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Showing posts from February, 2019

Archive at 25 #theatretreasures

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Fascinating exhibition at the National Theatre celebrating 25 years since their archive was founded. The show had invited theatre makers, academics and artists to choose an item from the archive and to describe why it mattered to them. It was an interesting way to showcase this wonderful collection. I loved the striking display in black and pink. As a librarian I loved a poem written in in praise of the archive with the wonderful line “However archives are not places where history is boxed away never to be seen by the wandering eye again. They are treasure troves waiting to be uncovered.”   I’ve used the poster of Equus as my picture on this entry which was shown with a new puzzle version of it made by one of the graphic designers at the theatre.

International Fashion Showcase 2019: Brave New Worlds

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Strange exhibition at Somerset House for London Fashion Week showcasing the work of 16 designers from across the globe whose work looks at environmental issues in the fashion industry. Each designer had produced an installation showcasing their work and environmental concerns. Some of these were more effective that others and the key seemed to be to have a lighting effect. I liked Naushad Ali from India whose display looked at Indigo dye to represent the unity of colour. The clothes featured recycled patchwork material. Also Rahemur Rahman’s memories of an English Bangladeshi home from the 1980s with fun mannequins as standard lamps. My favourite was the Brazilian designer, David Lee, who presented knitted figures leaping and jumping in different lights so their colours and the emotional feel of the work changed. Most photogenic, shown here, was Moi-Den from Vietnam with changing uv light. Closed on 24 February 2019

Hanna Moon and Joyce Ng: English as a Second Language

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Interesting exhibition at Somerset House of work by two Asian born fashion photographers. The two photographers, Hanna Moon and Joyce Ng, were invited to create new work at Somerset House and each of them was given a room in this show. Both reimagined the classical surroundings of the surroundings and showed this with works from their archive. I found Moon’s set the more successful. She built sets in the building at night incorporating personal objects. I loved the fact that in the wider shots showing the edge of the set you could see the night security man at work at his desk.   The pictures were beautifully displayed like paintings against lovely dark blue walls. Ng had been resident at Somerset House for six weeks and photographed visitors and staff and transformed their identities. The images were shown in a small format so had less impact than Moon’s and more of her display seemed to be archive work. Closes on 28 April 2019

Good Grief, Charlie Brown!

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Nostalgic exhibition at Somerset House looking at the life and work of the creator of the Peanuts, Charles M Schulz, and the themes and influence of the cartoons. The lower floor of the show looked at Schulz’s life and evolution of the cartoon whereas upstairs it looked at the themes that ran through them such as friendship, war, hope, sport and politics. The best aspect of the show was the plethora of original hand drawn cartoons many of which I remembered from having the anthology books as a child. They still made me laugh out loud. It was a nice touch to include contemporary art influenced by the cartoons however it wasn’t really necessary, the original work held its own without it. I did like Andy Holden’s video installation on friendship which invited you to sit on beds with Snoopy bedding on to watch. Closing 3 March 2019 Review Evening Standard

Pierre Bonnard: The Colour of Memory

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Colourful exhibition at Tate Modern looking at the life and career of Pierre Bonnard.   I loved the domestic nature of the work as Bonnard chose his family and home as the main subject of his work. In that respect they reminded me of the art of Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell and the Bloomsbury Group. I loved the vibrant rather exaggerated colours. The memory aspect came from the fact that they were not painted from life but were remembered scenes re-imagined in the studio.  I liked the fact the paintings were shown with photographs and that the commentaries looked at the influence on photography on some of the compositions. I loved the tiny photographs of Bonnard and his wife Marthe naked in the grass on which he based some paintings. It was also nice to see drawings for some of the paintings. I think my favourite works were his still lives full of fruit and colour and those of dinner tables loaded with food. I liked the nudes but was amused to see the models, mainly hi

Society of Wood Engravers Annual Show

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Lovely exhibition at Bankside Gallery of works by the Society of Wood Engravers. I always enjoy this show which demonstrates what a wide variety of work you can get from one technique. I loved Peter Lawrence’s clear, distinct prints of Kelmscott and St Ives and the detail in Trevor Hodd’s view of roof tops from the top of Drury Lane including people near the foreground on a roof terrace and people on the street below. My favourite this year was Anne Desmet’s picture of the view up a Georgian staircase in four versions of the print gradually getting lighter in tone. Closed on 24 February 2019.

