Alive: In The Face of Death at the Walker

Alive: In The Face of Death is an exhibition of photographs by Rankin (real name John Rankin Waddell) being shown at the Walker Gallery in Liverpool as part of the  LOOK/13: Liverpool International Photography Festival. It consisted of portraits of (mainly) ordinary people who were either facing, or had faced, death. Sounds morbid, but the nobility and bravery really came across.  Reading the stories of the subjects of the portraits on the captions accompanying the portraits made it clear why the title of the exhibition emphasised the word ALIVE.

This portrait is of Louise Page, a 42-year-old charity worker from Edinburgh who, when told she had terminal bone cancer that wasn’t treatable, started writing an online blog. Sadly, she died three days after she’d been present at the launch of the exhibition.

One of the other portraits was of Wilko Johnson, a favourite guitarist of mine (ex Dr Feelgood) who has terminal pancreatic cancer. On hearing the news, rather than give up and retreat into himself, he decided he’d go on a farewell tour.

The stories of many of the other people portrayed in the exhibition are equally  inspiring. Despite their terminal or serious illnesses, or the situations that they had brought them face to face with their mortality, they hadn’t given up. And although death is a difficult subject for me, I prefer to avoid thinking and talking about it, I found the exhibition very moving.

Here’s an interview with Rankin talking about the project.

 

Cubes

This work consisting of four large cubes by the American sculptor, painter and writer on art Robert Morris has recently gone on display on the second floor of the Tate gallery in Liverpool.  Imaginatively (!) titled Untitled 1965/71, we saw it when we were visiting the gallery last week.  The surroundings and the other cubes are reflected creating different perspectives, patterns and effects as you walk around and through the work.

The attempt to create an “invisibility cloak” was in the news last week. In some positions the cubes almost created such an effect – it was almost (but not quite) like they weren’t there. Looking at one of the faces which face another cube, an infinite tunnel of reflections was created. I liked the effects created by reflections of the surrounding objects, patterns and textures

The work is being shown as part of the new "Constellations" exhibition that’s replacing the DLA Piper Sculpture series that’s coming to the end of it’s run. They’ve already replaced the works on the 2nd floor and the 1st floor will be changing over in July. The approach taken by the curators is rather different focusing on a number of key works (the cubes is one of them) which are surrounded (or “orbited”) by other works that were influenced by the work or otherwise connected to it. An interesting way to show connections, I thought. I’ll have to take a proper look once the works have been installed on the 1st floor next month.

Chagall at Tate Liverpool

Last week we went to visit the Tate on the Albert Dock in Liverpool to have a look at the exhibition of paintings by Marc Chagall which opened recently.

The exhibition covers the earlier years of his work,  although there were a small number from the later period at the end of the exhibition. My first impressions were how well he used colour and that he couldn’t draw.

I think I was definitely right on the first point as no lesser a person than Picasso agreed – there was a quote from him stencilled on the wall towards the end of the exhibition -

“When Matisse dies, Chagall will be the only painter left who understands what colour is.”

This was apparent from almost all his paintings from the time he moved to Paris in May 1911, but particularly after 1912 when he became influenced by the French painter Robert Delaunay. According to the curators

Chagall executed a number of paintings using vividly opposing colours that are visually similar to Delaunay’s theory of ‘pure painting’ – a development towards abstraction based on colour investigations, christened ‘orphism’ by Apollinaire in 1912.

The Green Donkey (1911) picture source Tate website

His colours were bright, but not necessarily realistic, as the painting of his green donkey above, illustrates! And they weren’t “flat”. He didn’t go for large expanses of monotone colour. There was variation in how they were applied, creating texture and a “weathered” look, although that’s not so easy to see looking at reproductions – you need to view the paintings “in the flesh”.

I was wrong on the second point, though. My initial impression was that many of his figures were quite crude, almost naive in style.  But after seeing a couple of pictures (particularly the painting of his brother David playing a mandolin seen here) which were a little more like conventional portraits, I changed my view.  I guess he was deliberately trying to achieve a naivety in his work. Or perhaps not.

This painting of two lovers (Chagall and his wife, Bella), reminded me rather of Picasso and his “blue period” works

Blue Lovers (1914) source: www.marcchagallart.net

For me, the exhibition demonstrated that he had absorbed a lot of influences during his time in Paris – the post-Impressionists Van Gogh and Gaugin, the Fauvists and the Cubists in particular as well as the above mentioned Delaunay. But there were also many Surrealist touches in his work. Heads on upside down (from quite early on during his first stay in Paris), people flying through the air (like in the painting where he is swinging Bella through the air), people adopting strange, impossible in some cases, postures and the presence of small people in strange locations (like on the picture used to advertise the exhibition). Many of them feature in this painting which I particularly liked.

Paris through the Window(1913) source: www.marcchagallart.net

I don’t think his attempt to create Constructivist works while he was in Russia after the Revolution wasn’t successful – probably because it was a half hearted attempt to try out a purely abstract style that didn’t appeal to him. The murals he produced for the State Jewish Chamber Theatre in Moscow, all display in the second half of the exhibition, are much more typical of his style and approach.

