tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9153950686931276442024-03-12T21:20:26.326-07:00Laughing TorsoI went there, I saw that.
Observations from a life-long art lover.Instagram: @steph_e_duboishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201198253197116387noreply@blogger.comBlogger65125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-915395068693127644.post-90372190798418541222018-05-17T05:19:00.000-07:002018-05-17T05:19:19.099-07:00Ravilious & Co: The Pattern of Friendship. English Artist Designers 1922-1942. Compton Verney Art Gallery & Park, Warwickshire (17 March-10 June 2018)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6_Jep4ZuMHw/Wv1urbibFBI/AAAAAAAABUo/8-IYzN8iYCU7ESGlN4jxjhSW38cxo3uAQCEwYBhgL/s1600/513kDNaeIGL.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="413" data-original-width="500" height="328" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6_Jep4ZuMHw/Wv1urbibFBI/AAAAAAAABUo/8-IYzN8iYCU7ESGlN4jxjhSW38cxo3uAQCEwYBhgL/s400/513kDNaeIGL.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Top: The Westbury Horse, Eric Ravilious (1939)</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Bottom: Barrage Balloons at Sea, Eric Ravilious (1940)</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Despite being widely considered as one of the best British
watercolourists of the 20<sup>th</sup> century and the most significant wood
engraver of his generation, I suspect that the name Eric Ravilious is still not
widely known outside of the UK, or for that fact, within it either.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have to confess that my knowledge about him
and his peers was very limited, so I was much looking forward to finding out
more in this exhibition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Eric Ravilious
(1903-1942) was an English painter, designer, book illustrator and wood
engraver, most known for his watercolours of the South Downs and other English
landscapes which had a modernist sensibility.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He grew up in East Sussex and studied at the Royal College of Art in
London, where between 1924-1925 he was taught by renowned British surrealist
painter and First World War artist, Paul Nash, who had a profound influence on
his work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ravilious also served as a war
artist in the Second World War and died when the aircraft he was in was lost
off Iceland in 1942.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Top: Sussex Church, Eric Ravilious (1924)</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Bottom: Island, Eric Ravilious (1935)</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">This charming exhibition shines a light on a fascinating
(and somewhat overlooked) period in 20<sup>th</sup> century British art and
considers the professional and personal relationships of Ravilious and his group
of artist-designer friends (which included Barnett Freedman, Edward Bawden and
Douglas Percy Bliss), from their first meeting at the Royal College of Art in
1922, through to the outbreak of the Second World War.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It examines their relationship with modernism
and how they revitalised British design in the 1930s.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Top: Spring, Tirzah Garwood (1926)</span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Bottom: Summer, Tirzah Garwood (1927)</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">“Ravilious & Co” also casts a new light on the
creativity of the women within the friendship group and includes newly
discovered work by Ravilious’ wife, Tirzah Garwood, along with watercolours,
engravings and illustrations by Helen Binyon, the artist’s mistress and
confidente. It also includes never
before exhibited early wood engravings by Enid Marx (who went on to design
iconic textiles for the London Transport Board and who was the first female
engraver to be designated as a Royal Designer for Industry), as well as a range
of fabric, textile and wallpaper designs by Diana Low and Peggy Angus, two
other important contributors within the group.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Top: Barcombe Mill Interior, Tirzah Garwood (1927)</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Bottom: Helen Binyon and Eric Ravilious at Furlongs, Peggy Angus (c. 1940)</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">I am a huge fan of woodcut printing, so just to see such
exquisite examples by Ravilious, Garwood and Marx was a treat by itself. But to learn more about this period of British
art was also very enlightening. Despite
the impact these artists had on British design, within art history narratives
they are almost a lost artistic generation, sandwiched in history as they were
between their Bloomsbury and Vorticist predecessors and then figurative
painters such as Frank Auerbach, Lucien Freud and Francis Bacon, who dominated
the art scene following the Second World War.
It is perhaps for two reasons that this has happened. In mainly capturing everyday scenes and
details from English life, the work of Ravilious and his peers could be seen as
too genteel and provincial compared to their more avant-garde modernist
predecessors and emotionally devoid when compared to Auerbach & Co. I suspect though that it was the very
successes that they achieved in design and that they earnt their living through
commercial endeavours rather than by private commissions and exhibiting in
galleries, which has ultimately relegated them within art history hierarchies.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Top and Middle: Design for upholstery for London Transport, Enid Marx (c. 1940)</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Bottom: 'Travel' pattern for Wedgwood dinner service, Eric Ravilious (c. 1938)</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">“Ravilious & Co: The Pattern of Friendship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>English Artist Designers 1922-1942” considers
these possibilities with a comprehensive and absorbing display of work by a
group of artists whose practice was indeed formed by modernism, but who chose a
discipline which ultimately embraced the decorative over the avant-garde. </span><o:p></o:p><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Tirzah Garwood and Eric Ravilious painting a mural at the </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Midland Hotel, Morecambe (1930)</i></span></div>
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<br />Instagram: @steph_e_duboishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201198253197116387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-915395068693127644.post-50583555772463081912018-03-31T11:39:00.000-07:002018-03-31T11:39:12.028-07:00All Too Human: Bacon, Freud and a Century of Painting Life. Tate Britain, London (28 February-27 August 2018)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-51wNtVaciM4/Wr_GZc_Jz_I/AAAAAAAABPc/q9Ojq-l1X1sMH2eUzI8QaO45kPoubTy4gCLcBGAs/s1600/jenny-saville-artlyst.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="623" data-original-width="800" height="249" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-51wNtVaciM4/Wr_GZc_Jz_I/AAAAAAAABPc/q9Ojq-l1X1sMH2eUzI8QaO45kPoubTy4gCLcBGAs/s320/jenny-saville-artlyst.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Installation view: Reverse </span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">(2002-2003),</span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-size: x-small;"> Jenny Saville </span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Unsurprisingly for an exhibition about life painting, there is a lot of emotional angst, anguish and naked flesh (both male and female) on display in Tate Britain’s “All Too Human: Bacon, Freud and a Century
of Painting Life”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Covering over a
century of art making, along with Bacon and Freud, this exhibition also includes
a stellar supporting cast of artists, such as Walter Sickert, Frank Auerbach,
Euan Uglow and Jenny Saville.</span><br />
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<i><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Top: Nuit d'Ete </span></b></i><i><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">(c.1906)</span></b></i><i><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">, Walter Sickert </span></b></i></div>
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<i><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">Bottom: Polish Woman </span></b></i><i><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">(c.1922)</span></b></i><i><b><span style="font-size: x-small;">, Chaim Soutine </span></b></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">As well as examining how Bacon and Freud moved beyond
naturalistic representation to capture ways in which they were affected by
their subjects, “All Too Human” also traces the influences, relationships and
connections between the ‘supporting cast’ of artists featured as well as redressing art
historical gender and ethnicity imbalances, with London as a backdrop where most of the artists have lived, studied and exhibited.</span><br />
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<b><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Top: Study for Portrait of Lucian Freud </span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">(1964)</span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">, Francis Bacon </span></i></b></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Bottom: David and Eli </span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-size: x-small;"> (2000-2004)</span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">, Lucian Freud</span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The influence of Chaim Soutine on Bacon and Stanley Spencer
on Freud are easily seen and there are some wonderful examples of their work in
the first gallery of the exhibition. </span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;">Walter
Sickert is also included here.</span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;">Sickert taught
David Bomberg, who taught William Coldstream and Frank Auerbach.</span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;">Coldstream told Euan Uglow, Michael Andrews
and Paula Rego at the Slade School of Fine Art, where Freud was also a tutor.</span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;">All these artists are included in the
exhibition and provide a fascinating contextual and visual narrative
throughout.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Bacon’s monumental, solitary and angst-ridden figures undertaken
in the years following the Second World War in the second room are incredibly
powerful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Displayed on every wall and
circling Alberto Giacometti’s sculpture <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Woman
of Venice IX</b> <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">(1956)</b>, the
intensity of the anguish rendered in every raw brushstroke is almost
palpable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even Bacon’s animal, as well
as human subjects featured, appear consumed with existentialist angst!<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZtUw6kMKeaM/Wr_IT645slI/AAAAAAAABP0/oOQ49Ex_vkgg4w9Nt6Up9MC8PQ1AkOSvQCLcBGAs/s1600/3351.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="433" data-original-width="300" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZtUw6kMKeaM/Wr_IT645slI/AAAAAAAABP0/oOQ49Ex_vkgg4w9Nt6Up9MC8PQ1AkOSvQCLcBGAs/s320/3351.jpg" width="221" /></a> <a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GvI7LPo6_o4/Wr_IZBl50PI/AAAAAAAABP4/WRNcgmsWgsg4-N7IPn1_6ZSDForjXJxAwCLcBGAs/s1600/T00238_10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="528" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GvI7LPo6_o4/Wr_IZBl50PI/AAAAAAAABP4/WRNcgmsWgsg4-N7IPn1_6ZSDForjXJxAwCLcBGAs/s320/T00238_10.jpg" width="110" /></a> <a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qjxr8JeJOPU/Wr_IkK1Bf0I/AAAAAAAABP8/ciI2frcu5AUn7yzmGDqj-yexYzOzK9HkgCLcBGAs/s1600/Study-of-a-Baboon-1953.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="430" data-original-width="294" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qjxr8JeJOPU/Wr_IkK1Bf0I/AAAAAAAABP8/ciI2frcu5AUn7yzmGDqj-yexYzOzK9HkgCLcBGAs/s320/Study-of-a-Baboon-1953.jpg" width="218" /></a></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Clockwise: Study after Velazquez </span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">(1950)</span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">, Francis Bacon ; Woman of Venice IX </span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">(1956)</span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">, Alberto Giacometti; </span></i></b></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Study of a Baboon </span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">(1953)</span></i></b><b><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">, Francis Bacon </span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Frances Bacon was nineteen years older the Lucien Freud and
their individual approaches to their subjects differed dramatically.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Bacon’s models bear the artist’s inner
emotional turmoil and feelings towards them, particularly in the portraits
of his lover George Dyer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Bacon's series of portraits of Freud are fascinating. </span>In contrast,
but by no means lacking in potency, Freud’s cold analytical gaze tore out and displayed
to the world the vulnerability of his sitters.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_PzxUjuEHjU/Wr_I1FWQmHI/AAAAAAAABQE/de7DoC0QDN8AxJmui-TjipPu4Tk4aLiAwCLcBGAs/s1600/bella.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="575" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-_PzxUjuEHjU/Wr_I1FWQmHI/AAAAAAAABQE/de7DoC0QDN8AxJmui-TjipPu4Tk4aLiAwCLcBGAs/s320/bella.jpg" width="230" /></a> <a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VJEhx7mxeTU/Wr_I7caCfRI/AAAAAAAABQM/OgOSO7XB5g4Xxw_mU0a4vvRyk5iOVQI-gCLcBGAs/s1600/P4343.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="402" data-original-width="540" height="238" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VJEhx7mxeTU/Wr_I7caCfRI/AAAAAAAABQM/OgOSO7XB5g4Xxw_mU0a4vvRyk5iOVQI-gCLcBGAs/s320/P4343.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Top: Bella (1996), Lucian Freud </span></i></b></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Bottom: Georgia (1973), Euan Uglow </span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Of all the naked flesh on display, only Freud’s naked
portrait of his daughter makes uncomfortable viewing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, it is the clothed studies which are more characterful and offer the most interest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Of these, </span>Freud’s <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Bella (1996)</b> and Uglow’s
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Georgia (1973)</b> particularly stood
out for me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Two group compositions by
Michael Andrews, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Colony Room I (1962)</b>
and <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Deer Park (1962)</b><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">,</span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b>capture the artist’s group of friends in and
around Soho and act as a window into a world of creative and destructive
hedonism.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8p-LckT8gIo/Wr_JERSeGfI/AAAAAAAABQU/CLgm0VWh4eQMfkLStuI12Mz51HYketuBgCLcBGAs/s1600/andrews.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="638" data-original-width="730" height="279" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8p-LckT8gIo/Wr_JERSeGfI/AAAAAAAABQU/CLgm0VWh4eQMfkLStuI12Mz51HYketuBgCLcBGAs/s320/andrews.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Top: Reclining Figure (c.1954), Margaret Mead</span></i></b></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Middle: Colony Room I (1962), Michael Andrews</span></i></b></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Bottom: The Deer Park (1962), Michael Andrews</span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">With the exception of one painting by Margaret Mead, two thirds of the exhibition are dominated by male artists, reflecting
how women’s lives and stories were often overlooked in art as a historically
male-dominated activity.</span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;">Thankfully, as the
exhibition timeline progresses through to contemporary art practices, paintings
by the formidable Paula Rego are followed by a final room of the youngest of
artists featured. All women, thes artists demonstrate not only how their practice has been
influenced by their predecessors, but more importantly how this generation of female artists investigate and challenge stereotypical views on gender,
sexuality and race.</span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;">Of course, the superb
Jenny Saville is featured, as is the wonderful Cecily Brown and both artist's gaze gaze and
skill with brush and paint are equally as intense as Bacon's and Freud's.</span></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hdfxdEOrUOQ/Wr_RMmCN4II/AAAAAAAABRo/-vc7yxh0GdMDR3wnT6tpzbhazBqjxXjVQCLcBGAs/s1600/chpr-p045dep_-_web.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="905" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hdfxdEOrUOQ/Wr_RMmCN4II/AAAAAAAABRo/-vc7yxh0GdMDR3wnT6tpzbhazBqjxXjVQCLcBGAs/s320/chpr-p045dep_-_web.jpeg" width="282" /></a></div>
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<b style="font-size: small; text-align: center;"><i>The Company of Women (1997), Paula Rego</i></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">“All Too Human: Bacon, Freud and a Century of Painting Life”
is big, ambitious, intense and powerful exhibition.</span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="font-size: large;">It demonstrates the enduring potency and possibilities
in exploring the human condition within artistic practice and is a
not-to-be-missed exhibition.</span><br />
<o:p></o:p><br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qEX8aHSteXo/Wr_RQCn-NII/AAAAAAAABRs/GB0a8x2LIacbwMKm0Yq1vRtctqXxmpI0wCEwYBhgL/s1600/cecily-brown-teenage-wildlife.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="426" data-original-width="480" height="284" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qEX8aHSteXo/Wr_RQCn-NII/AAAAAAAABRs/GB0a8x2LIacbwMKm0Yq1vRtctqXxmpI0wCEwYBhgL/s320/cecily-brown-teenage-wildlife.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Top: Teenage Wildlife (2003), Cecily Brown</span></i></b></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"></span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Bottom: Coterie of Questions (2015), Lynette Yiadom-Boakye</span></i></b></div>
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<br />Instagram: @steph_e_duboishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201198253197116387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-915395068693127644.post-4527671712898850412018-01-16T12:21:00.002-08:002018-01-16T12:21:14.678-08:00Modigliani - Tate Modern, London. (23 November 2017 - 2 April 2018)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ps9YOC3mW1M/Wl5UoZmvqHI/AAAAAAAABOE/ncvtRRSzaj0lDWavEGwPClbChDXQSqeoACLcBGAs/s1600/Modigliani-autoretrato-macusp1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="514" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ps9YOC3mW1M/Wl5UoZmvqHI/AAAAAAAABOE/ncvtRRSzaj0lDWavEGwPClbChDXQSqeoACLcBGAs/s400/Modigliani-autoretrato-macusp1.jpg" width="256" /></a></div>
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<i><b>Self-Portrait (1919)</b></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Fans (like myself) of Modigliani will think they have died
and gone to Modigliani heaven in Tate Modern’s eleven room exhibition which
continues until 2 April. Not only do the
artist’s iconic paintings and sculptures transport the audience to early
twentieth century Paris, but his last studio in Montparnasse can also be
experienced through a fascinating virtual reality recreation. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920) moved to Paris in 1906 to develop
his career as an artist, he was twenty-one years old. Just fourteen years later, the artist was
dead. Years of chronic ill-health (he had
suffered from reoccurring tuberculosis since childhood) had been further
exasperated by alcohol and drug addiction as an adult and ultimately fuelled
his tragic early demise.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PU0TAFA0nJc/Wl5VhcbM59I/AAAAAAAABOM/bSUKASkcXJgNkq30Aw4ZhkEjMVxNhpxwQCLcBGAs/s1600/portrait-of-paul-guillaume-1916.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="523" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PU0TAFA0nJc/Wl5VhcbM59I/AAAAAAAABOM/bSUKASkcXJgNkq30Aw4ZhkEjMVxNhpxwQCLcBGAs/s400/portrait-of-paul-guillaume-1916.jpg" width="261" /></a> <a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-K6HUFMo5d-k/Wl5VmxNVC5I/AAAAAAAABOQ/ePFBVtU87BYyEcen3Gc9NmOSmUey0lgcwCLcBGAs/s1600/3aa279f16a96e918752145f09ec33054.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="363" data-original-width="236" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-K6HUFMo5d-k/Wl5VmxNVC5I/AAAAAAAABOQ/ePFBVtU87BYyEcen3Gc9NmOSmUey0lgcwCLcBGAs/s400/3aa279f16a96e918752145f09ec33054.jpg" width="260" /></a></div>
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<i><b>Left: Portrait of Paul Guillaume (1916) Right: Young Woman of the People (1918)</b></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Portraiture and the female nude dominated Modigliani’s practice
and breath-taking examples of these, which chart the development of his now instantly
recognisable elongated stylisation, abound in this exhibition. I have seen many of these painting reproduced
in numerous books, so it was an absolute delight to see the originals. There is a melancholy which appear to emanate
from the languid poses and black-out eyes, together with the dark, rich colour
palette, which I find absorbing.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lT86ag6oIsQ/Wl5WP--myOI/AAAAAAAABOY/hA_VYiyoeiYiJdAFVXPdbZWJ2O1h_48ZQCLcBGAs/s1600/Madame%2BZborowska%2Bon%2Ba%2BSofa%2B1917.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="837" data-original-width="513" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-lT86ag6oIsQ/Wl5WP--myOI/AAAAAAAABOY/hA_VYiyoeiYiJdAFVXPdbZWJ2O1h_48ZQCLcBGAs/s400/Madame%2BZborowska%2Bon%2Ba%2BSofa%2B1917.jpg" width="245" /></a></div>
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<i><b>Madam Zborowski on a Sofa (1919)</b></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">For a short while (between 1911-1913) Modigliani also sculpted. He was great friends with Constantin Brancusi
and Jacob Epstein, and although influences from both these maestros can be seen
in Modigliani’s work, this in no way reduces the strength of his own
vision. I would have loved to see even
more of this fascinated heads, but those pieces which were on display were totally
exquisite. Apparently, Modigliani’s
first love was actually sculpture, but he had to abandon it because the dust from carving aggravated his
tuberculosis and also for such an impoverished artist, it was considerably more
expensive to pursue than painting.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kiffGkyfx-M/Wl5WcmXLI8I/AAAAAAAABOc/K9umHEmku0kJsaGW7E9r7TeSbhhB4IDKQCLcBGAs/s1600/Sculptures-e1511363180453.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-kiffGkyfx-M/Wl5WcmXLI8I/AAAAAAAABOc/K9umHEmku0kJsaGW7E9r7TeSbhhB4IDKQCLcBGAs/s400/Sculptures-e1511363180453.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i><b>Installation View of Room 5, Tate Modern (2018)</b></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Modigliani’s portraits included artist friends, patrons and
lovers. His nudes featured lovers too,
as well as professional life models and the most successful paintings pulsate
with erotic energy. At the time they
were painted, these modern nudes shocked the Parisian middle-class. They featured in Modigliani’s only solo exhibition
held in his lifetime, which was nearly shut down on the grounds of
indecency. The police commissioner
involved particularly found their pubic hair offensive, as traditionally in fine
art nudes were depicted hair-free. Rather
than idealised, chaste and anonymous women (depicted as symbols of females in mythology
or religion for example), Modigliani painted modern women and depicted them as
they really were, which to a degree challenged accepted norms of female representation. Their personality as well as their flesh
dominated the canvas. Their faces are highlighted
with cosmetics, reflecting the growing influence of female film stars and they made
direct eye contact with the viewer, almost defying them to return their
gaze. <b>L’Alg</b><b>érienne</b> (1916) and <b>Nude on a Divan</b> (1916) are clearly the
same woman. The intensity of her gaze in
both the clothed portrait and nude pose, reflect the absolutely confidence in
herself and her sexuality.</span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Wd7K0KakC1M/Wl5XF0DykxI/AAAAAAAABOo/sY_ifM1ZCnAUMz3ch9j4aEO8tTakF0NuACLcBGAs/s1600/Nude%2Bon%2Ba%2BDivan%2B1916.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="347" data-original-width="505" height="273" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Wd7K0KakC1M/Wl5XF0DykxI/AAAAAAAABOo/sY_ifM1ZCnAUMz3ch9j4aEO8tTakF0NuACLcBGAs/s400/Nude%2Bon%2Ba%2BDivan%2B1916.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i><b>Top: L’Algérienne (1916) Bottom: Nude on a Divan (1916)</b></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Of all Modigliani’s portraits and nude studies, it is those
of his most regular sitter, Jeanne Hébuterne, which are the most poignant. They met in 1917 when she was a nineteen year
old art student and she soon became the artist’s muse and mistress, until his
death. Modigliani’s portraits of Jeanne
show her three year accelerated maturity from a gauche teenager to a woman
shaped by hightened life experiences.
