OLDART4

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These are write-ups of art gallery visits which are no longer current, but which I didn't want to throw away.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 - 4

Edward Hopper
The Tate Modern , Summer 2004

Hopper - Nighthawks

The Edward Hopper exhibition at the Tate Modern was remarkably well hung. I'm not a fan of the Tate Modern, especially as I am an old fashioned conservative art lover. The few bits of real art they have are camouflaged among loads of rubbish, so I rarely make time to visit the place. This exhibition though was given loads of space, was chronologically sequenced (well, almost) and showed a good selection of the artists work across a long period of time.

Hoppers style attracts me - his presentation is clear and his composition is superb - reflecting loneliness, fear and space - even in the middle of large cities. The theme seems fairly consistent across his long career, although he developed from very dark paintings in the early 1900's to wonderful essays on light by the 1960's.

I was surprised that his painting techniques were not very schooled - and although he was clearly a superb draughtsman, there are some items where he gets the perspective totally wrong. His only live model appears to have been his wife, so while the female figures in his paintings are "real", the male figures appear to float - as if they were cut out and stuck on as an afterthought. Never mind - the overall effect is great and some of his work is now iconic. A good exhibition.

The Summer Exhibition
The Royal Academy of Art , Summer 2004

I missed the preview this year, but managed my first visit to this years exhibition on the first Thursday of the showing. I have fairly conservative tastes in art and - as usual - found very little in the show which I liked at first sight. I was surprised that of the exhibits which I did like there wasn't one new artist ! Those which I loved were old stalwarts like Ken Howard and Elizabeth Blackadder, One of the emphasises this year seems to be on drawing, and there were some nice sketches by Allen Jones on display. There was more "poser" art than usual this year - perhaps they have a less experienced hanging committee ? with a large number of exhibits which I'm sure I will never like and do not personally consider to be art. Judging by previous years I will gradually get to like some of the pictures I am currently perceiving as dross - but it isn't obvious to me yet which ones.

I plan to visit again at least a couple more times, so I may extend this piece when I've had a chance to better assimilate the exhibition.

I did indeed visit again - in August 2004, and found that I liked a great deal more of the work than I had on my first trip. The poser pictures (all one colour) are still rubbish, but I saw more in some of the intermediate works than I had on my first visit.

Allen Jones

The Rijksmuseum
The Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam , Summer 2004

Sadly the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam is closed for renovations throughout 2004, but some key items from the collections have been arranged in twelve rooms at the back of the museum.
These include the "classic" works of Rembrandt, Vermeer, Frans Hals and the other Dutch masters. I'm not very turned on by paintings of still life (especially dead animal still life) or of panoramic winter scenes with loads of little people skating about; so a significant part of Dutch art is wasted on me - BUT, they had Vermeer and they had Van Goch. So they can't be all bad !
Having read a bit about Vermeer's techniques (using light projections to perfect both the draughtsmanship and the tonal qualities of a picture) it was fascinating to examine the results.
The highlight of the Dutch collection is the Nightwatch - a huge painting which has been quite significantly changed by the removal of two feet of canvas from its left side and several inches from the top and bottom. Luckily there were smaller copies so we can see that the original composition had the party about to step out into the space at bottom left of the canvas. Now they look as if they aren't sure whether to move or not ! It is certainly a dramatic work and the Dutch are right to be proud of it as their "National Image".

Van Goch
The Van Goch Museum, Amsterdam , Summer 2004

An amazing museum. It is arranged almost chronologically so that you can see the dark pallets and stilted compositions of his early days. This is followed by his time associating with Gauguin and others - when he produced paintings in Gauguin's style. Luckily he finds himself half way through the collection and we get the classics of his little bedroom and his sunflowers. There are also some wonderfully constructed paintings of trees in blossom - very clearly showing the "IndoChine" influence which impacted so many of the Impressionists. A very good exhibition.