With their dreamy, pale colours and detailed compositions these works act as a manifesto for Chagall’s deliberately hybrid aesthetic, in which broad bands of colour plainly derived from suprematism are the backdrop – but only the backdrop – for resolutely non-abstract portraits of performers, artists and livestock. These monumental paintings packed with activity present Chagall’s panoramic vision of the Jewish theatre as the theatre of life. (Tate website)

The exhibition certainly made me much more aware of Chagall and, as is often the case, made me want to find out more.  I’ll have to read up on him now! And we’ll be paying another visit to the exhibition before it closes at the beginning of October

 

Some more of the paintings on display can be seen on the Independent website here.

Liverpool’s new Central Library

It doesn’t look very new from the outside, the imposing neo-Classical facade has been there since the 19th Century, but a major refurbishment of the Liverpool Central Library has been completed recently. We were in the city yesterday and passing the library on the way to the Walker art gallery we decided to pop in and have a look.

I liked the pavement leading up to the entrance, full of book titles

Inside the main part of the building has been completely gutted and rebuilt. Although the library was originally built during the 19th Century it was badly damaged in the blitz during WW2 and the main part of the building behind the facade had been rebuilt during the 60’s and 70’s. But there were structural and other problems so a decision had been made to demolish and rebuild(before the recession of course, no-one would have committed to spend the sort of money required under this Government)

They’ve done a fantastic job, creating a five storey atrium with a central staircase that spirals up towards a glass dome

and the roof terrace, which is accessible and provides views of St George’s Hall

and over the city centre.

They’ve also restored the circular Picton library which is rather like the old British Library reading room (you know, the one where Marx used to study).

 

This is what it looks like from outside

An excellent example of Victorian neo-Classical extravagance with massive Corinthian columns supporting the done and the decorated frieze.

So the new library is a really good mix of old and new. Lots of computers and ipads for people to use as well as the old microfilm readers and lots of books. It was very busy too – people accessing the internet, family and local history researchers and students studying. It brought back memories of when I used to come to the library to study there when I was at University. They had a copy of an expensive text on Oceanography and I used to go to the library to read it and so avoided having to shell out for it!

Libraries are an important resource. As well as a repository of books they’re a place to study away from distractions and provide access to the Internet for people who may not otherwise be able to get online – particularly important these days when so many vital services can only be accessed over the web (including applying for benefits) and when utility companies and the like are trying to drive people to access bills online and charge for sending out a paper bill. It’s criminal that libraries, including those in Liverpool, are being particularly targeted by local government cutbacks. That’s “austerity” for you.

Who let the sheep out?

This bronze sculpture of a herdsman driving his sheep to market (Paternoster) was created by Elisabeth Frink and is located in Paternoster Square in London, close to St Paul’s cathedral.

Badly bombed during WW2, the area was re-built after 1961 to a plan by William Holford. That development wasn’t popular and was demolished in 1996 and then re-built to a design by William Whitfield.

The statue was commissioned for the original post-war Paternoster Square complex in 1975 and was replaced on a new plinth following the redevelopment. It probably commemorates a livestock market in the area. However, Paternoster means “our father”, and the shepherd and his flock are used symbolically in Christian belief, so given the proximity to St Pauls I wonder whether it is meant to have some religious meaning?

A couple more “Treasured Sheets”

These are another couple of drawings from the “Treasured sheets” exhibition at the Irish National Gallery that I particularly liked

François Boucher (1703-1770) A Female Nude Reclining on a Chaise-Longue, c.1752 (Graphite, red and white chalk on brown paper)

This  is a study for Boucher’s oil painting, The Blond Odalisque, 1752, owned by the Alte Pinakothek gallery in Munich. The model probably Louise O’Murphy, a mistress of Louis XV of France,  who was of Irish descent. Reading up on the drawing later, I discovered that the model was only 14 years old at the time, which makes me feel a little uncomfortable as I look at it. But the drawing is prominently featured in the Gallery’s highlights publication and on its website.

I also liked this drawing by Alberto Giacometti.

It’s very different to the naturalistic drawing by Boucher. Here, the seated figure, the table and other objects are suggested by a series of mainly straight lines, creating form and tone but without detail; relying on the viewer’s imagination to make out the content.

Rossetti and Janey

While I was in Dublin a couple of weeks ago I called into the Irish National Gallery to take another look at their current exhibitions. One that was coming to the end of it’s run, Treasured sheets: Masterpieces from the collection, featured prints and drawings intended to

highlight the richness and scope of the Gallery’s collection of European works on paper

The exhibition included works going back to medieval times, but I was particularly taken with the above drawing by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, of his muse, Jane Burden, who later married William Morris. He has lavished particular care to drawing her head and hands which are portrayed in very fine details, while the rest of the body is very sketchy, drawn with only a few light lines. I guess it was a preparatory sketch for one of the many paintings he did of her. The information accompanying the drawing told us that it was drawn in ink and graphite with a wash with white highlights.

It’s a good likeness, if a little idealised. I particularly like the way he has drawn her hair.

I think that many artists, even some great ones, struggle with drawing hands, but not Rosetti as here he has really captured them.

Janey came from a fairly ordinary background. Her father was a stableman in Oxford and she was spotted by Rossetti and some of his circle when they were in the city. She ended up marrying William Morris, but  Rossetti was pretty much obsessed with her and they had an affair from 1865  until his death in 1882. This drawing is dated 1874, the year before she married Morris.

Rosetti certainly had a thing for his models. He’d previously been involved with Lizzie Siddal who he’d married and who died in 1862. A talented painter herself, she modelled for a number of paintings by the pre-Raphaelites, including Millais’s famous Ophelia.

There’s a good article about Janey, and her relationship with Morris and Rosetti,here.