They lived together in Montparnasse and already had one child when
Modigliani died. A few days later,
pregnant with their second child but inconsolable in her grief, Jeanne took her
own life.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<i><b>Jeanne Hébuterne (1919)</b></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">The studio Jeanne and Modigliani shared together has been meticulously
re-imagined in the exhibition’s virtual reality room. Created from old photographs and first-hand
accounts, this is a fascinating immersive experience, from a dog barking in the
courtyard below the open window to a cigarette burning in an ashtray on the
table next to your ‘seat’. It doesn’t
take much of a leap of imagination to feel as if you are truly sharing the same
space as the artist and his tragic muse. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gv-qhHfT20M/Wl5Xro2UwvI/AAAAAAAABO0/mMpZyfaPTPMtJMNEDR5xAoWy0YXQSsumQCLcBGAs/s1600/Still%2Bfrom%2Bthe%2BOchre%2BAtelier%252C.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gv-qhHfT20M/Wl5Xro2UwvI/AAAAAAAABO0/mMpZyfaPTPMtJMNEDR5xAoWy0YXQSsumQCLcBGAs/s400/Still%2Bfrom%2Bthe%2BOchre%2BAtelier%252C.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i><b>Still view from Modigliani VR: The Ochre Atelier, Tate Modern (2018)</b></i></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">During his life, Amedeo Modigliani had little professional success. Apart from the infamous exhibition of nudes, the other other exhibition he participated in was the 1919 Salon d'Automne, in which seven of his head sculptures were displayed. Despite his prolific output in portrait painting, few actually sold or those which did only brought in limited funds. As is the case of many of the giants of early twentieth century modernism, Modigliani achieved greater popularity after his demise, with his colourful life story becoming immortalised in art history narratives and popular culture. In 2015, one of those scandalous nudes sold at auction for £100 million... Modigliani's work, however has more than stood the test of time, notoriety and Hollywood dramatisation (with some marvelous overacting by Andy Garcia). This totally beguiling exhibition at Tate Modern definitely ranks high in my Top 10 of most eagerly anticipated and enjoyed exhibition visits. It is a must-see for 2018. </span></div>
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<i><b>Top: Modigliani, Picasso and André Salmon in Paris, 1916</b></i></div>
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<i><b>Bottom: Modigliani and Jeanne in the Montparnasse studio, c.1918</b></i></div>
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Instagram: @steph_e_duboishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201198253197116387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-915395068693127644.post-70605311726967423952017-09-26T09:59:00.001-07:002017-09-26T10:03:57.064-07:00Seurat to Riley: The Art of Perception, Compton Verney Art Gallery, Warwickshire (8 July-1 October 2017)<br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"> <em>Corona, (1970) Peter Sedgley</em></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: large;">Unsurprisingly, given that her name is featured in the
title, Bridget Riley features strongly in Compton Verney’s Summer exhibition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have to confess that Riley’s eye-popping
canvases have never been at the top of my favourite artworks list.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I find them two highly coloured and the
effect of movement too disorientating, so to say I was expecting an exhibition focusing
entirely on ‘optical art’ to be quite a challenge, is an understatement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: large;">The curatorial premise behind the exhibition is how artists
have exploited the ways in which the eye and mind perceive what is seen, with
its key themes - pattern and perception – demonstrated by works in which
colours other than those painted on the canvas are generated in the eye by the
viewer, and those that communicate movement by static form.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With Seurat’s nineteenth century pointillist landscapes
as its starting point, leading to Bridget Riley and her fellow Op Artists of
the 1960s and right through to contemporary artists including Lothar G<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ö</span>tz’s
site-specific wall painting and Liz West’s light installation, this exhibition
far exceeded my initial expectations.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><em>Left: The Morning Walk, (1885) Georges Seurat Right: Abstract Multicoloured Design, (c.1915) Helen Saunders </em></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: large;">After pulling myself away from Seurat’s exquisite <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“The Morning Walk”</i> (1885), a sketch
which provided the starting point for his seminal work “The Seine at
Courbevoie” painted the same year, I was delighted to see <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Abstract Multicoloured Design”</i> (c.1915) by lone female British
Vorticist Helen Saunders.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After some
examples of geometric and kinetic art (notably Josef Albers and Victor Vasarely)
and before the first full explosion of eye-popping canvases from the 1960s, a
wall of preparatory sketches and works in black in white by Bridget Riley, such
as “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Study for Painting ‘Pause</i>’”
(1964), really took me by surprise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
delicate balance of line, tone and illusion of movement were for me, far more engaging
that her colour works.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, I found many
of the black and white artworks in the exhibitions much more interesting than
the multi-coloured ones.</span></div>
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<em><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Blaze IV, (1963), Bridget Riley</span></em></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><em>Ecclesia (1985), Bridget Riley</em></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: large;">Most exciting about this exhibition was the fact that
despite its title, it was far more than just a historical survey.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As Riley is still extant (and producing art),
it opened up the potential of bringing in her later works as well as more contemporary
artists, whose work has been influenced by the movement and who are interested
in exploring ‘optical art’ further.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Standing out amongst these were Jim Lambie’s “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Sun Visor</i>” (2014), Lothar G<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ö</span>tz’s geometric drawings (2015-2017)
and most notably Liz West’s beautifully serene light installation “<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Our Spectral Vision</i>” (2016).</span></div>
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<em><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Exhibition View</span></em></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><em>Installation view: Lothar G<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ö</span>tz </em></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: large;">Despite the art galleries being split up throughout the rooms
of the eighteenth century mansion house and around its other decorative galleries,
and resulting in a certain amount of disjointedness, Seurat to Riley: The Art
of Perception surpassed all my expectations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Although my tolerance for the illusionary nature of most Op Art remains the
same, being introduced to the work of artists previously unknown to me, like
Jes<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ú</span>s
Rafael Soto and Peter Sedgley and seeing Riley’s early work, made the trip up
to Warwickshire more than worth it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><em>Our Spectral Vision, (2016) Liz West</em></span></div>
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Instagram: @steph_e_duboishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201198253197116387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-915395068693127644.post-90439214445635515102017-09-09T14:40:00.001-07:002017-09-09T14:40:44.322-07:00Giacometti, Tate Modern, London (10 May-10 September 2017)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<em><strong>"Portrait of Peter Watson" (1953)</strong></em></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966) was, without doubt, one of the
great painter-sculptors of the twentieth century. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Innovator and experimenter, his relentless
pursuit of capturing the appearance of a living model has<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>led to a body of work which demonstrates the
breadth and diversity of his talent and innate skill.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">Giacometti’s distinctive elongated figures
are some of the most instantly recognisable works of modern art.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This retrospective by Tate Modern, the first of
such scale held in the United Kingdom for twenty years, brings together over two-hundred
and fifty works by Giacometti and showcases the development of the artist’s
career which spanned fifty years.</span></span></span><br />
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<em><strong>Giacometti, Tate Modern (exhibition detail)</strong></em></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;">I have been a long-term admirer of Giacometti’s work and have been
very lucky to see a number of his painting over the years and most recently in “Pure
Presence” at the National Gallery in 2015, which was a much smaller exhibition
and left me hoping that I would get an opportunity to see a full retrospective.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had a lot of expectations.</span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Giacometti’s consistent return to </span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">sculpting the human head throughout this oeuvre and in particular people he
was the closest to throughout his life<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>-
his mother, father, brother and wife - is the focus of the first </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">room of
the exhibition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">From the very early clay and plaster portraits of his teenage years such as
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Head of a Child [Simon Bérard]”</i>
(1917-1918) through to the later bronzes of his brother Diego, all demonstrated
that Giacometti was born to sculpt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
could have stayed in that room for hours, it really was a feast for my
eyes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>German artist Käthe Kollwitz (1867-1945)
once said that if she could live her life again, she would be a sculptor and
nothing more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If I had been born a
sculptor, with even a small percentage of the talent of Giacometti (and
Kollwitz), I would have been a very happy woman.</span></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qpu9dRC7jj4/WbRaMqf5mjI/AAAAAAAABLg/RptifB4ZJMcbWNrj6xJ6I7YFn1tzC2XbACLcBGAs/s1600/Abb_041_Simon_1994-0418_FAAG_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1333" data-original-width="1001" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qpu9dRC7jj4/WbRaMqf5mjI/AAAAAAAABLg/RptifB4ZJMcbWNrj6xJ6I7YFn1tzC2XbACLcBGAs/s320/Abb_041_Simon_1994-0418_FAAG_2.jpg" width="240" /></a> <a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-y6YBoOd15tA/WbRaPyYNjyI/AAAAAAAABLk/a3S8zcfi7vAtmRMuLt96AkDYZTEVafG5gCLcBGAs/s1600/1954.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="650" data-original-width="673" height="309" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-y6YBoOd15tA/WbRaPyYNjyI/AAAAAAAABLk/a3S8zcfi7vAtmRMuLt96AkDYZTEVafG5gCLcBGAs/s320/1954.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<em><strong>Top: "Head of a Child [Simon Berard] (1917-1918) Bottom: "Bust of Diego" (1953)</strong></em></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;">Like many artists at the
turn of the twentieth century, African and Oceanian sculpture was very
influential on Giacometti.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Spoon Woman”</i> (1927), first exhibited in
Paris in the year it was finished illustrates just how easily the artist
assimilated the influence into his own modernist vision.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Giacometti joined the Surrealist movement in
1931.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It proved to be an uneasy alliance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Despite standing out for being one of the
movement’s rare sculptors, Giacometti produced some truly disturbing misogynist
depictions of women during his association with the movement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Woman
with her Throat Cut”</i> (1932) is surely one of the darkest works from the corners
of a Surrealist spirit and vision of women.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>However in that same year, the artist also produced <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Walking Woman II”, </i>reflecting his interest with Egyptian art and this
piece thankfully shows the beginnings of his journey away from Surrealism (he
was actually formally expelled in 1935) and towards his most iconic figurative work.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6opfIVRXEmo/WbRbrGfMrSI/AAAAAAAABL0/o0t7LJpbhA0LC2JbQlkICAICdqxVSZwkgCEwYBhgL/s1600/spoon%2Bwoman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="355" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6opfIVRXEmo/WbRbrGfMrSI/AAAAAAAABL0/o0t7LJpbhA0LC2JbQlkICAICdqxVSZwkgCEwYBhgL/s320/spoon%2Bwoman.jpg" width="189" /></a></div>
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<strong><em>"Spoon Woman" (1927)</em></strong></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-U6aBjGAg-_U/WbRbi2Bc9WI/AAAAAAAABLw/vcmU9f-qrhMs8RtHdwKAT2XPhgsTTjo3ACEwYBhgL/s1600/throat%2Bcut.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="613" data-original-width="1024" height="191" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-U6aBjGAg-_U/WbRbi2Bc9WI/AAAAAAAABLw/vcmU9f-qrhMs8RtHdwKAT2XPhgsTTjo3ACEwYBhgL/s320/throat%2Bcut.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<strong><em>"Woman with her Throat Cut" (1932)</em></strong></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">Every room in Tate Modern’s
retrospective featured example after example of Giacometti’s genius.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His intimate busts of his brother and wife
are completely compelling, as are his numerous painted portraits, which have
always held a particular fascination.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></span></div>
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<strong><em>Giacometti, Tate Modern (exhibition view)</em></strong></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span></span></span></span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;">The overall highlight of
this retrospective for me, out of all the wonders on display, was the eight restored
original plasterworks <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Women of Venice”</i>
(1956) made for that year’s Venice Biennale. These haunting, elongated nudes
with their base-like feet recall Giacometti’s interest in Egyptian statuary and
much like his re-interpretation of Oceanian sculpture nearly thirty years
earlier, once again demonstrate the artist’s unique and contemporary vision.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0XJQ09jsiwo/WbRdEYOxfKI/AAAAAAAABL8/GMVXicgtKYwPdipxOHX56dUHbH9HxzkmgCLcBGAs/s1600/Giacometti-Tate-Modern.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="605" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-0XJQ09jsiwo/WbRdEYOxfKI/AAAAAAAABL8/GMVXicgtKYwPdipxOHX56dUHbH9HxzkmgCLcBGAs/s1600/Giacometti-Tate-Modern.jpg" /></a></div>
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<strong><em>"Women of Venice" (1956)</em></strong></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Giacometti is best
remembered for his elongated walking figures such as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Man Pointing”</i> (1947) and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“Tall
Woman”</i> (1958), which he mostly concentrated on from the end of the Second
World War until his death in 1966.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">remarkable
career traced the shifting influences and experimentation of European art
before and after the Second World War. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Although
as a member of the Surrealist movement in the 1930s Giacometti devised
innovative sculptural forms, it was his work after the war which developed alongside
Existentialism and visually reflected the philosophy's interests in perception,
alienation and anxiety after the trauma of the conflict, which has ensured
Giacometti’s place in the art history canon and quite rightly too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-e9gNtU3og7Q/WbRdgYST8wI/AAAAAAAABMA/B2IZr5KCJ-I-yF678Jt2-Fk3WDGlQ5UNgCLcBGAs/s1600/003-8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="907" data-original-width="648" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-e9gNtU3og7Q/WbRdgYST8wI/AAAAAAAABMA/B2IZr5KCJ-I-yF678Jt2-Fk3WDGlQ5UNgCLcBGAs/s400/003-8.jpg" width="285" /></a> <a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mFGQGL2YXUo/WbRdmBDdWrI/AAAAAAAABME/h-XMFap8dxsT5jnUsQCBzJvb2viwzRTGwCLcBGAs/s1600/man%2Bpointing%2B1947.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="1019" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mFGQGL2YXUo/WbRdmBDdWrI/AAAAAAAABME/h-XMFap8dxsT5jnUsQCBzJvb2viwzRTGwCLcBGAs/s400/man%2Bpointing%2B1947.jpg" width="265" /></a></div>
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<strong><em>Top: Giacometti, Tate Modern (exhibition view) Bottom: "Man Pointing" (1947)</em></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>With the exception of the monumental figures
in the final room at Tate Modern’s retrospective, the vast interior space of
the gallery surprisingly overwhelmed the artworks as a collection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Although unexpected, it did not particularly
matter given that the individual pieces deserved equal individual attention and
overall the retrospective more than met my expectations.</span></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xldl8qrcXRg/WbRbHpIpLtI/AAAAAAAABLs/maeB3KQGPwE7s5qOFOpFV4dGVfNGgvNNACLcBGAs/s1600/Capture11.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="484" data-original-width="770" height="401" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-xldl8qrcXRg/WbRbHpIpLtI/AAAAAAAABLs/maeB3KQGPwE7s5qOFOpFV4dGVfNGgvNNACLcBGAs/s640/Capture11.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<em>Giacometti in his studio (c.1963)</em></div>
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<br />Instagram: @steph_e_duboishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201198253197116387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-915395068693127644.post-35370893681654899062017-05-26T11:03:00.000-07:002017-05-26T11:03:55.083-07:00Pol Bury: Time In Motion, BOZAR, Brussels (23 February-4 June 2017)<br />
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LbLVCiVORds/WShjWg4wA2I/AAAAAAAABJE/i1-m6By5vIUblHdGS3H5L762BN1FKRi-ACLcB/s1600/mainimage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="800" height="250" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-LbLVCiVORds/WShjWg4wA2I/AAAAAAAABJE/i1-m6By5vIUblHdGS3H5L762BN1FKRi-ACLcB/s400/mainimage.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<strong><em>Pol Bury c. 1962</em></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: large;">Despite being a lifelong art lover, I never profess to know
everything about all artists, whether they are considered ‘major’ or ‘minor’
(according to art-historical narratives).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>So it is always a delight to discover a completely new (to me) artist,
and be excited by their work.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: large;">Such is the case with Belgian artist Pol Bury
(1922-2005).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Apparently, I am not alone
in being unaware of this fascinating artist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Primarily known for his monumental mechanical fountains, he is also seen
as one of the founders of Kinetic Art and this retrospective at BOZAR is the
first held in Belgium in over twenty years.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: large;">“Time in Motion” charts the development of Bury’s diverse
and vast oeuvre from his beginnings as a painter heavily influenced by fellow
Belgian Magritte, the introduction of movement in his work as a result of his fascination
Alexander Calder’s mobiles and then how that developed even further after being
inspired by Louise Nevelson wood assemblages.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: large;">The exhibition brings together Bury’s paintings, small and
monumental reliefs and sculptures as well as drawings and engravings, all of
which give a fascinating insight into the artist’s creative journey.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Despite his early paintings showing little
originality or promise – they are clumsy with clichéd Surrealist motifs – thankfully,
he soon abandoned such laboured signifiers of female sexuality and gradually
moved into complete abstraction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These early
abstract works already have a look of Alexander Calder about them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a visit to Calder’s exhibition at
Galerie Maeght in Paris in 1950, which put the artist on new artistic path.</span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Zq4HMDCrAV8/WShkisX4RfI/AAAAAAAABJU/9ff8YL5WXVAohTAjcLfd6Qo-Uq9wRfeLgCEw/s1600/pol-bury-au-palais-decouvrez-les-archives.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="807" data-original-width="1200" height="268" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Zq4HMDCrAV8/WShkisX4RfI/AAAAAAAABJU/9ff8YL5WXVAohTAjcLfd6Qo-Uq9wRfeLgCEw/s400/pol-bury-au-palais-decouvrez-les-archives.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<strong><em>Composition, 1952</em></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: large;">The year 1959 is seen as the true beginning of Bury as a
kinetic artist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was the year he
combined style and technique into a unique working practice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His ‘punctuations’ – monochrome reliefs
punctuated by motorised and illuminated nylon or iron wires – earned him
international recognition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their slow
and unpredictable movement make for an interesting experience walking through
the gallery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Presented with a room full
of kinetic work which, depending on the time set on the mechanisation of each
piece, visitors can walk through the room without seeing anything move at
all!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thankfully, when a piece does start
to come to life, the sound of the old batteries cranking up the power gives
enough warning to rush back and see which artwork is stirring and moving.</span><br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xlIi2CmdpX0/WShmI66nrRI/AAAAAAAABJk/r-_adCkBJU8egPDG9G23p28ac5-ZL9b2ACLcB/s1600/IMG_3560.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xlIi2CmdpX0/WShmI66nrRI/AAAAAAAABJk/r-_adCkBJU8egPDG9G23p28ac5-ZL9b2ACLcB/s400/IMG_3560.JPG" width="300" /></a></div>
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<strong><em>Exhibition View (Room 2: Calder's Lessons)</em></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: large;">Twelve years after being inspired by Calder, the work of
Louise Nevelson was to inspire another development in Bury’s work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From 1962, he started to create much large sculptures
made of pieces of recovered wood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These
are very appealing, both visually and orally.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The beautiful crafted wooden shapes are fully complimented by the gentle
sound of wood thudding on wood, created by the subtle and continuous automated
movement.</span> </div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gjRB1fO50Ks/WShmni3pG7I/AAAAAAAABJs/grAES85U9BEvZJGUUawaGZYh6B21AheHQCEw/s1600/IMG_3574.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gjRB1fO50Ks/WShmni3pG7I/AAAAAAAABJs/grAES85U9BEvZJGUUawaGZYh6B21AheHQCEw/s400/IMG_3574.JPG" width="300" /></a></div>
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<strong><em>Exhibition View (Room 5: Paris, New York and Back)</em></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: large;">Bury’s exquisite craftsmanship continued when he progressed
from working with wood to metal, which he was eventually able to do due to his
commercial success.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While he explored
the formal limits imposed by the material, the use of metal offered the artist
new possibilities for generating movement - using magnets introduced an element
of randomness, not seen in his earlier wooden sculptures.</span></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OSg8DF_k2aE/WShooRSBeSI/AAAAAAAABJ8/6QmIrJWmbHwZ7Oc4slDd3FgXgxokAHWWwCLcB/s1600/IMG_3590.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-OSg8DF_k2aE/WShooRSBeSI/AAAAAAAABJ8/6QmIrJWmbHwZ7Oc4slDd3FgXgxokAHWWwCLcB/s400/IMG_3590.JPG" width="300" /></a> </div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hI0uaFpgfHM/WShpyyh1GNI/AAAAAAAABKM/XwrNAjLmXFQmJ505S2B6DS-Jt_f7okVOACEw/s1600/IMG_3599.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hI0uaFpgfHM/WShpyyh1GNI/AAAAAAAABKM/XwrNAjLmXFQmJ505S2B6DS-Jt_f7okVOACEw/s400/IMG_3599.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<strong><em>Top: Circles on 6 Forms (1977)</em></strong></div>
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<strong><em>Bottom: Spheres (1969-75)</em></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: large;">Bury devoted the last thirty years of his career realising
large-scale public sculptures as a result of numerous commissions he received,
and it was these public sculptures which cemented the artist’s international reputation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A true reflection of the artistic spirit of
the 1960s, Bury can be seen as the Belgian equivalent of Henry Moore within
post-Second World War art history.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: large;">“</span><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: large;">Pol Bury: Time In Motion” is a very special exhibition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It charts the rise and rise of a very
talented and truly unique artist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a
personal fan of sculpture this was a very exciting discovery for me and I
cannot recommend the exhibition highly enough.</span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IrovPJbjyCg/WShqmk73lMI/AAAAAAAABKU/9Oa4cBkPu2wPLq8-Q5H7e78JThI06fPYQCLcB/s1600/IMG_3608.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IrovPJbjyCg/WShqmk73lMI/AAAAAAAABKU/9Oa4cBkPu2wPLq8-Q5H7e78JThI06fPYQCLcB/s400/IMG_3608.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<strong><em>Exhibition View (Room 9: Ending on a High Note)</em></strong></div>
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<a href="http://www.bozar.be/en"><span style="color: #0563c1; font-family: "calibri";">http://www.bozar.be/en</span></a><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Instagram: @steph_e_duboishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201198253197116387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-915395068693127644.post-85510189418624441832016-10-29T12:29:00.001-07:002016-10-29T12:35:32.146-07:00Michelangelo Pistoletto, Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire (14 September-31 December 2016)<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-v069rYxxIOg/WBTxl11hNCI/AAAAAAAABHk/UZw20xRMDSA9VVFo5tgJrIpTp4gUhiU_ACLcB/s1600/IMG_7697.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-v069rYxxIOg/WBTxl11hNCI/AAAAAAAABHk/UZw20xRMDSA9VVFo5tgJrIpTp4gUhiU_ACLcB/s400/IMG_7697.JPG" width="300" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><strong><em>Times (temples) Change (2009)</em></strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: large;">I am a huge admirer of installation art. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am fascinated at how such work not only <span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">transforms the perception of a space, but
also the passive act of looking into an immersive experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For me, the scale and spectacle of the best
