Why This Is Hell

Many Hands

Tue, 02 Jul 2013 15:05:24 GMT

Saturday I got up at daft o'clock to celebrate the 25th anniversary of my driving test - I caught the 6.00am train to Victoria, breakfasted in the Regency Cafe and was the first person through the doors of the Lowry exhibition. Imagine! Having the whole exhibition to yourself! After doing something similar for Lichtenstein and Hirst, I'd imagine crowds, but I had the place largely to myself - there were no more than four people in the same room as me at any time. A fantastic show, although light on biographical context.

And I am still pondering whether his liking of Pirandello might explain him somehow.

You could buy flat caps in the shop. But not, as far as I could see, whippets.

I also did Caulfield and Hume - shows rather light on explanation, and I rather bounced off.

I'd planned to do the Psycho show at Pace, but ambled first to the Pace at the rear of the RAA where I saw a Robert Irwin show (presumably not the same Robert Irwin...).

At this point I ran into and - against a certain degree of cynicism - watched half an hour or so of Pride. I confess and would like to risk expressing mixed feelings. It's the first one I've seen.

The theme this year seemed to be marriage and I can see the if-it-quacks-like-a-duck argument for extending civil partnerships, enshrining equal rights, clarity of medical decisions and access, inheritance of property etc. On the other hand, I have reservations about marriage as an institution for anyone. I'm also torn between the seashift of corporate attitudes that means people can now march as workers with Tesco and on the other hand the question of whether, say, BP and Barclays are in a position to gain positive PR from this. (I realise Apartheid is over now. I still have a distrust of Barclay's). I was all for the scattered placards complaining about the commercialisation of Pride, but on the other hand these were branded Socialist Worker.

On the other hand, it is good to see public displays of commitment, across the QUILTBAG spectrum.

On the other hand, whistles still annoy me...

Were there people marching for themselves or with partners who weren't under a brand? Or do you have to be part of a gang? (I suppose I should have been marching with my colleagues, had I chosen to, although I didn't recognise anyone there.) Was there a group of miscellaneous marchers at the back? If so I moved on before I saw them. The old visibility problem, perhaps. Where are the banners for people with no banners save their own visibility on the march?

Several of the crowd didn't remember - pace the placards - Lucy Meadows. I'm ashamed it took a couple of minutes to place the context.

It was hot in the sun. I was beginning to dehydrate. It was all rather moving.

It took a bit of wandering to locate Pace, proper, and it required an entryphone to be negotiated. I passed, for now.

Then a long wander up to a pub I like in Finsbury. On the other hand, I've twice been when Whitstable IPA was one of the choices and I can get that locally. Not all the beers taste great. And there was only one choice this time. I rapidly moved onto Clerkenwell and the Craft Beer Co, where there was only one beer at 4%. The rest was 7% plus. I settled for a 7% Thornbridge/Dark Star collaboration and a Sirens at 11.4%, but only a half. £10.50. Ouch. On several levels.

That left a stagger down to Temple, and the train home from Victoria.

comments

And it doesn't even mention that goal...

Sat, 21 Apr 2012 22:19:00 GMT

Foot pain retreated enough this morning to allow me to walk to West station and the 8.07 to London Bridge - truly London will be fab when they've finished building it - and a walk to Tate Modern. I'd done the Alighiero Boetti and Yayoi Kusama last Sunday, finding them both very rich and fecund artists, the Kusama beng the more interesting of the two, and I was a little arted out after Picasso and photographs to do Damien Hirst. Plus there was a queue. It looked heaving.

I got to the gallery just before it opened, and as a member I got to go straight in. I believe I have a potential for a private view, but I think I've had my money's worth. He's actually a rather old fashioned artist - his themes are mutability and preservation, most obviously in the cow, sharks and sheep in preserving fluid, sliced in half or whole. These have a melancholy beauty, as much due to the refraction caused by the tanks as anything else. Then there are the flies - buzzing around a decaying cow's head in a piece I've seen at least once before, in the RAA British Sculpture show, or stuck to the wall in a circle. - and the butterflies - flying around one round like Kew has been transplanted - or stuck to the wall. Then the endless cigarette butts and pills (not a show to inhale at). Perhaps the best piece is a autopsied angel, but I fear it all feel a little obvious in its juxtapositions.

In the Turbine Hall there is the diamond encrusted skull in a small blacked out room - you wait a few minutes to be admitted, walked through a dark tunnel, then into the room with the skull. It has a certain beauty, but it's flashy and vulgar.

I didn't feel the need to buy the catalogue.

Then north to St Paul's and a busy Central Line, via a coffee shop to a meeting in the Crown and Sceptre, a pub whose staff have gone from adequate to hopeless - this one didn't know what stout was, didn't recognise the name of one of their beers and was confused by notions of coffee or tea. Half the menu was off, too.

Then a walk with someone from the meeting in search of a coffee shop off Oxford Street - via a colour coded stationery shop which clearly either sells nothing which is yellow or has sold everything it had which was yellow - and to Selfridges. I didn't quite stand on the spot of the cover to Solar Flares, so next time.

Back to Charing Cross via CeX and Fopp and a sinking feeling that I'd dropped the fiver in my back pocket. A productive day.

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Birmingham

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 22:24:37 GMT

Having done much walking of late, I've felt very inspired by (and jealous of) the artist Hamish Fulton, who has said "If I do not walk, I cannot make a work of art", and lives round these parts. Most of his art are posters (or, rather, large areas of paint with vinyl lettering) recording walks - from coast to coast, from source to sea, across mountain ranges, along the Pilgrim's Way - and there is something about them that I like. There's a show at the Turner Contemporararararary - alongside the Turner - which is paired with a show at the IKON Birmingham, which I'm convinced I've had a brief look round before.

After a recent daytrip to Nottingham - to see Thomas Demand, which I suspect I've failed to write about - I booked tickets to and from Birmingham, and plotted an itinerary from New Street via various shops and coffee places to the bookshop to IKON to the BMAG and to a reportedly good pub and back again. I didn't do anything useful like print out a map or anything. This may have been a mistake.

The journey there was uneventful, aside from a new walking route from St P to Euston, avoiding Euston Road, which is unpleasant in differing ways, and to time, although I see that they are (still? again?) improving New Street. They've done something to the Pavilions which I can't put my finger on, and I got a little lost in my search for Digbeth. I did find a rather useful secondhand bookshop, where I bought a volume of the Sturgeon short stories - five volumes down, eight to go - for two quid. I forebore to purchase anything else, and then got lost via the market (and an illicit pork pie) in search of local cheese (fail) and Brindley Place. I have Googlemaps on my phone, but the instruction HEAD NORTH is no use without a compass on a day when the sun is obscured by cloud.

Thus it felt like a forty mile walk to the gallery - the signage is erratic - and I managed to plot a coffee bar free route (although there was a Costa in the square and if I've realised there was wifi, I would have used the cafe in the gallery). I climbed the steps to the top of the gallery and had a look round the exhibition, which, to my relief, was rather different from the Margate one, although along similar lines. I was rather taken by a couple of the acrostics -

Chinese
Economy
Tibetan
Refugee
Beijing
Olympic
Triumph

and

Brain
Heart
Lungs

(rare to have five letters rather than seven in these acrostics).

Alongside the Fulton were various rooms of Sarah Browne's "How to Use Fool’s Gold", not an artist I knew, and it includes a couple of crystal radios, pictures of flowers, a vodka still, photos of Icelanders in knitted jumpers. Sculpture, I suppose, in the widest sense, and usually collaborations - brewing, knitting, printing, electronics, writing, weaving. Intriguing, although I'm not clear what it all means...

On the back stairs were various "postcards" by Japanese artists - actually larger than usual postcards - which I wish I'd spent longer looking at. And there was a Martin Creed piece in the lift.

I'd almost found the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery by accident when looking for the IKON, so it was relatively easy to find. I had about 45 minutes, so I had a quick look at the Staffordshire Hoard, and spent a little longer on the Pre-Raphs and the twentieth century stuff. I'm getting better at recognising British artists. I wish I'd had longer.

By then I was feeling the lack of coffee (I don't think I'd had one since Euston), and I accidentally found a Caffe Nerd whilst in search of a Caffe Nerd - I suspect not the one I was looking for. It was pleasingly close to the Wellington, the pub I had in mind to visit, so that avoided getting lost. I fear the glory days of Birmingham beer are over - local breweries having been taken up and moved, and not the same level of microbrewing as, say, Nottinghamshire. Subsequent research reveals three local microbrews - ABC and Beer Geek in Ashton and Two Towers (Tolkien reference?) in Hockley - which demand a subsequent visit I feel. The Wellington has sixteen hand pumps, each with a different real ale, each replaced as the barrel empties. There is a screen telling you what is on and the ABV, and you are meant to order by number. The bar was predictably busy, but long practice meant I was served both times pretty well straight away.

