The National Gallery & Tate Britain visits

During my Summer vacation, I've been thinking deeply about my current  practice and where my Journey might take me in an artistic sense.  I feel that there is so much more to develop, yet there is some pressure on me to specialise in some chosen area for my degree studies.  This conflicts a little with my notion of wanting to explore a much as possible during my journey too.  In an attempt to help me crystalise some of the styles and broad thinking I have recently taken much time to analyse the journeys of other artists, - particularly the great masters.

An opportunity to visit the National Gallery this weekend was not to be missed.  The inspiration I gained, and the reasurrance I needed - that the journey is never over, was nicely re-inforced to me through many works, some of my favourites being JWM Turner.  An allegorical image that I think is just right for my mind at the moment is The Fighting Téméraire.....

In this painting, which Turner completed perhaps at his peak of popularity, the old wooden warship, the Temeraire, is represented in an almost ghostly translucent state.  Its' final voyage to the breakers yard, but still capable of holding immense presence and power over the modern steam tug that is representing a symbol of newness, societal change and modernisation.  The old warship still holds it's importance and links to the romantic past, and this is alluded to by the ship in the far distance behind, in full sail towards the centre of the painting.   As Turner was in the grips of painting this, a new dawn in the culture around him was also emerging.  Turner seems to suggest this through the wonderful sky scene to the right of the painting.  The composition is virtually able to be split vertically down the middle and both halves are story in themselves.  However, both make the whole, - the gestalt, which overall combine to form a huge historical record of factuality, but also a record of progress, new beginnings, and a relentless cycle of rebirth.    I love this painting because of it's almost timeless qualities.   There are so many questions that this painting seems to raise too. There is dispute as to why a warship would be getting tugged at the end of the day, as the sun is setting, and technically, the view would be towards the east, from whence the ship has come from -  English Channel.  I would like to suggest though, that it may be getting pulled back down the Thames, after it has been shown to the fond public for the last time nearer central London.  I might also suggest, if you examine the right hand side of the painting in more detail, the ssilhouetteof the houses of parliament and Big Ben can be seen (as a river side view from the south)... This would make the placing of the warship more feasible.  Nnevertheless this is pure hypothesis, as in reality, i seems likely that Turner created the composition virtually from his imagination!...

Turner's earlier studies also captured more mundane, nonetheless I think, truly real moments of life during the 1800s, and a classical example is shown below, in his works "A country Blacksmith disputingg the price of iron"...  You can almost hear the same conversation today when you go to a car tyre changing facility, or to a mechanics garage to get your tyres changed !

Liverpool Tate Gallery - Mondrian in his studios

Spent a brilliant day at the Liverpool Tate Gallery, on Albert Dock.  The highlight event was a curated exhibition of the works of Piet Mondrian.

I found the whole experience extremely rewarding as my dear wife agreed to come for the day too, so I was able to share my perhaps somewhat limited understanding of Mondrian to someone also keen to learn, at the same time as my own viewing.

I'm really glad that the Tate chose to start the exhibition with a painting that highlighted the roots of where Mondriaan had started his artistic journey, that being originally of a portrait artist, from Holland.  He was quite successful as a 'traditional' artist in his home country of Holland, having painted for some time, scenes around Amsterdam (An example may be Houses on the Gein, 1900, when he was about 28 years old).
Note; This painting was not in the Tate Liverpool exhibition, it is just included here as a reference for grounding Mondriaan's journey.

   The Tate used one of his own portraits to visually articulate the process of abstraction, and so this single piece made it especially easier for me to explain how Mondrian's abstraction process, together with plenty of reference to the context of his thinking at the time; how he was influenced by the Impressionists, Cezanne, Van-Goch, and later,  Picasso and Braque and the "new" advent of Cubism, and all the other artists of the turn of the new century, together with where art was generally going in the culture at that time in history; world events that influenced cultural outlooks of the 1910 to 1920s period; the establishment of the Bauhaus and so on.  It was only after Mondriaan went to live in Paris that he dropped the second "a" in his surname to the familiar version we see today.  The Tate's choice made the explanation of how Mondrian wanted to create something completely new and fresh, yet still relationally connected to everything that was going on around him (both in terms of culture and artistic context AND the physical imagery of his environment, - man made and from nature).  It's so important, in my opinion, to think of why Mondrian was thinking the way he did at the time he started his experiments.  The context, that is, what was happening at the time, is key.

