Tate Modern, London

Tate Modern is now 10 years old and after having been to the gallery a number of times I am beginning to understand and like it.Perhaps the best way I can express it is that it is like Turkey stuffing at Christmas in the fact that it is something I am beginning to appreciate the more I try it,(bizarre simile I know but I could not think of anything  better).

My relationship with the gallery surrounds it’s structure, in the fact that it has always been a little unclear to me, and I thought that it was based on some artistic metaphor which only the few were allowed to understand and enter. A little like a very exclusive art movement that was letting you observe what they did but didn’t want to tell you all the secrets. However, after closer inspection there is a really clever sense of structure which really fits into the whole of the gallery, the structure of the building and what the collections are trying to achieve.

The first thing that definetely hits you is the sheer vasteness of the Turbine Hall, the space is overwhelming and something Tate Modern’s curators have used to startling effect with such installations as Olaffur Eliason’s,’The Weather Project,’ or Anish Kapoor’s, ‘Marsyas’.  The effect allowing visitors to appreciate modern art on a huge scale.

As a nation it has taken us some time to come to grips with modern art and this also reflects in the Tate’s attitude to buying modern art during the 20th century.  As such when the Tate Modern opened it had gaps in the collection that other countries such as France did not have.  Tate Modern has therefore developed a much more transient approach to it’s modern collection as it acquires and moves its pieces according to the themes it decides to show.  This in itself is a very modern approach to showing art and has moved away from the traditional chronological approach that most gallerys adopt.

The main themes of the gallery therefore look like this,

Level 3 – Material Gestures

This focuses on abstraction, expressionism and abstract expressionism featuring work by Claude Monet, Anish Kapoor, Barnett Newman, Mark Rothko, Henri Matisse and Tacita Dean.

Level 3 – Poetry and Dream

The displays in this wing are devoted to surrealism and works exploring themes and techniques closely associated with the surrealists. 

Level 5 – Energy and Process

This focuses on Arte Povera with work by artists such as Alighiero Boetti, Jannis Kounellis, Kasimir Malevich, Ana , Mario Merz and Jenny Holzer.

Level 5 – States of Flux

This focuses on Cubism, Futurism, Vorticism and Pop Art. containing work by artists such as  Pablo Picasso, Roy Lichenstein, Andy Warhol, and photographer Eugene Atget.

The success of Tate Modern is a simple process of seeing how many people have gone through the doors over the 10 year period and the visitor numbers of 5 million a year have shown Tate Modern to be the most popular modern art gallery in the world.  There is a real sense that the British have finally got the whole process of modern art and like most things we have had to catch up on, like cookery for instance, we are now competing at the top of the world. 

Twenty or even ten years ago we were a nation who scorned modernity.  I admit to this myself and still sometimes adopt Tom Stoppard’s observation,

“Skill without imagination is craftmanship and gives us many useful objects such as wickerwork picnic baskets. Imagination without skill gives us modern art.”

However, having said this, Charles Saatchi, the YBA’s (Young British Artists movement) and Tate Modern has brought the nation kicking and screaming into the twenty first century and we are a nation who can now embrace modern art into our pysche and culture.

Happy Birthday Tate Modern.

The National Gallery – London

The National Gallery of Great Britain is of course located in Trafalgar Square in the heart of the capital.  It is such an institution and national treasure that I guess most people who have travelled down to London will have been into the gallery and seen the collections at some time or other.  This blog is therefore not going to be an explanation of the gallery and what it is but more of a personal and emotional response to some of the paintings and the experience I had when viewing the gallery. 

When I arrived at the gallery I went to the information desk and discovered I had a number of viewing options.  I was given a floor plan (see below), and within the plan was again a number of choices of how to view the gallery.  The gallery have provided a quick tour looking at some of the more famous paintings and then a more robust tour, where you have the option to have an audio guide round the gallery.  I chose the latter, as I wanted to spend some time in the gallery taking in what it had to offer. 

As you can see from the floor plan the gallery has a colour coded option and a numbered option which is a chronological journey through the history of art from the 13^th to the 20^th Century.  I decided to follow this route using the plan as an aid memoir and particularly focusing on the prized collections in the gallery.  My main focus was the Leonardo Da Vinci work known as the ‘Burlington House cartoon’ which depicts the Virgin, St Anne and child blessing John the Baptist.  I was particularly interested in this piece after I had been to the ‘Da Vinci Genius’ exhibition at the MOSI in Manchester (see archive). 