Tamara De Lempicka
The Royal Academy of Art , Summer 2004

Portrait of Ira P 1930

Tamara De Lempicka is one of my favourite artists, and I was really excited to attend a preview of her exhibition which opened at The Royal Academy this weekend. De Lempicka arrived in France as the wife of a rich Russian Count fleeing the revolution (Count Tadeusz De Lempicka had been a friend of the murderers of Rasputin.) She studied the Italian classic styles and was evidently also influenced by cubist techniques too. She emigrated to America in 1939 and suffered depression, after which she radically changed her style - sadly to a less successful one. In that short period from about 1922 until 1935 Tamara was one of the leading painters of the Art Deco era. She had studied Ingres and had a natural ability for clarity of draughtsmanship, which complemented her smooth - almost tubular - paintings. Her favourite subjects seem to have been mainly her lovers - both male and female, or her daughter Kizette. All were painted with an almost dispassionate coolness - and yet all seem to exude a sensuality, sometimes verging on the erotic. Yet many of her most sensual portraits are also strangely androgynous.

The Telephone II 1930

La belle Rafaëlla in Green 1927

One of my favourites is the foreshortened nude on the left. I have tried to copy it more times than I can remember as a great example of the use of perspective. It surprised me because the original is much smaller than I expected, but also much more beautiful. The composition oozes sensuality - and yet the figure has no nipples, no belly button and no pubic hair - it just has acres of skin.
Some old friends I had hoped to see were not in the exhibition, Girl in Gloves and Spring for instance; but many of the pictures in this exhibition were new to me and I found them exciting. I had seen prints of the Portrait of Ira P (above left), but they had not prepared me for the absolute beauty of the original - I am going to have to try copying that one soon. The Telephone II (above right) was one of those which were new to me - for context you must remember that the telephone was still fairly new technology in the late 1920's. This picture sums up "listening" with eyes fixed in the middle distance and head cocked - a common stance nowadays, but a radical new observation then.
This is a magic exhibition - the first ever in the UK dedicated to her work. I shall have to visit it a few more times while it is available.

Late note: I managed to visit this exhibition nine times during the summer of 2004.

Cecil Beaton
The National Portrait Gallery , Summer 2004

Marilyn - by Cecil Beaton

I managed a quick visit to the National Portrait Gallery and spend a happy half hour or so browsing through an exhibition of Cecil Beaton photographs.
As well as many famous photographs - including the iconographic pictures of The Queen's coronation , Winston Churchill and Marilyn Monroe - there were also many pictures of a huge diversity of famous people throughout the middle part of the last century. It quickly became evident that the man had a tremendous eye for composition - some of his pictures are very compelling just because of their composition. There was a very tight portrait of Kathleen Hepburn against a carved motif in an New York hotel lobby. In fact it was a picture of the motif with Hepburn's small head at the bottom, and she is reaching her right arm up as if wanting to attract attention.
A fascinating collection of history, presented in a very artistic way.

Vuillard
The Royal Academy of Art , Spring 2004

"Feeding Annette" by Vuillard 1901

An extremely pretty exhibition by this excellent artist. It is clear from the work in his early years that Vuillard was very influenced by his friends (such as Henri Toulouse-Lautrec) and he also experimented with pointillism and with the flat wash poster works popular in the 1890's. When he settled into his own style his work was wonderful. As some of his early pencil drawings witness, he was an excellent draftsman and he also had a great eye for composition. As well as some large single panels, he painted many multiple panel works which are particularly good. They are almost all compositions which work excellently because they are divided up - but which would probably have been hopeless as single entities.

There were also an interestingly large number of his grand works which had been originally painted at the turn of the century (approximately 1901 - 1917) but which he had then reworked in the mid 1930's.

Sadly my favourite work of his wasn't in this exhibition - but I have reproduced it to the left anyway 'cos I like it !

National Portrait Gallery
The National Portrait Gallery , Spring 2004

No particular exhibition - just an urge while passing to visit "old friends" in the Victorian section. A lot of nice big portraits designed to make the sitters feel more important - I like Victorian art. I only had an hour to spend, but was totally refreshed and grateful that the Country still thinks it important enough to provide such relaxing environments for its citizens to take quiet reflection.

THE END IS IN SIGHT