Queer looks

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Lovely exhibition at Brighton Museum using outfits and oral histories from LGBTQ people from Sussex from the 1960s to the present day to look at how individuals construct personal and collective identities. This was a lovely way of telling stories and there were some fascinating tales. From an outfit from the comedian Zoe Lyons, through the wedding outfits of a Lesbian couple, a jacket from David Raven aka Maisie Troilette to a selection of clubbing outfits. I liked the way the show including everyday clothes as well as club wear. I chose the outfit worn by Sophie Cook from election night 2017 when she hoped to be the first transgender MP as my picture for this entry. Closes Summer 2019

Framing Fashion

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Interesting exhibition at Brighton Museum of photographs by iconic African and European photographers which give a snapshot of African and African diaspora style over the last 60 years. The works had all been purchased as part of the “Fashioning Africa” project funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund. The show focused on sets of pictures such as James Barnor’s 1960s fashion photographs and John Liebenberg’s illicit portraits of workers in labour camps for them to send home to their families. My favourite set was by Daniele Tamagni showing a Congolese subculture, called La Sape, of Parisian style brought to the country by soldiers returning from the Second World War. I loved their flamboyance and confidence.   Closes on 29 March 2019

See Portraits, Be Portraits

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Nice exhibition at Brighton Museum showcasing some of their portrait paintings chosen by teachers from a local school. I did find this display a bit child orientated as there were questions to get you thinking about the subject plus a section in the middle of the room so children could create portraits of themselves using mirrors and accessories.   However it was also a good excuse to get some lesser known works out of storage and these were shown with good labels. The pictures included an Elizabeth Blackadder of two cats, fun to include animals as portraits. There was a John Minton of the art critic Neville Wallis peering at a canvas, an Alison Lapper self-portrait photograph as an angel and a boy with a cat by Bernard Meninsky. Closes November 2019

The Elaine Evans Archaeology Gallery

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Stunning new gallery at Brighton Museum to showcase their archaeological collection. The gallery is designed in an imaginative way blending objects and stories really well. It is centred around seven 3D face reconstructions of skeletons which have been found in the area which were shown next to the heads. I found it very moving to see the faces of previous Brighton residents and liked the way they were named after where they were found so the photo is of Whitehawk Woman. The gallery was surrounded by a panorama of forests to show what the land would have been like. The display was chronological and each era, as well as having a reconstructed head, had models of how people would have been living and real objects which had been found from time including the a Bronze Age amber cup. At the centre of the room was an education area for children including clothes to dress up in and children could follow the story of time traveller Elva round the show in a set of specially com

Stephen Jones Hats

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Glorious exhibition in Brighton Pavilion of hats by designer Stephen Jones. The hats were shown among the usual furniture and displays and were displayed in witty ways.   They blended so well with the over the top décor. I loved the scene in the dining room where they showed hats he had made for bespoke clients with one in each seat around the dining table setting up a wonderful fantasy dinner party. There was Kylie at one end and Lady Gaga at the other. Three hats from cat walk shows were displayed up the stairs on mannequins with outfits they’d been worn with. The kitchen was set up with food and nature related hats some of which blended into the artificial food in the display. I loved a red swan hat in the fireplace facing the stuffed swan in the display. In another room hats inspired by the board game Cluedo were shown on large chess pieces. The whole thing has such fun, my only moan was the labels which were interesting and had good quotes but were hard to read in

John Ruskin: The Argument of the Eye

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Fascinating lecture at the National Portrait Gallery by Robert Hewison on the life of John Ruskin to mark 200 years since his birth. Hewison used Ruskin’s own writing and drawings to tell the story of his life and in particular the crisis points in it. He conjectured that Ruskin led a very visual life and that the crisis points were often precipitated by looking at a particular art work. I loved the description he gave at the start of Ruskin’s study in Venice as he began to write a memoir. The vivid picture Hewison painted was possible because Ruskin and listed the things in that study and decried the view.   There was a good Q&A session at the end with insightful questions and good answers but the lovely touch was that Hewison got us to sing Happy Birthday to Ruskin as the actually anniversary of his birth was the next day.