of such art - the interruption between what is expected and what is experienced
– has the unique ability of focusing all my attention on just the work and
temporarily shutting out all the white noise that usually reverberates around my
head.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span>I find that interventions
of contemporary art in historical architectural settings (for example Kate
Mccgwire at Tatton Park and Sarah Lucas at Sir John Soane’s Museum), can offer a
similar experience and I always look forward to visiting non-gallery spaces which
showcase contemporary art.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I find such
juxtapositions fascinating, so the prospect of seeing the master of Italian Arte
Povera in the eighteenth century splendour of an English country house, was an appealing
one.</span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: large;">The director of Blenheim Art Foundation, Michael Frahm,
eloquently set out the reasons for inviting Pistoletto to Blenheim Palace (the
artist’s most ambitious exhibition to date in the United Kingdom) and how his
work both compliments and disrupts the Palace’s Baroque setting, in a very
professionally produced booklet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The little
booklet was a helpful and welcome companion to my visit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Strategically placed in a number of Blenheim’s
ground floor rooms, the impact of Pistoletto’s work within the spaces varied
greatly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The monumental <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Third Paradise</i></b> (2003-16) in The Great Hall could not fail to impress –
the artifice referred to in the theory behind the piece along with its
materials of foam, rags and aluminium contrasting strikingly against the artifice
of the ornate ceiling decoration.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
spectacle of that piece almost eclipsed some of the work around it
(particularly <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Top Down, Bottom Up, Inside Out</i></b> (1976) tucked into an alcove on
the west side of the Great Hall.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><br /></span></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-uHm03Hyfz_0/WBTyCiDssCI/AAAAAAAABHo/R4yahZ2gL60bnj0dWu5xJjmJJq7rCvVbQCLcB/s1600/IMG_7698.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-uHm03Hyfz_0/WBTyCiDssCI/AAAAAAAABHo/R4yahZ2gL60bnj0dWu5xJjmJJq7rCvVbQCLcB/s400/IMG_7698.JPG" width="300" /></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><strong><em></em></strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><strong><em>The Third Paradise</em></strong> <strong>(2003-16)</strong></span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt; text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: large;">Unfortunately, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Contact </i></b>(2007) had been removed due
to damage which I found out after asking an attendant having tried in vain to
find it in the north corridor, as indicated the gallery guide.</span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: large;">Beautiful pieces like <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dog in the Mirror</i></b> (1971), <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mica
Paintings</i></b> (1976) and <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Painting of Electric Wires</i></b> (1967)
resonated quietly, while work such as <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Untitled</i></b> (1976-2016) and <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Does
God Exist, Yes I Do! </i></b>(1978-2016) disrupted the rooms with more
confrontational intent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When Pistoletto’s
trademark rags were featured these could not fail to offer the greatest opportunities
for aesthetic disruption – his iconic <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Venus of the Rags</i></b> (1967-2013) placed
in the Chapel, being the most deliberate curatorial transgression and one which must have been too tempting to resist.</span> </span></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tRMe_sSjJQU/WBTyskoh9-I/AAAAAAAABHw/TE4DGhofG_Mm_OhAhEo5zx5bXTtEMsrowCLcB/s1600/IMG_7706.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tRMe_sSjJQU/WBTyskoh9-I/AAAAAAAABHw/TE4DGhofG_Mm_OhAhEo5zx5bXTtEMsrowCLcB/s400/IMG_7706.JPG" width="300" /></a> </div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><em><strong>Dog in the Mirror</strong> <strong>(1971)</strong></em></span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FjtrsXJ_IE0/WBTy6SGx2dI/AAAAAAAABH0/u_4000zoYK8GyPhFszefG8zTlYkF_BV5wCLcB/s1600/IMG_7722.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FjtrsXJ_IE0/WBTy6SGx2dI/AAAAAAAABH0/u_4000zoYK8GyPhFszefG8zTlYkF_BV5wCLcB/s400/IMG_7722.JPG" width="300" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><strong><em>Does God Exist, Yes I Do! (1978-2016)</em></strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: large;">About a quarter into my visit, I got caught behind a regular
guided tour of the Blenheim rooms and found it fascinating (and slightly amusing)
that not once did the guide, or any members of the public on the tour, make any
comment or reference to any of the artwork in the rooms.</span></div>
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</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: large;">The ‘best’ example of this was in the final room of the
general tour, the Long Library.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After
the guide had made his closing remarks and bade his audience a fond farewell, I
watched every single person make a very speedy exit out of that room, not once
looking at any of the wonderful pieces which made up the installation <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">From
Self-Portraits to Mirror Paintings</i></b> (1961-2016), let alone interact with
them in any way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I spent so much time in
that wonderful room with that wonderful work, it did make me chuckle and it was
this piece, along with <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Third Paradise,</i></b> that successfully
shut out my white noise.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-73fPuoARYqI/WBTzYeKsXzI/AAAAAAAABH4/wRK03wAwh5Ucnk7XPMqXtpgu55MCeM3eQCLcB/s1600/IMG_7716.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-73fPuoARYqI/WBTzYeKsXzI/AAAAAAAABH4/wRK03wAwh5Ucnk7XPMqXtpgu55MCeM3eQCLcB/s400/IMG_7716.JPG" width="300" /></a></div>
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<em><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><strong>The Trumpets of Judgment (1968)</strong></span></em></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-O4Urjq9SWlU/WBTzoXkXiaI/AAAAAAAABH8/EMlBvaUkP1EcDxMqJbwzb7L75fkxVrbPACLcB/s1600/IMG_7721.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-O4Urjq9SWlU/WBTzoXkXiaI/AAAAAAAABH8/EMlBvaUkP1EcDxMqJbwzb7L75fkxVrbPACLcB/s400/IMG_7721.JPG" width="300" /></a></div>
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<em><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><strong>Untitled (1976-2016)</strong></span></em></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: large;">Michelangelo Pistoletto is a key figure of post-second world
war European art.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This exhibition offers
an exciting glimpse into his remarkable fifty year and also demonstrates with
more recent work, that the eighty-three year old artist seems as strident and
confident as ever.</span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: large;">It is also only the third exhibition to be held at Blenheim
Palace and given that art luminaries <span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Lawrence Weiner and Ai Weiwei were the previous
ones, I am sure that future solo exhibitions will be just as high-level.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I would love to see an explosion of Yayoi
Kusama’s polka dots and pumpkins throughout the palatial rooms or Kate Mccqwire’s
feathers cascading in the corridors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Above
both of those wonderful artists though, how incredible would it be to see Sarah
Lucas’s bunnies, fags, nuds and muses invading the Spencer-Churchill interiors,
squatting on their furniture and generally causing chaos.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am not sure how the usual Blenheim Palace
visitors would react through, but would love to see those two worlds collide.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yBiDqLRiKpQ/WBTz0ma7gbI/AAAAAAAABIA/AzhDUca9OwQhe82fm6qJXpxR6eWAu2NcACLcB/s1600/IMG_7728.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-yBiDqLRiKpQ/WBTz0ma7gbI/AAAAAAAABIA/AzhDUca9OwQhe82fm6qJXpxR6eWAu2NcACLcB/s400/IMG_7728.JPG" width="300" /></a> </div>
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<strong><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><em>Top and Bottom: From Self-Portraits to Mirror Paintings</em> <em>(1961-2016)</em></span></strong></div>
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<strong><em><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><br /></span></em></strong></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Vjx0lc95PdY/WBT4SxFlJrI/AAAAAAAABIY/mLxRASNsHgMXcAO0UNMQAoSWY1Ula8DLgCLcB/s1600/IMG_7732.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Vjx0lc95PdY/WBT4SxFlJrI/AAAAAAAABIY/mLxRASNsHgMXcAO0UNMQAoSWY1Ula8DLgCLcB/s400/IMG_7732.JPG" width="300" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><strong><em><br /></em></strong></span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2xbXK4B__Z8/WBT0ln54nyI/AAAAAAAABII/3EqAeXGXejg48EMbAV2B2HRF-DOoIcMzgCLcB/s1600/IMG_7739.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-2xbXK4B__Z8/WBT0ln54nyI/AAAAAAAABII/3EqAeXGXejg48EMbAV2B2HRF-DOoIcMzgCLcB/s400/IMG_7739.JPG" width="300" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><strong>Venus of the Rags</strong> <strong>(1967-2013)</strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: large;"><a href="http://blenheimartfoundation.org.uk/">http://blenheimartfoundation.org.uk/</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><br /><br />
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /><br />
</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">
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<br />Instagram: @steph_e_duboishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201198253197116387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-915395068693127644.post-14168183501027910762016-10-07T12:22:00.001-07:002016-10-07T12:22:44.700-07:00Lluïsa Vidal: Painter of Modernism. Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona (23 September 2016-15 January 2017)
<br /><br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hDY7-yWl9mM/V_fsPnvGnlI/AAAAAAAABGs/3GozpyQ-hr4HIxuaal_dqMQa4m-tzGKgACLcB/s1600/01__lluisa_vidal_autorretrat__c__1899__museu_nacional_dart_de_catalunya.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hDY7-yWl9mM/V_fsPnvGnlI/AAAAAAAABGs/3GozpyQ-hr4HIxuaal_dqMQa4m-tzGKgACLcB/s640/01__lluisa_vidal_autorretrat__c__1899__museu_nacional_dart_de_catalunya.jpg" width="475" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong><em>Self Portrait (1899)</em></strong></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;">Deep in the basement of the behemoth that is the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya ("MNAC"), I discovered a female Modernist painter previously unknown
to me, Lluïsa Vidal (1876-1918).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In all
my reading around late nineteenth and early twentieth century painting by
female artists, not once have I come across her name.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I do not think I am alone in not being aware
of this artist though and she is one (of only two) female artists represented in
THIRTY galleries devoted to Modernism at MNAC.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, this is the first retrospective devoted
to the artist<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>by this (and possibly any) institution!</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">Vidal <span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">was the
only professional female artist of Catalan Modernism and one of the very few Spanish women
of that period who went abroad to receive art lessons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Born into an art-loving upper middle-class
family, her professional career started in 1898, when she was twenty-two and held her
first exhibition at Els Quatre Gats Café in Barcelona, which was a popular
meeting place for artists in Catalonia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>She was the first and only woman to hold an exhibition there.</span></span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wHIHnW8dBI4/V_ftXCtpDxI/AAAAAAAABG0/8Hxu2A24jIkwBCqcc816T8iW2kX50H4TwCLcB/s1600/loffit-lluisa-vidal-la-pintora-del-modernismo-catalan-03.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wHIHnW8dBI4/V_ftXCtpDxI/AAAAAAAABG0/8Hxu2A24jIkwBCqcc816T8iW2kX50H4TwCLcB/s400/loffit-lluisa-vidal-la-pintora-del-modernismo-catalan-03.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><strong><em>Class at Academie Humbert (1901)</em></strong></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">In 1901, she
moved to live and study in Paris for a year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>While in Paris she learned about and become a supporter of, the European Feminist movement. When she returned to Barcelona, Vidal became a member of a feminist group there and collaborated on the magazine <em>Feminal</em> for the next eight years. In 1911, Vidal also started her own teaching academy as well as undertaking numerous commissions and exhibiting extensively.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;">This exhibition brings together more than 70 works and
reviews all aspects of her work as a painter, cartoonist and illustrator.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like many female artists of that time, the main
content of her oeuvre reflect the subjects that were readily available to her – female portraits,
domestic scenes, self-portraiture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Early
in her career though, she did paint <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">en
plein air</i>, but her focus was still aimed firmly at figuration.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong><em>Girl with a Black Cat (1903)</em></strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">Vidal was an exquisite draughtsperson, so I was initially surprised to read that some
critics of the time judged her painting as being “too manly”. But looking
closely at a huge painting like<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> The
Cellist Resting (1909)</b> I noticed on the rendering of the sleeves and bodice
impasto daubs of paint left on the canvas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This was obviously a conscious decision and demonstrates a bravado, rarely
seen from a female painter around that time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> In her most considered paintings, Vidal's </span>brushwork is evocative and expressive,
sober and compelling.</span> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong><em>The Cellist Resting (1909)</em></strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">Only five years older than another Catalan artist whose life
and art are enshrined in both art history narratives and popular culture, Vidal
and Pablo Picasso never met and yet their initial life paths took a very
similar direction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Both showed very
early prodigious artistic talent, both exhibited at Els Quatre Gats Café and
most importantly, both lived and studied in Paris at the turn of the twentieth
century.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wonder what would have become
of Vidal (and her painting) had she, instead of Marie Laurencin
(1883-1956) met Picasso while in Paris and became the only female member of his
avant-garde tertulia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Alas, it was never
to be and Vidal died prematurely at the age of forty-two of Spanish Flu in 1918. After her death, her name and work fell into total obscurity and despite MNAC owning a number of her paintings, it is only this year that an exhibition has been held to recognise her achievements in her own country. Hopefully now this will increase awareness about Vidal and that she will also start to be included in updates of surveys on the rise of female artists at turn of the twentieth century - a place where this Catalan New Woman and Modernist painter deservedly belongs.</span></span></div>
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<strong><em><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Self Portrait ( c. 1900)</span></em></strong></div>
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<strong><em><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Illustration for Artistica Magazine (1910)</span></em></strong></div>
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<strong><em><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Illustration for Feminal Magazine (c.1907)</span></em></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong><em>Photograph of Lluisa Vidal (far right) teaching in her academy (c. 1912)</em></strong></span></div>
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<br />Instagram: @steph_e_duboishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201198253197116387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-915395068693127644.post-2367650778289564122016-08-26T12:38:00.000-07:002016-08-29T09:52:08.091-07:00Georgia O’Keeffe, Tate Modern, London (6 July-30 October 2016)<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-z52Oc-bIh_g/V8CSXpAnGqI/AAAAAAAABFo/zX_R04g3nzAJuZVMF1dh3SAm4iEUJXF7QCLcB/s1600/from-faraway-nearby.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="358" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-z52Oc-bIh_g/V8CSXpAnGqI/AAAAAAAABFo/zX_R04g3nzAJuZVMF1dh3SAm4iEUJXF7QCLcB/s400/from-faraway-nearby.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><em><strong>From the Faraway Nearby (1937)</strong></em></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: large;">If, like me, you thought you knew what to expect from an
exhibition of work by Georgia O’Keeffe (flowers shaped liked vaginas, animal bones and deserts), the first
two of the thirteen rooms in Tate Modern’s retrospective of the artist will come
as an unexpected surprise and are alone worth the price of the admission.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They concentrate on O’Keeffe’s early mature
works, beautiful minimal abstract works which demonstrate how skilful the
artist was with handling colour even at the beginning of her career.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The perception of heat emitting from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Red and Orange Streak (1919)</i> is simple, yet stunning and contrasted
effortlessly against the cool white tones of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Abstraction
(1921</i>), which is equally sublime.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><em><strong>Red and Orange Streak (1919)</strong></em></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><strong><em>Abstraction (1921</em>)</strong></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: large;">Featuring more than 100 works, this is the largest ever exhibition
of Georgia O’Keeffe <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(1887-1986) held in
the United Kingdom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Regarded as a giant
of American 20th-century modernism, with the inclusion of more of her early
(and later) work than those “iconic” flower paintings, this show seeks to
redress widely held interpretations (from male art critics of the time and then
later re-appropriated and celebrated by some feminist artists) that such paintings were depictions of female genitalia</span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-size: large;">, interpretations which the artist always refuted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The curatorial decision to show more works
from the rest of her oeuvre in order to demonstrate that O’Keefe had far more to offer
as an artist than this one interpretation, is a clever one and makes this exhibition far more
interesting and engaging than I was expecting it to be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Cubist-inspired abstract paintings such
as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Line and Curve</i> (1927) displayed in
Room 2 is one of many examples of how O’Keeffe tried to shake of such
essentialist views about her work, from the outset of her career</span>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><strong>Top: <em>Line and Curve (1927)</em> Bottom: <em>Radiator Building Night New York (1927)</em></strong></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: large;">Between 1924-1929
O’Keeffe painted quintessential Art Deco views of New York, but for me
these appear too stylised and stilted compared to the more organic and
free-flowing abstractions<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>of the paintings she made during the same period when she holidayed at Lake George
in upstate New York.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With works such as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">From the Lake No 3</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">From the Lake No 1</i> (both 1924), both O’Keeffe’s
brushwork and colour palette are emancipated</span>. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><strong>Left: <em>From the Lake No 3</em> (1924) Right: <em>From the Lake No 1 (1924)</em></strong></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: large;">The artist’s colour
palette changed once more, back from warm to cool, when she made her fist
extended visit to New Mexico in 1929.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For
O’Keeffe the desert landscapes, discarded animal bones and skulls she
discovered became her true iconography, and it this body of work which
positions her as a foundational figure in the history of American modernism.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: large;">What struck me
most about this exhibition was not only how strong and capable O’Keeffe’s late
work was (something which in my opinion rarely occurs as an artist ages), but
also how contemporary these later canvases appear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Work such as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Front of the River – Pale</i> (1959) and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">It was Blue and Green</i> (1960), painted when the artist was in her
seventies, could easily hang among landscapes by emerging artists today
and not look remotely out of place.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><strong>Left: <em>Front of the River - Pale (1959)</em> Right: <em>Blue and Green (1960)</em></strong></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: large;">Georgia O’Keeffe’s
career spanned more than seven decades.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
work included in Tate Modern’s exhibition aims to present a view which
emphasises the pioneering nature of her career rather than the clichés it has
previously attracted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think such clichés
will always remain, but this exhibition has definitely provided a platform from
which to appreciate O’Keeffe with fresh eyes and wider expectations.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><em><strong>Sky Above the Clouds III / Above the Clouds III (1963)</strong></em></span></span></div>
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Instagram: @steph_e_duboishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201198253197116387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-915395068693127644.post-56568449423503202762016-08-24T11:48:00.000-07:002016-08-24T11:48:20.546-07:00Making & Unmaking, Camden Arts Centre, London (19 June-18 September 2016)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"> <em>Making & Unmaking (installation view)</em></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;">I am a huge fan of textile art, from Ghada Amer’s sexually
explicit needlework canvases, Louise Bourgeois’s fabric works and soft
sculptures, through to Sarah Lucas’s <em>Bunny</em> and <em>Nuds</em> series.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On reading that Camden Art Centre’s summer
exhibition “Making & Unmaking” was to feature a collection of work including
painting, tapestries, traditional fabrics and ceramics and with Dorothea
Tanning, Wangechi Muti and Sheila Hicks among the sixty artists featured, this
was an exhibition which I was determined not to miss.</span></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-eEZMws87KWk/V73pJCQ-j0I/AAAAAAAABFE/5VkpoYhm7ssNUx1VYRFiBzdDMsFJj5skwCLcB/s1600/MarUnm33-large_trans%252B%252BY1vlWu6X4ClJ13DpyYGHanCugcTyzyB-SXuPVffSvBI.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="250" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-eEZMws87KWk/V73pJCQ-j0I/AAAAAAAABFE/5VkpoYhm7ssNUx1VYRFiBzdDMsFJj5skwCLcB/s400/MarUnm33-large_trans%252B%252BY1vlWu6X4ClJ13DpyYGHanCugcTyzyB-SXuPVffSvBI.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"> <em>Saint Louis (2015), Luis Monteiro</em></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;">Taking up all three galleries as well as pieces in the
central space and garden, “Making & Unmaking” was huge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From West African textiles, Bauhaus jewellery
to contemporary portraiture and sculpture and addressing themes that included
portraiture, gender, sexuality, overall the exhibition explored the rituals of
making that underpin an artist’s work, rather than being about textile art as a genre.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Curator and fashion designer, Duro
Olowu brought his skills from both disciplines and brings together seemingly
disparate artists into his eclectic vignettes, with sophisticated aplomb.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This interlacing of ideas, eras and
influences (and materials) created a visually rich and stimulating mix.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">Personal favourites included <i>Étreinte </i></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size: large;">(1969) by Dorothea Tanning (no surprise
there) and Yinka Shonibare’s <i>Butterfly Kid (Boy) II</i> (2015).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I also really enjoyed Luis Monteiro <i>Saint
Louis</i> (2015) video</span>.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xKWpDmdOw5E/V73paYGsaOI/AAAAAAAABFI/AJDCXdSuY8IpxXS1g37q8cqTn2OtsCL_wCLcB/s1600/69-5-02Etreinte-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="294" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xKWpDmdOw5E/V73paYGsaOI/AAAAAAAABFI/AJDCXdSuY8IpxXS1g37q8cqTn2OtsCL_wCLcB/s320/69-5-02Etreinte-1.jpg" width="320" /></a> <a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MNXsMSelRbg/V73pcXPV0GI/AAAAAAAABFM/cGYpfLgLlb4MFHVmHgmoBnUJiuhgCu04QCLcB/s1600/Butterfly%2BKid%2B%2528boy%2529%2BII%2B2015%2BYinka%2BShonibare.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MNXsMSelRbg/V73pcXPV0GI/AAAAAAAABFM/cGYpfLgLlb4MFHVmHgmoBnUJiuhgCu04QCLcB/s320/Butterfly%2BKid%2B%2528boy%2529%2BII%2B2015%2BYinka%2BShonibare.JPG" width="242" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Top: <em>Étreinte </em><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">(1969), Dorothea Tanning Bottom: <em>Butterfly Kid (Boy) II</em> (2015), Yinka Shonibare<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;">However, as I walked
through the galleries I started to wonder if there was too much on display and
perhaps, just perhaps, the multitude of materials and textures was a little
suffocating.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I found the decision to
keep information on each wall of artists/works to one grouping at the end of each,
rather than providing a sheet you could walk around with, very frustrating.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think having to constantly return to one
source of information while viewing definitely contributed to the premature
arrival of gallery fatigue (along with the intense heat in the galleries
themselves), which I haven’t felt for a long time at an exhibition.</span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"></span><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;">Despite this, I
would still recommend this exhibition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Oluwo’s vision and passion have brought together rarely seen work in an
ambitious format with surprising juxtapositions, which (labelling and temperature
issues aside), Camden Art Centre excels at giving a platform to.</span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Making & Unmaking (installation view)</span></span></div>
