Picasso and Britain
Last days at the Tate Britain, so went again. The Duncan Grants I still like, in spite of everyone else, it seems; especially “Interior at Golden Square”; also, one or two of the Nicholsons, especially the pink one. The Picassos themselves blow everything else out of the water, of course, for confidence, inventiveness, use of colour… but there are a couple of duff ones (see previous Blackpaint ).
Bomberg at South Bank University
Turns out that only four or five of the drawings and paintings on show at the moment are Bombergs – but this was not a disappointment, as those by his followers are great. There is a beautiful charcoal sketch by Edna Mann, of a nude woman stoopimg to pick up something from the floor; paintings that are very Auerbach in colour and structure by Dennis Creffield; Cezanne-like bathers heavily outlined in black by Cliff Holden; and a big, dark, swerving, black-outlined head by Dorothy Mead. Great little exhibition, and more to be shown in October, I was told.
Patrick Keiller at Tate Britain
This “exhibit” comprises an exhibition within an exhibition, based on the “Robinson Institute”, a fictional entity based on a fictional character invented by Keiller. It is concerned with English landscape (which I got, without reading) and the development of capitalism (which I didn’t). Along with Keiller’s own photographs, some brilliant, interesting works by Turner, James Ward, Paul Nash, Gursky, James Boswell, John Latham (huge black blot), Fiona Banner (small black blot)….. I find these fictional conceits increasingly irritating – why not just stick a load of paintings you like together, like Grayson Perry at Bexhill a couple of years ago? – then again, Keiller has used the Robinson thing before, so it’s got the integrity of a previous history.
Edvard Munch at Tate Modern
This, I have to say, is the worst exhibition I’ve ever seen. Or, to be fair, it’s a very good exhibition of one of the worst painters I’ve ever seen. The paintings are in dead colours, crudely painted, many figures cursorily executed with round, turnipy heads. One “Kiss” looked like a man kissing a Labrador standing on its hind legs. There is a series of seven or eight “Weeping Woman”s, in which she looks like a pale corpse, going greenish here and there, like something out of “The Shining”. His wallpaper – lots of claustrophobic interiors – looks as if it’s patterned with dried blood. Banal, flesh-creeping subject matter: vampire women, a post-sex (rape?) scene, operating theatres with huge blood stains, a man aiming a rifle at someone through a window.. Lots of photographs, with “ghosts” hovering in them, but too small for me to keep looking at. It’s crap, but good value – there’s lots of it. I never did understand why The Scream has resonated with so many people.
Belle de Jour
The original, Bunuel – Deneuve, of course. What does the Japanese customer have in his little box? Why does the coffin rock beneath Severine at the Duke’s? And did Rebekah Brookes get the idea for the demure, white-collared, black Leverson dress from Belle, rather than the Salem witch trials, as the papers and TV here suggested?
Melancholia
It’s drenched in Tarkovsky, on second viewing; “Hunters in the Snow”, the music, the theme, even (“Nostalgia”)…
Blackpaint
13/07/12
Blackpaint's Blog 