Illuminating Women: Photographs by Mayotte Magnus

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Nice exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery revisiting a 1977 landmark show at the gallery of photographs of eminent women of the time by Mayotte Magnus. Magnus photographed the subjects in their own homes following having researched their life and work. Many of them are still eminent figures today such as Joan Bakewell, shown here, and Judi Dench, a cheeky photo of her peeping over a wall. Some of the figures who had died since the show I didn’t know, such as Verity Bargate manager of the Soho Theatre, I plan to look up and find out more about. The pictures gave an insight ino the character and work of the sitters and I liked the ones, such as the one of Marina Warner, which included objects pertinent to them at the time. Her picture included Chinese figures as she had just written “The Dragon Empress”. I think my favourite was of Beryl Bainbridge in the wonderful Victorian interior of her house but with a quirky cushion with a pop art head of a mouse on it.

Photography: A Living Art – Then and Now

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Interesting exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery looking at recently acquired photographs by contemporary artists reviving early photographic techniques. These works were unique pieces rather than mass produced objects which highlight the moment of creativity and they were shown with historic examples of the techniques and good explanations. I’m afraid I found the early examples more interesting than new ones. I loved some silhouettes by Hubert Leslie who worked in Brighton Pier in the 1920s which were shown with “Brothers” by Adam Fuss, shown here, which placed children between the paper and the camera. The white of their hands is where they touched the paper. I liked Fuss’s picture of a baby in water which had been created without a camera just a flash of artificial light over light sensitive paper. He created a lovely ripple effect of the water around the silhouette of the baby. There were also modern versions of seaside pictures on tin by Joni Sternback

This Sceptred Isle: Shakespeare and the Plantagenets

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Nice little exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery using their portraits to focus on the Plantagenet plays of William Shakespeare. Although most of the pictures weren’t contemporary ones but later representations the commentaries were excellent and pointed out themes in the plays I’d not thought about before. It showed how they were commentaries on the politics of the times they were written in as well as being histories. They reflect the uncertainty of who would succeed Elizabeth and examined the nature of kingship. There was a good timeline of the Plantagenet kings alongside another of the plays. I’d not realised that the Wars of the Rose set of plays was written before the chronologically earlier set. Closes on 10 December 2019

Zoe Leonard: Aerials

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Intriguing exhibition at Hauser & Wirth of photographs by Zoe Leonard. These pictures were aerial photographs which seemed to abstract the subject and make you look closely at the details. My favourites were those of towns and cities reducing them to a grid pattern but they pulled you eye in to look for signs of people.   I liked the way they were framed by the black edge of the negative so they felt self-contained. I also liked one of a tiny boat on a huge expanse of sea. I liked the way these pictures were shown like painted art works however I thought they were a bit small and dull for this large space, although again it made you go up and look at the detail. Closed on 9 February 2019

Martin Creed: Toast

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Wacky exhibition at Hauser and Wirth of new work by Martin Creed. I found myself smiling within seconds of walking into the gallery as I spotted a sculpture of a small dog on a high shelf with small shelves in a step pattern with night lights on leading up to it. It was a bit crude close up but from a distance the stance and expression was perfect. You then moved on to a bronze slice of peanut butter toast and a loved a dancing sock. I liked his series of Matisse like cut outs in blues and black. Because they had a seaside feel they made me think of Brighton. At first sight they were quite a conventional picture but as you looked you realised the objects were not in logical sequence so you got bridges under water and a tunnel on a cloud. I do have a moan though in that half the handout had interesting looking clothes listed but when I asked where they were it turned out they were worn by performance artists who would usually appear at regular intervals in the show but

Chihuly

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Beautiful exhibition at the Halcyon Gallery of new work by Dale Chihuly, the glass artist. I love this artists work having first discovered him via his wonderful chandelier at the Victoria and Albert Museum. The centre of this show was a display of sculpture by him in bright colours. He layers the coloured glass with white layers so that the colours remain crisp. They are like big waterlilies. Around the edge was a new idea from him where he paints on both side of acrylic which he then lights from behind. The commentary said these were inspired by stained glass windows and they have the effect of projecting colour into the room. It was interesting to see one of the gallery assistants turning the light on and off behind one so that you could see the different the light made.