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<br />Instagram: @steph_e_duboishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201198253197116387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-915395068693127644.post-18215484111391126772016-08-19T13:09:00.000-07:002016-08-19T13:09:49.741-07:00Mona Hatoum, Tate Modern, London (4 May-21 August 2016)
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7x1yAaj2UFk/V7db30bc83I/AAAAAAAABDo/tkSZa6ZgV7IGOSH1F43hbn8WoKDtONwzACLcB/s1600/untitled1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7x1yAaj2UFk/V7db30bc83I/AAAAAAAABDo/tkSZa6ZgV7IGOSH1F43hbn8WoKDtONwzACLcB/s1600/untitled1.png" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><em>Over My Dead Body, 1988</em></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><em><br /></em></span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">Mona Hatoum was
born in 1952 in Beirut.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>During a visit
to London in 1975, civil war broke out in Lebanon and Hatoum was forced into
exile in the UK. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She stayed in London, training at
the Byam Shaw School of Art and the Slade School of Fine Art between 1975 and 1981. Themes of confinement, constriction and surveillance re-occur in her work, from early performances to sculpture and large scale installations. Grids, boxes and crates become cages and cells. This major retrospective at Tate Modern features examples of all these mediums from her thirty five years of artistic engagement while she has lived and worked in London. </span></span></span></div>
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</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;">I had very high expectations of this exhibition, having frequently
referenced Hatoum’s work when I was studying and then being mesmerised by her
mini-retrospective at Parasol Unit in 2008.</span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Homebound (2000)</i>
is a standout piece here.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, it has an omnipresence
throughout the entire exhibition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The installation consists of a variety of furniture
and objects (tables, chairs, cots, toys, kitchen utensils, lights, birdcage) connected to each other with electric wire through which a live
current runs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A barrier of steel wires
separates the viewer, but as the objects light up in turn the sound of the whining
current surges round the room.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
amplified sound of the electrical current can be heard throughout the exhibition instilling a sense of general foreboding as you walk through the galleries
and into room <em>Homebound</em> is installed.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><em>Homebound, 2000</em></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">This sense of foreboding is part of the overall experience
of visiting this exhibition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Light Sentence (1992)</i> is equally
disconcerting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The title is a play on
the idea of a lenient prison sentence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A
single light bulb hangs in the middle of a structure made of square wire mesh
lockers, stacked to create a three-sided enclosure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The light bulb moves slowly up and down
casting constantly moving shadows in the room, which creates a sense that the
room itself is moving. It is very unnerving (I actually started to feel a little motion sick), but it is also very striking.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: #313131; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><em><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Light Sentence, 1992</span></em></span></div>
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<span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: #313131; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><em><br /></em></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><em>Hot Spot (2013),</em> is another striking sculpture with an equally menacing message. Here, the play on words in the title refers to a place of military or civil unrest. By lighting the whole planet in red neon, Hatoum reflects wide and very contemporary fears. For me, what makes Mona Hatoum a "must see" contemporary artist whenever she exhibits, is that she has the rare ability to present
strong ideas in a sensuous fashion. Her understanding of how different
materials can affect people makes the conceptual side to her work very strong.</span></span><span lang="EN" style="color: #313131; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #313131; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><em>Hot Spot, 2013</em></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span lang="EN" style="color: #313131; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">This can even be
seen in the collection of smaller sculptures, models, samples and source
materials contained in the exhibition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A
small selection of brightly coloured hand grenades from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Nature Morte aux Grenades (2006-2007)</i> made from Venetian glass and
arranged like sweets, both appeal and repel.</span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><em>Nature Morte aux Grenades, 2006-2007</em></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nkpD9uRQQpU/V7deak_LUpI/AAAAAAAABEE/O7G90ztEQPMB-UDlBY4Pq58v_JR0c7OjgCEw/s1600/MOH-10-SC-111.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="295" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nkpD9uRQQpU/V7deak_LUpI/AAAAAAAABEE/O7G90ztEQPMB-UDlBY4Pq58v_JR0c7OjgCEw/s400/MOH-10-SC-111.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><em>Detail from Interior/Exterior Landscape, 2010</em></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><em><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span></em></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;">Hatoum's menancing sculptures and installations are driven by political concerns but never shout too loudly to diffuse them of their power. This combination of her ability to juxtapose materials to their greatest visual impact with dark and unsettling narratives, are still as mesmerising for me as when I first encountered her work. This exhibition is disturbing, but most definitely not disappointing.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><em>Undercurrent (red), 2008</em></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WHpdqNV4aFc/V7dentqmZuI/AAAAAAAABEM/b3VzvzhfkFQ9MGJEkLXjoRfazF22egddwCLcB/s1600/IMG_5654a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WHpdqNV4aFc/V7dentqmZuI/AAAAAAAABEM/b3VzvzhfkFQ9MGJEkLXjoRfazF22egddwCLcB/s320/IMG_5654a.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><em><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Cellules, 2012-2013</span></em></span></div>
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<span style="color: #313131; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="color: black; font-family: Calibri;"><em><br /></em></span></span></span></span></span></div>
Instagram: @steph_e_duboishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201198253197116387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-915395068693127644.post-71005760698483275602016-06-25T10:56:00.000-07:002016-06-27T09:41:08.504-07:00Mary Heilmann: Looking at Pictures, Whitechapel Gallery, London (8 June-21 August 2016)<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VS4qfnS2jfA/V26_BaRJX8I/AAAAAAAABCk/tEWwo8WBE4cx4ZOdf9pEq_89wBsS68CTACLcB/s1600/IMG_5002.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VS4qfnS2jfA/V26_BaRJX8I/AAAAAAAABCk/tEWwo8WBE4cx4ZOdf9pEq_89wBsS68CTACLcB/s400/IMG_5002.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<strong><em>L: Crashing Wave (2011) R: Renny's Right Geometry of a Wave (2011)</em></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: large;">In general, I find geometric abstraction difficult to engage
with.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From artists such as Mondrian and Malevich
through to Riley et al, I usually am pretty much immune to the aesthetics of such
paintings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I prefer brushstrokes to be
more animated and expressionistic.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
would seem though, that I am not entirely immune as I was unexpectedly
surprised to be drawn to a number of Heilmman’s colourful canvases on display in
this exhibition, the first major survey of the artist’s work held in the UK.</span></div>
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<strong><em><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Johngiorno (1995) </span></em></strong></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BeJPordCllQ/V26-9ViNkII/AAAAAAAABC0/cOF5u7N144Q6g7a7dkWV-kwphaF56Yq9ACKgB/s1600/IMG_4987.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BeJPordCllQ/V26-9ViNkII/AAAAAAAABC0/cOF5u7N144Q6g7a7dkWV-kwphaF56Yq9ACKgB/s320/IMG_4987.JPG" width="240" /></a><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><strong><em></em></strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><strong><em>Ming (1986)</em></strong></span></div>
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<span style="color: white;">Born in 1940 in San Francisco and still very much active
today, the Whitechapel describes Heilmann’s work as a playful approach to abstraction
and an amalgamation of her LA beach life, 1960s counter culture and her
friendships with artists, musicians and poets of the New York minimalist art
scene.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Heilmann graduated from the
University of California at Santa Barbara in 1962. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After studying poetry and ceramics at San
Francisco State University, as well as ceramics and sculpture at University of
California at Berkeley, she moved to New York where she began a career as a
sculptor. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She began making paintings in
the 1970s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her work is described as <span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">combining elements
of abstraction and Conceptual Art with the bright colours, wit, and playfulness
of the Pop Art.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Having just visited the
Royal Academy’s annual summer and student shows, I can confirm that this is a combination
which still continues to influence many art school graduates today.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yKPbMnjUB0E/V26_qWrniTI/AAAAAAAABDA/EeGCRR3mnjsTc5xDiZARMGa1Hoc5xi3dgCKgB/s1600/IMG_4998.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: white;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yKPbMnjUB0E/V26_qWrniTI/AAAAAAAABDA/EeGCRR3mnjsTc5xDiZARMGa1Hoc5xi3dgCKgB/s400/IMG_4998.JPG" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span lang="EN" style="color: black; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><em><span style="color: white;"><strong>L: Our Lady of the Flowers (1989)</strong> </span></em><strong><em><span style="color: white;">R: Robert’s Garden (1983)</span></em></strong></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: large;">While many of Heilmann’s highly colourful canvases were too
dazzling for me, I did find some pieces, such as <em><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Ming (1986),</b> <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Our Lady of the
Flowers (1989)</b></em> and <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><em>Robert’s Garden
(1983)</em></b>, very compelling. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
standout piece for me was <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><em>Johngiorno
(1995)</em></b>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In this painting, Heilmann’s
practice of combining two or more favoured motifs here spots, stripes and webs,
form a serene composition with subtle colourful highlights, rather than the
usual cacophony of colour.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What also struck
me about this exhibition, was how well Heilmann’s ceramic pieces displayed with
the canvases, worked so well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
addition of glazed ceramic dots to the very garish <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><em>Good Vibrations Diptych, Remembering David (2012)</em>,</b> significantly
increased its appeal to me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps the
positioning of such work together was a curatorial device.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If it was, it was a very clever one and much appreciated
by this viewer.</span></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LKgIIo-HD7A/V26_AhSWwmI/AAAAAAAABC0/T6w5uwRYNlUXQlm49q1LAQ0HfrXMP4AMwCKgB/s1600/IMG_4984.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LKgIIo-HD7A/V26_AhSWwmI/AAAAAAAABC0/T6w5uwRYNlUXQlm49q1LAQ0HfrXMP4AMwCKgB/s400/IMG_4984.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<strong><em>L: Piano (1983) [glazed ceramic] R: Pink Sliding Square (1978)</em></strong></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-o-h4HJmaxZU/V26-6ZiTK6I/AAAAAAAABC0/4u10lrEJTLgzpWcVVxbl2w08T8VzDbvTwCKgB/s1600/IMG_4989.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-o-h4HJmaxZU/V26-6ZiTK6I/AAAAAAAABC0/4u10lrEJTLgzpWcVVxbl2w08T8VzDbvTwCKgB/s400/IMG_4989.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
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<strong><em>L: Shadow Cup 2 (1985 [glazed ceramic] R: Black Cracky (1990)</em></strong></div>
<strong><em></em></strong><br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-family: "times new roman";">
</span><span style="font-size: large;">Another observation that particular struck me about this exhibition,
was how confident Heilmann’s most recent work was, and almost indistinguishable
from her work from the 1980s when she was considered to be at the height of her
artistic powers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is a rare occurrence
within an artist’s oeuvre, and a refreshing discovery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The exhibition at Whitechapel Gallery
features 45 paintings as well as a selection of ceramics and works on
paper.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you want to escape the gloom
of the English weather and/or political climate, a visit to see Heilmann’s
colourful paintings are almost guaranteed to raise the gloomiest of spirits.</span> </span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-V12oIq2WzSo/V26_DNqe__I/AAAAAAAABC0/0j7A2cOJgTwWdluetrGyWvQm8xLzr6HEgCKgB/s1600/IMG_5006.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-V12oIq2WzSo/V26_DNqe__I/AAAAAAAABC0/0j7A2cOJgTwWdluetrGyWvQm8xLzr6HEgCKgB/s640/IMG_5006.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><strong><em>Good Vibrations Diptych, Remembering David (2012)</em></strong></span></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/">http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/</a></div>
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Instagram: @steph_e_duboishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201198253197116387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-915395068693127644.post-9633381117228566002016-06-19T12:34:00.001-07:002016-06-19T12:35:06.603-07:00Louise Nevelson. Pace Gallery, London (8 June-16 July 2016)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-I5tmo3a2bow/V2bugjWU1WI/AAAAAAAABA8/srm-az742bMEiXyhhojL6D_epuDTIpyGQCLcB/s1600/IMG_4777.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-I5tmo3a2bow/V2bugjWU1WI/AAAAAAAABA8/srm-az742bMEiXyhhojL6D_epuDTIpyGQCLcB/s320/IMG_4777.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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<em><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: x-small;">Pace Gallery, 6 Burlington Gardens, London W1S 3ET</span></em></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: large;">When an artist settles upon a muse, mode or material which
sustains their work for the rest of his or her career, such inspiration,
exploration (and sometime obsession) can either result in a formidable and extraordinary
oeuvre which transcends the “isms” of the timeframe within which the work was
produced, or become just a motif to constantly return to, re-hash and repeat in
an attempt to reclaim the intensity and originality contained in work
considered to represent the artist at his or her zenith.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thankfully, Louise Nevelson’s wooden assemblages
made from found objects (such as wine crates, parts of chairs and lengths of
wood jutting with nails) she gathered from the streets around her New York
studio from the 1950s, falls into the first scenario.</span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-p7vrgSACaA8/V2bvAajhkaI/AAAAAAAABB4/rYZ3K-V9gsscTi69pM1NLbNxqLIuTNiCACKgB/s1600/IMG_4809.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-p7vrgSACaA8/V2bvAajhkaI/AAAAAAAABB4/rYZ3K-V9gsscTi69pM1NLbNxqLIuTNiCACKgB/s400/IMG_4809.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: x-small;"><em>Untitled (late 1970s)</em></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: large;">Nevelson’s most iconic installations are those which she painted
black, and it is a selection of these which are displayed at the Pace
Gallery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The artist painted her sculptures
to obliterate the past histories of the individual pieces which made up an assemblage
and unify the work. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Black gave the work
a new shadowy, Gothic character. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nevelson
believed that the black paint gave her works an air of greatness and regal
enormity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By divorcing things from their
functions she lent them poetry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A piece
such as <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">“Sky Cathedral – Moon Garden +
One” (1957-1960) <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b>was Nevelson's
sculptural answer to the Abstract Expressionist canvases of the predominantly
male artists that commanded the attention of American art during the
1950s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>N</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.3pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-size: large;">evelson was interested in the sublime and
spiritual transcendence. <span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Sky Cathedral</span>,
like many of her wall pieces, evokes the sense of a shrine or a place of devotion.
The artist wrote that in her art, she sought “the in-between places, the dawns
and dusk, the objective world, the heavenly spheres, the places between the
land and the sea.”</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><sup><a href="http://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/louise-nevelson-sky-cathedral-1958" id="footnote-2"><span style="color: windowtext;"><span style="font-size: large;">(</span></span></a><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-size: large;">(</span>John Gordon, Louise
Nevelson (New York: Whitney Museum of American Art, 1967),12)</span></sup></i></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-N1pSjaEs32Y/V2bvdb_PkSI/AAAAAAAABBw/Z-uFE0OqnTAuvOCEoqFw88VLCvmnFOtVwCLcB/s1600/IMG_4784.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-N1pSjaEs32Y/V2bvdb_PkSI/AAAAAAAABBw/Z-uFE0OqnTAuvOCEoqFw88VLCvmnFOtVwCLcB/s400/IMG_4784.JPG" width="300" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: x-small;"><em>(Left) Sky Cathedral - Moon Garden + One (1957-1960) </em></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: x-small;"><em>(Right) Maquette for Dawn Shadows (1976-1983)</em></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: large;">The sculptures in this exhibition range from small
assemblages to free-standing columns and monumental wall-based works.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I found all of them so exquisite, so
carefully considered that to see them together as a group for the first time was
a delight and demonstrated how much visceral impact can be made when artist,
intent and material synergise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Scrutinising
the work up close was just as satisfying and I wished I had taken a sketchbook
with me, as I could have been occupied for hours reproducing small areas of
interest from the pieces.</span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mjKCzupxTAc/V2bvWbQdAdI/AAAAAAAABBg/nmGMCJAAdRsrURoMpxKSA_emyhriFLc1QCKgB/s1600/IMG_4786.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-mjKCzupxTAc/V2bvWbQdAdI/AAAAAAAABBg/nmGMCJAAdRsrURoMpxKSA_emyhriFLc1QCKgB/s400/IMG_4786.JPG" width="300" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><em>Detail from Untitled (late 1970s)</em></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">Perhaps it was a curatorial intent to link Nevelson’s darkly
metaphysical and contemplative work to colour field painting as the darkly
painted gallery walls brought to mind the Rothko room at Tate Modern.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The exhibition does offers a wonderful
respite to the usual Mayfair hubbub happening outside and if fact, is far more peaceful
than the Rothko room which is usually crammed with tourists taking selfies. </span><span style="font-family: "calibri";">I would highly recommend a visit to this quietly beautiful exhibition,
which runs until 16 July.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Textbook
reproductions of Nevelson’s work simply cannot compete with experiencing her
work in such close proximity.</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wH0BusnbQvQ/V2bvLEUS_7I/AAAAAAAABB4/KL0D5-Hg9SYlygurOAqQG8d_8IU0kO7YgCKgB/s1600/IMG_4779.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wH0BusnbQvQ/V2bvLEUS_7I/AAAAAAAABB4/KL0D5-Hg9SYlygurOAqQG8d_8IU0kO7YgCKgB/s400/IMG_4779.JPG" width="300" /></a></div>
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<em><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: x-small;">(Left) Cascades-Perpendiculars II (Night Music) (1980-82)</span></em></div>
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<em><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: x-small;">(Right) Untitled (1973)</span></em></div>
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<em><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: x-small;">Moon-Star Zag XII (1981)</span></em></div>
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<a href="http://www.pacegallery.com/"><span style="font-family: "calibri";">http://www.pacegallery.com/</span></a></div>
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<br />Instagram: @steph_e_duboishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201198253197116387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-915395068693127644.post-15105661534916168032016-06-18T12:41:00.001-07:002016-06-18T12:41:52.723-07:00Performing for the Camera, Tate Modern, London (18 February-12 June 2016)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-P1Ic2hkNZUE/V2WXy5s-2TI/AAAAAAAAA9I/qWhqWLOY2_0VV99Tc45kllPrxz71XQRAgCLcB/s1600/IMG_4768a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-P1Ic2hkNZUE/V2WXy5s-2TI/AAAAAAAAA9I/qWhqWLOY2_0VV99Tc45kllPrxz71XQRAgCLcB/s320/IMG_4768a.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;">Unsurprisingly, given that it was covering over a hundred
years of artistic activity in the medium, there was a lot of work on display in
this exhibition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With over five hundred
images on display, an engaged viewing required a determination both helped and
hindered by the gallery rooms at Tate Modern.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It was helped by my visit taking place on the last day of the
exhibition, so there were few other visitors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Progress was hindered though by the malfunctioning (or switched off) air
conditioning, resulting in almost oppressive ‘dead’ air which was very, very
uncomfortable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Exploring the
relationship between photography and performance from the invention of medium in
the nineteenth century through to digital cameras and social media of today, from
its very inception, while examining way to push the boundaries of
representation within the media, artists have also strove to push the
boundaries of the technology available in their time.</span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-R7N6W8118NQ/V2WYFIS4FYI/AAAAAAAAA9Q/FCrl2EtOOXwB_7hfbNsxzGUVLfgbUlIjwCKgB/s1600/yves-klein-leap-into-the-void-1960.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-R7N6W8118NQ/V2WYFIS4FYI/AAAAAAAAA9Q/FCrl2EtOOXwB_7hfbNsxzGUVLfgbUlIjwCKgB/s320/yves-klein-leap-into-the-void-1960.jpg" width="259" /></a> <a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tJUIqD_fkcs/V2WYU_c4API/AAAAAAAAA9Y/AFzxSRheF5so091-QDrvVqobPicoaHPegCKgB/s1600/A%2BRequiem%2BTheater%2Bof%2BCreativity%2BSelf-Portrait%2Bas%2BYves%2BKlein%2B2010%2B%2BYasumasa%2BMorimura.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tJUIqD_fkcs/V2WYU_c4API/AAAAAAAAA9Y/AFzxSRheF5so091-QDrvVqobPicoaHPegCKgB/s320/A%2BRequiem%2BTheater%2Bof%2BCreativity%2BSelf-Portrait%2Bas%2BYves%2BKlein%2B2010%2B%2BYasumasa%2BMorimura.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt; text-align: center;">
<em>(top) Leap into the Void, Yves Klein (1960)</em></div>
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<em>(bottom) A Requiem: Theater of Gravity/Self-Portrait </em><em>as Yves Klein</em>, <em>Yasumasa Morimura (2010) </em></div>
</span><div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">Yves Klein’s iconic <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">“Leap
into the Void” (1960)</b> is an early example of this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the photomontage Klein performs a
death-defying leap from a rooftop in a Paris suburb.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact the image was made up of cutting two
negatives – one where on the street below where a group of the artist’s friends
held a tarpaulin to catch him as he fell, and the other of the surrounding scene
(without tarpaulin).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These were then
printed together to create a seamless ‘documentary’ photograph.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was lovingly re-created 50 years later
by Yasumasa Morimura in <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">“A Requiem:
Theater of Gravity/Self-Portrait as Yves Klein” (2010)</b>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Klein was also a painter and <span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;">experimented with various methods of applying the
paint; firstly different rollers and then later sponges, created a series of
varied surfaces. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This experimentalism
would lead to a number of works this artist made in the 1960s which used naked
female models covered in blue paint and dragged across or laid upon canvases to
make the image, using the models as ‘living brushes’.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The performance/making of such paintings were
also documented.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RoOX9Fskris/V2WZhOfdAWI/AAAAAAAAA9o/54r8gZ92bcYD71uAum7FSwGzTDJdQX9PQCLcB/s1600/Yves%2BKlein%2B-%2BLa%2BR%25C3%25A9union%252C.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RoOX9Fskris/V2WZhOfdAWI/AAAAAAAAA9o/54r8gZ92bcYD71uAum7FSwGzTDJdQX9PQCLcB/s320/Yves%2BKlein%2B-%2BLa%2BR%25C3%25A9union%252C.jpg" width="320" /></a><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eK8KZloV66M/V2WZlGfFzSI/AAAAAAAAA9w/GBRpNwSqPgk_1jsBWiTJrqVjC29dw8N-gCLcB/s1600/Carolee%2BSchneemann_Eye%2BBody%2B36%2BTransformative%2BActions.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="199" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eK8KZloV66M/V2WZlGfFzSI/AAAAAAAAA9w/GBRpNwSqPgk_1jsBWiTJrqVjC29dw8N-gCLcB/s200/Carolee%2BSchneemann_Eye%2BBody%2B36%2BTransformative%2BActions.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
(<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><em>top) Yves Klein</em></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><em>(bottom) Caro</em></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><em>lee Schneemann</em></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">At around the same time, Carolee Schneemann was daubing herself
with all manner of paint and other materials in her series <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">“Eye/Body: 36 Transformative Actions”</b> (1963).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Seeking to reclaim the female nude from
artistic tradition by being both image and image maker, was extremely controversial
at the time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her images were confrontational,
primal, unashamedly erotic and far from passive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, there is a lot of naked female flesh
