Modern Couples: Art, Intimacy and the Avant-garde


Fantastic exhibition at the Barbican Art Gallery looking at huge range of couples who influenced the avant-garde art world in the early 20th century.

There was almost too much in this show and too many stories to follow up. From the first list of couples at the entrance that listed them in alphabetical order of the women I was hooked. The premise of the show was that modern art was about collaboration and mutual influence and to give all those involved an equal status. Throughout the show I loved the mix of art works and archive material. Where ever possible there were letters between the couples which gave them a chance to speak for themselves. There were also great explanations and commentaries.

I really don’t know where to start! My beloved Bloomsbury Group were well represented with Virginia Woolf being linked to Vita Sackville-West on the fascinating lesbian section on the ground floor and Leonard on the second floor to look at the work of the Hogarth Press. Vanessa Bell was upstairs with both Duncan Grant and Roger Fry and this was an excuse to show some lovely Omega workshop pieces.

Revelations included Alma Mahler linked both with her husband and after his death the artist Oskar Kokoschka and featured some of the music she had written. Also the photographs of George Platt Lynes, Monroe Wheeler and Glenway Wescott which I’d not come across before.

I got a bit bogged down in the section of Surrealism, mainly because there were so many people mentioned and so much cross linking of couples. A lot of the work in this section was smaller too and harder to concentrate on in a crowd.

I liked the fact that design was given an equal standing with art so the fashion design of Emilie Floge was featured as equal to her partner Gustav Klimt’s work, similarly matching Sonia Delaunay’s textile design with her husband Robert’s abstract geometrical work.

All in all a great show although I advise a coffee break between the first and second floor. I wished I’d taken this advice as my brain was pretty fried going round the second floor! Take a notebook, there’s going to want to do a lot of Googling about people when you come out!

Closes 27 January 2019

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