As an aide to explaining what abstraction means to me, I was counting on the exhibition to show one of Mondrian's "Tree" series, a set of works that I had come across some time ago, which would help in the explanation of what abstraction meant to Mondrian at the time, and how it can be used to help general interpretation.  I was not disappointed as we found it in the next room...  Mondrian's awareness of nature and it's continuing influence on man, (particularly at a time of extreme change in the world of his time, - futurism / modernism, communist revolution, the fascist movements, the new American culture and so on), is still entirely relevant today, - especially as the pace of change at this present time continues to be quite relentless.






A work that was also brilliantly exhibited was Mondrian's "Ocean"...
The fact that the Tate had placed this next to a window overlooking the Mersey was in my opinion, no mistake, but very carefully orchestrated.  To the casual observer, they would find it very difficult to understand this painting. However, when I pleaded to my wife to gently squint her eyes, look at the painting with the minimum gap between her eyelids, then the image jumps out at you.  The combination of the abstract, and the merest hint of white paint in between the intermittent horizontal and vertical truncation lines is enough to provide the wonderful illusion of glare bouncing off the ocean waves.  It's almost impossible for most people to see this effect unless they squint their eyes.  The act of doing so reveals a new dimension in a painting which if casually inspected looks lifeless and flat..

The Site Gallery, Sheffield - Lecture, 'Art & Rave' - 3rd August

I chose to spend a Sunday afternoon  (August 3rd) at the Sheffield Site Gallery as I had been advised of a lecture taking place there concerning the links between contemporary art of the early 1990s and the popular cult movement of the time or Rave music, together with it's associated paraphernalia....

One of the most famous pieces to come from this era was the smiley face, often superimposed by a laser onto rave party walls.  This was lateer adopted into an ex-police riot shield, and then appropriated recently for this exhibition into what is Jeremy Deller's simple yet in some ways, intimidating, - smiley face entitled "Did he change your life"...   I managed to take a photo-shot of the exhibition piece with Jeremy almost standing in front of his work...



  This by the way, is meant to be said in a cockney accent,  thus; "Did 'e change your life"... hence the connotations with the Rave and drug scene of the late 1980s and the amphetamine known as "E".  Needless to say, I have a cunning plan....

Watch this space for more appropriation, from Jeremy Deller this time!... ( My project is under wraps... )

Further into the exhibition there were many more abstract works by internationally recognised contemporary artists, some of whom I've photographed here

Edinburgh - Scottish National Gallery

Here's my final tribute to the galleries on Princes Street / The Mound Edinburgh.

I was surprised at how the Contemporary and National Galleries are linked,  they are made up of three interconnected buildings, right in the heart of Edinburgh. The Gallery is home to a major part of Scotland’s sensational national collection of fine art; the Academy is one of Europe’s premier venues for international exhibitions; and the Gardens Entrance, which lies beneath the two buildings, provides an entry way directly in to both the galleries and museums and also various lecture halls and learning areas.  Up on the surface though, all you see from Princes street are two Baroque style Victorian buildings based on the Athenian them and Pantheon.  Underneath them though, lies the treasures and public areas such as cafes and shops.  A wonderful juxtaposition of post-modern and old Victorian architecture has been combined into a brilliantly developed public space.  It's well worth a visit, just to see the architecture!


The following paintings by Steven Campbell, 1953-2007 were of particular interest to me as we progressed from the contemporary to the classical / National Gallery sections.  His work, being a turning point in Scottish art which combines the painterly classical style with more contemporary re-presentation using audio;

His themes and reflections of life events seemed to be from a rather disturbed individual at first glance.  He was clearly sensitive to a number of these events which have transformed int the dream like paintings he rendered.  However, on closer examination, there also seems to be a sense of both humour and fascination of design that the artist chose for his subjects.  This fascination for design is comes through from the time that the artist spent initially as an engineer, and the sense of humour is manifested by a sound recorder that is constantly re-playing a 1980s classic french pop song, within the exhibition.

