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

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