For the record:
Purity Mad Goose 4.2% (Gt Alne, Warwickshire)
Hobsons Twisted Spire 3.6% (Cleobury Mortimer, Worcestershire)
Slater's Top Totty 4% (Stafford)
Ossett Excelsior 5.2% (Ossett)

I manage to find my way back to the station via a Tesco for sustenance without getting lost, although I found a shop I'd been trying to remember to look for earlier. I sat opposite two people - a couple? I'm not convinced - who'd been drinking in the Old Post Vaults, which has eight pumps, and who supplied me with a real ale map of Birmingham. I think I have a cunning plan to deploy in due course...

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2012 Reading I-V

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 22:04:39 GMT

I Philip K. Dick, The Cosmic Puppets.
II Philip K. Dick, Humpty Dumpty in Oakland
III Philip K. Dick, Mary and the Giant
IV Philip K. Dick, The Broken Bubble

Beginning of a reread of the oeuvre, which I may do over, as I've been distracted. Some really odd swerves of prose in The Broken Bubble, and I wonder what the novels would have been like if he'd gone back and edited them. Still have the moments to shock, and still that sense of so much of PKD's obsessions are there from the start.

V Hamish Fulton, Walking in Relation to Everything (Margate: Turner Contemptuously/Birmingham: IKON, 2012)

After a rather hollow opening - half a dozen conceptual sculptures and a Turner oil painting of a volcano - and a rather too rich follow-up - Nothing in the World But Youth - we now have a double bill of the first big Turner show (Turner and the Elements, which I ought to compare to Paul Nash:* The Elements) and another contemporary show, local boy Hamish Fulton (who I checked in the phone book, and is out near Broad Oak).

I first knew about Fulton as part of last year's Folkestone Triennial (which I don't think I wrote all of up), and a series of posters he had around the town for his walks. Then I suspect there is a piece by him in the Templeton (a series of seven letter words?) and I can remember seeing the piece with Rodney McDonald and Alistair Milne "Hitchhiking Times from London to Andorra and from Andorra to London April 1967", I guess in one of the Tates and at the Modern British Sculpture show at the RAA.

Fulton's practice is art through walking - each piece is a record of a walk: from coast to coast, from source to sea, from sea level to peak and back, in Britain, in Europe, in Tiber/Nepal and US/Canadian wilderness areas. There's a Burroughsian obsession with seven letter words (DUCHAMP/MESSNER/HABELER/MALLORY/HILLARY/TENZING/EVEREST), and there's something amazing about the sheer number of forty mile walks someone can pull off on the trot, and the way in which this can get conveyed in posters. I mean, you have to trust he's done the walk as they're aren't always photos and postcards. It has a distinct uncanny feel. Is it sculpture? I think so. But.

There's more Fulton at Ikon in Birmingham, and I plan to have a day trip there.

I hadn't planned to do the Turner show, because I wanted to read the catalogue first, and the Fulton intrigues me in a way that the Turner didn't - although the watercolours here seem to show Turner as a more abstract and dangerous figure than I give him credit for. He's a really odd establishment figure, who's also a tad subversive. The Tracey Emin of his day... I'll read the catalogue and go back to the show.

* I did not know that John Christopher lived in Paul Nash's house. Mind you, I didn't know that Paul Nash was significant when I took a photo of his plaque.

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Exhibitions for Expotitions

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 23:41:04 GMT

As always these are provided as much for my own benefit and interest as anyone else's - check opening times and venues before travelling; additions, suggestions, corrections and company welcome. I also have a Google Calendar which I add to. Exhibitions in red are on now (in theory).

ETA:
Rothko in Britain 9-Sep-2011 26-Feb-2012 Whitechapel Gallery London http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/rothko-in-britain
Artists in Residence: Shiraz Bayjoo and DARTER 16-Dec-2011 26-Feb-2012 Whitechapel Gallery London http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/artists-in-residence-shiraz-bayjoo-and-darter
Government Art Collection: Selected by Simon Schama: Travelling Light 16-Dec-2011 26-Feb-2012 Whitechapel Gallery London http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/government-art-collection-selected-by-simon-schama-travelling-light
Zarina Bhimji 19-Jan-2012 9-Mar-2012 Whitechapel Gallery London http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/zarina-bhimji
Steven Clayton: Culpable Earth 4-Feb-2012 7-May-2012 FirstSite Colchester http://www.firstsite.uk.net/page/culpable-earth-2
Andrea Zittel, Lay of My Land 10-Feb-2012 20-May-2012 BALTIC Gateshead http://www.balticmill.com/whatsOn/future/ExhibitionDetail.php?exhibID=161
Elizabeth Price 3-Feb-2012 27-May-2012 BALTIC Gateshead http://www.balticmill.com/whatsOn/present/ExhibitionDetail.php?exhibID=160
Gillian Wearing 28-Mar-2012 17-Jun-2012 Whitechapel Gallery London Tickets http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/gillian-wearing
The Bloomberg Commission: Josiah McElheny: The Past Was A Mirage I Had Left Far Behind 7-Sep-2011 20-Jul-2012 Whitechapel Gallery London http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/the-bloomberg-commission-josiah-mcelheny-the-past-was-a-mirage-i-had-left-far-behind
The London Open 3-Oct-2012 25-Nov-2012 Whitechapel Gallery London http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/the-london-open
Mel Bochner 12-Oct-2012 30-Dec-2012 Whitechapel Gallery London http://www.whitechapelgallery.org/exhibitions/mel-bochner
Ends February 2012

London: National Gallery “Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan” 9-Nov-2011-5-Feb-2012
London: Serpentine Gallery “Lygia Pape: Magnetized Space” 7-Dec-2011-9-Feb-2012 http://www.serpentinegallery.org/2011/03/lygia_pape.html
London: Royal Academy of Arts Tennant Gallery “Driven to Draw: Twentieth-century Drawings and Sketchbooks from the Royal Academy’s Collection” 3-Nov-2011-12-Feb-2012 http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/the-tennant-gallery/
London: National Portrait Gallery “Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2011” 10-Nov-2011-12-Feb-2012
London: Haunch of Venison 103 New Bond Street, London “The Mystery of Appearance” 7-Dec-2011-18-Feb-2012 http://haunchofvenison.com/exhibitions/current/the_mystery_of_appearance/
London: British Museum “Grayson Perry The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman” 6-Oct-2011-19-Feb-2012 http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/exhibitions/grayson_perry.aspx
London: Barbican Art Gallery “OMA/Progress” 6-Oct-2011-19-Feb-2012 http://www.barbican.org.uk/artgallery/event-detail.asp?ID=12472
* Chichester: Pallant House “Edward Burra” 22-Oct-2011-19-Feb-2012 http://www.pallant.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/forthcoming/main-galleries/edward-burra1/edward-burra
Birmingham: Birmingham Museum Gas Hall “Lost in Lace: New approaches by UK and international artists” 29-Oct-2011-19-Feb-2012 http://www.bmag.org.uk/events?id=1415
London: Tate Britain “Has The Film Already Started?” 27-Jun-2011-26-Feb-2012
London: V&A “The House of Annie Lennox” 15-Sep-2011-26-Feb-2012

Ends March 2012

Birmingham: Birmingham Museum Gallery 20 “A Life in Prints: The Tessa Sidey Bequest” 17-Sep-2011-4-Mar-2012 http://www.bmag.org.uk/events?id=1538
London: Royal Academy of Arts Sir Hugh Casson Room “Contemporary prints from RA Editions” 2-Dec-2011-8-Mar-2012 http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/hugh-casson-room-for-friends/prints-from-ra-editions,397,RAL.html
Gwynedd: Mostyn Gallery “Artist Rooms: Anselm Kiefer” 26-Nov-2011-10-Mar-2012
Edinburgh: Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art Modern Two “The Scottish Colourist Series: F C B Cadell” 22-Oct-2011-18-Mar-2012 http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibition/5:368/19917
Oxford: Modern Art Oxford “Graham Sutherland: An Unfinished World” 10-Dec-2011-18-Mar-2012 http://www.modernartoxford.org.uk/whats-on/present/
Sheffield: Sheffield Graves “Blk Art Group” 27-Aug-2011-24-Mar-2012 http://www.museums-sheffield.org.uk/museums/graves-gallery/exhibitions/current/the-blk-art-group
* Birmingham: Birmingham Museum “Ten Drawings by Leonardo da Vinci: A Diamond Jubilee Celebration” 13-Jan-2012-25-Mar-2012 http://www.bmag.org.uk/events?id=1389
London: Tate Modern “Photography: New Documentary Forms” 1-May-2011-31-Mar-2012
London: Tate Modern “Artist Rooms: Diane Arbus” 16-May-2011-31-Mar-2012
London: Tate Modern “Artist Rooms: Jenny Holzer” 16-May-2011-31-Mar-2012
London: Tate Modern “Artist Rooms: Joseph Beuys” 16-May-2011-31-Mar-2012
Edinburgh: Scottish National Portrait Gallery “Missing” 1-Dec-2011-31-Mar-2012 http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/missing

( Ends April-December 2012 )

( Ends 2013 or Later )

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Hmmm

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 22:42:22 GMT

So I need days out in Chichester (if I really care about Lucian Freud), Nottingham (I have no idea who Thomas Demand is but it sounds interesting), Birmingham (But it could be the same show as will be in Margate on Hamish Fulton) and Cambridge (Henri Gaudier-Brzesk).

