Saturday 5 December 2015

Escher, Calder, Ai Weiwei, etc


I've spent the last few days in London where I visited various art exhibitions, among other things.  Here's my thoughts:

The Amazing World of M.C.Escher at the Dulwich Picture Gallery. 

I've listed this first because I liked it the best.  I love everything about Escher - including the fact that he is sometimes viewed with snobbishness by the art elite, some of whom (apparently) consider him merely a highly accomplished graphical technician.

I love the way he's so meticulous, the way he doesn't fit into any of the art genres, the way his work appeals to the masses, the way it intrigues and amuses the viewer.



Here's some links:

"Official" M.C. Escher website

"Performing Sculpture" by Alexander Calder at the Tate Modern

Calder pioneered the use of wire to create sculptures that are almost like 3D line drawings.  




He's probably even more famous for his mobiles, also often made with wire.



I love his stuff.  I keep on meaning to give mobiles a go myself.

I was a bit annoyed with the Tate over this exhibition.  It charges quite a lot for entry (I paid £14.50 for an OAP ticket without a donation).  Then it charges quite a bit extra for an audio guide (I decided it wasn't worth it.)  Then when I got inside, I was stopped from taking a photo!

Ai Weiwei at the Royal Academy

I liked the way I was allowed to take photos in this gallery.  But what do I think of Ai Weiwei's work?

A lot of his exhibits are (a) protests about the Chinese government and (b) recycled material of various sorts - from straightened reinforcing bars from buildings that collapsed in an earthquake to recycled antiques ranging from furniture to parts of ancient temples that have been demolished to make way for urban development.

There were quite a few references that struck chords with what I'm doing on my "Teapotty" project  .  For instance, he recycles antique tables so 2 legs are on the floor and 2 are on the wall, or there are some other modifications that undermine its assumed function - much the same as my choice of unexpected materials renders my teapots unusable.

Similarly, the surface of some of Ai Weiwei's work is intriguing:


This is a ton of tea, compressed into a 1-metre cube

Novelty Automation

This is an arcade of home-made coin-operated machines built by enthusiasts.  I took a video of one such machine, in which Nicholas Serota, director of the Tate museums and galleries, makes judgements on whether submissions should count as art:



"Power Stations" by John Hoyland at Damien Hirst's Newport Street Gallery

This is last and least, in my view.  I had an hour or two to spare so I thought I'd see what Damien Hirst's new(ish) galley was like.  It's quite out of the way and when I was there it was very quiet - maybe a dozen visitors total.

I just don't "get" John Hoyland's work - large canvasses with rectangles of different colour paint on them.  They are strong colours.

Some links:



A more positive Time-Out article


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