A winter visit to the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 2020

 

Colour notes | paper relief prints| Christopher Le Brun PPRA

Be grateful for small things.
That is my new motto. As more and more is taken away from us due to Covid-19, it is the little things that matter.

My other half (OH) and I have been holed up together for a very long time, and a chance to make a trip to London to see the Summer exhibition at the Royal Academy was a rare treat.

Our tickets had been previously cancelled due to lockdown, so this trip was all the more anticipated by our culture starved selves.

So on a rainy December Monday we crept up to London on the quiet mid day train, walked the empty streets of Picadilly, and made our way around the exhibition in our masks.


The first work that caught my eye was a collage.

Untitled | collage with paper pins | Frida Orupabo

Frida Orupabo is a Nigerian-Norwegian; one of several invited black artists on show.
I had to do some research to fully understand what Frida was trying to convey. According to her website;
'Frida Orupabo is a sociologist and artist living and working in Oslo, Norway. Her work consists of digital and physical collages in various forms, which explore questions related to race, family relations, gender, sexuality, violence and identity.'

Heavy stuff for starters. Race and politics. I had been attracted to it as I was thinking about collage, and how so much can be said with a few pieces of paper reaaranged on a page.

OH had already disappeared off to view the galleries at his own pace. Conscious that 'lunchtime' was the most important item on his agenda I resolved to move at a reasonable pace, and stop only at those works that really caught my eye.

Socially distanced viewing at the Royal Academy Summer exhibition 2020

It was a treat to have so much room to view.  The galleries never felt crowded, and I felt completely safe.

The fact that the following day we were thrown into Tier 4 made me realise how lucky we were to have made the trip.

Legs | photographs | Hans Peter Feldmann

Legs caught my eye next. No frame; just some photos stuck to the wall.

As a conceptual artist Hans-Peter sells similar works for $20,000, so he is doing something right. Further research about him led me to another work of his that confirmed a dry sense of humour; something I cannot resist...

Hans -Peter Feldmann | Pictures of car radios taken while good music was playing | 2004

 

In 2010 he won  the Guggenheim Hugo Boss art prize. He celebrated by pinning the £100,000 prize onto the gallery walls as 100,000 $1 notes, raising questions about the value of art.

It was good to see paintings by Fred Cuming from the Rye area and Camber Sands.
His work is immediately identifiable to me after getting to know it in local Rye galleries. He  visited my studio on an open studio visit a few years ago, and is a truly charming gentleman who has a way with clouds.....

Paintings by Fred Cuming RA

I particularly enjoyed his painting of a February peasmarsh landscape, with its low wintry light.

February landscape, Peasmarsh | Fred Cuming RA

I also fell in love with a series of works by Cornelia Parker RA. These were a series of polymer gravure etchings based on the shadows of simple objects such as flowers and household objects, captured on light senstive paper.

Jug full of shadows | Cornelia parker RA | 2020

OH had 'done' the show in the blink of any eye.

His favourite was a work ' where you can see what it is.....'

I have no problem with that. It seems a lot of other visitors felt the same way,

Fuen Seow Cheen | LOST WONDERS OF THE SEA | Etching

There were a lot of dogs and portraits.

My favourite portraits were pencil drawings of cardboard faces by Russell Herron.

I had to get really close to see that thses were drawings and not cardboard collages. Sadly all sold.

Cardboard portrait 12 | Russell Herron

Cardboard portrait 11 | Russell Herron

I was also taken with a dog portrait by Ilona Arndt. He had so much more character than the standard labrador poses.

Hund NR 2 | Ilona Arndt

But lunch was beckoning.... there was too much to take in, as always.

Too much to take in at the RA Summer Exhibition

Different galleries had very different characters.

I enjoyed this quiet monochrome corner.

But if I had been allowed to take one work home it would have been a newspaper boat made of stone.

A playful sculpture.

A reminder of childhood days spent by the sea. Dreams of adventure.

I forgot to record who made it, so apologies for that.

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Looking at the Curator's selection I realise that there is so much work that I didn't even look at.

It is an overwhelming exhibition always.

But for one who had not looked at any new art for several months it was a welcome diversion, and a reminder that everyone has different taste.

Lunch was good!

A trip to Somerset House for some proper art - on portraits and paintings

Cezanne's farmer

I met a very good friend in London today. We don't catch up often, and it was very special to have time to spend together.

GF has not been so well recently, so we didn't want to walk too far or bite off more than we could chew.

