Abstract Expressionism at the RA
Fantastic, of course; the best show in London since the RA’s Diebenkorn, which was not that long ago (OK, Auerbach at Tate Britain was also great, but I think the Diebenkorn had the edge, with the three distinct styles/periods/modes, whatever you wish to call them). Back to AbExes – I went on Saturday when it opened; queued for only 10 minutes and for once, it wasn’t throgged with immovable punters, walkie-talkies clapped to their ears, so you could see some of the paintings.. and sculptures, mustn’t forget David Smith and a few Barnett Newmans.
I’ll be going again and again, for sure, so this is nowhere near exhaustive:
- The Guston and Mitchell paintings made Frankenthaler’s “Europa” look rather dowdy, on the far right of the wall.
Guston, Prague
- The stunning Mitchell “Salut Tom”; four huge panels of white, blue and yellow, Monet of course and a little bit Cy Twombly, those panels of the seasons that were in the Tate Modern a while back.
- When you look through the archway at the two small pink, green and yellow de Koonings, they look like Toulouse Lautrecs.
- The Clyfford Stills, most of them, are great on their own but as Laura Cummings says in the Observer, putting them all in one room next to each other, they tend to drain the others’ glory.
- This is NOT the case with the de Koonings, however, before which you can only – well, I can only stand in awe. Sorry, hyperbole creeping in – I could do lots of things, ONE of them being to stand in awe. A couple of fantastic Women, “Whose name was writ on water”, “Villa Borghese” with its green sweeps, the yellow and grey one with its yellow sweeps, that juicy red one, the collage with the tin tacks… He’s the guv’nor, no question.
de Kooning – Whose name Was Writ on Water
- Pollock’s not bad either. I’m quite familiar with Pollock’s work, so the one enjoyed most was the 1943 “Mural” with the repeated green figures.
Pollock, Mural
- Can’t get on with Barnett Newman, sorry to say; I don’t like that liverish red/brown he uses, or the orange zips.
- Rothko – an unusual, scrapy, scrappy blue and yellow panel on paper.
- Lovely, punchy B&W Klines and an unusual wobbly one.
Franz Kline – Zinc Door
- Ad Reinhardt, pursuing his obsessions to their black ends – one of his, with spidery lines and figures, just like a Constant.
- Guston’s paint, especially on the cartoon one (yes I know, but they DO look like cartoons) is greasy, dobby and looks moist.
- And then there’s Jack Tworkov, with the diagonal slashes of colour.
Enough for now. I’ve been reading “Anti-Matter” by Ben Jeffries, an extended essay about Houellebecq and “Depressive Realism” in which there is a discussion of Faking It – the idea that all works of art are “fake”, even when they are avowedly realist. I think that’s right in a sense, and particularly right for the AbExes; once you are putting paint on a support, brushing, dripping, blading, flicking, you are faking it, unless it’s a real action picture and even then, you choose the paint, so there is a gap. Rothko is not in some transcendant state when he paints, at least not most of the time; he’s thinking how to portray his feelings/revelations – the ones he’s already had, that is. He’s faking it.
Doesn’t matter – they’re fantastic anyway, faking it or not.
Metropolis, dir. Fritz Lang (1927)
I’ve been watching the print found in Buenos Aires, and shown on BBC, in 30 minute chunks – I have a short attention span. Once you get past the hero’s make-up, curly hair and jodphurs, it’s full of influence: so far, I’ve got montage scenes recalling Grosz; Rotwang the inventor’s false hand in leather glove (Dr.Strangelove); Frankenstein, of course; the downtrodden, Zombie-like workers have offspring in the Wizard of Oz, Popeye cartoons and – zombie films; all films with an underground or hi-tec citadel – Indiana Jones, James Bond films, Wallis and Gromit.. No doubt, there will be many more. And it has another memorable villain to add to the gallery: Fritz Rasp as the “Thin Man”.
Fritz Rasp – watch the film, you’ll laugh – but he’ll come to you in your dreams….
Islares under Cloud
Blackpaint
30.09.16
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