Tate Britain, open again..sort of..
Booked a trip around the bits of the Tate that were available: British Art 1931 – present day, and British art 15 something – 1890. Not much going on between 1891 and 1931, maybe… Hang on, there was World War One, Nash, Nevinson, Orpen, Spencer and all that – and probably some other art stuff too…
Anyway, great to be back and in the (short) queue and the galleries too, not many people about and most, but not all, wearing face coverings. Like always, when you haven’t seen pictures for a time, they look fresh and exciting and there are a few new ones to pique your interest. I went round exactly like those people I usually deride – photographing everything. A few examples below with the customary banal and/or facetious comments:
Joshua Reynolds, Detail of a woman’s layered skirt
My partner took this one. I thought she’d got the whole painting but she’s mainly interested in fabrics so just got the skirt. Quite amazing really, like a fractured ice cliff.
Gerald Brockhurst – Margaret Duchess of Argyll, 1931
Great portrait, very like Keeley Hawes in “the Durrells” (see below)
John Tunnard – Fulcrum (top) 1939
A typical Tunnard painting, recalling a science fiction paperback from the 50s or 60s – or maybe Festival of Britain art – so ahead of his time.
Sam Haile – Surgical Ward (lower) 1939
Sam Haile is new to me; Miro-ish, but with a drab British palette.
Meredith Frampton – Trial and Error, 1939
Beautifully executed, but “painting by numbers” Surrealism – think of a bunch of unrelated objects and assemble them to make a dreamlike still life. Leaves me cold really, compared to, say, Magritte or Delvaux, who really do evoke dreams successfully in some of their images.
Jacob Epstein
And on the back of the Epstein sculpture.. I didn’t realise that there was anything on the reverse.
John Minton – Portuguese Cannon 1953
A new Minton (I’ve never seen it before, anyway), in the style of his big picture of the death of Nelson.
Keith Vaughan
Lovely picture, no comment required. So- no comment…
Patrick Heron
This one’s been up on the walls within the last five years, I guess – unusual Heron with regard to the colour; that acidy, poisonous green – or is it greeny yellow? Well, it’s both really.
William Scott
Scott often painted huge pictures of assembled kitchen implements, frying pans, pots. I didn’t get the title of this so I’ve no clue as to what is depicted – brick wall, bits of toast, cribbage peg board.. It’s a new one.
Peter Lanyon – Zennor Storm, 1958
An old favourite. I’d always thought the central image was a boat – bit like Noah’s Ark. But no – it’s the green at Zennor (in a storm, of course) I actually miss “Wreck”, the one they had up before Covid, with the boat, the guitar, and the shark.
Roger Hilton – September 1961
Stark, clear composition; back view of a sleeping dog on the floor of an old pub, perhaps? but what’s the black loop?
Alan Davie – Black Mirror, 1952
I think there’s more than a touch of Bacon in this image and the brushwork; I wonder if they knew each other’s work?
Peter Lanyon – both the glass assemblage and the painting, which I think is called “The Lost Mine”.
Rose English
Her fabulous film, made in 1975, I think, of these women at a horse show, trotting round like horses in formation, kitted out with tails, making an obvious feminist point, but no less funny for it. Forerunner of “Smack the Pony”.
Unknown artist – William, First Lord de la Warr, c.1550
I’m sure I’ve seen that face on TV or at the National Theatre. Tried to poison his brother, says the plaque on the wall. He looks well capable of that.
I’m going to avoid making the obvious remark. It’s a strain, but I’ve managed it.
Thomas Gainsborough – Mr and Mrs Carter, c.1747
I had to include this for the clear disparity in dimensions and the fact that the lady appears to be floating… It seems remarkable to me that Gainsborough painted both this caricature-like portrait AND the painting below: two completely different styles (and he had at least one more).
Thomas Gainsborough
Tilly Kettle – Mrs Yates as Mandane in “the Orphan of China”, c.1765
Mrs Yates in a martial arts defensive posture.
And that was our end-of-shielding trip to Tate Britain. An old landscape of mine below:
Islares Bay
Blackpaint
7/08/2020
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