on display in this exhibition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
universal motif of artistic expression has unsurprisingly failed to escape the scrutiny
of the lens.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From the complicit passivity
of the models in Klein’s work through to Jemima Stehli’s self-activated <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">“Strip” (1999)</b> series over 30 years
later, the use of the naked female body (particularly by female artists) still severely
rankles many 21<sup>st</sup> century feminist art historian eyes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the height of discourse on the issue,
Hannah Wilke came under particular intensive criticism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This exhibition features some of her most
recognised work where she featured semi- naked, alongside a lesser known piece<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> “Portrait of the Artist in His Studio”
(1971) </b>which is surely a much more effective political statement and
perhaps a an influence of Sarah Lucas’s <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">“Fight
the Good Fight” (1996),</b> which is also featured.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span><br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-upv5B2Rg8UI/V2WbRbJ0teI/AAAAAAAAA-g/ennjsjZH2fkLhZdiWd46Eq1vcVwP8XoogCLcB/s1600/Starification%2BObject%2BSeries%2B%25281974%2529..jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="241" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-upv5B2Rg8UI/V2WbRbJ0teI/AAAAAAAAA-g/ennjsjZH2fkLhZdiWd46Eq1vcVwP8XoogCLcB/s320/Starification%2BObject%2BSeries%2B%25281974%2529..jpg" width="320" /></a> </div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><em>Hannah Wilke: (top) Starification Objects Series (1974)</em></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><em>(bottom) Portrait of the Artist in his Studio (1971)</em></span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wAVjV0X0pAc/V2Waum40FFI/AAAAAAAAA-o/lpiyAo-D1ucMg0Qx5GTdsZsiIjwzS8gGACKgB/s1600/Hannah%2BWilke%2B-%2BPortrait%2Bof%2Bthe%2BArtist%2Bin%2BHis%2BStudio%252C%2B1971.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="210" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wAVjV0X0pAc/V2Waum40FFI/AAAAAAAAA-o/lpiyAo-D1ucMg0Qx5GTdsZsiIjwzS8gGACKgB/s320/Hannah%2BWilke%2B-%2BPortrait%2Bof%2Bthe%2BArtist%2Bin%2BHis%2BStudio%252C%2B1971.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bgLRi_C9Le4/V2Wayh7EBLI/AAAAAAAAA-Y/IqB9McPeMjkpvcTMnQ_V5QuXC9_KhcTSQCLcB/s1600/fight%2Bthe%2Bgood%2Bfight%2B1996.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bgLRi_C9Le4/V2Wayh7EBLI/AAAAAAAAA-Y/IqB9McPeMjkpvcTMnQ_V5QuXC9_KhcTSQCLcB/s320/fight%2Bthe%2Bgood%2Bfight%2B1996.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><em>Fight the Good Fight, Sarah Lucas (1996)</em></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">Yayoi Kusama also kept her clothes on in the documentation
of her happenings at various venues around New York in the 1960s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here the artist is portrayed as director of
the performance, rather than participant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>However, the very inclusion of her in these photographs does in fact
record her own performativity within the happenings, which may have been
unintended.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<br /><br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EEIsV5s01b8/V2WZrWJTxtI/AAAAAAAAA-E/e4EjQR_da3oemxLxyAI2HJ_WR5YaL5cJgCKgB/s1600/Yayoi%2BKusama%252C%2BThe%2BAnatomic%2BExplosion%252C%2BBrooklyn%2BBridge%252C%2BNY%252C%2B1968.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="235" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EEIsV5s01b8/V2WZrWJTxtI/AAAAAAAAA-E/e4EjQR_da3oemxLxyAI2HJ_WR5YaL5cJgCKgB/s320/Yayoi%2BKusama%252C%2BThe%2BAnatomic%2BExplosion%252C%2BBrooklyn%2BBridge%252C%2BNY%252C%2B1968.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<em><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Yayoi Kusama</span></em></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<em><span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span></em><br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;">An air of naivety surrounds most of the work on display in
this exhibition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From some of the
rhetoric by certain artists featured (for example, Jimmy De Sana insisted his
nudes photographed in grubby suburban interiors where inherently un-erotic, in
part due to the surroundings they were filmed in) to attempts to capture
movement and dance by a static medium in the case of Trisha Brown and Yvonne
Rainer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The capturing of performance work
by Babette Mangolte, Marta Minujin <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and
Stuart Brisley is similarly naïve, but epitomises an imperative to test the
limits of both artist and medium.</span></div>
<br /><br />
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oRW-19AhgII/V2Wce-xf9HI/AAAAAAAAA-w/OzwA8Ph0e_kqyk-a5pg7zcjiskCUQKu8QCLcB/s1600/Yvonne%2BRainer%252C%2BLives%2Bof%2BPerformers%252C%2B1972%2B2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oRW-19AhgII/V2Wce-xf9HI/AAAAAAAAA-w/OzwA8Ph0e_kqyk-a5pg7zcjiskCUQKu8QCLcB/s320/Yvonne%2BRainer%252C%2BLives%2Bof%2BPerformers%252C%2B1972%2B2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><em>Lives of Performers, Yvonne Rainer (1972)</em></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XIfXvninaNY/V2WciJe1IYI/AAAAAAAAA-4/MvT9CwgVGY8uFYT0P-TyTvMECjzOldAHwCLcB/s1600/Yvonne%2BRainer%252C%2BLives%2Bof%2BPerformers%252C%2B1972.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="220" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XIfXvninaNY/V2WciJe1IYI/AAAAAAAAA-4/MvT9CwgVGY8uFYT0P-TyTvMECjzOldAHwCLcB/s320/Yvonne%2BRainer%252C%2BLives%2Bof%2BPerformers%252C%2B1972.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<em><span style="font-family: Calibri;">(below) Roof Piece, Trish Brown and Babette Mangolte (1971)</span></em></div>
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<em><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span></em></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8IBnM8FVjIw/V2WdJcOGHbI/AAAAAAAAA_E/ow2vtQmg8wEy5Z-GHnOk9v2T9rUEApD8QCLcB/s1600/BM_RoofPiece-1100x756.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="136" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8IBnM8FVjIw/V2WdJcOGHbI/AAAAAAAAA_E/ow2vtQmg8wEy5Z-GHnOk9v2T9rUEApD8QCLcB/s200/BM_RoofPiece-1100x756.jpg" width="200" /></a><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5WJRlDiun_0/V2WdMn5_7wI/AAAAAAAAA_M/OrCummND3OEHBOAwGpJekt0vyu_LbmxTgCLcB/s1600/babette%2Bmangolte%252C%2Btrisha%2Bbrown.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="160" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5WJRlDiun_0/V2WdMn5_7wI/AAAAAAAAA_M/OrCummND3OEHBOAwGpJekt0vyu_LbmxTgCLcB/s200/babette%2Bmangolte%252C%2Btrisha%2Bbrown.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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<br /><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;">As the technology became more advanced and images turned
from black and white to colour, naivety is replaced by sophistication, and self-promotion
goes hand in hand with self-awareness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Erwin Wurm’s <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">“One Minute
Sculptures” (1997)</b> demonstrate a wit and intelligence lacking from some of
the more recent work in the exhibition.</span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-08gC7Ye4DL4/V2WfBfAuXgI/AAAAAAAAA_k/6askSx6s-yIhrpbdlC1cAk4BG4u92C4dACLcB/s1600/erwin_wurm_oranges.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="147" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-08gC7Ye4DL4/V2WfBfAuXgI/AAAAAAAAA_k/6askSx6s-yIhrpbdlC1cAk4BG4u92C4dACLcB/s200/erwin_wurm_oranges.jpg" width="200" /></a> <a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-24TSCbEO_jQ/V2WduVWWGjI/AAAAAAAAA_g/LfwBf-sJa4MQe0TXdJS2kbobukD8Nal6ACKgB/s1600/erwin-wurm-one-minute-sculptures-3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="130" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-24TSCbEO_jQ/V2WduVWWGjI/AAAAAAAAA_g/LfwBf-sJa4MQe0TXdJS2kbobukD8Nal6ACKgB/s200/erwin-wurm-one-minute-sculptures-3.png" width="200" /></a></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><em>Erwin Wurm</em></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span></div>
<br /><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">In the last of the fourteen rooms the 21<sup>st</sup>
century equivalent/re-boot of Schneemann’s Eye/Body series, was </span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-size: large;">Amalia Ulman’s<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">“Excellences & Perfections” (2014)</b>
series.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Reproduced from Instagram
postings, it was a four month durational performance taking place directly on
her personal Instagram account.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ulman
created a fictional character whose story unfolded in three different episodes
- a cute girl, sugar babe then as a fashion and style blogger.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her idea was to bring fiction to a platform
that has been designed for supposedly “authentic” behavior, interactions and
content. The intention was to prove how easy an audience can be manipulated
through the use of mainstream archetypes and characters they have seen before.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is clever, provocative and problematic as such
representation is still an almost endemic mode of self-expression for young
women on social media who seek acceptance and praise.</span> </span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UuCCfqnd1-A/V2WfUVTrvTI/AAAAAAAAA_s/Oj5Pths7ISIuv5ft7a-3gurNyKVtUTqOQCLcB/s1600/B1Mwx2qCIAA4CWy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UuCCfqnd1-A/V2WfUVTrvTI/AAAAAAAAA_s/Oj5Pths7ISIuv5ft7a-3gurNyKVtUTqOQCLcB/s320/B1Mwx2qCIAA4CWy.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><em>Excellences & Perfections, Amalia Ulman (2014)</em></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-At_wj-TZKCw/V2WgUiUlk6I/AAAAAAAAA_4/vXSf5iPICcQc6tYKckQd1hpGh9slzZmbwCLcB/s1600/04_thumb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-At_wj-TZKCw/V2WgUiUlk6I/AAAAAAAAA_4/vXSf5iPICcQc6tYKckQd1hpGh9slzZmbwCLcB/s1600/04_thumb.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><em>Rrose Sélavy (Marcel Duchamp), Man Ray (1921)</em></span></div>
<br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IFc8DA2g7zI/V2WgZCszCHI/AAAAAAAABAA/DHWzOEf2xBgTmFmvsQGvvcxhRIixYhjDgCLcB/s1600/Ai%2BWeiwei%252C%2BDropping%2Ba%2BHan%2BDynasty%2BUrn%2B%25281995%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="189" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IFc8DA2g7zI/V2WgZCszCHI/AAAAAAAABAA/DHWzOEf2xBgTmFmvsQGvvcxhRIixYhjDgCLcB/s320/Ai%2BWeiwei%252C%2BDropping%2Ba%2BHan%2BDynasty%2BUrn%2B%25281995%2529.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><em>Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn, Ai WeiWei (1995)</em></span></div>
<br /><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-size: large;">Personal
highlights were Marcel Duchamp’s alter-ego Rrose Sélavy photographed by Man Ray
in 1921 which I have seen reproduced many times in academic texts and <strong>Ai WeiWei's "Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn (1995)</strong>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Also, a collection of work by Francesca
Woodman, an artist I was completely unaware of, greatly moved me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While she tread the feminist minefield of
featuring young women (including herself) naked, most of the bodies were
blurred due to movement and long exposure times in her photographs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The figures merged with their surroundings or
their faces were obscured.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The aesthetic
considerations in her compositions were ethereal and beautiful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sadly, she committed suicide at the age of
just 22 in 1981.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She never gained
critical acclaim or attention during her lifetime, and it seems that the
inclusion of so much of her work in one group exhibition, attests to a reversal
of opinion since her death</span>.</span><span lang="EN"> </span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span lang="EN"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span lang="EN"><em>(below) Untitled, Francesa Woodman (c. 1975-1980)</em></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-j26h_n_1QmA/V2WhCOKRPaI/AAAAAAAABAw/VvmE9g7ZZdENfT7ZSCfe7df1aF8YNs4zgCKgB/s1600/Francesca%2BWoodman%2B%2527From%2BAngel%2BSeries%252C%2BRoma%252C%2BSeptember%2B1977%2527.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="317" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-j26h_n_1QmA/V2WhCOKRPaI/AAAAAAAABAw/VvmE9g7ZZdENfT7ZSCfe7df1aF8YNs4zgCKgB/s320/Francesca%2BWoodman%2B%2527From%2BAngel%2BSeries%252C%2BRoma%252C%2BSeptember%2B1977%2527.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;">This was an
exhausting, but very thought-provoking exhibition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ironically at the entrance there was a “no
photography” sign on the door which was clearly ignored given that there are to
date over 1,000 posts on #performingforthecamera…</span></span></div>
<br /><br />
<br />Instagram: @steph_e_duboishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201198253197116387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-915395068693127644.post-6306875587985658972016-03-27T11:36:00.002-07:002016-07-21T04:08:13.876-07:00Nikolai Astrup: Painting Norway. Dulwich Picture Gallery, London (5 February-15 May 2016)<br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nD30Vc9bqtA/VvgiLaOJ3wI/AAAAAAAAA6w/ZyMaMqfVepkhLuSsrPpYMhR7TpexVeGOQ/s1600/gardenroom-door-nikolai-astrup.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="268" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-nD30Vc9bqtA/VvgiLaOJ3wI/AAAAAAAAA6w/ZyMaMqfVepkhLuSsrPpYMhR7TpexVeGOQ/s400/gardenroom-door-nikolai-astrup.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<em>By the Open Door (1911)</em></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: large;">I am neither arrogant nor foolish enough to pretend to have
knowledge of every artist whose work and career have been successful enough to gain
acclaim during their lifetime and/or warrant inclusion into art history
narratives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, during all the
years I have spent looking at and studying art, gradually defining and
developing my own areas of interest and personal stylistic preferences, it has
been the discovery of artists completely unknown to me and discovered quite by
chance, which have proved to be the most exciting and enduring.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Helene Schjerfbeck, Yayoi Kusama and Marie
Laurencin are three such discoveries over the years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now I can add Nikolai Astrup to the list.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A weekly scan through the art section of Time
Out magazine, drew my attention to this exhibition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As I am going on a cruise along the Norwegian
fjords this summer combined with the vividly coloured painting featured in the
review, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Midsummer Eve Bonfire</i> (1915) -
immediately identifiable as early twentieth century (one of my favoured historical
eras) - made the long hike down to Dulwich inevitable. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><br /></span><br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mPInFTQUgCc/VvgigBmYNHI/AAAAAAAAA7Q/DKIw8teFg0A3f85qX36BP2r37JI_lugTQ/s1600/Nikolai-Astrup-review.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-mPInFTQUgCc/VvgigBmYNHI/AAAAAAAAA7Q/DKIw8teFg0A3f85qX36BP2r37JI_lugTQ/s400/Nikolai-Astrup-review.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<em>Midsummer Eve Bonfire (1915)</em></div>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><br /></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="font-size: large;">A<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">strup
(1880-1928) was o</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;">ne
of Norway’s most renowned landscape painters and printmakers, yet until now remained
completely unknown outside his native country.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Art history has favoured his contemporary, Edvard Munch, probably
because Munch left Norway to live and work in major art capitals of the time - <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Paris, Berlin, Munich - while Astrup, with the
exception of a one year residency in Paris (where he studied at the Académie
Colarossi and became influenced by the work of Maurice Dennis, Henri Rousseau
and Japanese woodcuts) he lived along the same fjord in North West Norway all
his life, only moving along the shoreline from one small village to another.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, this exhibition at the Dulwich Picture
Gallery is the first time his work has been seen in the United Kingdom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Astrup’s paintings of the surroundings in
which he lived transformed the Norwegian landscape into a mythical, living
entity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was an exquisite painter and </span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">driven by the desire to create a ‘national
style’, Norwegian in feeling and subject matter, combining elements of realism
and a conscious naïveté.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His luminous
landscapes appear to be simple, beautiful landscape studies but they are shot
through with an uneasy strangeness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
son of a Lutheran pastor, Astrup’s visual language reference aspects of
Norwegian folklore as much as they do the Norwegian landscape and the
juxtaposition between Christian and Pagan, which the affected Astrup the man is
evident on the canvases of Astrup the artist.</span></span></span></div>
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<em>Foxgloves (1920)</em></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: large;">Two
paintings, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Morning in March </i>(1920)
and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Parsonage</i> (1928), demonstrates
this duality within Astrup’s oeuvre.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Morning in March</i> depicts a fjord
shoreline under the snow and ice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A bare
tree rises up from the rocks’ edge.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
landscape is bleak, the tree almost troll-like in its appearance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In contrast, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Parsonage</i> is a masterclass in realism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A beautifully accurate rendering of the
artist’s childhood home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of my
personal favourites from the exhibition is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A
Clear Night in June</i> (1905-07), another view of the village of his
childhood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The finesse in the execution
of this still and calming landscape, with its balance of cool snowcapped
mountain and waterfall against the warm, yellow marigolds is riveting.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/--1ytSYd3JG4/Vvgi4dFOApI/AAAAAAAAA7Y/xeM43P9LFKIDS63CJdrVWCruJ7Icn1jJQ/s1600/untitled.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/--1ytSYd3JG4/Vvgi4dFOApI/AAAAAAAAA7Y/xeM43P9LFKIDS63CJdrVWCruJ7Icn1jJQ/s400/untitled.png" width="295" /></a> </div>
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<em><span style="font-family: "calibri";">A Morning in March (1920) </span></em></div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1GW3khMAKXw/VvgiteRCOqI/AAAAAAAAA7I/fr_VzgRP_Ak0SqBGPlmfJRBnbK60NzL8w/s1600/Parsonage-Nikolai-Astrup-The-Chromologist.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1GW3khMAKXw/VvgiteRCOqI/AAAAAAAAA7I/fr_VzgRP_Ak0SqBGPlmfJRBnbK60NzL8w/s400/Parsonage-Nikolai-Astrup-The-Chromologist.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><em>The Parsonage (1928)</em></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: large;">Unless you are
lucky enough to live within a stone’s throw from Dulwich Picture Gallery, the
venue can feel almost as remote as a Norwegian fjord to get to (it took me 2½ by
road, rail and tube).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, any and
all efforts to visit it will be more than rewarded for.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The exhibition contains over 90 oil paintings
and prints, including works from private collections never exhibited before.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The consistency in both his subject matter
and colour palette, ensure a vibrant and cohesive collection of paintings which
deserve to be seen by as many people as possible.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nikolai Astrup deserves the attention and it
is only a matter of time before his name becomes as known globally as Edvard Munch.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk/">http://www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk/</a></span><br />
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Wp9jADyQ-5g/VvgiQQ8puHI/AAAAAAAAA7Q/RwAlgNsDs602nBx3HbXOsNQJ24RUgnyFg/s1600/Key6AClearNightinJune.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="382" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Wp9jADyQ-5g/VvgiQQ8puHI/AAAAAAAAA7Q/RwAlgNsDs602nBx3HbXOsNQJ24RUgnyFg/s400/Key6AClearNightinJune.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><em>A Clear Night in June</em> (1905-07)</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8r3LBHmx-8E/Vvgn7J2vf0I/AAAAAAAAA7g/ay8qz1RDA-EMYtm7oF93VK2QMzWgvAOCQ/s1600/Spring%2BMood%2Bby%2BOld%2BCotters%2BFarm%2Bvia%2BNikolai-AstrupdotNO.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="340" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8r3LBHmx-8E/Vvgn7J2vf0I/AAAAAAAAA7g/ay8qz1RDA-EMYtm7oF93VK2QMzWgvAOCQ/s400/Spring%2BMood%2Bby%2BOld%2BCotters%2BFarm%2Bvia%2BNikolai-AstrupdotNO.jpg" width="400" /></a></span></div>
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<em>Spring Atmosphere at an Old Cotter's Farm (1907)</em></div>
</span><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><em><br /></em></span><br /></div>
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Instagram: @steph_e_duboishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201198253197116387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-915395068693127644.post-33747921674053542352016-01-07T10:46:00.001-08:002016-01-07T10:46:38.176-08:00Giacometti: Pure Presence, National Portrait Gallery, London (15 October 2015-10 January 2016)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4PU6wYkeqys/Vo6sekSExUI/AAAAAAAAA5E/n_5WUEODZ6Y/s1600/jEANNETTE.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4PU6wYkeqys/Vo6sekSExUI/AAAAAAAAA5E/n_5WUEODZ6Y/s320/jEANNETTE.jpg" width="262" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<em><span style="font-size: x-small;">Portrait of Annette (1954)</span></em></div>
<br /><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Portrait of Annette</i>
(1954) by Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966) was to be the third artwork to feature
in my “Why I Love…” series.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Having
attended many life drawing classes over the years where much emphasis was put
on building up the figure using shade and tone to gently (and more importantly)
to accurately depict flesh and muscle, with the use of a hard or misplaced line
frowned upon, this painting of the artist’s wife sitting in his studio
fascinated me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Giacometti use of line
was so frenetic and seemingly uncontrolled, as if possessed by a need to commit
his wife’s likeness to canvas almost against his will.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Building up Annette’s body in white, grey and
ochre chalk and then repeatedly searching for her contours in black before extending
the same line into the space in which she sat then framing both within the
canvas itself, Giacometti seemed more interested in the relationship between
the sitter and the space than capturing a likeness of his wife, either physically
or psychologically.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Historical accounts
record Annette as being pretty and vivacious, open and receptive, such
qualities at odds with Giacometti’s expressionless almost hollow
rendering.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wondered then if such a
depiction was a comment on the nature of their relationship and the artist’s
inner contempt for his spouse.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Later
research proved that particularly theory wrong (they were happily married for seventeen
years from 1949 until the artist’s death in 1966) and she featured
predominately in his professional, as well as personal life during that
time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Despite my woeful attempt at
psychoanalysis, Giacometti’s style of drawing greatly influenced my own and
such way of working suited me well as I struggled with more traditional forms
of life drawing.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;">Regarded as one of the great masters of twentieth century art, Giacometti’s sculptures of spindly, elongated figures are heralded as capturing the existential loneliness of modern humanity in the aftermath of the Second World War.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Such sculptures enveloped by the space that surrounded them almost as tangibly as the void that they inhabited.</span></div>
</span><div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;">Only one is featured in this exhibition, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Woman of Venice VIII</i> (1956), used almost
as a book mark to distinguish the artist’s early Cubist inspired work, with his
later oeuvre.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This solitary figure,
taken away from her sisters and the artist’s original group of ten <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Women for Venice</i> (1956) for the city’s
biennale of that year, still imbues both calmness and rage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Does she stand to protect her loved ones, or
is she paralysed in grief or fear?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She
is both ugly and beautiful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She moved me
greatly and I found myself drawn back to her many times during my visit to this
exhibition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps on this artwork I
project my own contradictory feelings and thoughts.</span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sRU8DNYq-kk/Vo6tdPZ2TsI/AAAAAAAAA5M/89ytnwsDbXk/s1600/061_01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-sRU8DNYq-kk/Vo6tdPZ2TsI/AAAAAAAAA5M/89ytnwsDbXk/s320/061_01.jpg" width="185" /></a></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-small;"><em>Woman of Venice VIII (1956)</em></span></div>
<br /><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;">Much has been written about Giacometti’s progress from his
Surrealist sculptures of the early 1930s through to the elongated figures which
evolved from the time he spent working in exile in Geneva during the Second
World War.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The premise of this
exhibition is that at the heart of this progression (and despite the artist’s
declaration in 1925 that he had abandoned working from observation due to his
perceived inability of capturing any likeness successfully) was the artist’s
continued observance of reality in the form of painted and sculpted portraits
of a very small number of sitters throughout his career, most notably his
parents, his brother Diego and his wife Annette.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-x62G0jmgnus/Vo6tylnpH1I/AAAAAAAAA5U/guUDpaKZPxI/s1600/alberto-giacometti-diego-post-impressionist.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-x62G0jmgnus/Vo6tylnpH1I/AAAAAAAAA5U/guUDpaKZPxI/s320/alberto-giacometti-diego-post-impressionist.jpg" width="253" /></a> <a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kfhUXBI1LtI/Vo6t556nBQI/AAAAAAAAA5c/B7oIDwzSAbw/s1600/diego%2Bpainting.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kfhUXBI1LtI/Vo6t556nBQI/AAAAAAAAA5c/B7oIDwzSAbw/s320/diego%2Bpainting.jpg" width="226" /></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><em><span style="font-size: x-small;"></span></em></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><em><span style="font-size: x-small;"> Diego standing in the Living Room, Stampa (1922) Diego (1950)</span></em></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: center;">
