Marcel Duchamp, Rauschenberg and Johns at the Barbican.

I have been to several exhibitions since I have been back at Uni.

I mean it's part of my course to go and see as many exhibition I can.

Today I went and see the exhibition called; the Bride and Bachelors which is titled after Duchamp's

work 'The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even ( The Large Glass) of 1915-23.

                                                                     

Bicycle Weel by Duchamp original done in 1913 by Duchamp

 Duchamp changed drastically what we think of as art  when he mounted a bicycle wheel on a kitchen stool which is shown in the exhibition and which I found to be irreverent and playful, the artist as provocateur more then a proficient ultimate creator with his  assisted ready made object repositioned by him, he turned meaning of art upside down using more then one utilitarian object to form a  work of art he chose the different components without keeping beauty in mind. It also shows is interest in kinetic energy, his interest in pointless motion, it moves constantly but it is rooted in the same point and it makes you want to spun it some say that it can be compared to sexual action. Duchamp pushed others to think differently he encourage them to play and think for themselves and not exactly like him but I do the same in my art work. As far as I know initially Duchamp didn't want to show this specific art work or other ready mades to the public .

There was so much to explore in the exhibition but sadly due to the deem  lighting  combined with a loud performance which really disoriented me and made it really difficult for me to actually focus on the different works & combined with loud music it made me want to run for the hills. I only stayed briefly in the exhibition the performance was to painful! I did find it interesting thought that Duchamp was painting instead then on a canvas on large sheets of glass but I had seen this work also in Italy under natural light which was much better. Over all I think I preferred the upper level of the exhibition where there was a combination of Duchamp, Rauschenberg and Johns work next or opposite each other and I was far away form the dreadful sounds that where coming from the floor below. I mean Rauschenberg, combination, of using photographic images onto textile combined with cardboard paper and or comics it's impressive in their variety.

                                                                       

Robert Rauschenberg Bride's Folly1959

Marcel Duchamp Fountain 1917 original-replica 1950

Rauschenmberg used found materials from the street and created collages that blurred the boundary between painting and sculpture using varied materials such as wood, stone, twine, steal spikes etc. Minute it's a large freestanding combines it constructed for dancer Merce Cunnigham.

 I especially liked Music Box as it allowed past viewers to participate in the shaking of the box so allowing the stones inside the box to move against protruding nails so creating a rearrangement of the different parts inside of the box while producing a sound. I think with this specific work Rauschenberg was referring to Duchamps sculpture With Hidden Noise.

Robert Rauschenberg Minutie 1954

Robert Rauschenberg Music Box 1953

I did find interesting Johns use of black inks on plastic sheets while two of his large paintings done simply using lines to resemble moving human form, bold colourful but I appreciated the brightens off it more from far away then close up I could see so much more of the paintings from the other side of the room then close up.

                                                                         

Dancers on a Plane by Jasper Johns 1979-1978

Dancers which represents dancing forms on the canvas the marks show the rhythmic nature of the Cunnighman Dancers.

Other pieces included in the exhibition I had already seen such targets, numbers, objects that the mind already recognise, knows like the painting Figure 8

Figure 8 by Jasper Johns

which I have always found to be dead boring (yes I know they are impersonal images of flags in this case the number 8 which is painted in an ordinary way) but Jasper Johns has other paintings which are much better then this one on display. I have always preferred his painting titled Diver 1962 which wasn't on show due to fact that it shows more is multilevel approach where he transforms: letters, numbers erased by colour and flat shapes which gives the piece a whole new dimensionality. I mean Jasper Johns through Diver gives a practical demonstration of John Alber's theory of colour relativity as he shows the spatial ambivalence of colour, the interplay of passing forces, the combination of dissimilar images instead of variations on a single theme he combined different ideas not a singular motif like for example in Seurat paintings or Cezanne all of this you can see in Diver below.

Diver 1962 by Jasper Johns

Houser & Wirth: Sterling Ruby.

On a cold rainy day I decided to go and check what was on show on at the Gallery Houser & Wirth near Bond Street  and I wasn't disappointed as on show was Los Angeles based contemporary artist Sterling Ruby. I have never seen his work before the first thing I saw was a huge almost phallic sculptures called Monument Stalagmite made out of urethane then the Pot is Hot and CDCR all made out of strong bold colours resembling the American flag and the decaying American industry and economy.Strong reds and blues vibrant colours held by an armature, polyurethane poured on top of it, which gave it a rotten decadent feel. Positiuoned in the  centre of the room around it paper collages combined with Urethane called EXHM on the walls.

