tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30680212677661325512024-02-07T10:28:42.907-08:00The Aes·thet·ic Diary BlogBeyond the blurb...Jax Roehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08562710419661395633noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3068021267766132551.post-22496303220399029402012-05-30T05:45:00.001-07:002012-05-30T08:22:13.361-07:00The Queen | Art and Image<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoeTBi5hm5BXy0tXWJ1l2x_ET4exHkczG9yUOPzCRuQbVYlmBXePYvQyqc14_NIhgSJ4lF-E-BUnbcsOu6ErBA57hzW2Bcd_iyU6RcUNFHyi9qULYawiO3OvMkKJjXMS9TgL1sp0cnyMw/s1600/Image+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoeTBi5hm5BXy0tXWJ1l2x_ET4exHkczG9yUOPzCRuQbVYlmBXePYvQyqc14_NIhgSJ4lF-E-BUnbcsOu6ErBA57hzW2Bcd_iyU6RcUNFHyi9qULYawiO3OvMkKJjXMS9TgL1sp0cnyMw/s200/Image+2.jpg" title="Queen Elizabeth II, by Dorothy Wilding" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Queen Elizabeth II</i>, <br />
by Dorothy Wilding</td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-style-span">To mark the Diamond Jubilee, The National Portrait Gallery is staging an exhibition of images of Queen Elizabeth II throughout her sixty year reign. The portraits have been chosen by Paul Moorhouse, the Curator of Twentieth Century Portraits, and without reference to Buckingham Palace. As a result there are some surprising inclusions, with images by Gilbert & George, Andy Warhol, and Gerhard Richter nestled amongst the more traditional portraits by Beaton, and Annigoni. </span><span class="Apple-style-span">There's even one portrait that pitches Queen Elizabeth against Diana. </span><br />
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There are also rare unguarded moments, such as the snapshot take on the morning of the fire at Windsor Castle - one of a series of events which marked the Queen's 'annus horriblis', in the fortieth year of her reign. As a result, the exhibition can be read on many levels - from the changes in fashion to attitudes about the upper classes - the show is as much about charting changes in society over the last sixty years, as about visual appropriations of the Queen.<br />
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Included, for example, is the Sex Pistols cover of God Save the Queen in 1977, marking the Queen's silver jubilee. Highly contentious as the time, the song was banned from many radio stations, and marks a very specific moment in punk rock history. Now some 35 years later, the cover is part of the mainstream lexicon of Elizabeth II's imagery and is no more offensive than the other portraits on show. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3Q8rA9AZNmOIEw_e9X6KXu0CnSxBLO8SL_oWy0SkGEN8CeDwy69ClJTXIdMANffcf6tAQLd4Xt4cG59BgCVrmtMR35m_sw104UIxxO9eyMlB9GB-56q_GLbk9vNCbeTrXZQ0B7-eztuU/s1600/Image.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3Q8rA9AZNmOIEw_e9X6KXu0CnSxBLO8SL_oWy0SkGEN8CeDwy69ClJTXIdMANffcf6tAQLd4Xt4cG59BgCVrmtMR35m_sw104UIxxO9eyMlB9GB-56q_GLbk9vNCbeTrXZQ0B7-eztuU/s200/Image.jpg" title="Equanimity" width="133" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Equanimity</i></td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFAZuDTLsC4ZtJ6TKMQIDa_xgPqxWgFqILnliWHgMlwmlvoRwvwhQunUBBoV5cUmzz_YWTIyEa1Fh9KJYZLMyZyciT5gA00S_fWMVi_53w-y_Md2ZOmm-yGpLwyYpQvrBc5CxGa3RkPQ8/s1600/Image+4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFAZuDTLsC4ZtJ6TKMQIDa_xgPqxWgFqILnliWHgMlwmlvoRwvwhQunUBBoV5cUmzz_YWTIyEa1Fh9KJYZLMyZyciT5gA00S_fWMVi_53w-y_Md2ZOmm-yGpLwyYpQvrBc5CxGa3RkPQ8/s200/Image+4.jpg" title="Lightness of Being" width="156" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Lightness of Being</i></td></tr>
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More revolutionarily is the first lenticular portrait of the Queen Elizabeth, <i>Equanimity</i>, generated from over 10,000 still shots. Surprisingly, the portrait remains somehow static, despite the Queen following us around the room. Created by Chris Levine (artist) and Rob Munday (the holographer) <i>Equanimity</i> has now been gifted to the National Portrait gallery. More revealing perhaps is Levine's <i>Lightness of Being</i>, which shows Elizabeth with her eyes closed. This portrait shows a more vulnerable queen, and says something about Elizabeth's age. Despite the regal attire, somehow Elizabeth is more fragile than the iconography.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiroSegaVYHIs5qMg8KCoPJeXa-iIXVeBTaX-L1S715wCMgj6xhwWTRm0i224sBNSLpvBQ3oqkjYDTRTOjE564Sea2RNhg_ydtFjNQqOCvVEwS3ouAr_xNSMHt4tdhi_gVCmJgSjC9mIsA/s1600/Image+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiroSegaVYHIs5qMg8KCoPJeXa-iIXVeBTaX-L1S715wCMgj6xhwWTRm0i224sBNSLpvBQ3oqkjYDTRTOjE564Sea2RNhg_ydtFjNQqOCvVEwS3ouAr_xNSMHt4tdhi_gVCmJgSjC9mIsA/s200/Image+3.jpg" title="Elizabeth and Philip Potent" width="152" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><i>Elizabeth and <br />Philip Potent</i></span></td></tr>
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Another unconventional portrait is <i>Elizabeth and Philip Potent</i>, created by Gilbert and George in 1981. Using postcards of Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh, the pair have managed to create a <i>potent cross</i>. More commonly found in heraldry, the term potent allows them to comment in a very playful and sophisticated way about the iconography and status of the royal family. In the show is also Gilbert and George's postcard collage <i>Coronation Cross</i>, also from their 1981 <i>Crusade</i> exhibition. <i> Crusade</i> was intended to bring together art and a sense of national identity. The royal family was seen as very much central to that sense of nationhood.<br />
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This exhibition isn't going to appeal to everyone, but if you read it as a social commentary I think it's perhaps rather revealing. Pictures intended to shock seem somehow more commonplace when set against countless other portraits. I found myself more surprised by the intensity and size of Freud's tiny portrait, than that of the endlessly reproduced Sex Pistol's cover. I couldn't help thinking about Queen Elizabeth's namesake too, Queen Elizabeth I. Elizabeth I's iconography was set out specifically to create and image of a strong queen, a goddess, a virgin, a ruler of lands, and we can see parallels with the early portraits of Elizabeth II. However, as technology has progressed, we are presented with an unprecedented number of pictures of the Queen on a near daily basis. The iconography of Elizabeth II still stands in those seminal portraits by Dorothy Wilding and the like in the show, but it's actually those unguarded moments, like the morning of the Windsor Castle fire, which speak more loudly. In these unguarded moments, we see the vulnerability of the Queen, and ironically, it is where we identify with her that we perhaps gain a better understanding of her. Looking at each portrait as a tiny moment in time will offer a better reading of the exhibition, than trying to absorb the iconography as a whole.<br />
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<i>The Queen</i> | <i>Art and Image</i> is on at the <a href="http://www.npg.org.uk/whatson/the-queen/the-queen-art-image.php" target="_blank">National Portrait Gallery</a> until the 21st October 2012.<br />
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<br />Jax Roehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08562710419661395633noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3068021267766132551.post-79580039077630470742012-04-27T05:50:00.000-07:002012-04-28T01:18:36.819-07:00Turner Inspired<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFsicg6ygVId8zaELGwAsH16PeTACq5Ur-bnw7Dhwn3pXUEQcHkY9BWEkM2wyOwapx6q6VhEt8MLpjJ_4Y9ZBxUkyuBV7jGGVAvpL9HGtRTnjv5uTA0LWrbP3BsVbV165XS-Y5pAXhtoc/s1600/N-0014-00-000066-pp%5B1%5D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFsicg6ygVId8zaELGwAsH16PeTACq5Ur-bnw7Dhwn3pXUEQcHkY9BWEkM2wyOwapx6q6VhEt8MLpjJ_4Y9ZBxUkyuBV7jGGVAvpL9HGtRTnjv5uTA0LWrbP3BsVbV165XS-Y5pAXhtoc/s320/N-0014-00-000066-pp%5B1%5D.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: 'Frutiger 55 Roman'; font-size: 10pt;">Claude (1604/5?</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 10pt;">˗</span><span style="font-family: 'Frutiger 55 Roman'; font-size: 10pt;">1682)</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Frutiger 55 Roman'; font-size: 10pt;">Seaport with the Embarkation of the Queen of
Sheba</span></i><span style="font-family: 'Frutiger 55 Roman'; font-size: 10pt;">, 1648</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Frutiger 55 Roman'; font-size: 10pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">© The National Gallery,
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For over a hundred years now the paintings of William Turner have been inextricably linked to those of Claude Gelee. Not only was Turner inspired by the landscapes of Claude, but is reputed to have burst into tears on his first viewing of Claude's <i>Seaport with the Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba</i>, 1648. Something within that painting resonated so strongly with Turner that he embarked on a number of slavish copies of Claude's paintings, sometimes copied from memory, sometimes by revisiting the original site of Claude's work.<br />
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Though his later works would drift away from the utopian landscapes of Claude, Turner determined that he should be linked to Claude, and in his will left two of his paintings to the National Gallery with the strict proviso that they be hung together with the Claude <i>Embarkation</i> and <i>Landscape with the Marriage of Isaac and Rebecca</i>. Additionally these paintings were to be hung in a newly constructed room to be named the Turner Gallery. In an attempt to tease out the detail of the Turner Bequest, and to demonstrate more completely the relationship between the two styles of painting, this exhibition brings together a number of additional work and a substantial collection of items relating to the Bequest. In reality the latter tend to be overshadowed by the paintings.<br />
