Giacometti

Beautiful retrospective exhibition at Tate Modern of sculpture and paintings by Giacometti.

The works were beautifully displayed and given space to breathe and react to each other. From the first room which was filled with head studies from realistic ones to more abstract ones. I was entranced. Despite the different styles you can recognise where the heads are the same person.

I was interested to see that he had worked in the decorative arts in the 1930s and I loved a cabinet of these as I now really want one of his lamp stands with a small female head on it. 

The work was often shown alongside the magazines and exhibition catalogues in which it had featured giving a good sense of how an artistic career built up and the show was very good at blending his work and his life. I was interesting in the room on the war years when he was in exile in Switzerland when his work got very small. I had a sense of him making work he could just pick up and run with if the need arose.

It was lovely to see eight of the surviving plaster Women of Venice figures, made for the Venice Biennale of 1956, shown together here for the first time in 60 years. Another stunning room just showed five large works from the 1920s and 30s.

Although it’s the sculpture which is the star of the show it is fun that it is shown alongside Giacometti’s paintings which are a bit Bacon like. I liked a lovely set of lithographs of Paris but found it annoying that there were shown around the viewing area for a video so it was hard to move around them and get a good look.

Closes on 10 September 2017

Reviews
Times
Guardian
Telegraph
Evening Standard

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