                                                                     

Sterling Ruby Monument Stalagmite 2008

 A Polyurethane Monument that pokes fun at the traditional way we see or think of a monument While the second half of his work was in the next door Gallery and was a combination of ceramics in one room then in the other room works made out of Fabric called the Vampire. The room that worked best for me was the one with the large poured polyuretahne sculptures which seemed to me about American domination and decline, consumption and waste.

                                                                             

Sterling Ruby Basin Theology/False positive Prophet 2010

The ceramics resembled vessels, rudimentary forms made out of vibrant colours but I thought they would have worked better if they where open instead of being enclosed vessels I didn't feel the outside which was  less even then the inside worked well with the inside. They where filled with recycled fragment of damaged works that had been previously destroyed I think a reference to archaeological excavation sites but I felt they would have been better if left open. I did find the concept of this work interesting and also the fact that he used clay in a non traditional way exploring a concept instead of just displaying a beautiful piece of ceramics. I felt like I was exploring the space inside and outside the ceramic piece. Through his work I see a background in structural construction and I see he attacks the medium itself and society through analysing people who have been marginalised or found them marginalised by society he takes you to a different direction.

About the collages what can I say they didn't work for me nor did the textiles pieces I found hem repetitive of the same concept but lacking the punch line of the urethane sculptures.

                                                                         

Sterling Ruby EXHM 2012

Sterling Ruby Vampire 96 2013

Magritte Museum in Brussels

The Magritte Museum in Brussels housed in the neoclassical Altenloh Hotel and yes the exhibition doesn't start on the ground floor but on the top floor and has the most complete collection of Magritte's work I have seen. The the highlight of this month which was influenced by the Italian artist De Chirico but with Magritte's very own upside down elements is the painting titled Midnight Marriage which combines theatrical elements with a dream like quality. I have always been interested in Magritte's juxtapositions and combination of objects, the inversion of scale, the subversive humour his display of ordinary objects in unusual settings giving new meaning to familiar things. Like for example in the The Treachery of Images where one can see a pipe painted but underneath a message saying; this is not a pipe. Magritte's allusion that the pipe we see is not really a pipe but an 'image' of the pipe so the artist can never get the real essence of the object.

                                                                             

Magritte's is not a Pipe-The Treachery of Images 1928-1929

 I love his play with reality and illusion like in the Empire of Light where the sky is bright blue against the dark house away to push away classical aestheticism so that the picture looks remote and the house is illuminated only by the light coming from a street light it creates an alternate poetic upside down imaginary an illustrative technique to destabilise the viewer mental  habits of representation. Also the painting Nocturne it's a painting within a painting with common elements he will use through out in his work such as the bird in flight, fire.

                                                           

Magritte's Empire of Light 1953-1954

Magritte's Nocturne 1925

Repetition of key elements  was also important in his painting and I think the fact that he worked in advertising made him question the modernist belief in the 'original artwork'. I see also an influence in Freudian Psychoanalysis where repetition was associated with trauma. Several of his paintings also combine words and images but more then being surrealist there is a strong element of rational enquiry and also in misunderstanding that come with the use of language for example the famous painting the man with a bowler could be the artist or anybody else to pint that one can find the mysterious in every day life, he turns something solid ordinary into something else not solid.

The painting 'The Lover' with the faces covered who can't have an intimate embrace as they are separated by a piece of fabric which transform this act of passion in frustration. I wonder if it was about his mother who committed suicide in the Sambre river when he was 13 years old I have read some where that Magritte was present when they discovered her body in a river and that her dress was covering her face like in the painting, spooky wonder what Freud would have said about this..

                                                                              

Magritte's Lover's 1928

Anyway the Museum it's really easily accessible and the display of his work chronological there is a wealth of documentary covering his relationship with his wife and colleagues, friends. Definitely the greatest collection you can find about Magritte in a museum.

Outsider Art from Japan exhibition at the Welcome Collection.

I have never been to the Welcome Collection on Euston Road so I didn't know what to expect but I was pleasantly surprised both by the space itself and by the exhibition on show called Souzou or Outsider Art from Japan. I did discover that just the word Souzou in Japanese as a dual meaning: creation and imagination basically a force that brings new ideas.

