The Blackpaint Annual Review
Exhibitions – went to about 40; these are the most memorable:
Bronze at the Royal Academy
That statue of the dancer that languished on the seabed; Praxiteles? Maybe…
Also, the Etruscan smiley god and de Kooning’s Clamdigger.
Migrations – Tate Britain
The fantastic Schwitters collage and Singer Sargent’s Ena and Betty.
Burtynsky at the Photographers’ Gallery
Shipbreaking at Chittagong and the ship apparently set in a sea of coal.
Kusama at Tate Modern
The boat covered in fabric penises and, of course, the darkened room with mirrors, reflecting pinpoints of coloured light, with shallow water around the walkways. Everything was interesting.
London Art Fair at the Royal College of Art
The beautiful Keith Vaughans.
Albert Irvin at Gimpel Fils
Blinding colours, stars, flowerheads, flak streams – he really does yellow well, not an easy thing.
Films
Once upon a Time in Anatolia – that apple bouncing down the stream bed in the night.
The Master – Dodd mincing about singing “We’ll go no more a-roving” to a room full of fawning acolytes – and suddenly, they’re all naked – or was it just the women?
Anna Karenina – the horse race, exploding over and out of the stage set. Many disagree, apparently, but I think Keira Knightley is a really good actress. Lately, it seems to me that male critics feel they can praise only the following actresses: Imelda Staunton, Tilda Swinton and especially, Anna Chancellor.
DVDs and TV Films
Where to start? Ken Russell, of course –Women in Love, The Devils, The Music Lovers, Gothic. The last three fantastically over the top; Oliver Read tearing himself from a crucifix to couple with a swooning Vanessa Redgrave; how beautiful Glenda Jackson was as Gudrun Brangwen.
Red Desert (Antonioni) – those colours in the industrial landscape.. Monica Vitti…
The Gospel According to St.Matthew (Pasolini) – I had it on at Easter; one after another, my atheist children came in, fell silent, watched it through to the end.
Tree of Life (Malick) – America’s Tarkovsky. Beautiful, and like Tarkovsky, utterly devoid of humour. These chaps know they are important.
Melancholia (Von Trier) – The opening sequence, that white horse falling backwards, Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg both riveting.
The Leopard (Visconti) – Burt and Claudia in the ballroom scene, prefiguring “Russian Ark”.
Swingtime – Fred and Ginger awesome in “Pick Yourself Up”, beauty and perfection in “Never Gonna Dance”.
The King of Marvin Gardens – Bruce Dern and Jack Nicholson, both staggeringly good.
Books
The Grass Arena by John Healy. Unique, I think; boxer, fighter, drinker, criminal, rough sleeper, chess master, yoga practitioner, writer…
Ulysses, James Joyce. 6th time I think. Still the most important work of fiction in English written in the 20th century; difficult to see how any fiction could supplant it. Also really filthy, sexy and funny. How could he have written like that when he did?
The Road and Everything Flows by Vassily Grossman. Sort of fiction, but Grossman often strays into journalism; not a problem as he has stupendous stories to tell, about the war, the purges, the gulag…
And here’s my best painting this year – Happy New Year, to those for whom it is New Year.
Cap Frehel
Blackpaint
31.12.12