Walter Sickert

Comprehensive exhibition at Tate Britain on the work of Walter Sickert.

Sickert transitions the 19th and 20th centuries and continued to experiment throughout his career. The show starts when he was working with Whistler in an almost impressionistic way, to working for press photographs and a precursor of Pop Art.

I had come across him as an inspiration for the Bloomsbury Group, and indeed Duncan Grant took over one of his studios, however I can’t bring myself to love him.  I can appreciate what he’s doing and admire the groundbreaking ideas but I’m not sure I’d want to live with one.

The rooms were gently themed whihc also give them a rough chronology. My favourites were the early music hall pictures particularly those that captured the audience and those that use mirrors to give strange angles.

I am less fond of the nudes. There was a good commentary on what he was trying to do with them, showing real, working-class women and the effect of interior light but they still feel voyeuristic even today.

It was a shame that the high gloss finish on many of the works made them difficult to look at under the artificial lights without reflection. A picture could grab you from across the room but when you got up close you could barely see all from one position.

Closes 18 September 2022


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