. I have no doubt that some or all of these things could be classified as "art" - in the same way that a Ford Prefect car, a sunset or a Tracy Emin Bed can be - but few of the displayed items were intended as "art" and the exhibition had no obvious artistic context.
There was no suggestion that the beautiful gold lettering in the Koranic texts was reminiscent of the desert sunset (or even just more practical than black ink for being read by firelight). No suggestion that the carpet patterns were inspired by a life hung between desert, sky and oasis ; nothing artistic at all.

Nice exhibition - what a waste of an art gallery though.

THE END IS IN SIGHT