Clearly I need to start looking at calendars and marking in days.

Missed the Soviet Architecture show at the RAA. Bumboats.

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Exhibitions for Expotitions

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 23:25:09 GMT

A listing of exhibitions which may interest me and others - information presented as is, check with websites etc before travelling, corrections invited. Some galleries close on Sundays, Mondays or Tuesdays, municipal ones might close at 4.00pm now.

Items in red are on at the moment, starred items are ones I'd recommend or really want to see.

Ends January 2012

Edinburgh: Elizabeth Blackadder Scottish National Gallery 2-Jul-2011-2-Jan-2012
London: Power of Making V&A 6-Sep-2011-2-Jan-2012
London: Barry Flanagan Tate Britain 27-Sep-2011-2-Jan-2012
Eastbourne : Franziska Furter Towner 8-Oct-2011-2-Jan-2012 (Y) http://www.townereastbourne.org.uk/exhibition/franziska-furter/
London: Love, Magic and Power V&A 10-Sep-2011-8-Jan-2012
Margate: Nothing in the World But Youth Turner Contemporary 17-Sep-2011-8-Jan-2012
London: Pipilotti Rist Hayward Gallery 28-Sep-2011-8-Jan-2012
* London: Gerhard Richter: Panorama Tate Modern 6-Oct-2011-8-Jan-2012
London: George Condo: Mental States Hayward Gallery 18-Oct-2011-8-Jan-2012
London: Painting Canada: Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven Dulwich Picture Gallery 19-Oct-2011-8-Jan-2012 http://www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk/exhibitions/coming_soon/the_group_of_seven.aspx
London: Private Eye at 50 V&A Rooms 17a and 18a 19-Oct-2011-8-Jan-2012 (Free)
London: The First Actresses: Nell Gwyn to Sarah Siddons National Portrait Gallery 20-Oct-2011-8-Jan-2012
* Gateshead: BALTIC Presents Turner Prize 2011 (Karla Black / Martin Boyce / Hilary Lloyd / George Shaw) BALTIC 21-Oct-2011-8-Jan-2012 http://www.balticmill.com
Nottingham: Klaus Weber: If You Leave Me I'm Not Coming Nottingham Contemporary 22-Oct-11-08 Jan 2012 http://www.nottinghamcontemporary.org/art/klaus-weber
London: Hokusai's Great Wave British Museum 3-Nov-2011-8-Jan-2012 (Free) http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/exhibitions/hokusais_great_wave.aspx
* Bexhill: Warhol is Here De La Warr Pavilion 24-Sep-2011-9-Jan-2012 (Free) http://www.dlwp.com/WhatsOn/ExhibitionDetail.aspx?EventId=1335
Wolverhampton, West Midlands: Traced Wolverhampton Art Gallery 15-Jan-2011-15-Jan-2012
London: John Martin: Apocalypse Tate Britain 21-Sep-2011-15-Jan-2012
* London: Postmodernism: Style and Subversion 1970-1990 V&A 38, 39, and North Court 24-Sep-2011-15-Jan-2012
London: The Spanish Line: Drawings from Ribera to Picasso Courtauld Institute of Art 13-Oct-2011-15-Jan-2012 http://www.courtauld.ac.uk/gallery/exhibitions/future/index.shtml
Cardiff: Joseph Beuys National Museum Cardiff 22-Oct-2011-15-Jan-2012
London: One Hundred and One Cartoonists Cartoon Museum 3-Nov-2011-21-Jan-2012 http://www.cartoonmuseum.org/
* London: Building the Revolution: Soviet Art and Architecture 1915-1935 Royal Academy of Arts Sackler Wing of Galleries 29-Oct-11-22-Jan-2012 http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/building-the-revolution/
Liverpool: Alice in Wonderland Tate Liverpool 4-Nov-2011-29-Jan-2012
Edinburgh: Turner in January Scottish National Gallery 1-Jan-2012-31-Jan-2012 http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/on-now-and-coming-soon/turner-in-january-2012

Ends Febuary 2012

London: Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan National Gallery 9-Nov-2011-5-Feb-2012
London: Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2011 National Portrait Gallery 10-Nov-2011-12-Feb-2012
London: Grayson Perry The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman British Museum 6-Oct-2011-19-Feb-2012 http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/exhibitions/grayson_perry.aspx
London: OMA/Progress Barbican Art Gallery 6-Oct-2011-19-Feb-2012 http://www.barbican.org.uk/artgallery/event-detail.asp?ID=12472
* Chichester: Edward Burra Pallant House 22-Oct-2011-19-Feb-2012 http://www.pallant.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/forthcoming/main-galleries/edward-burra1/edward-burra
Birmingham: Lost in Lace: New approaches by UK and international artists Birmingham Museum Gas Hall 29-Oct-2011-19-Feb-2012 http://www.bmag.org.uk/events?id=1415
London: Has The Film Already Started? Tate Britain 27-Jun-2011-26-Feb-2012
London: The House of Annie Lennox V&A 15-Sep-2011-26-Feb-2012

Ends March 2012

Birmingham: A Life in Prints: The Tessa Sidey Bequest Birmingham Museum Gallery 20 17-Sep-2011-4-Mar-2012 http://www.bmag.org.uk/events?id=1538
Gwynedd: Artist Rooms: Anselm Kiefer Mostyn Gallery 26-Nov-2011-10-Mar-2012
Edinburgh: The Scottish Colourist Series: F C B Cadell Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art Modern Two 22-Oct-2011-18-Mar-2012 http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibition/5:368/19917
Birmingham: Ten Drawings by Leonardo da Vinci: A Diamond Jubilee Celebration Birmingham Museum 13-Jan-2012-25-Mar-2012 http://www.bmag.org.uk/events?id=1389
London: Photography: New Documentary Forms Tate Modern 1-May-2011-31-Mar-2012
London: Artist Rooms: Diane Arbus Tate Modern 16-May-2011-31-Mar-2012
London: Artist Rooms: Jenny Holzer Tate Modern 16-May-2011-31-Mar-2012
London: Artist Rooms: Joseph Beuys Tate Modern 16-May-2011-31-Mar-2012
Edinburgh: Missing Scottish National Portrait Gallery 1-Dec-2011-31-Mar-2012 http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/missing

( Read more... )

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Artist Rooms

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 14:20:58 GMT

Why let publicity get in the way of the audience?

Compare: http://www.artfund.org/artistrooms/pages/on_tour/forthcoming - which lists one show, with http://www.tate.org.uk/collection/artistrooms/tour.do, which lists twenty. I think all the shows are Art Fund supported, but someone needs to make with the updatey.

(My google fu has frequently abandoned me over this project, mind.)

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Warhol is Here, There and Everywhere

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 13:54:19 GMT

Having, against my better judgement, gone to Bexhill to see the Warhol show (free, De La Warr, worth it for the building which needs a lick of paint again), I see another exhibition coming to Dulwich Picture Gallery. Which is more than the DPG website admitted to yesterday.

The Artist Rooms Warhol is going to Ferens Art Gallery, Hull 2 June 2012-13 January 2013; I'm not sure if they'll also have the various loans which were at Bexhill.

There's meant to be something at St Martin's, but I've not found any details on their website.

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Exhibitions for Expotitions

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 11:13:03 GMT

A bit out of practice with these - I need to update my listing, and I see there's a William Morris exhibition somewhere in London. As always, check with the venue before travelling - especially on Sundays and Mondays. Starred ones I want to see or have seen.

· London: "Only Connect" National Portrait Gallery 16-Apr-2011-27-Nov-2011

· * London: "Signs of a Struggle: Photography in the Wake of Postmodernism" V&A 38a 11-Aug-2011-27-Nov-2011 (Free)

· London: "Beatrix Potter: Botanical Illustrations" V&A 14-Jun-2011-11-Dec-2011

· London: "William Dobson: A Portrait Revealed" Courtauld Institute of Art 12-Sep-11-11-Dec-2011 http://www.courtauld.ac.uk/gallery/exhibitions/future/index.shtml

· Kilmarnock, Ayrshire: "Artist Rooms: Bill Viola" The Dick Institute 3-Sep-2011-24-Dec-2011

· Birmingham: "Home of Metal" Birmingham Museum 18-Jun-2011-25-Dec-2011 http://www.bmag.org.uk/events?id=893

· Birmingham: "Staffordshire Hoard" Birmingham Museum 24-Jul-2010-31-Dec-2011 http://www.bmag.org.uk/events?id=892

· * London: "Wilhelm Sasnal" Whitechapel Gallery 14-Oct-2011-1-Jan-2012

· * Edinburgh: "Elizabeth Blackadder" Scottish National Gallery 2-Jul-2011-2-Jan-2012