 

Further into the rest of the National Gallery I made some initial notes of the classical paintings to be found there too;

   

 The similarities between Bellotto and Canaletto are easy to see from the above two examples.  The painting below too has the classical perspective landscapes, - only just discovered.

And then Van-Gough.  People often criticise Van-Gogh for "not being able to paint" or some other derogatory remarks.  Well, I can assure them that he could!...  The example below is one of his more famous pieces which came from a series made of observing peasant farmers, - the most famous of his paintings of that period probably is "The Potato Eaters", which he painted in April 1885,  in Nuenen, Netherlands.  I think it is also important to remember that Van Gough was still very much in his learning phase, well before his transformation into the style which so many people criticise unjustly and unfairly.  The original Potato Eaters is in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

And then on to another modern artist who again sometimes unfairly gets criticism, one Eduard Degas.  He was fascinated by rythm and dancers. Degas frequently observed the dancers of the Paris Opéra, and was captivated by their grace and discipline. In this sculpture, Degas shows a dancer practising the ‘arabesque penchée’, a position that requires tremendous control. The dancer must stay steady on one foot while raising the other leg as high and as straight as possible. Degas made the original wax model of this figure between 1882 and 1895. Following Degas’s death, Adrien-Aurélien Hébrard made bronze casts of the figure, and designated each one a letter of the alphabet between A and T. This cast is inscribed ‘G’, and the number sixteen is incised above the letter. This number refers to the subject matter; all the casts Hébrard made of Degas’s models of dancers were numbered 1 to 37.

 

I don't think any study of paintings of the late 19th century is complete without one example from the great master of the time, Paul Cezanne (1839 to 1906)).   In this penultimate painting, "The Big Trees" which was painted late in Cezzane's life around 1900 to 1902, he was experimenting through painting rocks, trees, foliage and vegetation.  In this painting, he seems to have left white spaces of the canvas actually showing through, and at the upper third of the picture the branches seem to twist in a bizarrely flat yet angular fashion, - some say that this is an example which lead on to the formation of cubism, which dominated the next few years of Pablo Piccasso and Georges Braque, who very much took their lead and influence from Cezzane in the next development of Art's journey.

Georges Seurat's Alfalfa Fields near St Denis, is my final chosen piece in the Scottish National Gallery.  I chose this simply because of the amazing detail that the painting conjures up of a spring meadow in full bloom.  The other interesting point to note is how Seurat recorded the beginnings of a more industrial landscape in the far background of the painting.  Georges Seurat was particularly interested in the combinations of placing colours next to each other to produce a third colour.  His technique, known as Pointillism, can be seen very clearly in this painting of the Alfalfa fields near St Denis.  He is remembered as a Post-Impressionist rather than an Impressionist, even though he was painting at the same time as Monet, Renoir and the other impressionists.

Further works at Edinburgh Gallaries - Christine Borland

The next works within the Edinburgh Gallery for Contemporary Art were pieces collected by the Artist Christine Borland.  This particular exhibit was of serious interest to me as it explores the concept of perception and image as inculcated by words alone.  Allow me to explain. The artist created a description of one of the most feared and illusive characters of the 20th century, that being of Joseph Mengele, the infamous and despised Nazi doctor who carried out innumerable experiments upon incarcerated Jews, in the interests of "science".   This is of particular stimulus to me as this individual was one of the few fascist war criminals who escaped Germany at the end of world war two, and a whole set of mythologies seem to have developed as to where he actually escaped to.  It is thought that he traveled to South America, - the place of my own birth.  No one knows what he really looked like as there are very few photos of him.  What Christine Borland has done is to provide a standard description to a select group of six key sculptors and asked them to create busts of the description accordingly.  The following works are actually those sculptor's output.

