Paul Klee at Tate Britain
Some of these are quite nice. Not a ringing endorsement, I know, but my genuine reaction. Klee is a techniques man ; his “oil transfer” drawings are an example – the method produces a yellow-brown, stained background on which the spidery lines of the drawing appear to be roughly scorched in. Then, there are the dots; tiny, variegated blobs of colour that produce a tapestry or carpet effect – which is tasteful and nice. There are the dark tiles of midnight blue and grey and black with a disc of bright yellow and a patch of orange; “Full moon and fire”, or some such title – no prize for spotting the moon…
There are a lot of fish, tastefully drawn and coloured; little imp figures that recall – or maybe prefigure – Victor Brauner and other surrealists; many of the pieces remind one of rock and cave drawings, thick black lines done with a scorched stick, maybe. Hot air baloon heads, spider web drawings…, there’s a touch of those early Mondrians, with the interlocking lines before he moved on to squares. And maybe a bit of Asger Jorn, without the texture…
What I really missed, however, was some size. They are all small; after five or so rooms, you want to see something by some drunken American abstract expressionist who has crashed his car into the Tate front door, strode in trailing fag smoke and whisky fumes, and started to hurl paint over a five metre square canvas, stretched on the floor (canvas, not drunken ab-ex).
When you look at the catalogue, however, the pictures look beautiful – glowing and luminous. That’s the way to see them, in a book.
Unrelated
Joanna Hogg’s 2007 film, I think it’s the first of a trilogy, with “Archipelago” and her latest film “Exhibition”, with Liam Gillick, Viv Albertine and Tom Hiddleston. In “Unrelated”, Kathryn Worth plays Anna, a middle -aged woman on a Tuscan holiday with her best friend’s family, including Tom Hiddleston as the eldest son. She tries to keep up with the “youngs”, swimming naked, smoking dope, fancying Hiddleston, and ultimately being politely rebuffed by him when she makes the offer. Anna is taking time out from her partner but staying in touch with him by means of anguished mobile phone conversations at the top of hills – shades of Kiarostami’s “The Wind will Carry Us”. Again, the acting is totally believable: Hiddleston and Worth are fantastic and excruciating.
The cinematographer is Owen Curtis, but the look is the same as “Archipelago”; those doorway shots, light limning figures in bedsheets in dark rooms, Tuscan landscapes instead of the Scilly Isles, but that same Old Master quality of light on the skin in the close-ups. The director of photography for “Archipelago” is Ed Rutherford, so I guess it must be Hogg herself who sets the look of the films. Just great; can’t wait to see the latest film.
Jacob’s Room
I’m now on the third novel in Virginia Woolf’s collected works (NOT illustrated by R Crumb, more’s the pity), after “The Voyage Out” and “Night and Day” – for the first time, I realise how she could possibly be compared to James Joyce, in terms of narrative experimentation. the first two were conventional; in “Jacob’s Room”, you have to wait for the next page to find out where you are (or more accurately, where Jacob is) and what’s going on. Incredibly annoying, but I’m still reading.. no doubt, I’ll end up thinking she’s a genius. Could be worse, could be Jane Austen.
Phil Chevron
Died recently – wrote “Thousands Are Sailing”, the Pogues classic, which if you never did anything else of note…..
Meeting at Roissy
Blackpaint
18.10.13
Tags: Abbas Kiarostami, Archipelago, Asger Jorn, Exhibition, Jacob's Room, James Joyce, Joanna Hogg, Kathryn Worth, Paul Klee, Phil Chevron, Piet Mondrian, The Wind Will Carry Us, Tom Hiddleston, Unrelated, Victor Brauner, Virginia Woolf
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