· London: "Power of Making" V&A 6-Sep-2011-2-Jan-2012

· * London: "Barry Flanagan" Tate Britain 27-Sep-2011-2-Jan-2012

· Eastbourne : "Franziska Furter" Towner 8-Oct-2011-2-Jan-2012 (Free) http://www.townereastbourne.org.uk/exhibition/franziska-furter/

· London: "Love, Magic and Power" V&A 10-Sep-2011-8-Jan-2012

· * Margate: "Nothing in the World But Youth" Turner Contemporary 17-Sep-2011-8-Jan-2012

· * London: "Pipilotti Rist" Hayward Gallery 28-Sep-2011-8-Jan-2012

· * London: "Gerhard Richter: Panorama" Tate Modern 6-Oct-2011-8-Jan-2012

· * London: "George Condo: Mental States" Hayward Gallery 18-Oct-2011-8-Jan-2012

· * London: "Painting Canada: Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven" Dulwich Picture Gallery 19-Oct-2011-8-Jan-2012 http://www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk/exhibitions/coming_soon/the_group_of_seven.aspx

· * London: "Private Eye at 50" V&A Rooms 17a and 18a 19-Oct-2011-8-Jan-2012 (Free)

· * London: "The First Actresses: Nell Gwyn to Sarah Siddons" National Portrait Gallery 20-Oct-2011-8-Jan-2012

· * Gateshead: "BALTIC Presents Turner Prize 2011 (Karla Black / Martin Boyce / Hilary Lloyd / George Shaw)" BALTIC 21-Oct-2011-8-Jan-2012 http://www.balticmill.com

· * Bexhill: "Warhol is Here" De La Warr Pavilion 24-Sep-2011-9-Jan-2012 (Free) http://www.dlwp.com/WhatsOn/ExhibitionDetail.aspx?EventId=1335

· Wolverhampton, West Midlands: "Traced" Wolverhampton Art Gallery 15-Jan-2011-15-Jan-2012

· * London: "John Martin: Apocalypse" Tate Britain 21-Sep-2011-15-Jan-2012

· * London: "Postmodernism: Style and Subversion 1970-1990" V&A 38, 39, and North Court 24-Sep-2011-15-Jan-2012

· London: "The Spanish Line: Drawings from Ribera to Picasso" Courtauld Institute of Art 13-Oct-2011-15-Jan-2012 http://www.courtauld.ac.uk/gallery/exhibitions/future/index.shtml

· Cardiff: "Joseph Beuys" National Museum Cardiff 22-Oct-2011-15-Jan-2012

· * London: "Building the Revolution: Soviet Art and Architecture 1915-1935" Royal Academy of Arts Sackler Wing of Galleries 29-Oct-11-22-Jan-2012 http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/building-the-revolution/

· London: "Grayson Perry The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman" British Museum 6-Oct-2011-19-Feb-2012 http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/exhibitions/grayson_perry.aspx

· London: "OMA/Progress" Barbican Art Gallery 6-Oct-2011-19-Feb-2012 http://www.barbican.org.uk/artgallery/event-detail.asp?ID=12472

· * Chichester: "Edward Burra" Pallant House 22-Oct-2011-19-Feb-2012 http://www.pallant.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/forthcoming/main-galleries/edward-burra1/edward-burra [Going to Nottingham next year]

· Birmingham: "Lost in Lace: New approaches by UK and international artists" Birmingham Museum Gas Hall 29-Oct-2011-19-Feb-2012 http://www.bmag.org.uk/events?id=1415

· London: "Has The Film Already Started?" Tate Britain 27-Jun-2011-26-Feb-2012

· London: "The House of Annie Lennox" V&A 15-Sep-2011-26-Feb-2012

· London: "Andy Warhol" Museum and Contemporary Collection, Central St Martins 24-Sep-2011-26-Feb-2012

· Birmingham: "A Life in Prints: The Tessa Sidey Bequest" Birmingham Museum Gallery 20 17-Sep-2011-4-Mar-2012 http://www.bmag.org.uk/events?id=1538

· Edinburgh: "The Scottish Colourist Series: F C B Cadell" Dean Gallery Modern Two 22-Oct-2011-18-Mar-2012 http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibition/5:368/19917

· London: "Photography: New Documentary Forms" Tate Modern 1-May-2011-31-Mar-2012

· * London: "Artist Rooms: Diane Arbus" Tate Modern 16-May-2011-31-Mar-2012

· London: "Artist Rooms: Jenny Holzer" Tate Modern 16-May-2011-31-Mar-2012

· * London: "Artist Rooms: Joseph Beuys" Tate Modern 16-May-2011-31-Mar-2012

· London: "Artist Rooms: TBC Late" Tate Modern 1-Sep-2011-1-Apr-2012

· London: "The Unilever Series: Tacita Dean" Tate Modern 11-Oct-2011-9-Apr-2012

· Nottingham: "Klaus Weber: If You Leave Me I'm Not Coming" Nottingham Contemporary 22-Oct-11-08 Jan 2012 http://www.nottinghamcontemporary.org/art/klaus-weber

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Magrittes, I've Had A Few

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 21:58:04 GMT

England seems to have been shrunk, so I have awarded myself a day out in Liverpool. Who knew it would be possible? I guess, given a day out in Newcastle, this should not be a surprise.

Annoyingly the Walker is between exhibitions when I go, so I'll have to look at whatever items the civic minded of Liverpool donated to their council rather than flogged. But at least I'll see an exhibition at the Tate I wanted to see.

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Folkestone Triennial 2011

Sat, 10 Sep 2011 20:20:26 GMT

A little bit belated, but my photos of the Triennial are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewmbutler/sets/72157627085227120/

A few things - the Leas Lift Bagpuss, the deathtrap classrooms, the masonic ritual - weren't photographable and I didn't do the shop. I didn't catch any of the Strange Cargo signs.

2008: http://www.flickr.com/photos/andrewmbutler/sets/72157627058267398/

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Sort of Back, Missort of Back

Fri, 26 Aug 2011 07:55:27 GMT

I'm back having been points north and east - a wet weekend in Berwick, six days in Edinburgh, and a week in an old lookout post in Broadstairs (though I got to come home those days). Interwebs have been largely limited to FB, and experimental tweeting, though it didn't forward to my FB account. You didn't miss much. I'll save that for work and the next exhibition.

A round up of stuff I've been to (Edinburgh to follow):

I think they've both closed but there was an exhibition of South African photos, which I have notes on somewhere (very little landscape) and one of David Goldblatt at the V&A - Goldblatt's was both anger-making and moving. The same day I went to Burke + Norfolk - past and present photos of Afghanistan at the Tate Modern. Almost spoilt by someone photographing in there (I think the labels) - I hate cameras making noises. In fact I was struck by how much photography is being got away with in the Tate. Anything up to tripod and lights seems to be the policy.

In Berwick, a Matisse exhibition of lithographs of the paper montages. Some good stuff there, and striking when collected together. Also showing some amazing glass, and paintings of a bus stops, whose details are not to hand. Then an exhibition of paintings of Berwick, including Lowry and Turner who get everywhere.

In Edinburgh, Tony Cragg, a sculptor with whose work I was not familiar, but it's very interesting (closer to Hepworth than Kapoor) and Elizabeth Blackadder, who can sure paint cats. (There's an App on iTunes for the exhibition with some good stuff on it). I didn't do the one of Hiroshi Sugimoto - I didn't have the energy, and it had been a bad day, but there are lots of ticket combinations which would have made it cheaper if cheapness is the necessity. At the Queen's Gallery, The Queen’s Gallery, The Northern Renaissance: Dürer to Holbein was good but not amazing and Art Fund doesn't cut the price.

I did some, and should have done more, of the Edinburgh Art Festival - I stumbled across the Ingleby Gallery's Mystics or Rationalists? (Susan Collis, Iran do Espírito Santo, Ceal Floyer, Susan Hiller, Jeremy Millar, Cornelia Parker, Katie Paterson, Simon Starling, Cerith Wyn Evans), whereas looking for Anish Kapoor's work at the ECA was hard work and found by accident. But it led me to the beautiful collaboration of Norman McBeath & Robert Crawford, "Body Bags / Simonides", translations into Scots of Simonides and photographs. I wish I'd made time for Charles, Jencks, John Byrne and several others.

Back south, the Vorticists at Tate Britain - clearly second or third rank but I like it, and got the right Tate this time. I do like Wyndham Lewis, but he was clearly a tosser. Must follow up Alvin Langdon Coburn, a Vorticist photographer. The sculpture stood out (as it would). And then to Whitechapel for Thomas Struth's amazing huge photographs - of which, more later. There's a charge for that exhibtion, and no Art Fund rate.

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Exhibitions for Expotitions

Mon, 01 Aug 2011 17:43:22 GMT

A listing of exhibitions which have caught my interest - either open or due to open in August 2011, and ordered by urgency. Starred items are ones I especially want to see or recommend having seen.

Please check with venue or venue's website before travelling - not all galleries open on Sundays and/or Mondays and municipal galleries have reduced hours. Corrections and additions welcome - I may have copied details wrong.

