Futures Found: The Real and Imagined Cityscapes of Post-war Britain

Interesting small but dense exhibition at the Royal Academy which invited six curators to look at plans for rebuilding cities in post-war Britain.  These buildings were often planned with a sense of social and economic aspirational change however often the ideas unravelled in reality.

I liked the mix in this show of looking at specific projects alongside themes. I was interested in the section of the University of Essex which pointed out it’s idealistic ideas of building a series of 28 towers as student accommodation which would be unsupervised and self-governing. However following demonstrations in 1968 the university became synonymous with unrest and only six of the towers were built.

The best of the themed section looked at carparks. Suddenly more people had car and obviously needed to park them when visiting cities. Bomb sites were seen as an opportunity by the x-military founders of Central Car Parks who developed a number of these building but as these were private commercial buildings they were of less interest to architects. They came to be seen as areas of crime. However a number of them are now being refurbished with shops being integrated.

There was also a good section on two London housing estates the Brandon and Aylesbury in Southwark. It compared the different approach taken to each estate with Brandon using a range of styles whereas the Aylesbury used system built slab blocks joined by walkways.

Closes on 29 May 2017

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thomas Becket: Murder and Making of a Saint

Image
Stunning exhibition at the British Museum on the life and afterlife of Thomas Becket. I studied Becket both at A Level and at university so I was really looking forward to this show and it did not disappoint. From walking in to see an old friend, the early Limoges casket showing the murder from the Victoria and Albert Museum, I was gripped. The show told the story well using fantastic objects and led you through his life, the murder, the political aftermath, his sainthood and miracles, and how Canterbury became a major pilgrimage site. It is hard to pick out the best objects as so many were wonderful. I loved that they had early copies of some of the five eyewitness accounts of the murder which made you fell you were almost touching the event. I liked the manuscript on his time in exile which was almost like a comic strip. How wonderful to get a 13th century font from Sweden which shows how far and how quickly the news that Henry II had integrated the murder spread. I think my...
Read more

Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year Exhibition 2019

Image
Delightful exhibition at Clarendon Fine Art showing pictures from the Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year TV series. I had loved the series which had set nine artists, both professional and amateur, to paint one of three celebrities. It then had a semi-final and final with them all looking at one sitter and in the final they also took on a commission. I loved the way you watched a picture build and how some were then made or spoiled by one stroke of paint.   Finding these pictures I knew so well in the flesh was therefore fascinating. None of them disappointed. My favourite artist from the final, Tom Mead, works looked just as good in real life if not better as you could see the detail. The show included his impressive self-portrait which he submitted to enter the competition, a wonderful fragmented picture of his reflection in a mirror giving a sense of movement. I loved that it included a large version of him and a miniature. His commission for the final of Jazzie B...
Read more

The Renaissance Nude

Image
Beautiful exhibition at the Royal Academy looking at the nude in Renaissance art. The show was gently themed but mainly let the pictures speak for themselves. It began by looking at the subjects, both religious and secular, which include nude figures then examined techniques and models used in these works, finishing by looking at more personal pictures. This is a period I’ve studied a lot so there were a lot of old friends and it was quite fun predicting what might appear. There were a few surprises too such as the rather surprising drawing of the Ecstatic Christ. I liked the fact the show included lots of different art forms not just paintings including sculpture, etchings, drawings and illuminated manuscripts. There were some fascinating hangs to draw comparisons particularly two sets of pictures by Giovanni Bellini and Hand Memling from almost exactly the same date. These were shown back to back in a display cabinet down the middle of one room. My favourite work was ...
Read more