TUESDAY 12TH MARCH 2019
TATE MODERN
I paid a visit to the Tate Modern whilst in London because I think it's a given that when in London, you visit the Tate.
"Ellen Gallagher 1965
Born USA, works USA, Netherlands
DeLuxe 2004-5
60 works on paper, etching, screenprint, lithograph with plasticine, velvet, toy eyeballs and coconut oil
The imagery for this print series is based on advertisements found in magazines from the 1930s to the 1970s aimed at African-American readers. Gallagher uses both traditional and digital printing techniques to copy and alter advertisements for wigs, hair pomades and skin bleaching creams - products that are now seen as promoting 'white' ideas of beauty. Gallagher cut and layered images and text before adding a range of materials including plasticine, glitter, gold leaf and toy eyeballs. Her interventions exaggerate and question the reinvention promised by these cosmetic products."
The work has a similar stimulus to Lorna Simpson's Wigs [1994], investigating the history of African-American hairstyles and black empowerment. Her works are not completely similar to Simpson's because of the nature of her reworking images adding three dimensional materials to the imagery. As stated on the placard, "The imagery for this print series is based on advertisements found in magazines from the 1930s to the 1970s aimed at African-American readers.". Now I have researched more in to this and learnt that the advertisements have been taken from magazines but then she cuts and layers them to create collages or uses etching and lithography in collaboration with digital technology. The imagery stretched high above you - 60 individually framed prints. Because of the materials she's used, the bright colours and quirky shapes, the
Victor Pasmore is a British born artist that lived until 1998. Above is a work of his titled 'Abstract in White, Green, Black, Blue, Red, Grey and Pink' created or around the year 1963. It is made of perspex and painted wood.
"Pasmore believed that art derived from nature, and specifically from its underlying processes and structures rather than its surface appearance. In his reliefs Pasmore brought ideas of growth and abstract harmony into three dimensions. He had rejected titled elements in the relief because they 'were not organic developments of the rectangles in the way that horizontals and verticals are. Geometry, though subject to the "je ne sais quoi" of personal judgement is a guide to the organic process.'"
I liked the multi dimensionality of the work. It could be viewed from all different angles, each giving the piece a different feel. Looking at it face on, it appears rather two dimensional and the perspex is a lot more evident. Looking side on however, makes the perspex disappear and all that is apparent is thin lengths of wood hanging together. I like the simplicity of what he has done but the depth that has emerged from that. The piece was oddly impressive.
Artwork like the one above, I feel definitely need to have a placard alongside it, else it can almost anger an audience. The art is so conceptual and the idea so abstract that the physical form it actually takes doesn't appear to demonstrate much skill. I think audiences like to see that artwork put in a gallery space is potentially something that they feel they couldn't do themselves.
"Joseph Beuys 1921-1986
Born and worked in Germany
The End of the Twentieth Century 1983-5
Basalt, clay and felt
This sculpture developed out of Beuys's project to encourage and 'ecological awakening' for humanity by planting 7000 oak trees in Kassel, Germany. A basalt stone was to be placed alongside each tree. Here the basalt itself becomes a symbol of potential growth. A cone has been cut out of each rock, allowing the cavity to be lined with clay and felt. The treatment implies a process of healing and renewal, creating a possibility for new life, like the cracks in a wall where a plant might find a hold."
Upon reading the description, the artwork holds a lot more ground. The piece although created just under 40 years ago now, feels very current with the ongoing environmental condition. I find it encouraging that Beuys made such an impact in the name of art - planting 7000 trees, especially being oak trees, that is a phenomenal impression to leave. The artwork displayed by the Tate is really just symbolic of something a lot more immense.
Salvador Dalí 1904-1989
Born Spain, worked Spain, France, USA
Lobster Telephone 1936
Téléphone - Hornard
Steel, plaster, rubber, resin and paper
In the early 1930s, Dalí promoted the idea of the surrealist object, of which this is a classic example. The surrealists valued the mysterious and provocative effect of such unexpected conjunctions. Dalí, in particular, believed that his objects could reveal the secret desires of the unconscious. Lobsters and telephones had strong sexual connotations for him, and he drew a close analogy between food and sex. He made Lobster Telephone for Edward James, the British collector who was the most active patron of surrealist artists in the 1930s.
PAINTING WITH WHITE
Single colour paintings, known as monochromes, are an important way for artists to make abstract works. Using only white might seem, at first, to take this approach to extremes. Without image and apparently pure, the white monochrome appears to resist meaning and interpretation. For some people, it has come to symbolise everything that is believed to be elitist and difficult about modern and contemporary art.
While the paintings and reliefs in this room all use white, or a range of near-white hues, they demonstrate the many ways in which such an apparently reduced range of possibilites can be employed. Far from limiting artists, the decision to restrict themselves to one colour can open up a rich and versatile area of investigation. It draws atention to a ariety of techniques, materials, textures, surfaces, structures and forms, and emphasises the responsiveness of white to light and shadow.
The artists in this room also ecxplore the philosophical, poetic, spirituL or religious associatins of white, which in some cultures can suggest contemplation, emptiness, the void or infinite space. Considered in thes way, rather than lacking meaning, white becomes loaded with significance.
I found an artist that I really liked the style of in the Tate Art in Weimar Germany 1919-1933 exhibition rooms. Otto Dix (1891-1969). The images below are photographs of the drawings the Tate had displayed. I was fascinated by his portrayal of human characters. I liked the way he drew the faces, they carried a lot of expression. He manages to make the figures very emotive through chisselled cheekbones and dark eyebrows, etc. Some of the drawings looked more complete than others, with the addition of backgrounds or more intricate details on the characters The artwork reminded me of German artist Jeanne Mammen (1890-1976). These two artists were living at the same time and both stemmed from Germany, therefore could have potentially influenced one another.
There was an entire wall span in the Art in Weimar, Germany 1919-1933 exhibition of paintings of female sitters. It was interesting to see them all side by side in this way: the different styles in which they were painted, the techniques, backdrop, poses. The painters have all chosen a similar stance for the ladies to take on. All of their arms cross their body in some way, this has a very guarded feel when you observe all six ladies embodying the same posture.
Herbert Gurschner 1901-1975
Born Austria, worked Austria, Britain
Bean Ingram (1928)
Oil paint on canvas
Herbert Gurschner 1901-1975
Born Austria, worked Austria, Britain
Japanische Dame (1932)
Oil paint on canvas
Rudolf Schlichter 1890-1955
Born and worked Germany
Frauenportrait (Speedy) (1933)
Oil paint on canvas
Hans Grundig 1901-1958
Born and worked Germany
Mädchen mit rosa Hut (1925)
Oil paint on cardboard
Karl Otto Hy 1904-1992
Born and worked Germany
Anna (1932)
Oil paint on canvas
Werner Schramm 1898-1970
Born Germany, worked Germany, France
Damenbildnis vor der Pont des Arts (1930)
Oil paint on panel