Andy Warhol

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Colouful exhibition at the Halcyon Gallery of print series by Andy Warhol. The show looked at how Warhol understood mass imagery and included good commentaries on the series shown. Some of the sets remove the uniqueness of a work but others give deeper insight to the original subject. I liked the set of prints of Ingrid Bergman which were commissioned by a gallery when she died. Rather than using repetition Warhol chose four different pictures of her   three from films and one of her as herself. I liked the way he layers the screen-print, his own drawing and blocks of colour. I was also fascinated by the prints which incorporated diamond dust such as the Superman print where the dust was used as an outline of the superhero next to the main screenprint. My favourite set was the four based on Ucello’s St George and the Dragon as it’s a picture I love and it was interesting to see how the detail he chooses work in different colours and textures. Closed on 16 February

Amir Nikravan: Neutral Rainbow

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Strange but nice exhibition at the Vigo Gallery of new work by Amir Nikravan. The works were wall sculptures made of plaster and wood covered in canvas and painted. They were large curved shapes with tray like shapes within them. Those sections were textured which was added to with subtle shadowing. They were painted in lovely strong pastel colours. The gallery didn’t seem to have a press release on the day so it’s only since that I’ve learnt from the website that the work is response to modernist architecture and I can see that in the way they mirror the texture of concrete but wouldn’t it be nice if all Modernist buildings were in these lovely colours! Closing on 28 February 2019

Richard Hoglund: Twelve Joyful Hours

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Calm exhibition at the Ronchini Gallery of new work by Richard Hoglund. The pictures are abstracts in pale stripes but are inspired by the Stations of the Cross, the Catholic idea of a series of pictures around the church as a mediation on the events leading to the Crucifixion, and are shown in series of 14 to reflect this. The smaller pictures are the same size as the Mona Lisa and the picture inspired the composition of one of the series although I must admit I can’t see how. I did think the series would look lovely in a church and would provide a meditative trail. As you know I’m not a fan of abstract work but I did like these for their precision. They had a feel of a pastel Rothko and I liked the detail when you looked close such as a sun ray effect scratched into the bottom layer of the composition in one series. The large pictures had a sense of sunrise and an interesting iridescent effect. Close son 23 March 2019

Spotlight on Boilly

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Delightful display at the Wallace Collection focusing on their three pictures by Louis-Léopold Boilly. Boilly witnessed the French Revolution, the rise of Napoleon and the restoration of the French monarchy and worked throughout that time adapting to suit his audiences. He is now known for his tongue in cheek scenes of bourgeoisie life and the three pictures here are of this genre. These pictures have been recently restored and studied for the catalogue raisonne for the artist. The works included Boy with a Mouse in which a boy leans through a window and waves a dead mouse at a younger child in its mother’s arms. I love the details of the house to show the class of the family with a guitar and fine foot stool but dull walls. The other two are a pair called The Visit Returned and The Sorrows. In the first a woman visits her lover who is playing the piano and in the second the implication is that he has either died or rejected her and her portrait which was on his piano

Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Art, Word, War

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Fabulous exhibition at the British Library looking at the Anglo-Saxons. I studied this period at school and university and anything you could want to be there was as well as lots of new discoveries. I moved from object to object remembering things I had long thought I’d forgotten. The show was nicely organised chronologically around the main kingdoms as they came to prominence the around broader themes of language and literature, the church and conquests. It was a nice touch to end with the Domesday Book treating it not as a tool for Norman conquest but as a reflection of the excellent land records which had been kept by the Anglo-Saxons. My old “Were the Norman’s innovators?” essay plan came flooding back! There were so many highlight’s it’s hard to pick a few but here goes! How about Cuthbert’s bible, the earliest European bound book, which looked as fresh as if it had been made yesterday as it had been in Cuthbert’s coffin. Alternatively the Codex Amiatinus, on loan fro