I felt that Somerset House was the perfect venue for a meet-up.

Lovely courtyard. Lovely loos. Beautiful paintwork and polished wooden floors. An oval staircase that beats most staircases that I have ever seen.




Dancing fountains. I could spend all day watching them.......

Who can resist them? Not me...or the lady trying to balance a bowler hat on the top of one of the jets of water.

Stunning architecture. Several friendly cafes, and the Courtauld Gallery, which I am ashamed to say I have never visited before.

A perfect venue for conversation with a little dose of art.

They even allow photography. Not many galleries do.

Manet -  A bar at the Folies Bergere

We spent most of our time looking at portraits.

And the blurb beside them.

The blurb was sometimes informative, sometimes a little surprising.

I had not realised that the figure on the right in Manet's famous painting is the displaced reflection of the waitress who poses, with a melancholy face, for the artist. Her posture is different in the reflection. She leans towards the gentleman at the bar.

Manet has altered the truth. Just a little.

More questions than answers.

I had never before seen the trapeze artist in the top left of this painting, helpfully pointed out in the blurb.

We found the Modigliani restful.

Modigliani's nude. I am not showing her pubic hair, which apparently caused Paris police to close the exhibition when it first opened, as it was considered obscene. 

We did not find it obscene.


We were less enamoured of the Heckel.

Erich Heckel Seated nude' 1909

Heckel apparently created this nude 'in response to moral and artistic taboos of the time; an act of provocation'.

We were provoked. It got me thinking about the motivation of artists for the ways that male and female form is portrayed.

We also felt that he had started at the bottom ( literally and otherwise) and run out of space on the canvas for the head.

Soutine -'young woman in a white blouse' 1923

We found this young woman by Soutine slightly disturbing.

The blurb informed us that  her white blouse might provoke associations with purity and innocence.

I felt that a little Aerial or Daz would have made this more convincing.

Then there was Dolly.

Even back then, over a hundred years ago,  a young girl portrayed in a sexualised way. Nothing new there.

Kees van Dongen 'Portrait of Dolly; 1912

And we worry about Barbie dolls......

It took us a while to work out this portrait by Leon Kossof.

Leon Kossof "Head of Seedo' 1964

Kossof is quoted as saying ' I'm always working to make it more like the sitter; to make the structure more real, more intense'.

Intensity is in abundance, and took many months to achieve.


All of which made me long for a simple, sensitive portrait in the manner of Cezanne's farmer, the painting that we started with.

Cezanne's farmer

We found only one portrait of a woman painted by a woman.

No sexual connotations here. No attacks on society or provocations.

Just a serene and gentle face.

Paula Becker 'Portrait of a girl' 1906

Sadly the artist died in childbirth a year after painting this.


We marvelled at the Rubens and the 500 year old medieval paintings. The light. The detail. The biblical scenes. Astonishingly real after all these years.


We tried to remember why Van Gogh lost his ear. (Possibly in a fight with his friend, Gauguin).

We saw a vase of flowers painted by Picasso. Very conventional. One of his early works.

And all of that between coffee in one cafe and lunch in another.

It was a good day. It stirred up lots of questions and led to light hearted irreverence.

And not a photograph in sight ( unless you look at the ceiling where there are some crafty reproductions adorning the very ornate plasterwork).

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I could equally well have focussed on the picture frames.

But that is another story.

Seurat with shadow

Seurat with shadow

the man with a tortoise on his head - on portraits and poses

I am returned from Vancouver; a visit to my daughter who is lucky enough to live with a view of the mountains and parks from her city apartment.

On the way back I slept as 2014 eased into 2015. Rudely awoken at one point by a very loud announcement that I should prepare myself for an emergency landing, adopt the brace position, and  find my life jacket from under my seat.

It brought home to me the recent loss of another airliner into the ocean, and gave me a small taste of the fear that must have been felt for those moments before lives ended.

Fortunately for us, as we were informed by the captain some 30 minutes later, this announcement was a 'mistake'. Someone hit the wrong button. We carried on cruising and landed without further hitches. My heart beat settled, and we enjoyed the rantings of a London taxi driver for another hour before finally reaching the peace of home.

I learnt from the taxi driver a few cheerful facts about recent events

• the ebola crisis has arrived in the UK
• 1000 refugees have been abandoned on a boat
• 20 million pounds have been lost on Boris bikes
• it is dull and rainy because of a warm front stuck off the coast of Ireland
• Southampton beat Arsenal; not good news
• shares in the Post office are falling steadily
• buses now control traffic lights in London, and you only get 8 seconds on green.....
• thousands caught out by snow in the alps
• an airplane crash......