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At first glance the show is somewhat problematic and unsatisfying. The Claude examples are for me much more beautiful than the Turner's, but this is because I personally prefer the aesthetic of earlier painters, being much more firmly rooted in Renaissance art. Neither does the staging alongside so many of Claude's paintings allow me to leap forward to Impressionism, not matter how much Turner prefigured those paintings. To gain the most from the exhibition I think you need to leave Claude to one side - treat them as a separate section of the show, and instead concentrate on the later Turner paintings. Here, where he has move away from his slavish copying of the earlier Claude landscapes we see a much more complete sense of who Turner has become. <br />
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In <i>Modern Rome - Campo Vaccino</i>, 1839, Turner revisits the site of a Claude's <i>The Roman Forum</i>, 1636. Instead of the intellectually inspired grandeur of Claude's painting, we see the reality - the ruins aren't ethereal, they're decaying before our eyes. Claude's occupants sit around in heavy discourse, no doubt debating philosophy, the idealised ruins pointing clearly to the reclamation of the ancient into early modern thought. Some two hundred years later, Turner's view shows a city in decay, with goats clambering over the monuments, peasant girls tending animals, washing clothes - the much grittier reality of modern life.<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;"><span style="font-family: 'Frutiger 55 Roman'; font-size: 10pt;">Joseph Mallord William
Turner (1775</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 10pt;">˗</span><span style="font-family: 'Frutiger 55 Roman'; font-size: 10pt;">1851)</span></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: 'Frutiger 55 Roman'; font-size: 10pt;">Keelmen Heaving in Coals by Night</span></i><span style="font-family: 'Frutiger 55 Roman'; font-size: 10pt;">, 1835</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: 'Frutiger 55 Roman'; font-size: 10pt;">Image courtesy of the Board
of Trustees, </span></div>
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<span style="color: white; font-family: 'Frutiger 55 Roman'; font-size: 10pt;">National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Frutiger 55 Roman'; font-size: 10pt;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">Widener Collection
1942.9.86</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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It is in these representations of his own era that Turner excels. For me by far the most beautiful Turner in the show is the <i>Keelman Heaving the Coals by Night,</i> 1835 which is very firmly rooted in in his present. The industrial smog, the burning fires, the crowded port, all speak of a much more contemporary world - a world in which Claude's mythical figures simply cannot exist. Here Turner is able to deliver what he has learnt from Claude and his other heroes - a fully realised view of his own era. No mythical state, no mythical characters, but an ethereal echo of those landscapes brought fully up-to-date.<br />
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Also in the show are Turner's watercolours from the 1840's. These are haunting, mesmerising, instantly recognisable and yet somehow intangible. In a few of his later oil paintings Turner adopts this very fluid style to great effect, conveying more mood than landscape. However there is sense of fading in these later works, and they don't stand up well to the huge, imposing and majestic Claude's. Comparisons are rather crudely made, and on the whole Charlotte and I found the Turners very unsatisfying. This staging does them a disservice - the elements relating to the Turner Bequest are somehow lost amongst the paintings. Had Turner realised what was to come later, by way of Impressionism, he may have been more content to allow his paintings to hang in their own right, but at a time when half of the private collections in England contained at least one Claude, he may had believed this was the only way for him to gain the recognition he felt he deserved. <br />
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Perhaps further comparisons might have been made more successfully - in the last decade Turner's work has appeared in a number of difficult groupings. In 2005 we had the Turner Whistler Monet exhibition at Tate Britain, where I felt the Turner's were left lacking in comparison to Monet. In 2009 Turner appeared in two separate exhibitions. In Turner and the Masters at Tate Britain he was hung with Claude, Poussin, and Titian. and at Tate Modern he was hung with Rothko, having greatly influenced the latter. <br />
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The problem with each of these exhibitions is that Turner never entirely lives up to the comparison. Monet and Rothko are so bright and vibrant that the Turners seem washed out - as they do against the Claude's in this exhibition. When hung with others I find my eye is constantly drawn away from his paintings towards something more definite, certainly with more colour. Turner would do much better by comparison were his works to be shown on their own. One's eye would be able to adjust to the limited palette, the veiled images, and to gradually absorb the aesthetic - they deserve the opportunity to stand on their own.<br />
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<i>Turner Inspired is on at the National Gallery until the 5th June 2012</i><br />
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The National Gallery<br />
Trafalgar Square<br />
London WC2N 5DN<br />
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<i><a href="http://blog.bespokersvp.com/category/arts-culture/exhibition/" target="_blank">This article also appears in the Bespoke RSVP Blog.</a></i><br />
<br /></div>Jax Roehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08562710419661395633noreply@blogger.comCity of Westminster, London WC2N 5DN, UK51.5090969 -0.127683551.5066264 -0.13261900000000001 51.511567400000004 -0.12274800000000001tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3068021267766132551.post-31734969699270195472012-04-06T13:02:00.000-07:002012-04-28T01:19:08.383-07:00Damien Hirst | Tate Modern Retrospective<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 21px;"><strong style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">Damien Hirst, <i>Beautiful, childish, expressive, <br />tasteless, not art, over simplistic, throw away</i>...1996</span></strong></span></td></tr>
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This week sees the opening of Damien Hirst's retrospective show at Tate Modern. The show charts Hirst's works in a timeline, and includes a number of seminal pieces. However this exhibition is not just about sharks, cows, and the £36,000 limited edition plastic skull you can buy in the gift shop on the way out. In conversations all week with cabbies, pundits and critics, reactions have centred around Hirst being overrated, overvalued and a charlatan. Brian Sewell wrote one the most vitriolic articles imaginable in the <i>Evening Standard</i>, and so one might imagine I'd have my work cut out to get you along to the Tate to see for yourself. However, in the way that I encouraged you to go to the Hockney exhibition to learn about perspective, I'd encourage you to see Hirst to explore your reactions to Death with a capital D, and to consider the impact of economics, commerciality and desirability on art.<br />
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It's far too easy to dismiss Hirst's work as profoundly commercial, and without merit. Perhaps he may have borrowed a number of <a href="http://www.stuckism.com/Hirst/StoleArt.html" target="_blank">themes from other artists</a>, but I would conclude that on the whole Hirst's examples are better presented, more polished, and more desirable. It is this ability to produce commercially desirable objects alongside objects which shock us which explains the endurance of Hirst's commercial success. Brian Sewell may criticise Hirst's twenty-five year reign, but ultimately surely this is the point? Perhaps Hirst is still selling spot paintings which he's never touched, but whilst there is an audience for them, he is unlikely to stop their production. In order to consider why Hirst is so successful commercially, it's important to understand a little of his early artistic background.</div>
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Damien Hirst is about to turn forty-seven. On 18th October 1987, forever known now as Black Monday, the world's financial markets were turned upside down. The UK entered into an unprecedented level of unemployment, with a recession that lasted until 1993. It was in precisely this downturn that a young Damien Hirst, in his second year at Goldsmiths College, decided to curate his own art show <i><a href="http://www.damienhirst.com/exhibitions/group/1988/freeze" target="_blank">Freeze</a></i> in a disused warehouse in the Docklands. In that economic climate, Hirst realised that the chances of having their work seen and bought was very limited, and took the initiative to show his works and those of several fellow artists from Goldsmiths. Hirst's own works ultimately failed to sell, especially when he was unable to successfully remove them from the walls to which he had fixed them - this was a lesson well learnt. Those of his contemporaries did sell however, particularly Matt Collishaw's <i>Bullet Hole -</i> on 15 light boxes it showed an image of an ice-pick wound in a human head.</div>
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Given that Hirst had enough initiative to stage the show in the first place, it is highly likely that he'd have looked at the items which sold, and drawn his own conclusions about what it meant to be commercially successful. In order to achieve any level of notoriety he was going to have to make works of art which would stand out from the crowd, and either shock or amaze us. Hirst was certainly already very deeply interested in death, having spent many hours drawing in the Anatomy Museum at Leeds University Medical School, and where he was photographed with the head of a dead man - a photo he would later show as <i><a href="http://www.damienhirst.com/with-dead-head" target="_blank">With Dead Head</a></i>, 1991. He was also deeply influenced by Francis Bacon, who often showed dramatic portraits of men confined and trapped in notional cubes. Hirst began to explore the themes of life and death, confinement and freedom.</div>
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Hirst's next major piece of work in 1990 was entitled <i><a href="http://www.damienhirst.com/a-thousand-years" target="_blank">A Thousand Years</a></i>. A giant glass vitrine split into two connecting halves, one half contains the rotting head of a cow, its blood spilt onto the floor. The other half contains a box housing hundreds of flies. The flies feed on the rotting corpse, then return to their box to lay their eggs, continuing a life and death cycle unchanged for a thousand years. The only change in this cycle is achieved through the electrical fly-zapper. Flies either avoid the zapper, or fly through it entirely at random, falling to their death on the floor. Charles Saatchi bought it on the spot. For the 25 year old Hirst, the future was clear and the acclaim he received convinced him he was heading in the right direction.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 21px;"><strong style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">Damien Hirst, <i>The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living</i> 1991</span></strong></span></td></tr>
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In 1991 Charles Saatchi sought to show the work of the Young British Artists (YBAs) in his gallery, and is said to have given Hirst a free reign to create a new work of his choosing. Shown early in 1992, Hirst presented a vitrine containing the now infamous tiger shark, pickled and transferred from Australia, and now floating in its formaldehyde bath. <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><i>The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living </i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">a</span>chieved immediate notoriety, and Hirst was plastered across the The Sun with the headline "£50,000 for fish without chips". In this retrospective the shark has been recreated, this time with his mouth open, allowing you to look into the gaping heart of the shark, to stare death in the stomach.<br />
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It was also at this time that Hirst presented his butterfly installations <i><a href="http://www.damienhirst.com/in-and-out-of-love" target="_blank">In and Out of Love</a></i> in London, where viewers are able to see the full life cycle of a butterfly, from pupae attached to the walls, to hatching and feeding butterflies, and ultimately through to their death by the end of the exhibition. For me, butterflies are one of the ultimate <i>momento mori</i> - exquisitely beautiful, ultimately frail and fleeting.</div>
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In 1993 a number of the YBAs were greeted for a New York show by <a href="http://www.jeffkoons.com/" target="_blank">Jeff Koons</a>. Gregor Muir reports that Koons said "he had little interest in art theory, preferring instead to flick through the pages of glossy magazines. For us he represented a form of art without hangups". Muir also notes that "Artists such as Damien Hirst and the Chapman's would have been struck by the way Koons played the market and made his fortune seemingly overnight". Here was an artist making his fortune producing giant teddy bears, glossy rabbits and puppies. For Hirst he was the legitimisation of this new approach - Koons' work appeared in major museums and was being shown in galleries all over the world. <br />
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At the 1993 Venice Biennale, Hirst presented <i><a href="http://www.damienhirst.com/mother-and-child-divided-ex" target="_blank">Mother and Child Divided</a></i>, a cow and a calf cut in half, and placed alongside each other in containers of formaldehyde. By 1995, and on his second nomination, Hirst was awarded the Turner Prize. In 1998 Hirst lent a number of his Pharmacy installations to the Pharmacy bar and restaurant in London which subsequently sold at Sotheby's for £11m in 2004. <br />
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Some disquiet about his achievements remained, but later works began to take on a more hopeful and meditative feel, particularly with the stained glass windows made from intricately placed butterfly wings, such as Hirst's <a href="http://www.damienhirst.com/doorways-to-the-kingdom-of-hea" target="_blank"><i>Doorways to the Kingdom of Heaven</i></a> and the very serene <a href="http://www.damienhirst.com/sympathy-in-white-major-a-ab" target="_blank"><i>Sympathy in White Major</i></a>.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 21px;"><strong style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: white;">Damien Hirst, <i>Sympathy in White Major - Absolution II</i> 2006</span></strong></span></td></tr>
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There is also Hirst's dove, <i><a href="http://www.damienhirst.com/the-incomplete-truth" target="_blank">The Incomplete Truth</a></i>, floating again in his trade-mark formaldehyde, its wings outstretched. Later commissions of previous themes resulted in butterflies on gold backgrounds embedded with crystals, and brightly mirrored cabinets set with cubic zirconia. <br />
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And then in 2007 Hirst took on the ultimate momento mori, the 2007 platinum skull set with 8,601 flawless diamonds, entitled <i><a href="http://www.damienhirst.com/for-the-love-of-god" target="_blank">For the Love of God</a>. </i>This was<i> </i>inspired by Hirst time in Mexico, with its rich artistic and cultural associations with death<i>. </i>Ultimately I'm always surprised by the way <i>For the love of God</i> was received. Skulls are an incredibly common momento mori, and are featured in many seminal works, including Hobein's anamorphic skull in <a href="http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/hans-holbein-the-younger-the-ambassadors" target="_blank"><i>The Ambassadors</i></a>. Where people saw an incredible waste of money, actually I saw a significant poke at the establishment. Surely there is no bigger irony than making a momento mori from practically everlasting and ridiculously expensive materials? What speaks better of death than an artwork which will ultimately outlive the artist?<br />
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I would also question the vitriolic attack on Hirst's seemingly endless Butterfly and Spot paintings. The last time I checked it was considered perfectly reasonable for Andy Warhol to have churned out endless variations of <i>Chairman</i> <i>Mao</i>, <i>Marylyn</i> and the <i>Campbell Soup Can</i> prints. In turn those were endlessly replicated, remastered and appropriate by a myriad of artists. And not only has Sir Peter Blake produced many, many runs of his <i>Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band</i>, he has also produced several butterfly prints actually as a homage to Damien Hirst. <br />
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Whether or not you make it to Tate Modern to see the Damien Hirst exhibition, I do hope you will look beyond the corpses, beyond the spots and the endless pills, and consider the narrative - Hirst's art was created in a very specific environment, and in a very specific aesthetic genre. This is precisely what makes is so interesting and challenging.<br />
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The Damien Hirst Retrospective is on at Tate Modern until the 9th September 2012.<br />
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<i>This article also appears at <a href="http://blog.bespokersvp.com/category/arts-culture/exhibition/">The BespokeRSVP Blog, in the Culture Section</a></i></div>Jax Roehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08562710419661395633noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3068021267766132551.post-73955749165746801722012-04-06T05:14:00.000-07:002012-06-09T13:36:33.838-07:00David Hockney | A Bigger Picture<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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David Hockney's latest exhibition, <i>A Bigger Picture</i>, is the culmination of a life-long obsession with perspective and the art of looking. Hockney has long argued against the “tyranny of a single point of perspective” which has dominated several centuries of Western landscape painting. In response he has sought to distort perspective, or with his photomontages has sought to keep our gaze moving, adopting the Chinese "moving perspective", where the eye is constantly wandering, unable to settle on a single viewpoint.<br />
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In this enormous and varied exhibition, Hockney has used a variety of techniques to loosen our reliance on traditional landscapes, challenging us to really engage with what we can see. One approach is to show us paintings so large they dominate whole walls, making it impossible to absorb in detail in their entirety. You can take-in the whole painting from the end of the room, but ultimately you must move in closely to gain any sense of the detail. When you do approach the painting this closely, it is impossible to take in all the panels of the painting as a whole.<br />
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Another method is to take the same views and paint them over and over again. As the light changes significantly during the course of the day, this repetition demonstrates the variation in light and also the gradual change of the seasons. Trees burst into leaf, hedgerows burst into flower, and the scene is fundamentally altered. Each landscape can be viewed in isolation, but true meaning is derived by comparing them to their neighbour, with the transition of winter to spring.<br />
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In one particularly effective technique, we watch a video installation of nine cameras strapped to Hockney's car, showing nine video streams of the Woldgate Woods. As the car slowly edges forward, these nine perspectives scramble the brain, each camera “a separate act of seeing...”. Branches don't quite line up between screens, and we are tilted off balance, unable to locate a single point of perspective in the installation as a whole. We are forced to engage with the Woldgate Woods in the way in which Hockney does himself.<br />
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This re-discovered love affair with his childhood landscape began in 1997 when Hockney returned to Bradford to see his longstanding friend, Jonathan Silver, who was dying of cancer. Hockney found himself painting watercolour sketches to take to the hospital each day where Jonathan was missing the open spaces terribly. The paintings were based on views of road to the hospital each day, and Hockney became mesmerised by the variety of changing views of the same scene. In 2002 Hockney began to paint the landscape in watercolour, a medium he'd rarely used before, and by 2004 he'd begun concentrating on documenting his local scenery, embarking on a series of paintings within a 30 mile radius of his home in Bridlington.<br />
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In 2007 Hockney was granted an entire wall in the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition and immediately began working on <i>Bigger Trees near Warter</i>. Completed in just a few weeks, the fifty panel painting allowed Hockney to demonstrate everything he'd learnt about his local environment, the weather patterns and the prevailing light. The panels were generally painted in rows, with Hockney compiling a digital montage of the progress each day, allowing him to keep track of the work as a whole. Hockney himself only saw the completed painting days before it was sent to the RA, when he chose a gigantic space in an industrial estate as his new studio.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiXp5ZjgpRD82wKUbp0cXy4ymx3Sh4Yw3BdFDyOOF0owmEQ0FC_U5657rOVbuWD65E4p3GN5gcxXw1IXSlMWoPh8Lp1-bGCtEBTQsfASvu9QY1ejKC2BD3aK7CxhTRRJe40coi4OyOx7w/s1600/Key+153.24.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiXp5ZjgpRD82wKUbp0cXy4ymx3Sh4Yw3BdFDyOOF0owmEQ0FC_U5657rOVbuWD65E4p3GN5gcxXw1IXSlMWoPh8Lp1-bGCtEBTQsfASvu9QY1ejKC2BD3aK7CxhTRRJe40coi4OyOx7w/s200/Key+153.24.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="150" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqr6NSMymb74RtBC2IV-moDrY4vReYA8FpiXMaCNseij2BIvB0f3Fm_vLxvrt6GuhDqIlwpjcK2Uf8uAeC5Gs0T0Lu3QGIK2g5xJsHy4VRJnFevkwjIaMR7LRR11qntdxeJxurEe0t8HE/s1600/Key+153-1.05.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqr6NSMymb74RtBC2IV-moDrY4vReYA8FpiXMaCNseij2BIvB0f3Fm_vLxvrt6GuhDqIlwpjcK2Uf8uAeC5Gs0T0Lu3QGIK2g5xJsHy4VRJnFevkwjIaMR7LRR11qntdxeJxurEe0t8HE/s200/Key+153-1.05.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="150" /></a>The Royal Academy approached Hockney with a request to show any other works undertaken since his return to Yorkshire, and Hockney agreed. He began compiling sequential views of the landscape, and at the end of 2010 began documenting the arrival of spring in the Woldgate, a small track running between Bridlington and Kilham. The resulting 51 digital paintings were created on the iPad, allowing Hockney to quickly capture the changes in a variety of scenes every few days for three months. The immediacy of these allows us to see the rapidly changing scenery as spring unfurls.<br />
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Placed alongside these paintings in Gallery Three is also a thirty-two canvas painting The Arrival of Spring 2011, the culmination of Hockney's journey into spring.<br />
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Hockney has said that 'painting is editing' - when you paint outside there's so much to look at that you need to start asking questions: 'What do I see first? Does the bark of the tree dominate me, does that attract my eye?' In choosing oil paint over his previous love, photography, Hockney wanted to demonstrate that paintings can be more vivid than photography, and that they can capture the essence of the landscape far better than a camera. To prove his point, Hockney allowed himself to be filmed painting these landscapes on occasion, and having seen these, the vivid almost false colours we see in the results can be seen by the naked eye in the landscape. The distant haze in the sky is indeed lilac, and the trees do morph from black, to green, gold and red. It would be impossible for a photograph to trace this hourly progression in the same way that Hockney's landscapes do.<br />
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Also in the show are a number of other works of equally varied landscapes, including his photo montages of the Grand Canyon from the 1980's, and several re-workings of the Claude's Sermon on the Mount, with one painting compiled from thirty canvasses, painted in 2010.<br />
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Whether or not you are a fan of Hockney I would encourage you to go to the final few days of the exhibition. You will learn so much about the art of looking, and about perspective. Look beyond the seemingly artificial colours and simplistic shapes and 'feel' the landscape Hockney is portraying. This is not meant to be photography, it is representational - you are meant to navigate your own emotional response to the landscape.<br />
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<i>A Bigger Picture</i> is on until the 9 April 2012 </div>
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This article also appears at <a href="http://blog.bespokersvp.com/category/arts-culture/exhibition/" target="_blank">The BespokeRSVP Blog, Culture Section</a></span></address>
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</div>Jax Roehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08562710419661395633noreply@blogger.comCity of Westminster, London W1J 0BD, UK51.5093544 -0.139907851.5068839 -0.1448433 51.5118249 -0.1349723tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3068021267766132551.post-87934598901891465622012-02-21T12:37:00.000-08:002012-02-22T07:14:15.838-08:00Opera Gallery | Art and the Luxury Market<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Jean-David Malat has an unashamedly shrewd eye for the business of art, and the art of business. Director of the Opera Gallery in London, he has a knack of identifying new artists and divining what will sell. Hot on the heels of February's record breaking modern and contemporary art sales at Sotheby’s and Christies, Jean-David has put together a show designed to question our very understanding of commerciality in art.<br />
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Showing seminal works, such as Andy Warhol's <i>Guns</i> and <i>Chairman Mao</i>, alongside developing, or new and up-and-coming artists, Opera challenges what we <i>know</i> to be commercially valuable, and what we perceive<i> might </i>be valuable.<br />
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The assembled collection spans several decades, and introduces us to a complete variety of textures and materials. From paint poured on aluminum, to busts made from coat hangers, collages made up of tiny strips of photographs and portraits made of vinyl, our expectations are challenged. But there is humour in these works - they’re designed to titillate us as much as please any sense of aesthetics.<br />
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One example is a bust of Charlie Chaplin created by David Mach from matchsticks. Beautifully rendered in 3-D, the colouration in the bust is achieved by selecting variously tinted matchsticks, and in some instances entirely reversing the matchstick to use the blunt square end. The result is an incredibly tactile piece, so much so that Charlie is encased in a glass box to stop people like me from running my hands through his apparently luscious curls. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRVYwcGlNnun3Ekfi2msK4WNNF0nHm42_2r9pq_A7npWGqnXaZW-XNZU4z1iDaopl853POO4_toxEDXwvMK97FGXVKEGYNqLF9R6QolTx65zQaX2qTniOLr8TWilSv3XSgiKzeir7lIjg/s1600/Big+Mac.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="163" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRVYwcGlNnun3Ekfi2msK4WNNF0nHm42_2r9pq_A7npWGqnXaZW-XNZU4z1iDaopl853POO4_toxEDXwvMK97FGXVKEGYNqLF9R6QolTx65zQaX2qTniOLr8TWilSv3XSgiKzeir7lIjg/s200/Big+Mac.jpg" width="200" /></a><br />
Another example of the mundane made new is the paper sculpture of a <i>Big Mac 2010</i> by Pavlos. Initially amused, I was drawn into the incredibly elaborate and detailed folds of paper - movement is created by interleaving different colours and patterns together until the burger comes into complete focus. I mentioned this piece to Jean-David, and he informed us that Pavlos is now nearly ninety and suffers from Parkinson's disease – although does not suffer while he’s working. I can’t imagine how long such it would take to conceive and make such a piece under those circumstances, but the effect is mesmerizing. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaxnFeCbDrzUS5RX0sYkTWbFshmmcBawOPL_m9PZF1SvQCRmNCfnCrBPaNRyQH5fS8lqieHlASZD3a6KjQEik75qKwvV-wNapKzcAlcGnU17a5XmH8Ym_jAH99Uz8dHE4UucRJiBLBBBI/s1600/Opie+Elly.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaxnFeCbDrzUS5RX0sYkTWbFshmmcBawOPL_m9PZF1SvQCRmNCfnCrBPaNRyQH5fS8lqieHlASZD3a6KjQEik75qKwvV-wNapKzcAlcGnU17a5XmH8Ym_jAH99Uz8dHE4UucRJiBLBBBI/s200/Opie+Elly.jpg" width="160" /></a>There are also two Opie’s on display: <i>In Elly, gallery assistant 3</i> (2001), you’re particularly drawn to the warmth of the material – these portraits are made from layered vinyl and are both textured and smooth, but have depth engendered by layering the vinyl to achieve minute highlights. Again I’m tempted to sweep my hand across that silky surface. Julian is another artist who is working in many different arenas, from these portraits, to sculpture, to filmed compositions combining filmed moving images and music, and animation. There is an increasing trend for contemporary artists, including Danien Hirst who is also represented in the show, to explore a range of avenues - not to eliminated them, but as a further expression of their artistic sensibilities.<br />
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By contrast to the smooth Opie, two busts made from coat hangers are spiky, almost defensive in their rejection of our touch, cool and prickly to the eye. Created again by David Mach, they are diminutive cousins of <i>Silver Streak</i>, the 10ft gorilla he displayed to such effect at last years Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. The Marilyn bust is immediately identifiable even from a distance, and at a distance seems set in soft focus, with her hooky nimbus.<br />
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Close by is another rendering of Marilyn - this time Mach has created her from hundred and hundreds of tiny cut strips of photographs. Part montage, part mosaic, Marilyn shimmers under our scrutiny and you have to step back to see her as a whole.<br />
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Another textural delight is Arman’s <i>Starry Night</i> (1995), discernibly a tribute to van Gogh’s 1889 <i>Starry Night</i>, this version is stuccoed with used paintbrushes, bristling from the painting like a sea urchin. The brushes seemed so fresh that it made me one to snap one off and grab a tube of paint.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe3pyeQpfvKpnQxijavo8DdhugfppyQE1qPljAAlICSjKBiS7kYuHBeupSZVIcYFGH1a4eCC9_RTD6dBZ3-9Kj-BNEtdZySLYhmQsdTeqSuBHs8ebL5LwwIFtQpEmksQMMmKABejRic5w/s1600/Minjun.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="167" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe3pyeQpfvKpnQxijavo8DdhugfppyQE1qPljAAlICSjKBiS7kYuHBeupSZVIcYFGH1a4eCC9_RTD6dBZ3-9Kj-BNEtdZySLYhmQsdTeqSuBHs8ebL5LwwIFtQpEmksQMMmKABejRic5w/s200/Minjun.jpg" width="200" /></a>With the increasing globalization of the art market collectors emerging from newly wealthy regions, interested in collecting both national and international art. In some instances the artists emerging from these regions are drawn more to their external marker for political reasons. Opera has several examples of international artists, including Yayoi Kusama of Japan, and Yue Minjun of China. The latter’s works are immediately recognizable, with Yue’s multiplicity of self-portraits, caught in the moment of laughter. Sometimes the settings are completely incongruous, such as both the victim and perpetrator in a firing squad, and dressed as Marilyn. This months Harvard Business Review, which is all about the subject of happiness features a number of Yue Minjun’s pieces, and discusses the benefits of laughing and happiness within our lives. At Opera you can see his <i>Hero here</i> (2004) work. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZlRknr_sSThyphenhyphen1lxrjuXGJBkUP7-T1ccd6JhDoWswiqkGQkYZckYnWe3VT9YSksafWFKYoZsMQ-CKU9ZncZ5wlykNXG-i6q-1N47lKU1QKxGtMyhTZyASfyhrY0aq7WgOgkTetA8RNZ3k/s1600/Basquiat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZlRknr_sSThyphenhyphen1lxrjuXGJBkUP7-T1ccd6JhDoWswiqkGQkYZckYnWe3VT9YSksafWFKYoZsMQ-CKU9ZncZ5wlykNXG-i6q-1N47lKU1QKxGtMyhTZyASfyhrY0aq7WgOgkTetA8RNZ3k/s200/Basquiat.jpg" width="158" /></a>Also on show is an example of Jean-Michel Basquiat, whose <i>Orange Sports Figure</i> sold last week for £4.03m, well above its estimate of £3-4m, following the discovery that Basquiat had signed the painting with invisible ink. On display in the Opera Gallery is Basquiat’s<i> Logo</i> (1984), created two years later and equally powerful. Since his death in 1988 Basquiat continues to influence the market, with a new generation of artists inspired by his style. <br />
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This show sets out to question our relationship with the commerciality of art, and last weeks auction surpassed all expectations. At Christies, over £109m of sales were achieved, a record for London, and seventeen lots sold for over £1m. One portrait by Francis Bacon sold for £21.2m, the highest price for a contemporary artist at this sale since February 2008. <br />
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At Sotheby’s over £66m was achieved, with Gerhard Richter dominating their sales with six painting achieving over £17.6 million. Richter also had four paintings in the ten most expensive sold over the two days and the increase in prices reflected the record prices set for his work in November auctions in New York. Confirming his place as one of the most desirable artists, every available piece in the London auctions sold as collectors sought to secure their own piece. <br />
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There is absolutely no doubt that the modern and contemporary markets are buzzing. For just a few days you can go to the Opera Gallery yourself and see what Jean-David thinks is interesting, challenging and up-and-coming work. We may not be able to afford these prices, but we should all take the opportunity to see some of these pieces first-hand, before they disappear into the hands of the collectors. <br />
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We took the opportunity to ask Jean-David what we should be looking out for when purchasing contemporary art for ourselves:<br />
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<i>What flash of recognition do you get when you identify a new artist, and how are you able to define so accurately what you think will sell? </i><br />
I am watching art and discovering new artists and new art all the time. What I like best is when an artist or his work really catches my attention, makes me physically stop to watch it longer. I am always looking for something unique, different and I am interested by artists who push the boundaries of physical possibilities and show how far we can go with the making of art. I am passionate about art and when you really believe in the artist you are selling, your clients and collectors will follow your passion and trust you. <br />
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<i>Is there a way for us to identify those trends for ourselves when looking to invest in new pieces? </i><br />
A good knowledge of art history and of the art market is the only way to identify these. But my first advice is ALWAYS to buy pieces that you like. Whether they turn out to be a good investment or not, you get to enjoy them and that's the most important thing about a piece of art! Other than that, if you yourself do not have the knowledge needed to invest wisely on the art market, seeking professional advice is the safest thing to do. As an art dealer, I have worked with people with bigger or smaller budgets but great passion and trust and I have helped them built strong and valuable art collections over the years. <br />
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<i>How can galleries, particularly very smart galleries, do more to encourage the public to come in and view their pieces, without feeling that they are required to buy? </i><br />
Art exhibitions are the best way. Selling is necessary for a gallery to survive, but art exhibitions are the window of their activity. Not anyone can buy a piece of art, but everyone can enter an art gallery and get a glance at the art of the moment. Creating a fun and entertaining event and yet ensuring a display of good quality is the key for a gallery to gain visibility and raise its public image. <br />
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<i>With an increasingly multi-disciplined market which new mediums do you think will become more readily available to new collectors? </i><br />
I believe that Photography is the genre of the century. In November 2011, the ever most expensive art photograph was auctioned in Christie’s in New York for 3.1 million euros. It is a photo of a landscape by Andreas Gursky, and an amazing piece. At the occasion of the sale, Pierre Cornette de Saint Cyr said:<span lang="EN-US" style="color: #3300ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 16pt;"> </span><span lang="EN-US"><i>“I am thrilled that one finally understands photography is a major art! 90% of graphic creations from the 19th and early 20th centuries have been disregarded! We used to think that a portrait by Nadar was not art! The renowned painter Ingres himself said in 1860, while “stealing” and hiding Nadar’s photographic plates: </i></span>“Photography is such a beautiful thing that they must not know about it!”. <br />
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Photography is indeed an amazing genre: it allows a great power of criticism of the society - like Gerard Rancinan does so well, who will be exhibited at this year's Milan Triennale. It is a versatile genre as well, that can be either figurative as the art of the above-mentioned artists, but also abstract as is the avant-garde photography of Olivier Dassault. <br />
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Apart from photography, I always find mixed media artworks and installations that use unexpected materials both very exciting and entertaining. I shall of course mention Royal Academician David Mach sculptures - they're breath-taking! <br />
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<br />Jax Roehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08562710419661395633noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3068021267766132551.post-18546749963260044092012-02-04T06:33:00.000-08:002012-02-25T05:10:53.358-08:00The most exquisite Monet I've ever seen, at Christies, King Street, London<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv2KSYiNtwWbf3wlRL-rqNxT2P7WX_HYni5YSakaeIMraWb_iAaHNA0bL9iV2gM8pVt9UbByGQaAgV5bN69B4O4VH6VBluSTV8G3r0PMkiwT0942AOQ_hd0dKszaPOloT12-ckm6rXEXQ/s1600/claude_monet_le_bras_de_jeufosse_automne_d5532380h.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgv2KSYiNtwWbf3wlRL-rqNxT2P7WX_HYni5YSakaeIMraWb_iAaHNA0bL9iV2gM8pVt9UbByGQaAgV5bN69B4O4VH6VBluSTV8G3r0PMkiwT0942AOQ_hd0dKszaPOloT12-ckm6rXEXQ/s1600/claude_monet_le_bras_de_jeufosse_automne_d5532380h.jpg" /></a>Update: Alas I didn't win the Euromillions, and my little Monet sold for £2,393,250 / $3,781,335<br />
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On Tuesday 7th February 2012 <a href="http://www.christies.com/about/locations/king-street/" target="_blank">Christies</a> will hold its Impressionist / Modern painting sale. Included are a Pissaro, three Degas', a variety of Henry Moore's paintings and sculptures, several Picasso's and one particularly exquisite Monet, <i>Le bras de Jeufosse, automne.</i><br />
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The painting is rarely seen by the public, and has been in private hands since the 1950's. Whilst the sale has some very beautiful pieces, I was immediately drawn to the Monet. It positively glows on the wall and has a presence quite unlike some of the other works. I realise that very few people go to view paintings at auction houses, but when one considers that many of the works will pass from private owner to private owner, these viewings are often our only opportunity to see these works at all. The sale showcases some of the finest examples of Impressionist and Modern art. Do try to see them if you're in Mayfair, and let me know what you think of my Monet. Christies, if I win the EuroMillions between now and Tuesday I'll be on the phone...</div>
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From the Christies catalogue:</div>
<i>Le bras de Jeufosse, automne</i> is one of a series of ten sweeping riverscapes executed by Claude Monet in the autumn of 1884 in which he depicts a stretch of the river Seine near the small village of Jeufosse. This was located about two kilometres upstream from Giverny, to which the artist had moved in the spring of the previous year. Situated about sixty-five kilometres to the northwest of Paris, the landscape surrounding Giverny comprised rolling wooded hills, copses, meadows and marshes. It was intersected by the Seine - here dotted with numerous small islands - and its tributaries, the Epte and the Ru. 'Once settled', Monet wrote to his dealer Paul Durand-Ruel, 'I hope to produce masterpieces, because I like the countryside very much' (Monet, quoted in D. Wildenstein, 'Monet's Giverny', in Monet's years at Giverny: Beyond Impressionism, exh. cat., New York, 1978, pp. 15-16).<br />
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It was not until the end of August 1883 that Monet began to paint this countryside, remarking that 'one always needs a certain amount of time to get familiar with a new landscape' (Monet, quoted inibid., p. 19). As at Vétheuil, where he had lived between 1878 and 1881, it was the landscapes of the Seine that Monet primarily explored during his first years at Giverny, painting views of the river at Port-Villez, Le Grand Val and Vernon in 1883, followed by Jeufosse in 1884. The Seine was an enduring and important source of inspiration for Monet, who translated into paint the evanescent effects of light and shimmering reflections as they played across the river's surface, as well as the recreation and industry which the river sustained. 'I have painted the Seine all my life, at all hours of the day, and in every season', Monet declared. 'I have never been bored with it: to me it is always different' (Monet, quoted in ibid., p. 18). Thus in the Jeufosse series of paintings, we are presented with shifting views looking both upriver and downriver, captured at various times of day and subject to the subtly changing effects of weather and light. Indeed, Wildenstein has suggested that this group of paintings is an important indicator that the concept of serialisation, which Monet later took up systematically in his celebrated series of grain stacks of the 1890s, already existed in the painter's mind (ibid.).<br />
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Prior to painting the present canvas, Monet had spent three months working in the Ligurian town of Bordighera in Italy, followed by a brief but productive sojourn in Menton in the South of France. These excursions offered Monet new and challenging motifs to paint and opportunities for experimentation and, once back at Giverny, he was able to approach the local landscapes feeling re-invigorated and inspired anew: 'I felt the need, in order to widen my field of observation and to refresh my vision in front of new sights, to take myself away for a while from the area I was living. It was the opportunity for relaxation and renewal' (Monet, quoted in J. House, Monet: Nature into Art, New Haven & London, 1986, p. 21). Returning to Giverny in early September 1884 after a brief holiday on the coast of Normandy, Monet turned his attention to painting the curving stretch of the Seine near Jeufosse. He worked intensively to finish these paintings before the onset of inclement weather, complaining to Durand-Ruel of his difficulty in completing these works because 'nature transforms from one day to the next' (Monet, letter to P. Durand-Ruel, 19 October 1884, reproduced in D. Wildenstein, op. cit., Paris, 1979, no. 525, p. 255).<br />
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Unlike the motifs which Monet painted during his tours of France and Italy, those near Giverny were chosen more at the artist's leisure; they were subjects which, Monet revealed, 'required seeking'. For Le bras de Jeufosse, automne, Monet situated himself just in front of a cluster of trees on the river's left-bank, looking downstream towards Port-Villez. To the right is the abundant foliage of the Ile de la Merville and, to the left, the hill of Jeufosse which runs gently down towards the Coteau du Gibet. Robert Herbert has pointed out that for these 'picturesque' paintings at Jeufosse, Monet positioned himself along the calmer branch of the Seine which was separated from the main channel by the Ile de la Merville and the Ile de la Flotte: 'the view he constructed is therefore doubly bucolic because in reality the slopes of the river valley at Jeufosse were farmed, and the Seine bore heavy commercial traffic' (R. Herbert, Monet on the Normandy Coast: Tourism and Painting, 1867-1886, New Haven & London, 1994, p. 133). The Paris-Le Havre railway line also followed this bend of the river. Although the trainline is portrayed in Le train à Jeufosse, a painting within this series which Monet later gave to the poet Stéphane Mallarmé, in the present canvas Monet has eliminated all signs of modernity and mankind's intervention, focusing instead on a rich interplay between, on the one hand, land, river and sky, and, on the other, light, colour and texture. Only the small rowing-boat, perhaps the artist's own, points to a human presence.<br />
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Émile Zola also portrayed the countryside surrounding Jeufosse as an idyllic retreat, the 'faraway place' of his novel L'Oeuvre which was serialised in Gil Blas a year after Le bras de Jeufosse, automne was executed. Indeed, in one passage, the novel's protagonist, a talented painter called Claude Lantier who advocated painting en plein air, begins 'a study of the slopes of Jeufosse, with the Seine in the foreground', which, however, he fails to complete (É. Zola, The Masterpiece, trans. T. Walton, Oxford, 2008, p. 139). With resonances of Monet, Zola describes how Claude Lantier and his lover Christine were enraptured with the Seine near Jeufosse: 'they had developed a wild passion for the river itself ... Among the islands strung along the Seine like a mysterious floating city they explored the whole network of narrow waterways, floating gently through them, stroked as they passed by the low, overhanging branches, alone with the wood-pigeons and kingfishers' (ibid., p. 138).<br />
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In 1892, Theodore Robinson recalled that, 'one thing I remember Monet speaking of, the pleasure he took in the "pattern" often nature gives - leafage against sky, reflections etc.' (T. Robinson, quoted in J. House, op. cit., 1986, p. 46). This pleasure is communicated powerfully in the visually exciting bravura brushwork and strikingly vivid palette of Le bras de Jeufosse, automne. Here, Monet explores effects of variegated brushwork, texture and colour, reflecting that by the 1880s composition and execution had, for him, become increasingly inseparable (seeibid., 1986). Horizontal blue and purple strokes suggest rippling water, dense and varied layers of paint describe the splendid and riotous autumnal foliage of the Ile de Merville and its reflection, whilst small dots of blue and red dance across the surface of painting, creating visual rhymes which unify the composition. Le bras de Jeufosse, automne is an exceptionally bold and vigorous canvas within this important group of Jeufosse paintings, in which the new richness Monet had developed in his rendition of foliage during the first years of the 1880s is used to magnificent effect.<br />