Cats on the Page

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Fun exhibition at the British Library on cats in literature. This was a nicely themed show with fun puns as the section titles such as “The Purfect Crime” and nicely laid out with good commentaries. The show included a lot of children’s books and as you went round you kept remembering books from your childhood and saying “of course”. There was a section on pantomime as well as nursery rhymes and cats in ghost stories. Highlight’s included original drawings for Mog by Judith Kerr and Famous Fred by Posy Symmonds. There was a nice section, of course, on T.S. Elliott’s Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats including his original design for the cover of the book. Closes on 17 March 2019

Mark Thompson: The World Distilled

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Beautiful exhibition at Proud Central Gallery of new work by Mark Thompson. This gallery usually shows photography so when I spotted these black and white photographs through the window I assumed they were large photos but I was delighted to discover that they were fabulous paintings. They were landscapes and vast interiors in layers of oil paint on wood. The images were very distinct and clear but when you got close the brush work was quite broad and loose. They gave the impression of having a smooth finish but the paint was actually quite textured. The perspective of the interiors was very exact. I thought they had a feeling of work by Anselm Keifer From the commentaries I think they were remembered scenes rather than real ones.   . Closed on 3 February 2019

Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year

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Interesting exhibition at the National Maritime Museum of the 31 prize winning entries in this completion for astronomical photographs and highlights entries from the previous three years. The categories in this competition and therefore themes in this show were clearly laid out. The pictures were beautiful displayed as back lit images on light boxes and each picture included good commentaries with a quote from the photographs and another from a judge. There were also technical details of how the picture was taken for the geeks. I tended to prefer the works which included some reference to the earth or people. The deep space images were fascinating but as images looked like abstract art and were hard to understand. My highlights included Mark McNeil’s of the sky through a gap in Hadrian’s Wall with a real sense of the ancient about it and Andrew Whyte’s of the Milky Way over a housing estate in Sussex. However my favourite was Brad Goldpaint’s of a rocky valley in Utah

Bettina von Zwehl

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Exquisite small display at the Queen’s House in Greenwich of tiny photographs by Bettina von Zwehl. The girls in these pictures were all born at the start of the Millennium and are in their final year at Thomas Tallis School. The pictures are presented in small oval mounts and square frames in the style of Elizabethan miniatures in response to a quote from Elizabeth I in a letter to her brother Edward VI “For the face I grant I might well blush, but the mind I shall never be ashamed to present”. The works are part of the programme inspired by the Armada Portrait of Elizabeth I. The small scale of these works make the images seem very concentrated and intense and the quality of the photography is very fine. I must admit I had so hoped they were painted when I first spotted them and was slightly disappointed to find they were photographs however they are still beautiful images of girls full of potential.

The Labours of Herakles

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Small exhibition at the Queen’s House in Greenwich of lithographs by Marian Maguire. Maguire is an artist from New Zealand who questions her country’s past using characters from classical antiquity, in this case using the story of Herakles but casting him as a colonist of New Zealand. There are seven works from a series of twelve on show. I’m not sure I’d have got the colonialism idea without the commentary but I thought these were fun works combining Greek and Maori images.  My favourite was the one shown here of the hero undertaking activities familiar to early colonist such as charting the landscape and introducing new plants. 

The Mask of Youth

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Stunning installation at the Queen’s House in Greenwich by Mat Collishaw in response to the Elizabeth I Armada Portrait. Following the restoration of the portrait the museum is commissioning a series of contemporary art works in response to it and this is the first. The following ones will have a lot to live up to! This is an eerily real robotic face of Elizabeth I set up on a mirror opposite the portrait. When I first encountered her she was static but then you realised her face was gently moving, turning to look at you, blinking and changing expression. The skin quality was amazing and the detail was stunning even down to the white hairs on her upper lip. The idea is that the face is the same age as in the portrait ie 55 but I have to say she was looking very good for 55! The artists, Mat Collishow, was inspired by watching the restoration of the picture when layers of varnish so this face is stripped of make-up and the trappings of monarchy. Thank you to the lov