Bloomberg New Contemporaries
I know I did this ICA exhibition last time, but didn’t give any names of the artists – going to put that right now. The “strolling” video (glamorous Japanese(?) women strolling in a mannered way around gardens and statuary) is by Tony Law. The squares with diagonal cross inside, black on white canvas – the ones a bit like Bram van Velde – are by Jack Brindley. He also has a sculpture made of a bent metal rod, like a very thick aerial; doesn’t sound much, but it’s good, I think. The blurry paintings on unbleached linen are by Emanuel Rohss – one of them looks like a sinister head and shoulders figure now, maybe a comic superhero covered in leaves….
Jennifer Bailey did the acid green, triangular, Varda Caivano – like paintings, and Suki Seokycong Kang did the loopy, Twombly-Wool grey and pink painting. Finally, Nicole Morris did the video in which a woman model tries out poses against a background of blue partitions.
A couple of exhibits I didn’t mention last time: there is a video on a TV showing a series of clips, repeated a defined number of times each. A young man in a swimming pool jumps onto the back of another, while someone’s midriff passes the camera; a host introduces a singer on stage; a woman sings a song from “Evita”; a parrot squawks; all these repeated a number of times. I think the point is that repetition creates integrity, or “establishment” in some way. The repetition acts as a sort of frame, starting and cutting off the sequence at given points and establishing a sort of completeness. Think of repetition in music, the idea of a “riff” in jazz. Yes, it might drive you mad of course – but I find the idea interesting. The video is the work of Piotr Krzymowsky. Finally, there is a huge linen, covered by a spidery dark blue and burnt orange expressionist pattern by Max Ruf.
National Gallery
Spent two hours there the other day. I think I saw everything – five things stuck with me in particular: Samson’s huge left shoulder and arm in Ruben’s painting and that dark crimson robe; the executioner’s snappy white and blue(?) striped tights in the Master of Kappenburg’s painting; the fantastic Degas paintings in the first of the Impressionist rooms, the black outlining of the hands – is it good or bad, I can’t decide; the Cezanne self -portrait, in which the colours on the bald skull of the painter echo those on the rocks of the landscape by the same painter, a few feet away; and that lovely wet Paris street at night by Pisarro. And the Titians and Raphaels and Tintorettos… I still don’t think the Manchester Madonna and the other unfinished one look much like Michelangelos, however.
La Regle du Jeu
Started watching this creaky film out of sense of duty – often cited as one of the greatest ever – and after a few minutes, totally hooked. The shooting party scenes I only realised were a metaphor for the spread of Fascism when I watched the commentary, I’m sorry to say. What it reminded me of , more than anything, was “L’Age d’Or”. the country house setting, the madcap entertainments, or course, but above all, Schumacher the gamekeeper, with the moustache and glaring eye. When I looked it up – yes, same guy, who played “the Man” in L’Age d’Or nine years earlier.
Saint’s Head, Man’s Back
Blackpaint
13th December 2012
Tags: Cezanne, Degas, Emanuel Rohss, Jennifer Bailey, L'Age d'Or, La Regle du Jeu, Max Ruf, Michelangelo, Nicole Morris, Piotr Krzymowsky, Rubens, Suki Seukycong Kang, Tony Law
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