As it turned out the whole experience was a joy seeing masterpiece after masterpiece and to be honest with you at the end of the experience I was utterly exhilarated at the treasures that the gallery has to offer. As an art lover this was comparable to a child being let loose in a sweet shop.  Room after room of the finest pieces of art the world has to offer.  I could virtually spend the rest of this year writing in detail about some of the paintings that are on show.  The historical, technical and biographical detail that is in this gallery is infinite and books could and have been written about individual paintings alone.

My personal highlights were Boticelli’s, ‘Venus and Mars,’ Bellini’s, ‘The Doge Leonardo Loredan,’ Leonardo’s cartoon, Michelangelo’s, ‘The Entombment,’ Titian’s, ‘A Man with a Quilted Sleeve,’ Rembrandt’s self portrait, Constable’s, ‘The Haywain,’ Turner’s, ‘The Fighting Temeraire,’ Stubbs’, ’Whistlejack,’ Renoir’s, ‘The Umbrella’s’ and  Van Gogh’s chair. 

At the end of the visit I have to say I was truly exhilarated. The intellectual and historical journey through the gallery is challenging in itself, seeing how art has gradually evolved throughout the centuries and how that links in with the history of the time, however, for me the emotional experience was the thing that most stood out.  The paintings were hung so everyone could get close and get a palpable feel of how they were painted.  To be close to the swirling paints of Van Gogh, or the sublime drawing of Da Vinci, to the skill of Titian or the beauty of Renoir is the closest I am ever going to get to the minds and hearts of these great artists. 

If you have never been to the National Gallery check out the website, plan well and give a good amount of time to it as this is truly one of our national treasures.

http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/

Walls Are Talking: Wallpaper, Art and Culture – Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester

Having never been to the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester I have to admit  I did not know what to expect.  Visiting a museum and art gallery in your own city can be  an eye opener as it is something you never quite get around to.  I have quite often spoken to people who live in London and the same applies, after questioning them on what plays or music they might have seen in the capital they look at me a little esconce as they have simply not had the time or life has got in the way.  I was therefore determined during my break to put some time into looking at some of the art at the Whitworth Art Gallery and to get a feel for the gallery in my own city. 

The gallery itself is a superb example of old Manchester with its red brick outside and its strong vision which is explained very eloquently in the gallerys website.

”The Whitworth was created to inspire the region’s textile industry, give pleasure to Manchester citizens and to instruct students and artists about the visual arts.  As a university art gallery, with research collections as well as a year round programme of public activities, we still do all these things.  We look after historic and contemporary collections, with a little over 50,000 objects; our collections of works on paper, wallpapers and flat textiles are amongst the finest outside London.”

It is therefore not a traditional gallery which takes you on a chronological journey of  art throughout the ages.It has a much more themed approach and is linked strongly to the vision as explained above.

The current main exhibition within the gallery is  ”Walls are talking: Wallpaper, Art and culture,”  is the first major exhibition of artists’ wallpapers with work by over 30 artists including Andy Warhol, Sarah Lucas and Damien Hirst. This is a truly fascinating insight into how wallpaper can be used as a bona fide work of art and covers such diverse subjects as warfare, racism, cultural conflicts and gender. 

As the gallery website states.

” Wallpaper has long been thought of as a backdrop to the main event. With so many prominent designers and artists using the medium as their primary method of expression, this exhibition provides a timely exploration of the possibilities and power of print.”

From the outset you get to see the famous Andy Warhol cow wallpaper and you are then taken on a journey through a vast array of wallpapers with their subtle and startling themes.  Thomas Demand’s Ivy wallapaper dedicated to imprisoning beauty which is on the entire south gallery walls, Sonya Demon’s Clapping wallpaper with its black and white images giving you a feeling of claustrophobia and menace.  Some of the wallpapers had bold statements such as Bashir Makhoudi’s bullet ridden walls commenting on the war in Afghanistan.  Catherine Bertola’s work is stunningly intricate and beautiful concentrating on aesthetic conditions of a domestic interior. 

Simply put this exhibition is a bold and stunning statement and covers a wide range of topics.  The fact that it is not a traditional chronological gallery, which of course has its place, makes the journey concentrated and opens you up to the potential of what wallpaper can contribute as an artistic device.  I would suggest this will become an increasingly important art form as you can see the possibilities of the repeated statement as a backdrop to every day life. 

The exhibition runs until August 30th 2010 at the Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester