Arted Out
Back from London trip- inspired and exhausted – Arted Out. Three shows in a long morning have left me reeling. Managed to get to Picasso by 9 am Saturday so few people- Wow what a brilliant bit of curation – and what a fabulous insight into the mind of a genius. 1932-One year only… and a huge range of work showing exactly how he was feeling from start to finish. Infatuated and excited by his young lover Marie Therese- a ‘blonde’ youthful high-key palette- such a contrast to other works, with simple flat colour on figures and background.(see Girl sleeping) And then in the last room this moving, agonising and obsessive interpretation of a young woman (Marie Therese again) being rescued from drowning – (in one instance he interprets the violence as rape).
Then across to the Modigliani – my favourites were the nudes and portraits with the restricted palettes of wonderful deep reds (translucent) as background and the face/bodies/hands so light and warm emerging from the dark- like Rembrandt? (see Portrait of a girl)
Restricted palette- that’s the motto for March!
Then by boat with Timandra to Tate Britain (great trip as welcome warm cabin after icy winds outside) to see All Too Human. Very interesting to compare the approaches of Coldstream & the Slade school with Bomberg and Borough Polytechnic.
Probably too big a show for one viewing. I can learn so much from just one painting by Freud (see Self-Portrait)- again so few colours, very tonal and clear planes on the face- but still intuitive and vigorous despite the fact that it’s probably taken him ages. Last three rooms I could have done without- partly being tired and sated but also I just don’t get the connection between previous schools with Kitaj and Paula Rego or the younger artists in the last room. – which is sad because they were all women painters and I wanted to relate to them more but couldn’t. Arted Out
Tate Modern Picasso EY Exhibition
Tate Modern Modigliani Exhibition
Tate Britain All Too Human Exhibition