* Broadstairs: "Bran Jones and Shaun Madden Life's A Beach" Old Lookout Gallery 28-Jul-2011-4-Aug-2011 (Free)
* London: "Eric Gill: Public and Private Art" British Museum Room 69a 10-Feb-2011-7-Aug-2011 (Free) http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/exhibitions/eric_gill.aspx
* Chichester: "Nick Blinko: The Visions of Pope Adrian 37th" Pallant House 21-Jun-2011-7-Aug-2011
* Broadstairs: "Karen Shepherdson & Nigel Breadman: Replay '11 " Old Lookout Gallery 4-Aug-2011-11-Aug-2011 (Free)
Sheffield: "The Triumph of Maximilian I" Sheffield Graves 31-Mar-2011-13-Aug-2011
* London: "Fred Sandback" Whitechapel Gallery 25-May-2011-14-Aug-2011
* London: "Summer Exhibition 2011" Royal Academy of Arts 7-Jun-2011-15-Aug-2011
* Broadstairs: "SM: Not Waving But Drowning" Old Lookout Gallery 11-Aug-2011-18-Aug-2011 (Free)
London: "Richard Long / Giuseppe Penone" Haunch of Venison 6 Burlington Gardens 27-May-2011-20-Aug-2011
Canterbury: "Canterbury Society of Arts and East Kent Art Society Joint Exhibition" Sidney Cooper Gallery 6-Aug-2011-20-Aug-2011 (Free)
Canterbury: "MA Show" Sidney Cooper Gallery 6-Aug-2011-20-Aug-2011 (Free)
London: "Watercolour" Tate Britain 16-Feb-2011-21-Aug-2011
* London: "James Stirling: Notes from the Archive" Tate Britain 5-Apr-2011-21-Aug-2011
* Broadstairs: "Andrew M. Butler: 'Stairs, Steps, Stares" Old Lookout Gallery 18-Aug-2011-25-Aug-2011 (Free)
London: "Tracey Emin: Love is What You Want" Hayward Gallery 18-May-2011-29-Aug-2011
London: "Camden Town and Beyond" National Portrait Gallery 27-Nov-2010-31-Aug-2011
* Broadstairs: "Ben Rowley: Film @ The Old Lookout" Old Lookout Gallery 25-Aug-2011-1-Sep-2011 (Free)
Walsall: "Eduardo Paolozzi General Dynamic F.U.N" The New Art Gallery 2-Jul-2011-3-Sep-2011
* Sheffield: "John Martin: Painting the Apocalypse" Sheffield Millennium Gallery 30-Jun-2001-4-Sep-2011
Edinburgh : "Portrait of the Nation at the Scottish National Gallery" Scottish National Gallery 2-Oct-2010-4-Sep-2011
* London: "This is Whitechapel" Whitechapel Gallery 11-Mar-2011-4-Sep-2011
London: "Government Art Collection: At Work" Whitechapel Gallery 3-Jun-2011-4-Sep-2011
* London: "The Vorticists: Manifesto for a Modern World" Tate Britain 14-Jun-2011-4-Sep-2011
London: "Falling Up: The Gravity of Art" Courtauld Institute of Art 23-Jun-2011-4-Sep-2011 http://www.courtauld.ac.uk/macuratingexhibition/index.shtml
Bexhill: "Catherine Yass" De La Warr Pavilion 25-Jun-2011-4-Sep-2011 (Free) http://www.dlwp.com/WhatsOn/ExhibitionDetail.aspx?EventId=1379
* London: "Miro" Tate Modern 14-Apr-2011-11-Sep-2011
* London: "Out of Australia Prints and drawings from Sidney Nolan to Rover Thomas" British Museum Room 90 26-May-2011-11-Sep-2011 http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/exhibitions/australian_season/out_of_australia.aspx
London: "Watch Me Move: The Animation Show" Barbican Art Gallery 15-Jun-2011-11-Sep-2011 (Charge) http://www.barbican.org.uk/artgallery/event-detail.asp?ID=11989
London: "Thomas Struth: Photographs 1978-2010" Whitechapel Gallery 6-Jul-2011-16-Sep-2011
Wolverhampton, West Midlands: "Home of Metal: You Should Be Living" Wolverhampton Art Gallery 18-Jun-2011-17-Sep-2011
London: "Jake or Dinos Chapman" White Cube Hoxton Square and Mason's Yard, 15-Jul-2011-17-Sep-2011
London: "BP Portrait Award 2011" National Portrait Gallery 16-Jun-2011-18-Sep-2011
London: "Toulouse-Lautrec and Jane Avril" Courtauld Institute of Art 16-Jun-2011-18-Sep-2011 http://www.courtauld.ac.uk/gallery/exhibitions/2011/Lautrec.shtml
London: "Forests, Rocks, Torrents Norwegian and Swiss Landscapes from the Lunde Collection" National Gallery 22-Jun-2011-18-Sep-2011
St Ives, Cornwall: "Artist Rooms: Agnes Martin" Tate St Ives 14-May-2011-25-Sep-2011
Gateshead: "Robert Breer" BALTIC 11-Jun-2011-25-Sep-2011 http://www.balticmill.com
London: "Art Now: Corin Sworn" Tate Britain 27-Jun-2011-25-Sep-2011
London: "Twombly and Poussin: Arcadian Painters" Dulwich Picture Gallery 29-Jun-2011-25-Sep-2011
Edinburgh: "Hiroshi Sugimoto" Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art 4-Aug-2011-25-Sep-2011
Walsall: "Leo Fitzmaurice You Try to Tell Me but I Never Listen" The New Art Gallery 17-Jun-2011-1-Oct-2011
Wolverhampton, West Midlands: "Manufactory by Chris Coekin" Wolverhampton Art Gallery 18-Jun-2011-1-Oct-2011
Chichester: "Anna Fox: RESORT" Pallant House 25-Jun-2011-2-Oct-2011
Gateshead: "Maurizio Anzeri" BALTIC 25-Jun-2011-2-Oct-2011 http://www.balticmill.com
* London: "Eyewitness: Hungarian Photography in the 20th Century: Brassaò, Capa, KertÄsz, Moholy Nagy, Munkçcsi" Royal Academy of Arts Sackler Wing of Galleries 30-Jun-2011-2-Oct-2011
London: "Devotion by Design: Italian Altarpieces before 1500" National Gallery 6-Jul-2011-2-Oct-2011
Chichester: "Frida Kahlo *Diego Rivera" Pallant House 9-Jul-2011-2-Oct-2011
Nottingham: "Jean Genet" Nottingham Contemporary 16-Jul-2011-2-Oct-2011
Eastbourne : "The Art of Giving: How gifts have shaped the Towner Collection" Towner 9-Apr-2011-9-Oct-2011
London: "Treasures of Heaven: saints, relics and devotion in medieval Europe" British Museum 23-Jun-2011-9-Oct-2011 http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/exhibitions/treasures_of_heaven.aspx
Edinburgh: "Dürer's Fame" Scottish National Gallery 9-Jun-2011-11-Oct-2011
Liverpool: "Artist Rooms: Robert Therrien" Tate Liverpool, Merseyside 24-Jun-2011-16-Oct-2011
* Liverpool: "Rene Magritte: The Pleasure Principle" Tate Liverpool 24-Jun-2011-16-Oct-2011
London: "Junya Ishigami: Architecture as Air" Barbican Art Gallery The Curve 28-Jun-2011-16-Oct-2011 (Free) http://www.barbican.org.uk/artgallery/event-detail.asp?ID=11988
London: "Journeyings: Recent Works on Paper by Frank Bowling RA" Royal Academy of Arts 27-May-2011-23-Oct-2011
Hull: "Artist Rooms: Francesca Woodman" Ferens Art Gallery 11-Jun-2011-23-Oct-2011
London: "Glamour of the Gods: Hollywood Portraits: Photographs from the John Kobal Foundation" National Portrait Gallery 7-Jul-2011-23-Oct-2011
Wolverhampton, West Midlands: "Artist Rooms: Ed Ruscha" Wolverhampton Art Gallery 28-May-2011-29-Oct-2011
Gateshead: "Mariah Robertson" BALTIC 25-Jun-2011-30-Oct-2011 http://www.balticmill.com
Leeds, West Yorkshire: "Artist Rooms: Damien Hirst" Leeds Art Gallery 15-Jul-2011-30-Oct-2011
London: "Art for the Nation: Sir Charles Eastlake at the National Gallery" National Gallery 27-Jul-2011-30-Oct-2011
London: "Doctor Who in Comics 1964-2011" Cartoon Museum 27-Jul-2011-30-Oct-2011 http://www.cartoonmuseum.org/
London: "Taryn Simon" Tate Modern 25-May-2011-6-Nov-2011
Edinburgh: "Tony Cragg" Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art 30-Jul-2011-6-Nov-2011
London: "V&A: So Noble a Confection: Producing and Consuming Chocolate, 1600-2000" V&A Sackler 19-Oct-2010-14-Nov-2011
London: "Only Connect" National Portrait Gallery 16-Apr-2011-27-Nov-2011
London: "Signs of a Struggle: Photography in the Wake of Postmodernism" V&A 38a 11-Aug-2011-27-Nov-2011 (Free)
London: "Beatrix Potter: Botanical Illustrations" V&A 14-Jun-2011-11-Dec-2011
Birmingham: "Home of Metal" Birmingham Museum 18-Jun-2011-25-Dec-2011 http://www.bmag.org.uk/events?id=893
Birmingham: "Staffordshire Hoard" Birmingham Museum 24-Jul-2010-31-Dec-2011 http://www.bmag.org.uk/events?id=892
Edinburgh: "Elizabeth Blackadder" Scottish National Gallery 2-Jul-2011-2-Jan-2012
Wolverhampton, West Midlands: "Traced" Wolverhampton Art Gallery 15-Jan-2011-15-Jan-2012
London: "Has The Film Already Started?" Tate Britain 27-Jun-2011-26-Feb-2012
London: "Photography: New Documentary Forms" Tate Modern 1-May-2011-31-Mar-2012
London: "Artist Rooms: Diane Arbus" Tate Modern 16-May-2011-31-Mar-2012
London: "Artist Rooms: Jenny Holzer" Tate Modern 16-May-2011-31-Mar-2012
London: "Artist Rooms: Joseph Beuys" Tate Modern 16-May-2011-31-Mar-2012
London: "Michelangelo Pistoletto: The Mirror of Judgement" Serpentine Gallery 12-Jul-2011-17-Sep-2011 http://www.serpentinegallery.org/2011/03/michelangelo_pistoletto.html
London: "Peter Zumthor: Hortus Conclusus" Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 1-Jul-2011-16-Oct-2011 http://www.serpentinegallery.org/2011/04/serpentine_gallery_pavillion_2011_zumthor.html