<em><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></em></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;">Giacometti’s radical change of style and artist intent is
evidenced in two paintings of his brother, both contained in the exhibition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The instantly recognised post-Impressionist,
Cubist influenced <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Diego standing in the
Living Room,</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Stampa</i> (1922), a
style much appropriated by artists of that time while beautiful in its
elegance, is in stark contrast to a portrait painted twenty-eight years’
later.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Diego</i> (1950) depicts the sitter in a studio location but this time
both pose and drawing style is much more relaxed and informal pose.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In his catalogue introduction to the
exhibition, Curator of Twentieth-Century Portraits at the National Portrait
Gallery, describes Giacometti’s engagement with representation:</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;">“<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Giacometti’s
depiction of a model is essentially connected with the internal process of
seeing that person.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His portraits thus
stop short of evoking his sitters’ psychology, character or what is known about
them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rather, they are an intense record
of numerous attempts to give objective reality to that which is forever
appearing and disappearing: his subjective sensations of a living presence</i>”.</span></div>
<span style="font-size: large;">
</span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">This process of seeing and attempts at objective reality can
also be seen in two busts of Diego, one from 1924, the other from 1955</span>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></span><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GaniAjgmXaw/Vo6unJTtOgI/AAAAAAAAA5s/AmJu58DxbPM/s1600/Head%2Bof%2BDiego.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GaniAjgmXaw/Vo6unJTtOgI/AAAAAAAAA5s/AmJu58DxbPM/s320/Head%2Bof%2BDiego.jpg" width="194" /></a> <a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nStWtH-_gU8/Vo6upRSiwSI/AAAAAAAAA50/hcAfIhynOj0/s1600/004-alberto-giacometti-theredlist.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="193" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nStWtH-_gU8/Vo6upRSiwSI/AAAAAAAAA50/hcAfIhynOj0/s200/004-alberto-giacometti-theredlist.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-small;"><em>Head of Diego (1924)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Bust of Diego (1955)</em></span><br />
<br /><br />
<br /><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;">Diego acted as Giacometti’s studio assistant and technical
for his entire career.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Along with
Annette, he was a constantly with the artist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This intimacy and accessibility no doubt contributed to the intensity of
the artist’s gaze.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Such intensity is
evident even in his later portraits of his familiar subjects.</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7gmxDH9Zszw/Vo6wgvRQ10I/AAAAAAAAA6g/Syl-EnuNnnE/s1600/f8c6cc253e15461f901f1b16b388fe4c.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7gmxDH9Zszw/Vo6wgvRQ10I/AAAAAAAAA6g/Syl-EnuNnnE/s320/f8c6cc253e15461f901f1b16b388fe4c.jpg" width="214" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<em><span style="font-size: x-small;">The Artist's Mother (1950)</span></em></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></em></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FXzSqaKbeo4/Vo6v5knpz_I/AAAAAAAAA6Q/QgLZdBV4VmY/s1600/real-giacometti-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FXzSqaKbeo4/Vo6v5knpz_I/AAAAAAAAA6Q/QgLZdBV4VmY/s1600/real-giacometti-2.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9fftueylYyc/Vo6wHsAUKZI/AAAAAAAAA6Y/rwwEhLLIoKc/s1600/0003_001b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9fftueylYyc/Vo6wHsAUKZI/AAAAAAAAA6Y/rwwEhLLIoKc/s320/0003_001b.jpg" width="198" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="IT" style="mso-ansi-language: IT;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><em><span style="font-size: x-small;">Portrait of
Caroline (1962) </span></em> </span></span><span lang="IT" style="mso-ansi-language: IT;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-small;"><em>Annette VI (1962)</em></span></span></div>
<br /><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">However, as Giacometti’s reputation increased
internationally, so did the opportunities for commissioned portraits.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Undertaken in relatively few sittings (compared
to the continuous scrutiny of his family and favoured model, Caroline), any
real essence of the subjects seemed lacking in such work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is as if the artist was looking at his
sitters, but had no real interest in seeing them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead of drawing to search for the truth of
the reality before him, any ‘pure presence’ of these sitters is
dissipated.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JFtuih4m5Ns/Vo6vLtMEFKI/AAAAAAAAA54/HfBgSQuV0Kw/s1600/b008e9e75a6dda75306c73d093b94c37.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JFtuih4m5Ns/Vo6vLtMEFKI/AAAAAAAAA54/HfBgSQuV0Kw/s1600/b008e9e75a6dda75306c73d093b94c37.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ppFYBV4J4rw/Vo6vOyHMI7I/AAAAAAAAA6A/oYd3MNHO15k/s1600/Giacometti_Portrait_David_Thompson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ppFYBV4J4rw/Vo6vOyHMI7I/AAAAAAAAA6A/oYd3MNHO15k/s320/Giacometti_Portrait_David_Thompson.jpg" width="232" /></a></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-small;"><em> Jean Genet (1954-55)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Portrait of G. David Thompson (1957)</em></span></div>
<br /><br />
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;">Despite this, all the works in this exhibition are enigmatic
and compelling and tell a lesser known story of an artist rightly regarded as
one of the most distinctive and important of the twentieth century.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His own imperative to draw connected with my
own at that time and the way he translated what he saw onto canvas gave me the
tools to continue such activity myself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It also reminds me it is an activity I sorely miss despite its inherent
frustrations with my own failings.</span></div>
<br /><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hr2BrpwmP1c/Vo6vfqD_AWI/AAAAAAAAA6I/8wCqBDKqQz8/s1600/giacometti-lead-img.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hr2BrpwmP1c/Vo6vfqD_AWI/AAAAAAAAA6I/8wCqBDKqQz8/s320/giacometti-lead-img.jpg" width="319" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<em><span style="font-size: x-small;">From left to right: Alberto, Diego and Annette (1952)</span></em></div>
<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></em><br />
<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></em><br />
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<br />Instagram: @steph_e_duboishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201198253197116387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-915395068693127644.post-35789095024124159012015-11-21T11:09:00.000-08:002015-11-21T11:09:49.367-08:0056th Venice Biennale: All The World’s Future (9 May-22 November 2015)
<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PSml0uJJUto/VlC5R2oU8GI/AAAAAAAAA2k/UV1_NvlpLXU/s1600/contemporary-public-art-la-biennale-arts-arte-show-project-venice-illuminations-sculpture-manfred-kielnhofer-statue-.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PSml0uJJUto/VlC5R2oU8GI/AAAAAAAAA2k/UV1_NvlpLXU/s320/contemporary-public-art-la-biennale-arts-arte-show-project-venice-illuminations-sculpture-manfred-kielnhofer-statue-.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">It has been a long-held ambition of mine to visit the Venice
Biennale and finally this year, I made the visit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The entire event takes place at the Giardini,
the Arsenale and in various locations across the beautiful city from May
through to November.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We visited at the
end of October on a gloriously warm and sunny weekend as part of a stay in
Venice to celebrate a special birthday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">Curated by Okwui Enwezor, this year’s event has had mixed
reviews and 2015 is not regarded as a milestone year in the Biennale’s one
hundred and twenty year history.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One
critic said that lacked visual power, originality, wit or bravado.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Another wrote that it was the most depressing
biennale he has ever visited and that it was a grim feast of international
politics, self-obsession and complaint.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The overall critical consensus appeared to be that the curator’s attempt
to present the state of global contemporary art today and giving a platform and
voice to countries not previously represented, delivered an assault course of
videos about global starvation, industrial pollution and the atrocious
conditions of workers in developing countries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>For many critics, Enwezor’s ‘dense, restless and exploratory project’
had taken the soul out of the event, making the experience of visiting a ‘glum
trudge than the usual exhilarating adventure’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;">Despite these portents of an impending doomed visit, my
excitement and enthusiasm mounted as the water taxi journeyed down the Grand
Canal and both remained intact as we wandered leisurely around the
gardens.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The sunshine and surprising
lack of queues (around 300,000 visitors were expected over the six month run) contributed
to what was still a very special and enjoyable visit.</span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZdpSRp7mgd4/VlC_XX9jJLI/AAAAAAAAA4g/ULp-k3kCXM8/s1600/01_310.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZdpSRp7mgd4/VlC_XX9jJLI/AAAAAAAAA4g/ULp-k3kCXM8/s320/01_310.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;">As we didn’t have enough time to visit all the Biennale
locations, we concentrated on the central and national pavilions in the
Giardini and perhaps this protected us from any feelings of disappointment and
a predicted doomed visit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I fast tracked
first to see new work from Wangechi <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Muti
in the central pavilion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have been a
fan for many years and she was even gracious enough to participate in my email
interview to form part of my BA dissertation way back in 2006.</span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wPYnvMy63fc/VlC5wOV3heI/AAAAAAAAA24/-BvMr7w3Bdg/s1600/Screen_Shot_2015-08-10_at_11_47_07.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wPYnvMy63fc/VlC5wOV3heI/AAAAAAAAA24/-BvMr7w3Bdg/s320/Screen_Shot_2015-08-10_at_11_47_07.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">Mutu puts together magazine imagery with painted surfaces and found
materials.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her collages explore the split
nature of cultural identity and reference colonial history, fashion and
contemporary African politics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most
recently, her work has extended into sculpture and video.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I find her work incredibly engaging and
moving.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her video piece <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The End of Carrying All </i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>is a piece made this year and is premiered at
the Biennale.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was haunting, dreamlike
and very powerful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mutu’s sculptural
piece, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">She’s Got The World in Her </i>also
shows the artist’s themes of constant and futile striving and the toll it takes
on body and soul.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">It was my patriotic duty to visit the British Pavilion next, to see the
wonderful Sarah Lucas in all her rude, crude and irreverent glory.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For “I Scream Daddio”, the building was
completed painted custard yellow and filled with biomorphic sculptures and
plaster casts of the bottom halves of women draped over household (made from
her friends and herself), each with a cigarette sticking out of an
orifice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her direct and uncompromising
attacks on masculine attitudes to femininity and issues around gender and continue
to provoke and confound.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xQL_kPRHq6c/VlC66cTDh8I/AAAAAAAAA3U/1cjTavdhZDM/s1600/i-scream-daddio-is-one-of-many-provocative-sculptures-created-by-british-artist-sarah-lucas-yes-that-is-a-cigarette-you-see-there-she-describes-the-wo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xQL_kPRHq6c/VlC66cTDh8I/AAAAAAAAA3U/1cjTavdhZDM/s320/i-scream-daddio-is-one-of-many-provocative-sculptures-created-by-british-artist-sarah-lucas-yes-that-is-a-cigarette-you-see-there-she-describes-the-wo.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;">The French Pavilion offered the perfect antidote to Lucas’s full on visual
assault.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Celéste Boursier-Mougenot’s “Revolutions”,
gently moving trees, both inside and outside the Pavilion, were haunting and
quite beautiful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Although obviously
mechanically enhanced, these were real, fully grown trees with root balls
exposed, which made their movement even more surreal. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Inside the Pavilion, what looked like concrete
steps turned out to be expanding foam on which to sit and watch another tree
move around the atrium to faintly heard music.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Exquisitely executed and wonderfully relaxing, a totally immersive artistic
encounter.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;">Like Sarah Lucas (but with no hint of humour or irony), Australian Fiona
Hall wore her politics loud and proud in her installation “Wrong Way Time”, for
her country’s pavilion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In near
darkness,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>her collections of objects and
ephemera (some made by indigenous women), took on the air of a museum of
antiquities and seemed a little naïve and sometimes obvious use for addressing her
concerns on global politics, world finances and the environment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was still positively drawn to some of her
work, particularly a collection of small bread sculptures placed across maps
which corresponded to a particular world problem – a slaughtered elephant laid
across a map of Africa, tiny cut out figures of swimmers put on the Mediterranean
Sea between Libya and Italy, demolished buildings placed on maps of war torn
cities<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In a politically drenched
installation, these did manage to resonate.</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jSVqqigAZ3Y/VlDASGSwWtI/AAAAAAAAA4s/i6xSlv0qMrU/s1600/Fiona-Hall-Australia-Pavilion-Venice-Bienale.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="202" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jSVqqigAZ3Y/VlDASGSwWtI/AAAAAAAAA4s/i6xSlv0qMrU/s320/Fiona-Hall-Australia-Pavilion-Venice-Bienale.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">The show stopping pavilion was without doubt Chiharu Shiota’s “The Key in
the Hand” for Japan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Exploring notions
of the link between memories of people across time, Shiota displayed two wooden
boats linked by webs of red yarn from which thousands of keys were suspended.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The overall visual impact was amazing and
walking around the installation opened up new and beautiful vistas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The intricacy of the piece was quite
breathtaking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I remember seeing an
earlier work by the artist at the Royal Academy some years ago.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was an antique wrought iron bed surrounded
by a web of black yarn.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In its
execution, this installation mirrors her earlier work, but it is none the less
beautiful.</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span></span></span><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IACT2eQlMwY/VlC7guA5t4I/AAAAAAAAA4A/I8qd1Q01Dog/s1600/chiharu-shiota-the-key-in-the-hand-venice-art-biennale-designboom-02.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-IACT2eQlMwY/VlC7guA5t4I/AAAAAAAAA4A/I8qd1Q01Dog/s320/chiharu-shiota-the-key-in-the-hand-venice-art-biennale-designboom-02.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OuE9Q9KDZRs/VlC78TzMo0I/AAAAAAAAA4Q/-aVWbfS4kbw/s1600/untitled.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OuE9Q9KDZRs/VlC78TzMo0I/AAAAAAAAA4Q/-aVWbfS4kbw/s320/untitled.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">We only scraped the surface of what this Biennale had to
offer and even if it was not critically well-received and generally thought to
be one of its weakest incarnations, I was very glad to have visited and
witnessed an important art historical event.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I am also completely in love with Venice, so a return visit is
definitely needed - let’s see what 2017 has to offer.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
Instagram: @steph_e_duboishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201198253197116387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-915395068693127644.post-91619141802589962342015-09-05T12:47:00.001-07:002015-09-05T13:13:00.182-07:00Joseph Cornell: Wanderlust. Royal Academy of Arts, London (4 July-27 September 2015)<div style="text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YN_hnMM_Q2s/VetAkAqDTtI/AAAAAAAAA2I/Qvsdj3wsgoo/s1600/cornell_medici-boy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-YN_hnMM_Q2s/VetAkAqDTtI/AAAAAAAAA2I/Qvsdj3wsgoo/s320/cornell_medici-boy.jpg" width="248" /></a> <a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-B3HVCIf1GKY/Ves31MkmgvI/AAAAAAAAA0w/Zf7vaVzNj3A/s1600/1-Joseph-Cornell-Untitled-Medici-Princess-c.-1948-620x906.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-B3HVCIf1GKY/Ves31MkmgvI/AAAAAAAAA0w/Zf7vaVzNj3A/s320/1-Joseph-Cornell-Untitled-Medici-Princess-c.-1948-620x906.jpg" width="218" /></a></div>
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<em> Untitled (Pinturicchio Boy), 1942-52 [Left] Untitled (Medici Princess), c. 1948 [Right]</em></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><em></em></span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;">I cannot remember the last time I visited a retrospective
exhibition for one artist where every art work on display, from their very
early work, mature and usually most iconic work and later, end of career work,
was so completely resolved, sophisticated and enchanting as that of Joseph
Cornell in this exhibition at the Royal Academy, his first retrospective in the
UK for over thirty years.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;">Cornell (1903-1972) was an extraordinary artist.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Completely self-taught and despite having
never travelled outside his native USA, he created the most exquisite and sublime
art works where notions of travel was the predominate influence.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was extremely well-read and knowledgeable
on a diverse range of subjects such as literature, astronomy, natural history
and opera, all which fed into his collages and assemblages.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Although he never visited Europe, Cornell was
captivated by bygone imagery and through his collecting (his box constructions
were filled with objects he found in thrift shops in his native New York, which
he used to wander around during his lunch breaks as a textile salesman), he amassed
an exceptional knowledge of astronomical<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>charts and geographical maps, Italian and Spanish Old Master paintings,
historical ballet, early cinema, literature, poetry and ornithology.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There was seemingly no subject which he could
not understand, interpret and extract not only selective imagery but also an
alternative context in order to construct a fantasy creation and not once did
any of his “shadow boxes” as he called them, ever slip into naivety, lazy construction
or theatre-set appearances.</span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-54gNCyreyGM/Ves66IsbQ3I/AAAAAAAAA08/K0QbTwKFbM0/s1600/_cornell.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="261" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-54gNCyreyGM/Ves66IsbQ3I/AAAAAAAAA08/K0QbTwKFbM0/s320/_cornell.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<em>Untitled (Cockatoo with Watch Faces), 1949</em></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qBJdjqjcT7Q/Ves7LI07tCI/AAAAAAAAA1U/AJ9DOYJGcuo/s1600/cornell_hotel-eden.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="314" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qBJdjqjcT7Q/Ves7LI07tCI/AAAAAAAAA1U/AJ9DOYJGcuo/s320/cornell_hotel-eden.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<em><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Untitled (The Hotel Eden), 1945</span></em></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">Cornell was a fascinating character.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He lived with and took care of his mother and
younger brother, who suffered from cerebral palsy, for all their lives. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Although reserved in character and often portrayed
as an isolated outsider, through personal friendships and a series of
successful exhibitions and patronage by the likes of Peggy Guggenheim and
Alfred Barr, he connected with leading members within Surrealism, Abstract
Expressionism, Pop Art and Minimalism as the movements developed in New York in
the 1940s, 50s and 60s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Despite these
relationships, Cornell maintained his independence from any particular group in
order to champion a highly personal form of artistic expression.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;">Play and experimentation, collecting and classification,
longing and reverie – categorisations the Royal Academy have used to describe Cornell’s
shifting attention and creations of fantastical games, fictional valises and
shrines to places and people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He did not
need to travel as his seemingly limitless imagination and creative skills could
construct fantastical renders which reality would be hard pressed to compare
with.</span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_zXzZOndRTs/Ves7QS5HcuI/AAAAAAAAA1c/ZW3eRzGpnf4/s1600/joseph_cornell_3365928b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="199" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_zXzZOndRTs/Ves7QS5HcuI/AAAAAAAAA1c/ZW3eRzGpnf4/s320/joseph_cornell_3365928b.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<em>Untitled (Celestial Navigation), 1956-58</em></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-T976ffpvHEg/Ves7UUhUOXI/AAAAAAAAA1k/M6SY6kQbJDY/s1600/josephcornell_boxes4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-T976ffpvHEg/Ves7UUhUOXI/AAAAAAAAA1k/M6SY6kQbJDY/s320/josephcornell_boxes4.jpg" width="294" /></a></div>
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<em>Untitled (Soap Bubble Set), 1936</em></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span> </div>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Cornell did not draw, paint or sculpt and was not the first
artist to use collage and assemblage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He
was though the first to make appropriation and arrangement of found objects and
materials as the exclusive medium of his work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The work on display in this exhibition is only a fragment of Cornell’s output
throughout his fifty year career, a career which not only saw the artist enjoy success
during his lifetime, but whose legacy has influenced many artists and echoes of
which can still be seen within contemporary art practice. </span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This is a delightful exhibition and a very long time coming
for the UK.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A definite must-see during a
visit to London this summer.</span></span><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-U2qzifJMuSg/Ves_lIFZXnI/AAAAAAAAA2A/vRI8anhwEX4/s1600/csm_Key_49_ec08f43066.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-U2qzifJMuSg/Ves_lIFZXnI/AAAAAAAAA2A/vRI8anhwEX4/s320/csm_Key_49_ec08f43066.jpg" width="245" /></a></div>
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<em>Untitled (The Life of Ludwig II of Bavaria), 1941-52</em></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ziBFg4ge7yA/Ves7glC3m6I/AAAAAAAAA10/d6h_ZFaPbdE/s1600/ScreenShot001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="290" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ziBFg4ge7yA/Ves7glC3m6I/AAAAAAAAA10/d6h_ZFaPbdE/s320/ScreenShot001.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<em>Untitled (Minutiae Objects), c. 1930s</em></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-y-pQoczGuiI/VetERDbCyyI/AAAAAAAAA2U/4iAWRwH-Y60/s1600/legypt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-y-pQoczGuiI/VetERDbCyyI/AAAAAAAAA2U/4iAWRwH-Y60/s320/legypt.jpg" width="282" /></a></div>
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<em>L'Egypte de Mlle Cleo de Merode, 1940</em></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oXilJrv6CcA/Ves7ZKRMNbI/AAAAAAAAA1s/wQl8qndLM28/s1600/nrk6edqdyhfugo1ni2rk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-oXilJrv6CcA/Ves7ZKRMNbI/AAAAAAAAA1s/wQl8qndLM28/s400/nrk6edqdyhfugo1ni2rk.jpg" width="262" /></a></div>
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<em>Naples, 1942</em></div>
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<a href="https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/">https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/</a><br />
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Instagram: @steph_e_duboishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201198253197116387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-915395068693127644.post-52199151368422405072015-08-28T12:04:00.001-07:002015-08-28T12:04:56.713-07:00Why I Love… A series of posts on artworks which have made a lasting impression on me. No 2: "Self-Portrait with Fried Eggs", 1996 (From Self-Portraits 1990-1998), Sarah Lucas
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UbP8q-r44Zc/VeCp0zRvB8I/AAAAAAAAAzw/oj9GJ0IR1VE/s1600/P78447_9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UbP8q-r44Zc/VeCp0zRvB8I/AAAAAAAAAzw/oj9GJ0IR1VE/s320/P78447_9.jpg" width="219" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><em>Self-Portrait with Fried Eggs, 1996</em> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Sarah Lucas has for a very long time (and continues to be) the number
one in my top five of favourite contemporary artists (the number two to five of
which are Jenny Saville, Wangechi Mutu, Cathy Wilkes and Johana Vasconcelos). A
lot of my art studies were focussed on sculptural practices by female artists
as well as self-portraiture, so she became one of my go-to artists. I
wasfascinated with her confrontational self-portraits and innuendo-filled work
as these were practices rarely adopted by female artists. A leading player in
the Young British Artist group of the late 1980s and early 1990s, her ‘ladette’
personification critiqued chauvinism and sexism from a very British
perspective.</span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> Using everyday materials, such as worn furniture, clothing, fruit,
vegetables, newspapers, cigarettes, cars, resin, plaster, neon lamps and light
fittings, the grungy, abject appearance of many of her works belied the serious
and complex subject matter they addressed. Lucas makes constant reference to
the human body, questioning gender definitions and challenging macho culture.
