Gluck
I’d not come
across Gluck before which surprised me as would have thought in my reading
about the Bloomsbury Group that she might have appeared. First and foremost I
loved her work but she also led a fascinating life with a string of female
lovers and various arguments with the art world.
I loved her
pictures of flowers including a beautiful one of Arum lilies in an ornate vase
on a marble shelf against a cream background. I loved its smooth finish very
redolent of the 1930s. There was also a stunning double portrait, a
self-portrait of her with Nesta Obermer, one of her lovers.
There were some
lovely small pictures such as a loose sketch of someone painting in a landscape
and an unusual composition “Before the Races” which was mostly a beautiful blue
sky with a low line of the race course and a small group of tiny horses and men
in one corner.
I was also struck
by the frames on some of the pictures which Gluck had developed herself. They
were three blocks on white wood one on top of the other with the picture set in
the top block so throwing the picture out from the wall and giving it a wide
geometrical frame, very effective.
Most fascinating
though was listening to the people who had been attracted to the show. The lady
manning the information desk knew a lot about the artists, in fact I suspect
she was the curator, and people had come in to share stories of the artist and
wanting to tell her how they knew about Gluck. She had stories of the gallery’s
relationship with Gluck when they put on their first exhibition of her work
when she was still alive in the late 1970s.
Closes on 28
February 2017
Review
Evening Standard
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