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Fred and Ginger

Sat, 16 Jul 2011 20:58:59 GMT

Chichester by car, for once, to see the rather Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera exhibition at the Pallant - the one downside the rain (and the misleading directions that sent us on the general direction of Dorking) which made the route through the wall that would have cut the corner off invisible. Just £6.50 with Art Fund Card - now rebranded the National Art Pass.

Kahlo comes out better, with two rooms of the three, and comparing her paintings to the photos in glorious colour by Nickolas Muray you can see she exaggerates monobrow and moustache. (Of course colour photography was possible in 1939 - but I suspect it wasn't considered art until the 1970s; this is definitely art). Paintings such as The Love Embrace of the Universe, the Earth (Mexico), Diego, Me, and Senor Xolotl are truly astonishing - surreal and moving and sublime - and the more personal Miscarriage disturbing. Rivera's painting of Natasha Gelman, the collector of this body of Mexican art, is his show stopper, but his Sunflowers is also disturbing - is the child pulling a leg off the doll or adding it? (With Kahlo you'd see it as a child substitute - Rivera is of course infantilised in The Love Embrace.

The gallery also has architectural prints by Kahlo's father, Guillame, and a room of very splendid photos by Manuel and Lola Álvarez Bravo, well worth a look.

More disturbing were the photos of ordinary life by Anna Fox - scenes of normal Butlins holidays.

Everyone looks blooming miserable though. We suspected there's digital composition going on.

Down in the print room Nicholas Blinko's extraordinary drawings - obsessive, maybe even deranged in quality, "The Visions of Pope Adrian 37th". Apparently he was in a punk band. Pigeonhed would know.

And of course, a whole room of Peake illustrations (a story book, Grimms' Household Tales, Treasure Island, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Gormenghast stuff. That ends on Sunday, the rest is one till August (Blinko) or October.

Find time for it.

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Exhibitions for Expotitions

Thu, 30 Jun 2011 12:32:39 GMT

Twombly and Poussin: Arcadian Painters
http://www.dulwichpicturegallery.org.uk/exhibitions/now_on_show/twombly_and_poussin.aspx
29 Jun-25 Sep 2011
Dulwich Picture Gallery

Eyewitness: Hungarian Photography in the 20th Century: Brassaï, Capa, Kertész, Moholy-Nagy, Munkácsi
http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/hungarian-photography/
Jun 30–Oct 2, 2011
Royal Academy of Arts, Sackler Wing of Galleries

Graduate Photography Show 2011
http://www.canterbury.ac.uk/sidney-cooper/future-navigation/current.asp
Jun 30–Jul 14 2011
Sidney Cooper Gallery, Canterbury

In The Making
PGCE Exhibition
http://www.canterbury.ac.uk/sidney-cooper/future-navigation/current.asp
Jun 30–Jul 14 2011
Sidney Cooper Gallery, Canterbury

Karen Shepherdson: Mystery Week
Jun 30-Jul 7 2011 (Properly open tomorrow)
Old Lookout Gallery, Broadstairs

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For Reasons Which Need Not Detain Us...

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 20:22:02 GMT

... I'm likely to need a lot of bulldog clips before August. The state of them is immaterial - albeit with the proviso that they still clip and a preference for chunky ones over effete. If any of you have a desk drawer of them just going for grabs - or maybe they've nipped you a few times and you can't cope any more - I'm happy to take them off your hands.

(Seriously)

I'd say I'd need thirty-nine of them, but that may be an underestimate.

Distressed bulldogs welcome.

Is there nowhere in Battersea?

Don't make me go to Staples or Rymans!

(Seriously)

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Expotition: Tate Britain and Putney Bridge But No Thames Path

Sat, 12 Mar 2011 22:50:07 GMT

I noticed the Muybridge exhibition had a warning about nudity - in photos the size of a matchbook. Some things are clearly sensitive.

Today I'd planned to see the Watercolours exhibition at t'Tate and may be the Bridget Riley, plus a visit to Oxfam and Hurlingham Books in search of copies of The Thirty-Nine Steps. I figure, what with watercolours being all chocolate box and all, an early arrival would get me ahead of the crowds, and an 8.00am train would see me arriving as they opened. A 7.30 train would see me have time for a coffee. But that would require me getting up at 6.30, unlikely on a weekend and double so since I got to bed at 2am.

Hollow laugh. After four hours' sleep I was awake in plenty of time and caught that train.

Even at 10.10 the exhibition was too crowded, or perhaps it attracted the wrong kind of punter. The punter who not only gets in your way, but pushes in front of you and looks at you as if you've been in theirs. Who come damn close to putting their damn dirty ape fingers on the work. About half of the art was what I'd feared - biscuit tins and clotted cream - with the early stuff and late stuff being the best. As with the Moore, the war stuff stood out - and that was what got the great reviews which made me want to see the show. There was an interesting room on developing technique and technology, which came a little late, and Turner kept recurring to give it a boost. The impressive stuff was the Dadd (every blade of grass!) and the familiar Ravilious and Nash, and of course the Tudor miniatures are amazing. Howard Hodgkin, I need to follow up.

But much more striking was the Susan Hiller exhibition - which I had no idea I'd see and which was packageable with the Watercolours. If I'm being honest, I'd say see this first, because you might need the Watercolours to calm you down, because this is a show that came with no warning. (But Watercolours will get busy. It's nice art. Mostly.) I confess I'd never heard of her, but I've seen her From the Freud Museum at Tate Modern (and note she is American, though long resident in Britain). She specialises in ready made and deconstructive art - hundreds of postcards of storms at seaside resorts, the evidence in the boxes, looped films of teen telekinesis, pictures of ships at sea, paintings burnt, sliced and diced, unravelled or deliberately faded in the light. There's a slide show about recording spirit voices, a surreal living room with a documentary about Nebuchadnezzar and faces in the tv signals after close down, dangling speakers recounting close encounters and - most terrifying of all - a film about Punch and Judy worthy of Grotowski and mind blowing. I've been moved, uplifted and transformed by exhibitions before, but never so terrified.

I had to do a bit more of the Tate's art to calm myself - a new hanging of twentieth century art, waving at artists whose styles I recognise now, the latest version of Blake on physiognomy and phrenology. Then a walk to Oxfam, where I score a Love's Labour's Lost (I hope a missing Arden) and thence to a rather good bakery, then the District Line to ...

Parson's Green, rather than Putney Bridge. Planned engineering buggering around - which I'd not thought to check on. And stupidly I turned left out of the station - which should follow the line of the railway south, rather than right, which would have been quicker. But I found a Starbucks, and had a second coffee, which had been the plan on the other route, and eventually I was back on track. And then, as I counted up to 91, I had this awful feeling that the place had closed down.

Fortunately, I looked around the corner, and found the shop. I also realise I've been there before, or at least past it, when visiting someone in Putney. I'm not sure I found it open. Another Thirty-Nine Steps, one novelisation of Flash Gordon.

I decided to walk along the Thames rather than tracing the route I should have taken from Parson's Green - I decided, but failed, as the Thames Path is somewhat inland. I soon gave up and found my way back to New King's Road, and a very slow district line.

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I wonder...