Trying to re-start and getting some new inspiration... Edinburgh, - David Shrigley

Well, it's been  a few weeks since my last blog, sorry that I dropped the bomb-shell about my dear brother passing away so suddenly.  Most of the last few weeks has been spent trying to get my head around what John's finances were all about and also sorting out his home etc.  The funeral arrangements too, which took up a sizeable chunk of my attention, but I'm glad to say, went ahead without any hitches.

So, after all of that, my lovely wife and I spent some time up in Edinburgh, both to get over the loss of John, the funeral etc, but also as a rather muted 15th Wedding Anniversary break.   The good part from an artistic point of view (in addition to having four full days of my wife's attention, and vice-versa), was a visit to Edinburgh's Gallery for Contemporary Art, and also the National Gallery for Scotland.

Both sites are virrtually under one roof, although they do occupy two buildings right in the centre of Edinburgh, just off Prince's Street.

The contemporary gallery was the first one to be scrutinized, - it was here that we found one of my favorite contemporary artists whom I've mentioned in previous blogs, that being one David Shrigley...

I love the simplicity of this artist's work, as it seems he can find humour in the most mundane aspects of "being human"...  The exhibition in Edinburgh courts the usual modus operandi of his, in that pieces are created in simple black & white, yet reflect (metaphorically speaking), the vibrancy of very day living.  

A major feature of this exhibition are the clay / pot wellington boots.  It doesn't take long for me to relise the message David is trrying to convey, - the ease of which he trieshard not to make the visual clues too difficult.  Indeed, he has said in inteerviews, "I don't want my art to be a cryptic crossword puzzle", - in other words, it should be easy for thhe viewer to "get"the gist of his message.         

The exhibition by David Shrigley was (as often isin his case) a slightly tongue-in-cheek observation of what we are all marching towards, that being Death of course.

 Clearly, this was a subject quite near to the bone for me and still very raw in my mind following the previous weeks activities, and yet, I felt that Mr Shrigley had quite sensitively captured a highly poignant theme...  I was not offended in any way by this as his works do have a slightly detached from reality quality about them, and so can easily be accomodated.

Life Drawing at the Sheffield Millenium Gallery & continuing my sketch practice

Life drawing at the Millennium, Sheffield 

Another weekly session at the Life Drawing class in Sheffield helped to crystallize my realization that when drawing men, it's really all about straight lines and angles at first, in order to establish proportions, shapes and angles, together with relationships between all the above to give a framework to the drawings.

The model was quite an older gentleman this time, and quite short.  Again this made for challenging drawing  practice, especially when trying to capture form in the quick 3  x 3 minute sketches

When drawing the female form, then it's not straight lines but all about curves.  These curves have tangents, and they have relationships to proportions and other shapes in the same was as for drawing men, but there is clearly this difference when starting each life drawing, depending on the gender of the subject.


The foreshortened leg caught me out again!.

And I probably over corrected the leg length on the next pose!

The next sketch was better (Left), but the final pose where both legs are foreshortened prooved that I'm not finding negative space and shading properly.  I must practice here!





I've inter-spaced my own earlier studies of the chair and also the drawings copied from the great masters here as I know that my life drawing today took a negative spin.  I was much less impressed with my work this week.  I think I know what I'm doing wrong, but I am finding it hard to apply it when I am under pressure.  This is what life drawing does. - It puts the artist into a different state of anxiety, especially as the mind is not only drawing a nude and has to also deal with all the pre-programmed notions of inhibitions, morals / ethical challenges and so on.  I'm just not removing my mind far enough to truly look at the negative spaces in isolation enough....  I know I can do this, - the chairs and studies below prove it...

It's a bit like setting up the foundations or scaffolding on to which  you can then lay more representative curves and facets.

Finding negative shapes, angles and curves made this chair a good subject to practice on....

  I'm definitely feeling the benefit of these drawing sessions.  I'm  a lot more comfortable now, I've overcome my own barriers, embarrassment and mature inhibitions to seeing a nude subject, and I genuinely feel I am making some slow, but positive, improvement.   My continued used of the Betty Edwards drawing course is also helping, having made a number of drawings recently for this self paced course too as can be seen above, but these are done in the comfort of my own home studio, not on public display like at the gallery!