The use of food t</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">o represent or stand in for sexual body
parts was a common theme in Lucas's work of the 1990s to reveal and subvert
objectification of the body in vernacular language. </span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">For example, in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Au Natural (1994)</i> Lucas used a mattress, bucket, melons and
cucumber to parody stereotypes around sexualised bodies and mysogynistic
tabloid culture. Her fleshy and anthropomorphic sculptures of around the same
time in contrast underscored sexual, psychological and social tensions.</span></span></span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xDowRK8-NwE/VeCqiO_t9GI/AAAAAAAAAz4/bJcwUSwzPPg/s1600/au%2Bnatural%2B1994.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="256" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xDowRK8-NwE/VeCqiO_t9GI/AAAAAAAAAz4/bJcwUSwzPPg/s320/au%2Bnatural%2B1994.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p><em>Au Naturel (1994)</em></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DfvF-_5vHho/VeCqvkJaSEI/AAAAAAAAA0A/RW53zbni5bE/s1600/286006.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DfvF-_5vHho/VeCqvkJaSEI/AAAAAAAAA0A/RW53zbni5bE/s320/286006.jpg" width="286" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p>Bunny (1997)</o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">“</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">I use sexist attitudes because they are
there to be used. I get strength from them …With only minor adjustments, a
provocative image can become confrontational - converted from an offer of
sexual service into a castration image … I'm dipping into the culture, pointing
a finger: directing attention to what's there” [Sarah Lucas].<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Lucas’s first self-portrait, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Eating a
Banana</i></span><i><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> </span></i><i><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">(1990)</span></i><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> changed the
artist’s perception of her 'masculine' appearance which she saw as a
disadvantage, to being something she could use in her art. Through her
self-portraits she presented an identity which challenged stereotypical
representations of gender and sexuality in two dimensions as her sculptural and
installations did in three dimensions. For me, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Self Portrait with Fried Eggs (1996)</i> is the most iconic image in
the group of twelve photographs in the series. It would have been my own
artistic retort to comments as I was growing up to my own cleavage (or lack
thereof)!</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p><em>Eating a Banana<span> (1990)</span></em><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"> </span></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Lucas’s ouvre is about the everyday, the
abject and the epic. Her </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">work is crude, sleazy and funny. The continued
use of visual puns throughout her career have been aggressively impudent and
both shock and amuse - they are not for the faint-hearted. </span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Lucas is representing Britain at the 56th Venice
International Art Biennale 2015 with her major solo exhibition, “I Scream
Daddio”, in the British Pavilion (9 May - 22 November). I first saw Lucas’s
work in the 2004 Tate exhibition “</span><span class="field-content4"><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida”. Although
I have seen her work in a number of group and solo exhibitions since, eleven
years after that first exhibition I am </span></span><span lang="EN" style="mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">very excited to be visiting I Scream Daddio in October as part of a
birthday weekend visit to that beautiful city. It will be interesting to see
the juxtaposition of her work in such majestic surrounding</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">s.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"></span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></span> </div>
Instagram: @steph_e_duboishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201198253197116387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-915395068693127644.post-80889774840320917082015-08-15T12:36:00.003-07:002015-08-15T12:36:21.792-07:00MK Calling 2015, MK Gallery (3 July-6 September 2015)
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<em>MK Calling 2015 Artists</em></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;">I love that I have a contemporary art gallery in my home
town and only have to jump in my car on a Sunday and in less than ten minutes can
visit an exhibition space dedicated not only to national and international
artists, but also showcases the local artist community.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I shall miss such Sunday excursions when MK
Gallery closes at the end of this exhibition for its two year major expansion. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is perhaps fitting then that this show looks
to the local artist community, bringing together around seventy artists from an
open call, as the expansion will be benefit not only them, but all who live in
and around Milton Keynes and support and enjoy all types of contemporary art.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;">There were two things I particularly liked about this
exhibition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The first, and I do with all
the group shows held at MK Gallery, was that the sheer number of artists included
meant that each of its three rooms were filled with much more work than its
solo artist exhibitions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This may, of
course, seem like a an obvious (and nonsense) observation to make, but
sometimes the sheer size of these three rooms nearly always overwhelm the work
on display when by one artist as the curation seems to always lean towards the
less is more thinking, which inevitably leaves this viewer wanting to see more.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;">The second interesting point was that the selection
committee had chosen work by amateur artists as well as graduates and
established artists, a move rarely made by such committees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The information text by each piece gave no
clues to distinguish amateur from professional, but the inclusion of their dates
of birth did, as of course did comparing the individual pieces especially when
work of similar genres were hung relatively close together.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I could hazard a guess as to which was which as
some naïve style paintings and sculpture looked far less accomplished than
others and I really didn’t like them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
would though, be unkind to name specific artists because (a) people far more
qualified than I chose to include them; (b) my view is entirely subjective; and
(c) I could be completely wrong in my dismissal of individual artistic talent
and achievement against any formal training, especially if any of the artists whose
work I did particularly like are indeed amateurs!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I suspect this blurring of lines of judgment
was exactly why they were included.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">The stand out pieces for me were Cally Shadbolt’s beautiful
and serene plaster sculptures <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Holder</i>
(2013), <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Artemis</i> (2014) and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ornament</i> (2014) and Yannik Perichon’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Two Thousand and Five Bends</i> (2009).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Both artists used materials which engage both
the <span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">visceral and the cerebral.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The local connection in Perichon’s installation,
a collection of hundreds of molten metal and glass fragments from a car that
had been set on fire in Furzton Lake, was particularly fascinating.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When examined up close, each tiny piece took
on a jewel-like appearance.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><em>Two Thousand and Five Bends (detail), (2012-15), Yannick Perichon</em></span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;">My favourites were
not combined to sculptural work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mary
Barnes’ oil paintings and Arianne Wilson’s drawings also drew me to view
repeatedly, for very different reasons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Barnes’ haunting still lives harked back to a style reminiscent of early
twentieth century modernist traditions, while Wilson’s cartoon-like and
self-reflective drawings continued the post-feminist mantra of the personal being
the political.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Both showed total
commitment to their practice.</span></span></div>
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</a> <img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JOTPLhZ-fuo/Vc-PWmu6fxI/AAAAAAAAAy4/DR2bgNMSuno/s200/SCAN0196.jpg" width="126" /> <a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hIqljNJfDT4/Vc-PaU7kozI/AAAAAAAAAzA/I7raqVsHtiE/s1600/SCAN0197.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hIqljNJfDT4/Vc-PaU7kozI/AAAAAAAAAzA/I7raqVsHtiE/s200/SCAN0197.jpg" width="125" /></a><br />
<em>Self-Discovery, Self-Loathing, Self-Acceptance (2014), Arianne Wilson</em><br />
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">Of all the work included
in this exhibition, a nearly-missed collection of tiny mixed-media drawings, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Compilation</i> (2012-2015) by William
Lindley remained in my thoughts for the longest.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>an exquisite collection of small drawings and
print works reflecting Lindley’s overall practice of investigating and
reimagining notions of place and described by MK Gallery as combining
traditional techniques with contemporary processes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> It is again the combination of the visceral and the cerebral by an artist, which Lindley did so well here and which is always my preferred type of contemporary art.</span></span></span></span><br />
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</a> <a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PLDXHFrJ-bc/Vc-Pl7X5IWI/AAAAAAAAAzQ/FLrWpqxP6Bc/s1600/86_approach-embellished.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="141" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PLDXHFrJ-bc/Vc-Pl7X5IWI/AAAAAAAAAzQ/FLrWpqxP6Bc/s200/86_approach-embellished.jpg" width="200" /></a><br />
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<em>Compilation [detail] (2012-15), William Lindley</em></div>
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<a href="http://www.mkgallery.org/">http://www.mkgallery.org/</a><br />
Instagram: @steph_e_duboishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201198253197116387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-915395068693127644.post-64382079605248532502015-06-12T07:58:00.000-07:002015-06-12T07:58:23.089-07:00New Rhythms: Henri Gaudier-Brzeska – Art, Dance and Movement, Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge (17 March-21 June 2015)<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span> <a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2R4_t17KFI0/VXrx9pFzVQI/AAAAAAAAAyE/nlzfJTgmZNY/s1600/KY_jims_bedroom_spiral.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="228" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-2R4_t17KFI0/VXrx9pFzVQI/AAAAAAAAAyE/nlzfJTgmZNY/s320/KY_jims_bedroom_spiral.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">Kettle’s Yard is a delightful venue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The former home of Helen and Jim Ede, their
lifelong love affair with art culminated in 1957 when they bought four derelict
cottages in Cambridge in which to display their art collection. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Between 1922-1936 Jim was a curator at Tate
Gallery and he believed that art was better approached and appreciated in the
intimate surroundings of a home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their
open house events during their time at Kettle’s Yard attracted students and
other visitors during the six years they lived there.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 1966 the Ides gave their home to Cambridge
University who continue to look after it today.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;">The Ides were very well connected.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When they lived in London in the mid 1920’s, they
regularly entertained artists including Barbara Hepworth, Henry Moore and Naum
Gabo.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 1926 Jim Ide bought virtually
the entire ouvre of Henri Gaudier-Brzeska and this exhibition, which marks 100
years since the artist died in the First World War aged 23, highlights how his
interest in dance and movement was reflected in his work and also that of his
contemporaries.</span></div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CFZYAK17Ia0/VXruX3naKAI/AAAAAAAAAxc/BSiiWmiy0Fc/s1600/53a7d1d2-98a4-11e0-bd66-00144feab49a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CFZYAK17Ia0/VXruX3naKAI/AAAAAAAAAxc/BSiiWmiy0Fc/s1600/53a7d1d2-98a4-11e0-bd66-00144feab49a.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-small;"><o:p><em>The Dancers (1912), Percy Wyndham Lewis</em></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">As well as drawings and sculptures by Gaudier-Brzeska, this
relatively small exhibition contains drawings and paintings by a number of British
Vorticists, including Percy Wyndham Lewis, David Bomberg and Helen
Saunders.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Given that the Vorticist
aesthetic of fragmented Cubism and hard edge imagery sought to capture the
vibrancy and energy of modern life, on the surface this seems a surprisingly
low energy exhibition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The 2D works are all
relatively small and the sculpture mostly hand size.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Despite this and when viewed up close and
lingered upon, the energy and exuberance captured in the works begins to
permeate the gallery.<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<em><span style="font-size: x-small;">Vorticist Composition in Green or Yellow (1915)</span></em></div>
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<em><span style="font-size: x-small;">Helen Saunders</span></em></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">At the beginning of the twentieth century, dance was being
revolutionised.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>New and daring dance
crazes (such as the Apache and of course, the Tango) were sweeping in from
Paris and America which became very popular in London music halls and theatres.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Serge Diaghilev was challenging classical
ballet and a new modern dance was being formulised by pioneers Louie Fuller and
Isadora Duncan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The artists in the
exhibition were swept up in the revolution and sought to capture the energy,
freedom and modernism in their work.</span></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: large;">While Wyndham Lewis’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Dancers</i> (1912), Helen Saunders’s<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">
Vorticist Composition in Green or Yellow </i>(c. 1915) capture the vitality of
dancing figures and their stylised jagged lines instantly evoke the energy of
dancing, Gaudier-Brzeska’s drawings and sculptures could as easily be
interpreted as wrestlers (who equally fascinated the artist) as much as
dancers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is evidence is a work such
as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Red Stone Dancer</i> (1913-1914).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Clearly by its title it is a representation
of a dancer and yet its entwined arms over the head could as easily be
interpreted as two figures grappling.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His
sketch study of the piece, with its use of Cubist/Futurist repeated forms to represent
movement, is equally ambivalent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Despite
this, his exquisite handling of the materials is still totally absorbing.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<img border="0" height="320" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HvT3m9EOX6Y/VXrvDOcYRGI/AAAAAAAAAxs/IgsRO58T-TQ/s320/N04515_10.jpg" width="232" /> <a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UbOyOxY4kpk/VXrvV0nct7I/AAAAAAAAAx4/Rbv0a0cdo98/s1600/04_03_gaudier_danseuse_pompidou_48-000586-02-copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UbOyOxY4kpk/VXrvV0nct7I/AAAAAAAAAx4/Rbv0a0cdo98/s320/04_03_gaudier_danseuse_pompidou_48-000586-02-copy.jpg" width="210" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><em>Henri Gaudier-Brzeska: (L): Red Stone Dancer (1913-1914) (R): Dancer Study (1914)</em></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: large;">Even though Gaudier-Brzeska lived in London for less than four
years (between 1911-1914), he very quickly established a reputation as a
vanguard artist and is now considered as a pioneer of modern sculpture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jim Ede was fortuitous indeed to have bought
such a large amount of his work. Kettle’s Yard will close for two years after
this exhibition in order to protect the house’s collection during major
expansion work on the gallery space.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
is fitting therefore that the final exhibition before its temporary closure is
primarily of the artist who is synonymous with both the Ides and Kettle’s Yard.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A visit to the house and the exhibition is
highly recommended.</span><br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bop-M2KFdhY/VXryYMwGwHI/AAAAAAAAAyI/kwCmO0ExM8U/s1600/MG_5759-400x400.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bop-M2KFdhY/VXryYMwGwHI/AAAAAAAAAyI/kwCmO0ExM8U/s320/MG_5759-400x400.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"> </span><a href="http://www.kettlesyard.co.uk/"><span style="font-size: large;">http://www.kettlesyard.co.uk/</span></a></div>
Instagram: @steph_e_duboishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201198253197116387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-915395068693127644.post-79483893794597016272015-05-22T11:59:00.004-07:002015-05-22T11:59:49.995-07:00Sonia Delaunay, Tate Modern, London (15 April-9 August 2015)
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KgwG5LFOwXg/VV93R7zNaZI/AAAAAAAAAwA/qlqw-oQcL-Y/s1600/sonia-delaunay-endormie%2B1907.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="268" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KgwG5LFOwXg/VV93R7zNaZI/AAAAAAAAAwA/qlqw-oQcL-Y/s320/sonia-delaunay-endormie%2B1907.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<em><span style="font-size: x-small;">La Jeune Fille Endormie (1907)</span></em></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WOAsqYt8K4E/VV92TIOFevI/AAAAAAAAAvs/dLwBEc94dAc/s1600/prismeselectriques1914x51623.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WOAsqYt8K4E/VV92TIOFevI/AAAAAAAAAvs/dLwBEc94dAc/s320/prismeselectriques1914x51623.jpg" width="319" /></a></div>
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<em><span style="font-size: x-small;">Prismes Electriques, 1914</span></em></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Art critic Waldemar Januszczak isn’t a fan of Sonia
Delaunay.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In his recent review for The
Sunday Times the most positive remark he could make about the artist was her
ability to copy the painting styles that surrounded her at any time in order to
produce her own decorative (and inferior) versions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He isn’t convinced by the assertions made by
the exhibition’s curator that her work and influence should be revaluated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He believes that far too much space has been
dedicated to a repetitive practice devoid of development, depth, tone or
range.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For Januszczak, like many critics
before him, Delaunay’s lifetime achievements fade into insignificance when
compared to any of her male modernist peers, such as Picasso [of course –
yawn].<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XEbTlAQdEhg/VV9zzoyY39I/AAAAAAAAAvY/MpMNLfMCGAA/s1600/Tate-Modern-Sonia-Delaunay-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XEbTlAQdEhg/VV9zzoyY39I/AAAAAAAAAvY/MpMNLfMCGAA/s320/Tate-Modern-Sonia-Delaunay-1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<em><span style="font-size: x-small;"></span></em> </div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I suspect that Januszczak <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>would feel the same about any other female artist
who worked at the heady (and much written about) time between the First and
Second World Wars, as his criticisms sound remarkably similar to numerous other
criticisms of female artists of that time, particularly when (a) these women’s
personal lives were interwoven with more well-known and acclaimed male artists,
and (b) their practices crossed from fine into decorative art.</span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-INsr_dpFXlU/VV936SCqjyI/AAAAAAAAAwI/FGdIhhAQt-I/s1600/P4140016_2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-INsr_dpFXlU/VV936SCqjyI/AAAAAAAAAwI/FGdIhhAQt-I/s320/P4140016_2.jpg" width="240" /></a><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2WmDW41K8fA/VV94M1NjsfI/AAAAAAAAAwQ/FBQdgxeswWA/s1600/CCjJd1fWIAAa80i.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2WmDW41K8fA/VV94M1NjsfI/AAAAAAAAAwQ/FBQdgxeswWA/s320/CCjJd1fWIAAa80i.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span></span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Throughout
the first half of the twentieth century, Sonia Delaunay celebrated the modern
world of movement, technology and urban life, exploring new ideas about colour
theory together with her husband Robert Delaunay.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I</span>n contrast to Januszczak, I will
always be excited by a retrospective of a female artist, particularly when it the
first time such a collection of their work has been seen in the UK. This one features
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">paintings, textiles and
clothes Delaunay made across a sixty-year career.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The exhibition also shows her collaborations
with poets, choreographers and manufacturers, from Diaghilev to Liberty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span>In my opinion, Delaunay’s artistic story
deserves to be told and the totality of her practice deserves however much
space is needed to hold it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, it
is her crossover into fashion and design and the critical responses such
crossover have elicited within art history narratives, which continue to
fascinate and infuriate me in equal measure.</span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YmjVmX5YTt4/VV94edZQI9I/AAAAAAAAAwY/PxWONk3Hqzw/s1600/Bal-Bullier_Delaunay.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="156" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YmjVmX5YTt4/VV94edZQI9I/AAAAAAAAAwY/PxWONk3Hqzw/s640/Bal-Bullier_Delaunay.jpg" width="640" /></a> <span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-small;"><em>Le Bal Bullier (1913)</em></span> </div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Paintings such as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Le
Bal Bullier</i> (inspired by Delaunay’s experience of the tango being danced at
a </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Parisian nightclub) and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Electric Prisms</i>
(which explored the effect of electric light) show the artist at the height of
her engagement with painting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The results
of her engagement in geometric abstraction away from canvas and into fabric
design epitomised the fashion of the 1920s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This transition from painting to design can been seen in a work such as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Simultaneous Dresses</i>, which shows a lighter,
sketchier style.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Delaunay’s success as a
fabric designer took over her entire practice for many years, but her work did
develop when she did return to painting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Januszczak is wrong to say that it did not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 1937 Delaunay produced three massive
panels depicting an aircraft propeller, engine and instrument panel for the
International Exhibition of Arts and Technology. She was fifty-two when she
created this work, which was awarded a Gold Medal by the exhibition judges at
the time and actually seem very contemporary even today.</span><br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xFW7cZEbKnw/VV96VMbVYxI/AAAAAAAAAww/wwljRHi-yrI/s1600/Delaunay_3_main.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="268" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xFW7cZEbKnw/VV96VMbVYxI/AAAAAAAAAww/wwljRHi-yrI/s640/Delaunay_3_main.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<em><span style="font-size: x-small;">Propeller (1937)</span></em></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">In the battle of the sexes within modernist art
criticism, Delaunay has suffered the same fate as Marie Laurencin – she has
been judged and found lacking by many.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>For an insight into the arguments attempting to redress this view, in the
same way as this exhibition, chapter 4 “Gender Codes” in Cubism and Culture by
Mark Antliff and Patricia Leighton (Thames & Hudson, London 2001) is a
fascinating and informative read.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span><br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Ygc9GRtYOD8/VV92MA-7boI/AAAAAAAAAvk/jupYHtyD6oA/s1600/341121.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="242" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Ygc9GRtYOD8/VV92MA-7boI/AAAAAAAAAvk/jupYHtyD6oA/s320/341121.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-D1t5mqheOGY/VV97fPlwiWI/AAAAAAAAAw8/h4A9fjdEpTk/s1600/DELAUNAY2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="204" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-D1t5mqheOGY/VV97fPlwiWI/AAAAAAAAAw8/h4A9fjdEpTk/s320/DELAUNAY2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span>Instagram: @steph_e_duboishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201198253197116387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-915395068693127644.post-57070184848331612692015-04-11T08:32:00.000-07:002015-04-11T08:32:43.817-07:00Ellen Altfest, MK Gallery, Milton Keynes (3 April-21 June 2015)
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Rquk6LVe5D0/VSk9coywELI/AAAAAAAAAuY/9QsEm21ZKKs/s1600/Ellen%2BAltfest%2BTorso%2B2011%2Bedited.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Rquk6LVe5D0/VSk9coywELI/AAAAAAAAAuY/9QsEm21ZKKs/s1600/Ellen%2BAltfest%2BTorso%2B2011%2Bedited.jpg" height="234" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-small;"><strong><em>Torso (2011)</em></strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">MK Gallery rarely holds figurative painting exhibitions, so
lovers of oil on canvas and realism are in for a real treat with its latest
exhibition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ellen Altfest (born New
York, 1970) is an incredibly gifted painter and looking at her twenty-t wo
paintings featured in this, her first solo exhibition in a UK public gallery (a
curatorial practice which MK Gallery seems to be basing many of its exhibitions
on), it is reassuring to see that such talent and meticulous precision in
painting can still successfully manifest itself in a contemporary way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You can at once see the influence of Lucien
Freud and Stanley Spencer on Altfest’s work and an aura of detached, yet
relentless observation pervade the four galleries.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Given that Altfest always paints to actual size, her early canvases
of woodland trees and rocks painted plein-air offer a glimpse into the artist’s
enormous capabilities and commitment. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each
fluttering leaf, twisted branch or gnarled bark is consummately rendered and
offers a visual feast whether observed from a distance or at close
quarters.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The woodland seems to move as
you view at different angles.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jUHMulHeZ0c/VSk7o27rnxI/AAAAAAAAAt8/DowzRNv0wuk/s1600/ellen_altfest_the_tree_d5623308h.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-jUHMulHeZ0c/VSk7o27rnxI/AAAAAAAAAt8/DowzRNv0wuk/s1600/ellen_altfest_the_tree_d5623308h.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
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<strong><em><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-small;">The Tree (2000)</span></em></strong></div>
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<strong><em><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-small;"></span></em></strong> </div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">As her practice developed, Altfest began to bring the
outdoors inside, juxtaposing natural objects such as logs, gourds and
tumbleweed against the paint-splattered floorboards of her New York studio.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I stood dumbfounded at the intricacy of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tumbleweed</i> (2005).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The delicacy and intricacy of the brush
strokes make an ugly subject truly beautiful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Gourds </i>(2006-2007) similarly
turned a domestic vegetable into an object of exquisite beauty, bringing the tradition
of seventeenth century Dutch still life
painting into the twenty-first century.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gl5u2izr-jg/VSk8Gy4LG9I/AAAAAAAAAuE/8SriQY4Salc/s1600/Ellen%20Altfest%20Tumbleweed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gl5u2izr-jg/VSk8Gy4LG9I/AAAAAAAAAuE/8SriQY4Salc/s1600/Ellen%20Altfest%20Tumbleweed.jpg" height="257" width="320" /></a> </div>
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<strong><em><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-small;">Tumbleweed (2005)</span></em></strong></div>