Mon, 17 Jan 2011 00:32:31 GMT

Today has been a day of epiphanies and revelations, as well as failures to change light bulbs, get up at a reasonable time and to get to bed before midnight. I have had thoughts about the cosy catastrophe, which I will pass on in due course, but I have also partly solved a mystery of what my gallery-going is building up to. My wider sense of (especially British) surrealist and modernist art 1900-1940ish remains puzzling - although I can trace the trajectory - but the Dulwich Picture Gallery exhibition of Paul Nash clearly needs to be thrown at Keith Roberts (and Eric Ravilious is presumably not far behind*), with the paradoxical sense that modern and romantic ought to seem more antithetical.

( * Not far behind? )

I don't have time or words for this in the current project - whose Post-Imperial Melancholy chapter needs sections on Compton and Kilworth to complete - but one more for the to-do list...

(in any case I need to think of the linkage between Nash and Nicholson's odd welding of landscape-still-life-abstract, and then the connection to Mondrian which will be explored by a Courtauld Institute exhibition next year.)

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Exhibitions for Expotitions

Fri, 10 Dec 2010 13:32:02 GMT

Partially updated - more to follow.

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Exhibitions for Expotitions

Sat, 04 Dec 2010 18:03:45 GMT

I've gotten out of the habit of this - and consequently have missed a couple of things I might have had time to see... I've spent two hours updating my database, and note that I still need to add:

Baltic
~~British Museum~~
~~De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill~~
Laing, Newcastle
Kingston upon Thames Museum and Gallery
Nottingham Contemporary
~~Pallant, Chichester~~
~~Towner, Eastbourne~~
V&A

and no doubt more. As always check with venues before you go - some close on Mondays, some will close over Christmas/New Year, some will charge (get an Art Fund Card). I've ordered by order of closing - it might be counterintuitive, but it means you can prioritise. Let me know if you want me to add you to my Google Calendar for this information, which may be more straightforward to interrogate. Starred items are ones I really want to see, but I've increasing cynicism about doing these things with others, as they tend not to happen when it's convenient for me, and sometimes end up happening inconveniently...

Items in red are already underway - as far as I know.

Closes December 2010

Treasures from Budapest: European Masterpieces from Leonardo to Schiele 25/9/2010—12/12/2010 Royal Academy Arts (Main)

Closes January 2011

Stephen Sutcliffe 1/10/2010-2/1/2011 Whitechapel Gallery
Turner Prize 2010 5/10/2010-2/1/2011 Tate Britain [recommended]
Walid Raad: Miraculous Beginnings 14/10/2010-2/1/2011 Whitechapel Gallery
Myth, Manners and Memory: Photographers of the American South 1/10/2010-3/1/2011 De La Warr Pavilion [recommended]
Move: Choreographing You 13/10/2010-3/1/2011 Hayward Gallery
Peter Lanyon 9/9/2010-6/1/2011 Tate St Ives
No New Thing Under the Sun 21/10/2010—9/1/2011 RAA
Agents of the Buddha: 17th-century Japanese sculptures of Fugen and Monju 11/11/2010-9/1/2011 British Museum
* Gods & Monsters: John Deakin’s Portraits of British Artists 2/10/2010—10/1/2011 Pallant House, Chichester
Rachel Whiteread: Drawings 15/9/2010-16/1/2011 Tate Britain
Venice: Canaletto and his Rivals 13/10/2010-16/1/2011 National Gallery
Cezanne's Card Players 21/10/2010-16/1/2011 Courtauld Institute
Eadweard Muybridge 15/9/2010-16/1/2011 Tate Britain [recommended]
* Gaughin 30/9/2010-16/1/2011 Tate Modern
Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes 1900-1939 18/9/2010-16/1/2011 V&A
Thomas Lawrence: Regency Power and Brilliance 21/10/2010-23/1/2011 NPG
* Pioneering Painters: The Glasgow Boys 1880-1900 30/10/2010—23/1/2011 RAA (Sackler)
Ben Johnson: Modern Perspectives 8/12/2010-23/1/2011 National Gallery
Richard Wentworth: Three Guesses 6/11/2010-30/1/2011 Whitechapel Gallery
GSK Contemporary-Aware: Art Fashion Identity 2/12/2010—30/1/2011 RAA

Closes February 2011

Future Beauty: 30 Years of Japanese Fashion 15/10/2010-16/2/2011 Barbican
Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize 2010 11/11/2010-20/2/2011 NPG
Tomoaki Suzuki Solo Exhibition 11/12/2010-27/2/2011 Towner Gallery, Eastbourne

( Closes After February 2011 )

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Tate

Sun, 21 Nov 2010 23:37:43 GMT

I wanted to go and see the Eadweard Muybridge exhibition, and the Turner Prize shortlist, if only to see the Otolith Group entry. Tate Britain offered a number of different exhibition combinations, but not Muybridge and Turner Prize, so I was forced to see the Rachel Whiteread drawings.

Let's dispense with her - here's her drawing of a floor, and of wall paper ... okay, more interesting are designs for sculptures, such as House and the Fourth Plinth, and various found objects, but whilst it's sort of fascinating to see someone drawing a keyhole rather than a lock, I find the other people in the exhibition more interesting than the exhibition itself.

Muybridge, though... First, let me warn you there is NUDITY, yes, NUDITY. Not rope stuck up the jacksie nudity of Mapplethorpe, but among the action photographs Muybridge took are athletes in the altogether. And this includes self portraits at 56. Given each of these pictures is about 2cm by 3cm I cannot help think that this is over reaction. One hopes all the nudes in Tate Britain are similarly warned about.

Muybridge is most famous for the invention of bullet time a century or more before The Matrix - images of horses, dogs, elephants, athletes and such like in action, with some of these then animated zoopraxiscope style. I see there is more of these in the Kingston museum, which demands a visit early next year. He also did action photographs of throwing buckets of water - capturing movement in stillness.

But that's the second half of his career. He also travelled extensively in the Western US, taking landscapes and stereoscopic photographs of Yosemite, Alaska, San Francisco and so forth, including native Americans (of the Tlingit variety, among others). His waterfalls an lighthouses are very striking, as is his anthropological stuff. The discovery that he had a business on Montgomery Street triggers a vague memory of PKD's address at some point, and his association with Leland Stanford triggers something about androids. There's also stupendous panoramas of San Francisco c. 1878. Astonishing.

The four artists on the the shortlist for the Turner Prize are Susan Philipsz, Angela de la Cruz, Dexter Dalwood and the Otolith Group. Philipsz offers soundscapes - folk songs sung through three speakers in an otherwise empty room. I could take or leave; I'm guessing you need to spend an hour listening. I couldn't be bothered. de la Cruz offers single colour canvases, which are then crunched up. Clever clever but not clever. Cute. Although they look vaguely kinky. Dalwood offers traditional canvases, and is my favourite, although probably he won't win. He's inspired by various novels and novelists, and there's a nice political edge. The Otolith Group are Anjalika Sagar and Kodwo Eshun (he of the book More Brilliant than the Sun on Sun Ra etc) and offers sf - they've dressed up as aliens before. Here we have a dozen screens showing episodes of a Chris Marker documentary on Greek culture and philosophy (each is 26 mins - you can't see them all) and a film which public service announcement starts on the hour and is about 50 mins. The film is based upon the conceit of filming an unrealised Sanjit Ray script The Alien, and is a mixture of found footage, clips from Ray and new stuff, mostly trying to cast the various parts, which include Arthur C. Clarke. When you hear the words "Its a not an easy thing to meet one's maker" an "I want more life, father", you wonder if Ridley Scott is reaching for his lawyer. I suspect it's half an hour too long - but then I tend to find that I get the point of video art long before it finishes.

In the meantime, I found a copy of a book secondhand which is the first step in a little artistic project of my own. Only another dozen copies to find.

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Exhibitions for Expotitions

Sat, 11 Sep 2010 07:12:04 GMT

I need to sit down again and update this, and I'm 11 days late, but,hey, this is a public service not a job. I'm still hoping to get to London to do the two exhibitions which close tomorrow but I doubt I will. I really, really should.

