ITEM: The last post has set me to thinking about which is my favourite out of all the art shows I’ve visited over the years, and the answer has to be the Magritte Exhibition at London’s Hayward Gallery back in the eighties.
I’ve loved Rene Magritte’s work for as long as I can remember, but this particular exhibition demonstrated to me how diverse that work was, with some of his iconic paintings reinvented as sculptures. I particularly remember the massive bronze of Perspective: Madame Recamier by David, the thrill of walking into a room where a coffin was sitting on a couch.
My favourite painter though, has to be Max Ernst, and for his best picture it’s a toss up between Chemical Nuptials and the equally splendid The Robing of the Bride.
So what artists and paintings do the rest of you beautiful, cultured people like?
ITEM: The latest spam to arrive in my Inbox is from ‘Enlargement supplement’ and comes with the Subject line ‘Christina Aguilera undressed’.
Thinking about it… Yeah, that would probably work, though I do hope they appreciate the effect would only be temporary.
ITEM: I’ve just typed up two items and deleted them both – one in case you lot read it and the other in case my neighbour does.
Bet that’s got you all wondering. Not.
ITEM: I may have remarked before on how some activities are meant to be performed with two people working in tandem, and that changing the sheets on a double bed is one of those activities.
The problem is compounded when you are also changing the duvet.
I may need to look into this whole ‘friends with benefits’ thing.
Or simply become an even bigger slob than I already am.
ITEM: I can feel nothing but contempt for those idiots who, presumably enthralled by the prospect of the Olympics, have posted advertising hoardings in Norwich referencing ‘the Best British Summer Ever’.
If they think watching sport is going to make me feel any better about the continuous rain and lack of anything resembling more than an hour or two of bright weather, then they are completely mistaken.
Muppets!
ITEM: I need something to look forward to, and fortunately I have tickets for the Rambert Dance Company’s visit to Norwich in November.
It’s The Labyrinth of Love Tour 2012, and far as I can tell they won’t be performing that particular dance when they hit Norwich.
So what are the rest of you looking forward to?
I went to the very same wonderful Magritte exhibition in the 80s, Pete. Perhaps we were there at the same time, criss-crossing behind each other’s back…
That’s an intriguing possibility, Des. If we’d known we could have worn bowler hats to be sure of recognising each other.
I’ve always loved Magritte’s paintings as well, Pete. He’s probably the first artist where I started thinking not only about the paintings, but the painter. I suspect his wit makes him more accessible to young minds. At least in my case. Still love all of his work, especially the giant green apple (which always makes me think of someone encountering the fresh scent of an apple entering a room), and his painting of a rider in the woods, passing behind trees, where the chopped-up image of the rider is seen not in the spaces between the trees, but the trunks themselves. Always preferred him to Dali, though I did see a Dali exhibit of religious icons in Bridgeport, Connecticut in the late sixties that was stunning (it probably helped that Dali was working with gold, diamonds, rubies and emeralds. There were quiet blue-dressed guards standing around everywhere.)
Matisse has always been one of my favorites, because of his use of color (although even when he painted in mostly black and white his work was still beautiful, because of the shapeliness of his lines.) And of course there’s Schiele and Freud, both great painters of human flesh (although Freud of course offers much more beyond that). I personally also very much enjoy the work of Giger, even though his work has been so commercialized he isn’t as highly regarded as he should be. If insects could paint, they’d paint Giger paintings.
Upcoming general event I’m most looking forward to? Has to be the landing of Curiosity on Mars next month. I remember back in 1976 when we first got a glimpse of the Martian surface courtesy Viking, taken from ground level, and the thrill of knowing this wasn’t an artist’s depiction, but an actual mosaic photograph of the surface, stretching all the way back to the bumpy horizon.
Dali is another of my favourites, though with him I often feel the whole ‘cult of personality’ distracts from the art. When you get past that in his very best work there is a superb painter, technically proficient to the point of genius and with a vivid imagination.
I enjoyed Matisse’s work, but wasn’t blown away until I saw a TV programme that focused on a chapel he’d designed, which was absolutely stunning, took the breath away, and mainly through the use of light and space.
Also very much into the other surrealists – Miro, Tanguy, Delvaux etc – and their forerunners/heirs/fellow travellers, painters such as De Chirico and Chagal, and probably hundreds of others I’ll think about later.
Giger is superb. His work very much reminds me of the ‘dolls’ of Hans Bellmer.
And I’ve just remembered that I’m also looking forward to “Batman: The Dark Knight”.