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<a href="http://www.christies.com/features/audio-claude-monet-le-bras-de-jeufosse-automne-2098-4.aspx" target="_blank">A short audio commentary</a></div>
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Sale Location</div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">8 King Street, St. James's, London SW1Y 6QT</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span><br />
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<tr><td align="left" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 4px; padding-top: 2px;" width="50px">Feb 7</td><td align="right" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 4px; padding-top: 2px;">7:00 PM</td><td style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 4px; padding-top: 2px;"></td><td style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 4px; padding-top: 2px;">Lots</td><td align="left" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 4px; padding-top: 2px;">1 - 51</td></tr>
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Viewing Times</th></tr>
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<tr><th class="tooltip_viewing_dates" scope="row" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 4px; padding-top: 2px; text-align: left;">Feb 3</th><td style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 4px; padding-top: 2px;">9am - 4:30pm</td></tr>
<tr><th class="tooltip_viewing_dates" scope="row" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 4px; padding-top: 2px; text-align: left;">Feb 4</th><td style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 4px; padding-top: 2px;">12pm - 5pm</td></tr>
<tr><th class="tooltip_viewing_dates" scope="row" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 4px; padding-top: 2px; text-align: left;">Feb 5</th><td style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 4px; padding-top: 2px;">12pm - 5pm</td></tr>
<tr><th class="tooltip_viewing_dates" scope="row" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 4px; padding-top: 2px; text-align: left;">Feb 6</th><td style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 4px; padding-top: 2px;">9am - 4:30pm</td></tr>
<tr><th class="tooltip_viewing_dates" scope="row" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 4px; padding-top: 2px; text-align: left;">Feb 7</th><td style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 4px; padding-top: 2px;">9am - 3:30pm</td></tr>
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Contact Info</div>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Adrienne Dumas</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><a href="mailto:adumas@christies.com" style="color: #ad975c; text-decoration: none;">adumas@christies.com</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">+44 (0)20 7389 2376</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Giovanna Bertazzoni</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><a href="mailto:gbertazzoni@christies.com" style="color: #ad975c; text-decoration: none;">gbertazzoni@christies.com</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">+44 (0)20 7389 2542</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Jay Vince</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><a href="mailto:jvince@christies.com" style="color: #ad975c; text-decoration: none;">jvince@christies.com</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">+44 (0)20 7389 2536</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Olivier Camu</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><a href="mailto:ocamu@christies.com" style="color: #ad975c; text-decoration: none;">ocamu@christies.com</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">+44 (0)20 7389 2450</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><b>Administrator</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Leah Sheehan</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><a href="mailto:lsheehan@christies.com" style="color: #ad975c; text-decoration: none;">lsheehan@christies.com</a></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;"><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">+44 (0)20 7389 2442</span></div>
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</div>Jax Roehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08562710419661395633noreply@blogger.comCity of Westminster, London SW1Y 6QT, UK51.5067213 -0.137752651.5042503 -0.1426881 51.5091923 -0.1328171tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3068021267766132551.post-63629473017133065002012-01-19T14:44:00.000-08:002012-02-25T05:11:13.886-08:00Jonathan Yeo | Only Young Twice | Tits Sell Shocker...<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD8BwH_oTmr4kikD9iiyO_pUkrbPnCa4IRvrzk9Q1pnZAwK_lA_SzdHeJSu9V5B9sh54ryjrALeTtwOp-iJoSBHY18ChQrmTYuthrlumm4QMMBaTtcbdLdN5Ckk7y5KW50cztuzURG3pQ/s1600/diptych-right-medium-for-web.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD8BwH_oTmr4kikD9iiyO_pUkrbPnCa4IRvrzk9Q1pnZAwK_lA_SzdHeJSu9V5B9sh54ryjrALeTtwOp-iJoSBHY18ChQrmTYuthrlumm4QMMBaTtcbdLdN5Ckk7y5KW50cztuzURG3pQ/s200/diptych-right-medium-for-web.jpg" /></a><br />
@ClareAngela and I popped along to the <a href="http://www.lazinc.com/">Lazarides Gallery</a> in Rathbone Place to see the final few days of the Jonathan Yeo exhibition. The show is about our relationship with cosmetic surgery. There are exquisite diptychs of nudes pre and post op, patients undergoing facial surgery, and some nudes pre-surgery complete with surgical graffiti.<br />
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These neo-classical nudes are beautifully rendered : the skin is translucent and warm, the veins pump beneath the surface, you can practically hear these women breathe... Clare and I found ourselves debating whether these women needed work, the ethics of plastic surgery, how beautiful the women already were etc...<br />
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Jonathan is an excellent portrait painter, but controversy courts him following his collages of George Bush Jr, and notably Sarah Palin, using cuttings from pornographic magazines. Here Jonathan is clear that he has no view on plastic surgery, just that it is here to stay, and that we should examine our relationship with the aesthetics of beauty and surgery. Inevitably we bring our own opinions to the show, especially as women. The collection of facial surgery paintings are particularly interesting too - the women here are already glamourous, beautiful, ethereal, but shown with anaesthetic tubes protruding from their perfect lips, lying lifeless on the surgeon's table. One wonders when 'she' will ever be satisfied with her appearance. One painting shows a woman following a facial procedure bound with bandages - it renders her helpless and a little forlorn, but decidedly vulnerable.<br />
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Given the current controversy surrounding cosmetic surgery, particularly breast implants, the show is very timely. Radio 4 even hosted a phone-in this week to discuss the relative benefits and merits of surgery, and the pitfalls. For so many, the inclination is to alter oneself under the knife, rather than to seek guidance on why we are dissatisfied. One surgeon on Radio 4 felt that it might be beneficial to have psychiatric assistance in the initial meeting, to ensure that patients truly understood their motives and desires. <br />
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Regardless of the artistic intention, I found it particularly interesting to note which pictures had sold. Of the breast pictures, it was the diptychs of breasts before and after who's bright sale stickers were firmly attached to the wall. These <i>are</i> particularly beautiful, I'd love a pair myself (no pun intended), but they're also the paintings which show no surgical graffitti, and could be hung without reference to the exhibition as a whole... As Clare pointed out, "Tits Sell Shocker".<br />
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The show only runs until the end of the week, but I would encourage you to see it - they're rather beautiful (and make sure you go upstairs too!).<br />
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<a href="http://www.lazinc.com/">Lazarides Rathbone</a><br />
11 Rathbone Place, <br />
London W1T 1HR<br />
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<br /></div>Jax Roehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08562710419661395633noreply@blogger.comCity of Westminster, London W1T 1HR, UK51.5169912 -0.133254851.5145207 -0.13819030000000002 51.5194617 -0.1283193tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3068021267766132551.post-58441773173989257722012-01-19T12:07:00.000-08:002012-02-25T05:11:26.204-08:00Jonathan Yeo - Addendum by Clare BrownI was told by the gallery attendant that there was an upstairs but it was nothing to do with the Yeo show. So happily we didn't miss anything on this occasion. <br />
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These paintings hadn't lost their impact on a second viewing, despite being prepared for the shocking surgical markings this time. The skin tones glow with life, enhanced by the rough surface under the paint causing minute imperfections in the flesh.<br />
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My observation regards the varying unfinished nature of the paintings. Those that are pre-operation seem to be far more sketchy around the outside of the fleshy torsos. They are missing shoulders, arms and waists in contrast to the post op ones which seem to have a little more bodily detail painted in. I think this has the intriguing affect of the artist reflecting the supposed unfinished nature of the woman's body; she is more complete after her surgery and yet still not perfection. <br />