Closes September 2010

• * Surrealism in Sussex 29/5/2010-12/9/2010 Pallant House, Chichester
• * Close Examination: Fakes, Mistakes and Discoveries 30/6/2010-12/9/2010 National Gallery
• The Surreal House 10/6/2010-12/9/2010 Barbican
• John Bock 10/6/2010-12/9/2010 Barbican
• Kati Horna: The European Years 16/6/2010-12/9/2010 Pallant House, Chichester
• * Surreal Friends: Leonora Carrington, Remedios Varo and Kati Horna 19/6/2010-12/9/2010 Pallant House, Chichester
• Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance and the Camera 28/5/2010-19/9/2010 Tate Modern
• The Courtauld Collects! 20 Years of Acquisitions 17/6/2010-19/9/2010
• BP Portrait Award 2010 24/6/2010-19/9/2010 National Portrait Gallery
• Walk in the Park: Images of the South Downs 1/5/2010-26/9/2010 Towner Gallery, Eastbourne
• Sargent and the Sea 10/7/2010-26/9/2010 RAA
• Lily van der Stokker 15/5/2010-26/9/2010 Tate Liverpool
• Tate Collection Display: The Languages of Modernism 15/5/2010-26/9/2010 Tate St Ives

Closes October 2010

• Frederick Cayley Robinson: Acts of Mercy 14/7/2010-17/10/2010 National Gallery
• Camille Silvy, Photographer of Modern Life, 1834 - 1910 15/7/2010-24/10/2010 National Portrait Galley

Closes After November 2010

• Salvator Rosa (1615-1673): Bandits, Wilderness and Magic 15/09/2010-28/11/2010 Dulwich Picture Gallery [I am semitempted by this]
• Tate Britain Duveens Commission 2010 28/11/2010 Tate Britain
• Turner Prize 2010 5/10/2010-2/1/2011 Tate Britain
• Move: Choreographing You 13/10/2010-3/1/2011 Hayward Gallery
• Peter Lanyon 9/9/2010-6/1/2011 Tate St Ives
• Rachel Whiteread: Drawings 15/9/2010-16/1/2011 Tate Britain
• Venice: Canaletto and his Rivals 13/10/2010-16/1/2011 National Gallery
• Cezanne's Card Players 21/10/2010-16/1/2011 Courtauld Institute
• * Eadweard Muybridge 15/9/2010-16/1/2011 Tate Britain
• Gaughin 30/9/2010-16/1/2011 Tate Modern
• Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes 1900-1939 18/9/2010-16/1/2011 V&A
• Future Beauty: 30 Years of Japanese Fashion 15/10/2010-16/2/2011 Barbican
• Nam June Paik 17/12/10-13/3/2011 Tate Liverpool
• Love, Magic and Power 10/9/2011-8/1/2012 V&A
• Toulouse-Lautrec And Jane Avril 16/6/2011-18/9/2011 Courtauld Institute
• Postmodernism 8/10/2011-15/1/2012 V&A Rooms 38 and 39, and North Court
• Aestheticism: Beauty in Art and Design 1860-1900 4/7/2011-// V&A
• Mondrian || Nicholson: In Parallel February – May 2012 Courtauld Institute
• 100 Years of Hollywood Costume: Virgins and Vamps, Saints and sinners (TBC) 4/2013-7/2013

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Expotition: Chichester

Fri, 06 Aug 2010 09:57:08 GMT

I was humming and hahing about day trips - six and a half hours on a train is tough in one day, and it limited me to a Saturday for cost reasons (or I have to make do with five hours there, less than travel time, or have to pay more). So rather than pay more, I elected to buy a theatre ticket and a hotel room. That's how serious about saving fifty quid I am...

Meanwhile, to give life a bit of variety, my left knee went boing. It thus took me the best part of an hour to hobble from the station to the hotel (should have taken a cab - I took one to the station), then I needed a little sleepy, and it left me with ninety mins for the exhibition.

( Cut because of images )

£17 saved...

I finally limped - via Tesco - to Cafe Nerd and finished Patternmaster (I finished Frankenstein Unbound on the train). After that should, I was tempted by the Eastgate and beer, but figure one pint would put me to sleep, so hobbled to the hotel. Thus Mind of My Mind got (re?)read and an early night was had. At one point I'd thought of trying to get a ticket for The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists - which I saw a version off, 25 years ago, but I'd thought better thank god.

I took a swift postbreakfast nap - those 3am bedtimes have caught up, I think - before checking out, and managing to walk to Nerd. I was too tired to walk at first, and people watched. Chichester was less white than earlier in the year (perhaps they're back from uni?), and about forty five years younger on average than the theatre audience. Many mums with prams in Chichester Nerd, compared to rarely more than one here. Eventually I turned to Survivor and finished that, before walking to the theatre. The knee was definitely better than yesterday.

Chichester Mermaid Theatre had stolen the idea of the Stoppard/Sheridan The Real Inspector Hound/The Critics double bill, but I had the idea of a) skipping this, b) leaving after the Stoppard. As it was, I stayed the course and glad I did - it was as much paranoia about trains after 18.15 and getting marooned than anything. Nicholas Le Prevost and Richard McCabe were excellent in both, Una Stubbs steals her performances, and blimey, that's Derek Griffiths.

I figured my knee was up to walking, and got down to the station in record time - only to find the train delayed and cancelled. Cue fit of can-I-get-there-via-Brighton, and PA offering alternate routes for Horsham and Gatwick but not Redhill. I gambled at Horsham and changed after one stop on the Brighton train; I figured I could find the Bognor service, and change. A platform alteration complicated this, but thank got for stations with ramps, and whilst this seemed to stop everywhere, it left me a good connection at Redhill, albeit I nearly got on the portion which was heading back to Horsham. The later train I'd planned to be on may have given me an hour in Tonbridge, but this one left fifteen minutes, and gave me time to finish Wild Seed and a spare couple of stories from Aurora. I'm glad I took eight books with me - I read six of them.

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Exhibitions for Expotitions

Tue, 03 Aug 2010 10:08:39 GMT

Closes August 2010

• * Henry Moore 24/2/2010-15/8/2010 Tate Britain Recommended
• The Wyeth Family: Three Generations of American Art 9/6/2010-22/8/2010 Dulwich
• Summer Exhibition 2010 14/6/2010-22/8/2010 RAA
• Picasso: Peace and Freedom 21/5/2010-30/8/2010 Tate Liverpool
• Rineke Dijkstra: I See a Woman Crying 30/4/2010-30/8/2010 Tate Liverpool

Closes September 2010

• Urban Africa: David Adjaye 31/3/2010-5/9/2010 Design Museum
• * Rude Britannica: British Comic Art 9/6/2010-5/9/2010 Tate Britain
• Francis Alys 15/6/2010-5/9/2010 Tate Modern
• Ernesto Neto 19/6/2010-5/9/2010 Hayward Gallery
• The New Decor 19/6/2010-5/9/2010 Hayward Gallery
• * Surrealism in Sussex 29/5/2010-12/9/2010 Pallant House, Chichester
• * Close Examination: Fakes, Mistakes and Discoveries 30/6/2010-12/9/2010 National Gallery
• The Surreal House 10/6/2010-12/9/2010 Barbican
• John Bock 10/6/2010-12/9/2010 Barbican
• Kati Horna: The European Years 16/6/2010-12/9/2010 Pallant House, Chichester
• * Surreal Friends: Leonora Carrington, Remedios Varo and Kati Horna 19/6/2010-12/9/2010 Pallant House, Chichester
• Exposed: Voyeurism, Surveillance and the Camera 28/5/2010-19/9/2010 Tate Modern
• The Courtauld Collects! 20 Years of Acquisitions 17/6/2010-19/9/2010
• BP Portrait Award 2010 24/6/2010-19/9/2010 National Portrait Gallery
• Walk in the Park: Images of the South Downs 1/5/2010-26/9/2010 Towner Gallery, Eastbourne
• Sargent and the Sea 10/7/2010-26/9/2010 RAA
• Lily van der Stokker 15/5/2010-26/9/2010 Tate Liverpool
• Tate Collection Display: The Languages of Modernism 15/5/2010-26/9/2010 Tate St Ives

Closes After September 2010

• Frederick Cayley Robinson: Acts of Mercy 14/7/2010-17/10/2010 National Gallery
• Camille Silvy, Photographer of Modern Life, 1834 - 1910 15/7/2010-24/10/2010 National Portrait Galley
• Salvator Rosa (1615-1673): Bandits, Wilderness and Magic 15/09/2010-28/11/2010 Dulwich Picture Gallery
• Tate Britain Duveens Commission 2010 28/11/2010 Tate Britain
• Turner Prize 2010 5/10/2010-2/1/2011 Tate Britain
• Move: Choreographing You 13/10/2010-3/1/2011 Hayward Gallery
• Peter Lanyon 9/9/2010-6/1/2011 Tate St Ives
• Rachel Whiteread: Drawings 15/9/2010-16/1/2011 Tate Britain
• Venice: Canaletto and his Rivals 13/10/2010-16/1/2011 National Gallery
• Cezanne's Card Players 21/10/2010-16/1/2011 Courtauld Institute
• * Eadweard Muybridge 15/9/2010-16/1/2011 Tate Britain
• Gaughin 30/9/2010-16/1/2011 Tate Modern
• Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes 1900-1939 18/9/2010-16/1/2011 V&A
• Future Beauty: 30 Years of Japanese Fashion 15/10/2010-16/2/2011 Barbican
• Nam June Paik 17/12/10-13/3/2011 Tate Liverpool
• Love, Magic and Power 10/9/2011-8/1/2012 V&A
• Toulouse-Lautrec And Jane Avril 16/6/2011-18/9/2011 Courtauld Institute
• Postmodernism 8/10/2011-15/1/2012 V&A Rooms 38 and 39, and North Court
• Aestheticism: Beauty in Art and Design 1860-1900 4/7/2011-// V&A
• Mondrian || Nicholson: In Parallel February – May 2012 Courtauld Institute
• 100 Years of Hollywood Costume: Virgins and Vamps, Saints and sinners (TBC) 4/2013-7/2013

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