Sort of Back, Missort of Back
I'm back having been points north and east - a wet weekend in Berwick, six days in Edinburgh, and a week in an old lookout post in Broadstairs (though I got to come home those days). Interwebs have been largely limited to FB, and experimental tweeting, though it didn't forward to my FB account. You didn't miss much. I'll save that for work and the next exhibition.
A round up of stuff I've been to (Edinburgh to follow):
I think they've both closed but there was an exhibition of South African photos, which I have notes on somewhere (very little landscape) and one of David Goldblatt at the V&A - Goldblatt's was both anger-making and moving. The same day I went to Burke + Norfolk - past and present photos of Afghanistan at the Tate Modern. Almost spoilt by someone photographing in there (I think the labels) - I hate cameras making noises. In fact I was struck by how much photography is being got away with in the Tate. Anything up to tripod and lights seems to be the policy.
In Berwick, a Matisse exhibition of lithographs of the paper montages. Some good stuff there, and striking when collected together. Also showing some amazing glass, and paintings of a bus stops, whose details are not to hand. Then an exhibition of paintings of Berwick, including Lowry and Turner who get everywhere.
In Edinburgh, Tony Cragg, a sculptor with whose work I was not familiar, but it's very interesting (closer to Hepworth than Kapoor) and Elizabeth Blackadder, who can sure paint cats. (There's an App on iTunes for the exhibition with some good stuff on it). I didn't do the one of Hiroshi Sugimoto - I didn't have the energy, and it had been a bad day, but there are lots of ticket combinations which would have made it cheaper if cheapness is the necessity. At the Queen's Gallery, The Queen’s Gallery, The Northern Renaissance: Dürer to Holbein was good but not amazing and Art Fund doesn't cut the price.
I did some, and should have done more, of the Edinburgh Art Festival - I stumbled across the Ingleby Gallery's Mystics or Rationalists? (Susan Collis, Iran do Espírito Santo, Ceal Floyer, Susan Hiller, Jeremy Millar, Cornelia Parker, Katie Paterson, Simon Starling, Cerith Wyn Evans), whereas looking for Anish Kapoor's work at the ECA was hard work and found by accident. But it led me to the beautiful collaboration of Norman McBeath & Robert Crawford, "Body Bags / Simonides", translations into Scots of Simonides and photographs. I wish I'd made time for Charles, Jencks, John Byrne and several others.
Back south, the Vorticists at Tate Britain - clearly second or third rank but I like it, and got the right Tate this time. I do like Wyndham Lewis, but he was clearly a tosser. Must follow up Alvin Langdon Coburn, a Vorticist photographer. The sculpture stood out (as it would). And then to Whitechapel for Thomas Struth's amazing huge photographs - of which, more later. There's a charge for that exhibtion, and no Art Fund rate.
A round up of stuff I've been to (Edinburgh to follow):
I think they've both closed but there was an exhibition of South African photos, which I have notes on somewhere (very little landscape) and one of David Goldblatt at the V&A - Goldblatt's was both anger-making and moving. The same day I went to Burke + Norfolk - past and present photos of Afghanistan at the Tate Modern. Almost spoilt by someone photographing in there (I think the labels) - I hate cameras making noises. In fact I was struck by how much photography is being got away with in the Tate. Anything up to tripod and lights seems to be the policy.
In Berwick, a Matisse exhibition of lithographs of the paper montages. Some good stuff there, and striking when collected together. Also showing some amazing glass, and paintings of a bus stops, whose details are not to hand. Then an exhibition of paintings of Berwick, including Lowry and Turner who get everywhere.
In Edinburgh, Tony Cragg, a sculptor with whose work I was not familiar, but it's very interesting (closer to Hepworth than Kapoor) and Elizabeth Blackadder, who can sure paint cats. (There's an App on iTunes for the exhibition with some good stuff on it). I didn't do the one of Hiroshi Sugimoto - I didn't have the energy, and it had been a bad day, but there are lots of ticket combinations which would have made it cheaper if cheapness is the necessity. At the Queen's Gallery, The Queen’s Gallery, The Northern Renaissance: Dürer to Holbein was good but not amazing and Art Fund doesn't cut the price.
I did some, and should have done more, of the Edinburgh Art Festival - I stumbled across the Ingleby Gallery's Mystics or Rationalists? (Susan Collis, Iran do Espírito Santo, Ceal Floyer, Susan Hiller, Jeremy Millar, Cornelia Parker, Katie Paterson, Simon Starling, Cerith Wyn Evans), whereas looking for Anish Kapoor's work at the ECA was hard work and found by accident. But it led me to the beautiful collaboration of Norman McBeath & Robert Crawford, "Body Bags / Simonides", translations into Scots of Simonides and photographs. I wish I'd made time for Charles, Jencks, John Byrne and several others.
Back south, the Vorticists at Tate Britain - clearly second or third rank but I like it, and got the right Tate this time. I do like Wyndham Lewis, but he was clearly a tosser. Must follow up Alvin Langdon Coburn, a Vorticist photographer. The sculpture stood out (as it would). And then to Whitechapel for Thomas Struth's amazing huge photographs - of which, more later. There's a charge for that exhibtion, and no Art Fund rate.