By the time we got home I felt that either he or I should be treated for depression. Nothing like starting the New year on a happy note.

But at least I have some photos to remind me of the good times we had on our holidays.

Portraits of ones we love. Moments recorded for posterity. Remembering the good times.

A trip to MOA ( Museum of Anthropology at the university of British Columbia) had a fascinating exhibition, 'Pigapicha' on the culture of studio portrait taking in Nairobi over the past century.

Pigapicha means 'take my picture'

Studio portraits change with the fashion, just as our clothes and hairstyles do.

Rigid formal poses loosen up and smiles appear over time.

So much of the story is in the eyes.

Frames and borders change with the times too, as do studio backdrops and props.

These ones below particularly formal.

What do studio portraits say about us?

Why do we make them when we all have cameras and phones with which we constantly capture our daily lives?

Which are the better representation of ordinary life?

Would you rather be photographed with a tortoise on your head and with your watch ostentatiously front stage, to show that you have a sense of humour and are wealthy, or with a warm smile and a 'natural' pose?

Backdrops also change with fashion. 

Would you like the alps behind you?

Or prefer to be portrayed sitting on a coca-cola bottle or flower?

Times have changed. Many of the Nairobi studios have closed down now, and these type of images are no longer popular.

My daughter gets married this year.

I hope she looks happier in her wedding photos than the bride below.

Michael Kenna versus Taylor-Wessing ............ no contest on the emotional front

Lake Bridge, Hongkun, Anhui, China by Michael Kenna 2008

Dog got a raw deal today. I trundled up to London to talk money with some finance people, and then took in two galleries with a good friend by means of compensation. Dog stayed at home in her bed, having had a brief sojourn in the woods to see the autumn colours and clear blue sky this morning.

Financial meeting was long and frustrating; I wanted to fill my stomach with the tasty sandwiches and fruits on the table, but have you tried talking, listening and trying to look vaguely intelligent whilst wrestling with a prawn sandwich? It just doesn't work, hence the chocolate brownie later.

I have been determined to see Michael Kenna at Chris Beetles gallery for a while. My friend wanted to see the 2012 Taylor Wessing Photographic Portrait Prize at the National Portrait Gallery. So we did both, with tea in the middle, and chocolate brownie; all very nice for a Wednesday afternoon.

Two exhibitions, one day. One left me completely cold, and the other filled me with awe and respect.

4th prize

This image won 4th prize in the Taylor Wessing. I cannot see anything particularly special or moving about it. The subject looks sad, but that is all that I can say.

 This one of Mo Farah lacks any relation to the joy and triumph of this summer's olympic games.

I have never been a portrait photographer, but enjoy capturing images when travelling, and it seems to me that unless you know the subject, it is difficult to convey any true feeling to the viewer unless there is something particularly poignant, tender or disturbing about the image.

Child, Myanmar  © Caroline Fraser 2012

My favourite portrait from a recent trip to Myanmar is of this child in a small hillside village. It means a lot to me, but probably leaves other viewers cold. Portraits are a lot about memories and emotions experienced at the time. They are very personal things.

Time to move on then ............ to the Chris Beetles Gallery; a nice space in a nice part of town.

And what treats we found there.......... 50 black and white photos by Michael Kenna, landscape photographer. he works exclusively with a medium format Hasselblad, printing the works himself in the darkroom from film. A craftsman at work.

The prints are all small...........7 3/4 inches by 7 3/4 inches, and hand printed in limited editions of 45 by Kenna. The price of prints goes up as the editions sells; those on view in the gallery varying form £1350 to £5150. A lot of money for such small prints..........but of such beauty that I would willingly part with large sums to have one hanging on my wall. They convey tranquillity, stillness, beauty and a sense of calm. That to me is worth so much more than a portrait. I have never experienced all of those emotions from one portrait.

He even gets away with blurred foregrounds in his image of the pyramids, a fact that fills me with joy.

Michael Kenna said of his own work in 2009.....

'I prefer suggestion over description. The world is pretty chaotic , seemingly always speeding up and getting louder and more visually dense. I am interested in finding and/or creating calm shelters from the storm, places where quiet solitude is encouraged and inner contemplation possible. i think we could all use a break from time to time........'

I am with him all the way.

Landscape wins, hands down, every time.