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<strong><em><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-small;"></span></em></strong> </div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zLtd3hMcCM8/VSk8dYVnxMI/AAAAAAAAAuM/iQGjtRyYMOo/s1600/8c901d39-7c29-4e43-aa7e-07f48506534f_11622.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zLtd3hMcCM8/VSk8dYVnxMI/AAAAAAAAAuM/iQGjtRyYMOo/s1600/8c901d39-7c29-4e43-aa7e-07f48506534f_11622.jpg" height="162" width="320" /></a></div>
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<strong><em><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-small;">Gourds (2006-2007)</span></em></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Altfest is best known for her small and detailed paintings
of male body parts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hairy hands, armpits
and arses are given as much artistic care and attention as the rest of her
ouvre, but it is with the depiction of human flesh in which the artist truly excels.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Every blemish, wrinkle and vein can be
clearly seen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She wields her brush so
masterly that in a piece such as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Armpit</i>
(2011) you can feel the veins pulsating and in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Three Parts</i> (2014-15) the woven cloth appears to gently sway as you
walk pass the canvas.</span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kP9jnKmdBjc/VSk6q6wCpLI/AAAAAAAAAtw/rrTkEfHu9L0/s1600/medium.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kP9jnKmdBjc/VSk6q6wCpLI/AAAAAAAAAtw/rrTkEfHu9L0/s1600/medium.jpg" height="227" width="320" /></a></div>
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<strong><em><span style="font-size: x-small;">The Hand (2011)</span></em></strong></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">It is almost impossible to put into words the
experience of looking at Altfest’s work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Her paintings capture nuances in light, texture and tone so skilfully and
so beautiful, viewing her work is almost a mystical experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was not expecting to be moved quite as much
as I was and made repeated laps around the galleries as I couldn’t quite
believe the level of artistry on display.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It reminded me of the first time I saw Jenny Saville’s paintings – truly
electrifying.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Experiencing Altfest’s
work is one that really should not be missed.</span></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-IeV4RHWpUM8/VSk-K2bAkoI/AAAAAAAAAug/gL3dqal2qZ8/s1600/ellen-altfest-white-cube.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-IeV4RHWpUM8/VSk-K2bAkoI/AAAAAAAAAug/gL3dqal2qZ8/s1600/ellen-altfest-white-cube.jpg" height="320" width="264" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><strong><em><span style="font-size: x-small;">Armpit (2011)</span></em></strong></span></div>
Instagram: @steph_e_duboishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201198253197116387noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-915395068693127644.post-73052001750816821522015-02-20T09:23:00.000-08:002015-02-20T09:24:15.629-08:00Love is Enough: William Morris and Andy Warhol, Modern Art, Oxford (6 December 2014-8 March 2015)<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zh0B1xt3PfA/VOdlginTySI/AAAAAAAAAr0/xXn0uccz140/s1600/Andy-Warhol-and-William-M-012.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-zh0B1xt3PfA/VOdlginTySI/AAAAAAAAAr0/xXn0uccz140/s1600/Andy-Warhol-and-William-M-012.jpg" height="192" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">William Morris and Andy Warhol are two artists whose seemingly
disparate aesthetics and artistic motivations do not readily draw comparisons,
yet Turner Prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller has sought to do exactly that in
this very curious exhibition.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My first
impression of the show was that it had the appearance of a visual manifestation
of an art history dissertation – a clever set of propositions, expertly
researched and argued but ultimately with which you do not have to agree.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Discovering that Deller has an MA in art
history came as no great surprise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That
Warhol and Morris are two of Deller’s artistic heroes, even less so. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The usual white box galleries of Modern Art, Oxford have
been bedecked with Morris wallpaper and assaults the eye upon entering.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Within these darkened walls, Deller firstly
purports that parallels can be drawn between Morris’s love of mythology
(particularly tales of King Arthur and Camelot) with Warhol’s obsession with
celebrity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To illustrate this the
exhibition displayed the monumental <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Attainment: The Vision of the Holy Grail to Sir Galahad, Sir Bors and Sir
Percival</i> by Morris, Edward Burne-Jones and John Henry Dearle (1898-1896)
opposite Warhol’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Marilyn Tapestry</i>
(1968) and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Portrait: the Emergence of
John F Kennedy</i> (1961).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br />
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<img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-XY5MYdtMjW4/VOdl9iIxhkI/AAAAAAAAAsE/cij_aiw13RY/s1600/love-is-enough-morris_8864.jpg" height="232" width="320" /> </div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><em>The Attainment: The Vision of the Holy Grail to Sir Galahad, Sir Bors and Sir Percival, William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones and John Henry Dearle (1898-1896)</em></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span> </div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-id9wc3yZxJU/VOdl3K5U0-I/AAAAAAAAAr8/AJrJyqFF8zY/s1600/Upper-Gallery-Warhol-Marilyn-Shirley-640x482.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-id9wc3yZxJU/VOdl3K5U0-I/AAAAAAAAAr8/AJrJyqFF8zY/s1600/Upper-Gallery-Warhol-Marilyn-Shirley-640x482.jpg" height="241" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: xx-small;"><em>Marilyn, Andy Warhol (1963)</em></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Similar pairings continue throughout the exhibition to
illustrate Deller’s hypotheses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He proposes
that Warhol should be seen as a serious politically motivated artist and places,
among others, Warhol’s prints of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Mao</i>
(1973) over a vitrine containing Morris’s political pamphlets and writings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Deller finally suggests that connections can
be drawn between the two artists’ working practices and collaborations with
other artists of their time, particularly with their printmaking activities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He argues that comparisons can be drawn to
Warhol’s activities at the Factory and the foundation of Morris & Co.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For me, this is where Deller’s argument completely
fails.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Comparing a converted warehouse
in New York used for predominately art-house happenings with a <span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">furnishings and decorative arts manufacturer
and retailer, is just too tenuous.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span></span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-W1U_QBXNQS0/VOdmnpHDnHI/AAAAAAAAAsQ/PYC3-HO_Eyk/s1600/Morris_and_Company_Textile_Printing_Merton_Abbey.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-W1U_QBXNQS0/VOdmnpHDnHI/AAAAAAAAAsQ/PYC3-HO_Eyk/s1600/Morris_and_Company_Textile_Printing_Merton_Abbey.jpg" height="208" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: xx-small;"><em>Morris & Co Workshops, London (c.1880s)</em></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: xx-small;"><em></em></span> </div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RENzf05d8RM/VOdmyPW0FkI/AAAAAAAAAsY/AUqwK9nrtTY/s1600/The-Factory-Andy-Warhol-and-His-Circle_05_0003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RENzf05d8RM/VOdmyPW0FkI/AAAAAAAAAsY/AUqwK9nrtTY/s1600/The-Factory-Andy-Warhol-and-His-Circle_05_0003.jpg" height="220" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: xx-small;"><em>The Factory, New York (c. 1960s)</em></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: xx-small;"><em></em></span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span>Overall, d</span>espite various visual links and assault, Deller’s <span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">comparisons of Morris and Warhol
never really get off the ground.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes,
they both believed in collaboration, both drew flowers, both can be linked to
the theme of Camelot and both wrote prodigiously.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sadly, none of these parallels really manage
to convince.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Its swan song is comparing
Morris’s floral designs for various wallpapers and soft furnishings with some
Warhol screen prints which featured flowers in them, which only highlights
further (if this were needed) at the huge gap in the skills level possessed
between the two artists.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dyVp4aFrCLE/VOdm_AhAxII/AAAAAAAAAsg/PQNhey7KBk0/s1600/9e52476f-7e33-47ee-82f5-7c16523a64dc-460x276.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-dyVp4aFrCLE/VOdm_AhAxII/AAAAAAAAAsg/PQNhey7KBk0/s1600/9e52476f-7e33-47ee-82f5-7c16523a64dc-460x276.jpg" height="192" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: xx-small;"><em>L: Acanthus wallpaper design, Williams Morris(1879-1881) </em></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: xx-small;"><em>R: Head with Flowers, Andy Warhol (1958)</em></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: xx-small;"><em></em></span> </div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Y31tuKOWnCs/VOdo_n3K8JI/AAAAAAAAAs8/ZF_h3PM0hxk/s1600/2012AA41028.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Y31tuKOWnCs/VOdo_n3K8JI/AAAAAAAAAs8/ZF_h3PM0hxk/s1600/2012AA41028.jpg" height="168" width="200" /></a><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qINwwDPEAeI/VOdpINnfE3I/AAAAAAAAAtE/QuYISwAIhC4/s1600/William-Morris-Printed-Fabric-Design-Kennet-1883-e1421249841481-699x1024.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qINwwDPEAeI/VOdpINnfE3I/AAAAAAAAAtE/QuYISwAIhC4/s1600/William-Morris-Printed-Fabric-Design-Kennet-1883-e1421249841481-699x1024.jpg" height="200" width="136" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: xx-small;"><em>L: Hand Holding Glass with Daffodil, Andy Warhol (1957) </em></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: xx-small;"><em>R: Kennet design for wallpaper, William Morris (1883)</em></span></div>
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<em><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: xx-small;"></span></em> </div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Where this exhibition does succeed though is in bringing out
from public and private collections works which have rarely been seen in the
United Kingdom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it is works by Morris,
such as the glass panel <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Story of
Tristram and Isoude, Panel 13, King Arthur and Sir Lancelot</i> (1862) and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Kennet</i>, a design for wallpaper (1883).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span> </div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-d_AkygQDT6M/VOdpSCpsyNI/AAAAAAAAAtM/-_UyzDHprCw/s1600/untitled.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-d_AkygQDT6M/VOdpSCpsyNI/AAAAAAAAAtM/-_UyzDHprCw/s1600/untitled.png" height="312" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p><div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><em>The Story of Tristram and Isoude, Panel 13, King Arthur and Sir Lancelot, William Morris</em> (1862)</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Jeremy Deller met Andy Warhol in 1986.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After an initial meeting at the artist’s room
at The Ritz in New York, Warhol invited him to spend the summer at the
Factory.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This led to a lifelong
admiration of the artist and his work by Deller.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Apparently he grew up in a home filled with
reproduction Morris wallpaper and soft furnishings which left an indelible imprint
in the artist’s subconscious,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With Love
Is Enough, Deller has been given the very enviable opportunity of putting on an
exhibition featuring his art heroes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
can only dream of the day when the exhibition "Dangerously Beautiful: Helen
Chadwick and Meret Oppenheim" makes it out of my head and into a public gallery
space.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Instagram: @steph_e_duboishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04201198253197116387noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-915395068693127644.post-89277924778032441842015-02-14T10:48:00.001-08:002015-02-14T10:50:00.479-08:00Why I Love… A series of posts on artworks which have made a lasting impression on me. No 1: "Les Demoiselles d’Avignon" by Pablo Picasso (1907).<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--ginGM56GCA/VN-UtHcw7pI/AAAAAAAAAqw/dO_7OJnycCM/s1600/Les_Demoiselles_d'Avignon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/--ginGM56GCA/VN-UtHcw7pI/AAAAAAAAAqw/dO_7OJnycCM/s1600/Les_Demoiselles_d'Avignon.jpg" height="320" width="309" /></a></div>
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<em><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, Pablo Picasso (1907)</span></em></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I
first became aware of this very well-known painting, famed to have given birth to
Cubism and the rise of modern art, around 1995 when I was enrolled on an
evening introduction to art history course at Birkbeck University in
London.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wasn’t, and am still not, a
huge fan of Picasso.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Back in 1995 after
reading a very heavy and theoretically dense academic text about Demoiselles, I
didn’t really understand much more about the painting other than a few key facts.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Five
years after my initial introduction to Demoiselles, during a visit to New York I
was very lucky it see it in Museum of Modern Art and was completely mesmerised.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a huge painting, around 2.5m x 2.5m, full
of bold colours and sweeping, confident and savage brushstrokes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sitting in front of such a wonderful painting
my imagination was easily transported back to turn of the twentieth century
Paris, while still seeming wonderfully contemporary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No wonder it caused such a scandal when it
was originally painted.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Serendipity
drew be back into the painting’s orbit once more during a first trip to Paris
where unbeknown when booking, the hotel I was staying at, the Timhotel
Montmarte in rue Ravignon, was actually right next to the studio, known as Le
Bateau Lavoir, where the painting was created and where Picasso had lived and
worked between 1904-1911.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Redeveloped into
private apartments many years previously, an illustration of Demoiselles
featured in the poster on display in the window of the former studios.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It gave a brief history of the site to the
numerous art students and lovers passing by and paying homage.</span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GRFrqdNu0X4/VN-VA5ntdzI/AAAAAAAAAq4/hPLixRAZRYc/s1600/34766480.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GRFrqdNu0X4/VN-VA5ntdzI/AAAAAAAAAq4/hPLixRAZRYc/s1600/34766480.jpg" height="138" width="200" /></a> <a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vgjW03S0fd8/VN-VEtcpm6I/AAAAAAAAArA/qVm4ckDvhDc/s1600/images6YOPW3MB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-vgjW03S0fd8/VN-VEtcpm6I/AAAAAAAAArA/qVm4ckDvhDc/s1600/images6YOPW3MB.jpg" height="117" width="200" /></a></div>
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<em><span style="font-size: xx-small;">rue Ravignon, Paris - site of Le Bateau Lavoir</span></em></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Many
more years passed by before my attention was once more and unexpectedly drawn
back to Demoiselles during research on the French painter Marie Laurencin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Her story and work
presented a fascinating case study on how women artists have been written into
art history narratives, which was the overall focus of my MA research.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">During my research, I discovered Picasso had
associated one of the prostitutes featured in Demoiselles as Laurencin.</span></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DL17lVSNmMw/VN-WeQbcLsI/AAAAAAAAArU/eFEj7Jb2OC8/s1600/tumblr_lzh1azzW031qjm0dlo1_500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DL17lVSNmMw/VN-WeQbcLsI/AAAAAAAAArU/eFEj7Jb2OC8/s1600/tumblr_lzh1azzW031qjm0dlo1_500.jpg" height="320" width="229" /></a><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-G1DjLnjP2fY/VN-WhJkK5BI/AAAAAAAAArc/K4baetAsyL4/s1600/Pablo_Picasso_Biography.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-G1DjLnjP2fY/VN-WhJkK5BI/AAAAAAAAArc/K4baetAsyL4/s1600/Pablo_Picasso_Biography.jpg" height="320" width="228" /></a></div>
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<em><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Marie Laurencin and Pablo Picasso, c. 1907</span></em></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Below
are some extracts from my final<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> </b>dissertation
“Ungilding the Lily:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A Reappraisal of Marie
Laurencin’s use of Self-Representation and Figurative Abstraction between 1904
and 1924”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Laurencin</span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.5pt;"> </span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">was also the only
female artist to play an active role in the group of artists and intellectuals
surrounding Picasso and the Bateau Lavoir in Montmartre, where the principles
of Cubism were formed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Despite working within
this highly macho and phallocentric group, Laurencin developed her own individual
artistic language during this period.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
majority of writing on Marie Laurencin’s involvement in the cubism movement between
1907 and 1914 primarily focus on her relationships with Picasso and Guillaume Apollinaire
as well as her failure to adopt Cubist aesthetics in her work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her inclusion in accounts of the major personalities
of that time has been reduced to her being portrayed as the passive (and
sometimes abused) muse of Apollinaire, a joke to Picasso who barely tolerated
her and as a bourgeois hanger-on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She has
also been accused of deliberately promoting a ‘feminine’ painting style so that
she did not have to compete with her male contemporaries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After her return from exile in Spain during
the First World War, she went on to enjoy commercial success and celebrity as a
society portrait painter before falling out of fashion from the late
1930s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Since her death in 1956, her work
has been seen as superficial </span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;">and largely derivative.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></i><br />
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Peter Daix is one of
the many historians who have suggested that Les Demoiselles d’Avignon was
Picasso’s desire to outstrip his rival Matisse and that the aggressiveness of
the final version was as a result of him seeing </span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; mso-ansi-language: EN;">Le Bonheur de Vivre</span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">
</span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">[The Joy of Living], 1905.<a href="file:///C:/Users/Stephanie/Documents/Reviews/Why%20I%20Love%20(1)%20Demoiselles%20d'Avignon%20(1906),%20Pablo%20Picasso.docx" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></b></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Picasso set out to destroy Matisse’s image of
an Arcadian pastoral bliss by replacing it with a nightmare vision of sexual
subversion, prostitution and primitive menace, influenced by the collection of
African and Iberian figurines and masks which he had recently acquired.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fagan-King has further purported that the
original brothel scene arose from Picasso reading Apollinaire’s pornographic
stories around that time which included a ‘Laurencine personage’ in a brothel
description where the character “opens her legs like the pages of a book”.<a href="file:///C:/Users/Stephanie/Documents/Reviews/Why%20I%20Love%20(1)%20Demoiselles%20d'Avignon%20(1906),%20Pablo%20Picasso.docx" name="_ftnref2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></b></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This description would locate Laurencin as
the figure in the lower right hand side of Picasso’s composition and the face
which bears the brunt of his most extreme fragmentation and primitisation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An added ‘incentive’ by Picasso to place her
there may have also been provided by some unsavoury talk between him and his
close friend writer Henri-Pierre Roché as alluded to by Richardson (1996).<a href="file:///C:/Users/Stephanie/Documents/Reviews/Why%20I%20Love%20(1)%20Demoiselles%20d'Avignon%20(1906),%20Pablo%20Picasso.docx" name="_ftnref3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[3]</span></b></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, all of Richardson’s accounts of Laurencin’s
involvement with Picasso are extremely salacious and he seems to have included
her purely in order to reveal her numerous and varied sexual proclivities,<a href="file:///C:/Users/Stephanie/Documents/Reviews/Why%20I%20Love%20(1)%20Demoiselles%20d'Avignon%20(1906),%20Pablo%20Picasso.docx" name="_ftnref4" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn4;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[4]</span></b></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
in effect reducing her to the most corrupt femme-fatale behind her mask of
respectability.<a href="file:///C:/Users/Stephanie/Documents/Reviews/Why%20I%20Love%20(1)%20Demoiselles%20d'Avignon%20(1906),%20Pablo%20Picasso.docx" name="_ftnref5" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn5;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[5]</span></b></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Additionally, while there is no direct
evidence to support this, something far more offensive may be happening in Les
Demoiselles d’Avignon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Given that
Picasso would have been well aware of Laurencin’s mixed-race heritage,<a href="file:///C:/Users/Stephanie/Documents/Reviews/Why%20I%20Love%20(1)%20Demoiselles%20d'Avignon%20(1906),%20Pablo%20Picasso.docx" name="_ftnref6" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn6;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[6]</span></b></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
assaulting her race as well as her gender, makes his ‘joke’ doubly
unpalatable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Elliott and
Fagan-King have both contended that Les Jeunes Filles [The Young Girls],
1910-11, is evidence that Laurencin was familiar with Picasso’s painting (which
was not exhibited publically until 1916) and acted as the artist’s retort.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Upon first appearance it would seem a weak
and futile one in comparison to Picasso’s crude and violent humour.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Stylistically, its restricted colour palette
and composition mimics Les Demoiselles D’Avignon, as does the cubist handling
of the background.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, the fact
that the cubist elements have been relegated to the background landscape and
also limited to representing assorted objects of basket, fan and pitcher, while
the abstraction of the women in the foreground is pure Laurencin suggests that
these young girls (who all bear the artist’s developed facial logo) provide an
antidote to the savagery, violence and sexual display of Picasso’s women with
their graceful, curvilinear and clothed bodies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Laurencin’s blague, therefore, is to refuse to submit her body/their
bodies to any distortion and dissection.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In doing to, the artist rescues them from the brothel and celebrates,
rather than denigrates, their womanhood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In effect, Laurencin renders Picasso’s ‘joke’ impotent by insulting the
virility and creativity of the Catalan bull”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Lulp3LS-5eE/VN-W34KKuuI/AAAAAAAAArk/gr0BQJDTDcg/s1600/Les%2BJeunes%2BFilles%2B(1910-1911).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Lulp3LS-5eE/VN-W34KKuuI/AAAAAAAAArk/gr0BQJDTDcg/s1600/Les%2BJeunes%2BFilles%2B(1910-1911).jpg" height="248" width="320" /></a></div>
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<em><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Les Jeunes Filles, Marie Laurencin (1910-1911)</span></em></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Les
Demoiselles d’Avignon was there at my very first foray into art history.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It lingered in my imagination over the years,
where scenes of a bohemian Parisian life in the early 1900’s, featured
regularly in my day dreams.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It also featured
in the conclusion of my academic undertakings and therefore deserves its number
one position in this ‘Why I Love’ series.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/Stephanie/Documents/Reviews/Why%20I%20Love%20(1)%20Demoiselles%20d'Avignon%20(1906),%20Pablo%20Picasso.docx" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 150%;"> Daix,
P. and Rosselet, J. (eds).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(1979).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Picasso: The Cubist Years, 1907-1916. A
Catalogue Raisonnée of the Paintings and Related Works.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>London: Thames and Hudson, p11.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
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<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/Stephanie/Documents/Reviews/Why%20I%20Love%20(1)%20Demoiselles%20d'Avignon%20(1906),%20Pablo%20Picasso.docx" name="_ftn2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: x-small;">
</span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 150%;">Fagan-King,
J. (1988). United on the Threshold of the Twentieth-Century Mystical Ideal:
Marie Laurencin’s Integral Involvement with Guillaume Apollinaire and the
Inmates of the Bateau Lavoir.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Art History</i>, Vol. 2, No 1, p103.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/Stephanie/Documents/Reviews/Why%20I%20Love%20(1)%20Demoiselles%20d'Avignon%20(1906),%20Pablo%20Picasso.docx" name="_ftn3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 150%;">Roché , H-P. (1906) as cited
in Richardson, J.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(1996).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A Life of Picasso, Volume II: 1907-1917.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>London: Jonathan Cape, p63:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It seems likely (although there does not
appear to be any material which directly links these two facts) that Roché, who
was also Laurencin’s first lover shared with Picasso stories of Laurencin’s
sexual activities which were contained in his diaries and which alleged that at
the time she was with Roché, Laurencin also enjoyed the attention of three
lovers (sometimes at the same time), but that he had extracted himself from the
relationship because of her “shameless squatting on the bidet in front of them
both like a man”, which disgusted him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn4" style="mso-element: footnote;">
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<a href="file:///C:/Users/Stephanie/Documents/Reviews/Why%20I%20Love%20(1)%20Demoiselles%20d'Avignon%20(1906),%20Pablo%20Picasso.docx" name="_ftn4" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn4;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 150%;">
Richardson, J.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(1996).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A Life of Picasso, Volume II: 1907-1917.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>London: Jonathan Cape, pp 61-67.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn5" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/Stephanie/Documents/Reviews/Why%20I%20Love%20(1)%20Demoiselles%20d'Avignon%20(1906),%20Pablo%20Picasso.docx" name="_ftn5" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn5;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[5]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 150%;"> Ibid:
Richardson’s only reference to Laurencin’s work is again to the two paintings
in which Picasso is featured, describing <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Une
Réunion à la Campagne </i>as a “curious apotheosis,” before begrudgingly
admitting that: “For all her precocity, Laurencin deserves more recognition
than posterity usually records her for her early work”.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="line-height: 150%; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;">
<a href="file:///C:/Users/Stephanie/Documents/Reviews/Why%20I%20Love%20(1)%20Demoiselles%20d'Avignon%20(1906),%20Pablo%20Picasso.docx" name="_ftn6" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn6;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 150%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[6]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 150%;"> As
mentioned earlier, Laurencin had creole ancestry and such heritage can clearly be
seen in photographs of the artist and her mother from around this time. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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