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When this was pointed out and the paintings actively compared, it immediately reminded me of the non finito technique used by Michelangelo and others in sculpture. That is to say, a block of marble is worked with the head, face or torso perfected and smoothed, where other parts of the body are only roughly outlined and then the work for whatever reason stops. The perfect, finished areas capture the viewer’s attention and contrast with the rough edges. However we know that the potential is there for the creator/artist/surgeon to take, mould and perfect should s/he want to.</div>
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<a href="http://www.lazinc.com/">Lazarides Rathbone</a><br />
11 Rathbone Place, <br />
London W1T 1HR<br />
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<br /></div>Clareangelahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01101039129856260435noreply@blogger.comCity of Westminster, London W1T 1HR, UK51.5169912 -0.133254851.5145207 -0.13819030000000002 51.5194617 -0.1283193tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3068021267766132551.post-34557940229816730432012-01-18T14:52:00.000-08:002012-02-25T05:11:36.912-08:00David Hockney | Alan Cristea GallerySell-out shows seem to be de rigeur in 2012, with the David Hockney exhibition at the Royal Academy already limiting its ticket sales. Running in parallel with the RA exhibition, Alan Cristea are showing a number of Hockey lithographs made in the 1980's, in collaboration with the American master printer Ken Tyler.<br />
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Neither the new highly technical landscape offerings <a href="http://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibitions/hockney/" target="_blank">we shall see at the RA</a> - nor the Hockney's from late 1960's California that <a href="http://www.hockneypictures.com/works_drawings_70_18.php" target="_blank">I personally favour</a> - these prints mark a particular point in the career of both artists. Although they feel a little lost in time, they are highly collectible precisely because of that. The Moving Focus collection was intended to question the viewer's pre-conceptions of fixed-viewpoint paintings, and allow a number of different perspectives within each piece. Visitors should look at <i><a href="http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?workid=20691&tabview=image" target="_blank">The Tyler Dining Room</a>, <a href="http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?workid=20678&tabview=image" target="_blank">Pembroke Studio Interior</a> </i>and <i><a href="http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?cgroupid=999999961&workid=20676&searchid=9583&tabview=image" target="_blank">The Perspective Lesson</a></i> in particular.<br />
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As the Hockney exhibition is already selling out, at least here you will be able to see prints up close and personal, and without being crushed. Do also take an opportunity to go next door to the other gallery, where there's an example of Andy Warhol's Electric Chair, and some other notable prints. <br />
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<a href="http://www.alancristea.com/">Alan Cristea Gallery</a><br />
31 & 34 Cork St, <br />
London W1S 3NUJax Roehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08562710419661395633noreply@blogger.comCity of Westminster, London W1S 3NU, UK51.5107952 -0.14173751.508324699999996 -0.1466725 51.5132657 -0.1368015tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3068021267766132551.post-31743057723316579852012-01-16T15:15:00.000-08:002012-02-25T05:11:47.560-08:00Leonardo da Vinci | Painter at the Court of MilanHave there ever been such hotly contested tickets as those for the Leonardo da Vinci exhibition, currently showing at the National Gallery in London? From 7:00 am the queues around the National Gallery begin to form, as those without a prized ticket scavenge for the 500 timed-entry tickets released at 10:00 am each morning. Tickets have been sold and bought on Ebay, and the more enterprising of us have paid entrepreneurial young American men to queue on our behalf!<br />
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Leonardo worked in Milan between 1482 and 1499, and this exhibition includes almost every surviving picture painted during this time. Among them are a few stellar paintings which have never been hung together before, including the two versions of The Virgin of the Rocks painted some twenty years apart. The premise of the show is to bring together, for the first time, the genus of work created by Leonardo whilst based at the court of Duke Lodovico Sforza.<br />
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This is also this is the first opportunity for art-lovers to see the recently re-discovered Salvator Mundi, one of only fifteen authenticated extant Leonardo da Vinci paintings.</div>
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Of particular interest to modern secular tastes, the portraits of the Lady with the Ermine, and the Belle Ferronnière are essential viewing. Much has been written about the Lady with the Ermine: it is believed to be the portrait of Cecilia Gallerani, Ludoviko’s mistress, and painted in 1488–90. In placing the oversized ermine into the hands of Cecelia, Leonardo is making a number of puns; the Greek name for Ermine is Galay, a play on her name; and Ludoviko Sforza had been granted the Order of the Ermine by the King of Naples, and was known by the nickname, ’l’Ermellino’. Cecelia was sixteen at the time of the painting, and the Ermine emphasizes her youth and innocence. Leonardo wrote of Ermine as a symbol of purity and honour. Inversely, some readings put the ermine in her hands as a reference to her impending pregnancy with Ludoviko’s son.</div>
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By contrast <i>La Belle Ferronnière</i> is a much more enigmatic and idealised portrait. The sitter has not been identified conclusively, but may be Ludoviko’s wife, Beatrice d’Este or Lucrezia de Cribellis', a mistress who bore Ludoviko two sons.</div>
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The painting’s current title was given to it during the 17th century and is thought to refer to the mistress of Francis I of France, who was married to a<i> ferron</i> (feronnier is the French word for an ironmonger). With paintings of this age, it is inevitable that some become associated with a number of different people.</div>
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In the exhibition the paintings are hung on adjacent walls, which creates the effect of the <i>Belle Ferronnière</i> gazing at the <i>Lady with the Ermine</i>, who in turn looks beyond the audience to a third point in the room. Cecilia engages with some unknown viewer, eyes turned slightly to the right as though in conversation. Her expression is open, as though listening with intent. </div>
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By contrast, the <i>Belle Ferronnière</i> is separated from us by the parapet, as though on a sculptural plinth. She is more distant, less attainable than the open Cecilia. The shape of her head shows a greater nod to the ideals of geometry and her clothing is richer than Cecilia’s, suggesting a woman of higher nobility. This is a rare opportunity for us to compare both portrait styles.</div>
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Other notable inclusions in the exhibition are the two versions of the <i>Virgin of the Rocks</i>. Given the scale of both paintings, they have been hung some distance apart. The painting to the left as you enter is the Louvre copy, and the first version of the subject, commissioned by the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception. On the opposite wall, the newly renovated National Gallery copy includes a number of Leonardo’s re-workings of the original theme.</div>
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The gesturing messenger of the first painting is here an angel, and the supplicant John the Baptist has gained his familiar attributes. The Virgin Mary is much more idealized than in the first version, da Vinci having had two decades in which to develop his style. The subjects are also crowned with their nimbi, at a time when artistic depictions of halos were diminishing. The confraternity may have requested da Vinci to emphasise their divinity in this version, particularly with reference to Mary’s birth without original sin. It is possible to sit on the benches between the paintings and play ‘spot the artistic difference’.</div>
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Visitors should also make time to see the unfinished <i>St Jerome</i>, the <i>Maddonna Lia</i>, the <i>Madonna Litta</i> and the cartoon of the <i>Virgin and Child with St Anne and St John the Baptist</i> (also known as the <i>Burlington House Cartoon</i>). On show is also the Giampietrino reproduction of <i>The Last Supper</i>, done to a similar scale.</div>
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<a href="http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/leonardo-da-vinci-painter-at-the-court-of-milan">Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan</a> – exhibiting until the 5th of February</div>
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<a href="http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/">National Gallery</a></div>
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</div>Jax Roehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08562710419661395633noreply@blogger.comCity of Westminster, London WC2N 5DN, UK51.5090969 -0.127683551.5066264 -0.13261900000000001 51.511567400000004 -0.12274800000000001