Artists and Lovers

Small but interesting exhibition at Ordovas looking at a number of great artistic partnerships of the mid-20th century.

The partnerships were represented by a work from each artist and the show was accompanied by a great handout telling you a bit more about the artists and the partnerships. It would have been nice to have more on the detail of the relationships between composer John Cage, choreographer Merce Cunningham and the artists Ct Twombly, Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg. I feel there might be a novel in the vague “artists and personal relationships”! It was a nice touch to be running a film collaboration between Cage and Cunningham alongside the pictures and sculptures.

It was amazing to find a lovely Frida Kahlo self-portrait downstairs. It always comes as a surprise to me that you can find works of that calibre in private galleries in London which anyone can visit. I was sorry that Diego Rivera was mentioned but there was no work by him.

There was a lovely picture by Kay Sage, partner of Yves Tanguy, of a street at night.  It was nice to see a classic Joseph Cornell wooden box construction alongside a sculpture by his wife Yayoi Kusama. There were two pieces by Max Ernest as he appeared in two partnerships, with Leonora Carrington and Dorothea Tanning, enough said!

Closes on 29 October 2016

 

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