The artists on show have received no training, no tuition and are only interested in producing work for the sake of creation alone without an audience in mind and they have  a variety of developmental, behavioural, cognitive disorders or mental illnesses and attend regularly or live in specialist care institutions. While in Europe what they do, the art they make would be seen as outsider art/art therapy in Japan they see it more as just 'production' a way of keeping busy. They prove that to be an artist one doesn't always need to have an art education as they spent many hours making art works, non functional ceramic objects for example of their choosing without been directed and trained; free to do what they pleased. Several terms spring to mind about the exhibition such as: well being, health, creativity and what we consider to be mainstream or marginal in the arts and why?

Overall the exhibition is divided in 6 sections starting from Language. This sections looks at how the artists deal with difficulty of language as communication for them it's challenging they use visual images, visual expression to release and get a way from the restrictions of their own language. For example Toshiko Yamanashi's love letters to her mother 

Toshiko Yamanashi Love Letters to her Mother

 She uses bright colours and movement instead of words I found it moving and effective while Mineo Ito and Ryoko Koda deconstruct their own names, Ito repeating it while Koda uses a single character in spatial exploration.                                                     

Komei Bekki Clay Totem like figures

The second section Making had one of my favourite works made by Komei Bekki small ceramics faces, bodies, long, tall flat to create a fast landscape of ceramics. He makes the sculptures with his mouth I think a ritual is an important element in his work and the work of Shota Katsube: a diminutive army of miniature action figures made from twist ties to fasten bin liners, really fun. Then I moved on to the section called representation. The way the artists see things and which raises questions of subjectivity and perception.

                                                                             

Shita Katsube Tiny action figures built out of twist ties

Takanari Nitta watercolours on black paper have an ethereal quality with juxtaposition of the titles which are inspires by mondane everyday objects.             

                                                                             

                                           Takari Nitta Watecolour on black paper                           

Masaaki Oe who instead plays with his models of Ducth and American stereotypes  on ideas of national identity.

The section Culture it's also interesting because it shows the artists having an awareness of their surroundings and culture so they do have a knowledge of a wider cultural context so all their creative work is not entirely based of the interior mind as one would think of Outsider Art. Masatashi Nishimoto' miniature models of buses show the obsession of the Japanese culture with transport and engineering.

I also really liked the maquettes by Shoichi Koga's

                                                                                

Shoichi Koga Ganesha Nan

I  did look at how  how they where made using cellophane, drawing paper, vinyl tapes which make one think of popular Japanese action fantasy films I mean really inventive. The final section of the exhibition shows works which reorder information as a way for the artist to understand or control the world he lives in and creating a parallel reality. The work of Kenich Yamazaki's is very inventive he created his work from a hospital ward just using graph paper a pen and a compass.

                                                                           

Kinichi Yamazaki Inversion

At the end of the exhibition I watched several videos about the artists it was inspiring to see the artists at work all in all a very well curated exhibition. Also inside the Welcome Collection there is a nice coffee shop and seating area with a  bookshop.

Kurt Schwitters at Tate Britain

An artist friend of mine whose main art work is collage told me a couple of weeks ago to go and see

Kurt Schwitters at Tate Britain over all the exhibition focused on his British period. He arrived in the UK as a refugee in 1940 from Norway and before that he escaped Germany & the Nazi. He was a German exiles and interned on the Isle of Man during world war II. 

Anyway I am glad the I saw it the exhibition was excellent with a wide variety of his work. I first entered Room 1 which included works of the German period. The first thing I noticed was the use of different materials then just simple paper to create a collage such as fabric, wood, hair, ceramics, metal and not stuck on cardboard paper no, all the different materials had been put on  a solid support wood or canvases in a precise way which go beyond collage and created actual unique assemblage art works at the same par as paintings. Schwitters considered all the different objects to have the same value as paint. 

This wide application of different material is a practical application of the concept of Mertz which meant the equal evaluation of the individual materials. He explored this concept in his collages, assemblages, sculptures, installations and staging performance of his sound poetry with the culmination of it in the Merzbau, an architectural construction inside his house.

                                                      Kurt Scwitters Merzbau Hanover 1933                                                                             

                                                   Kurt Schwitters Mertz Picture with Rainbow 1939

The second thing I noticed while looking at his work his that he moved around a lot due to the Nazi  as most of the works are of a small scale so easy to transport. I did find this inspirational that even if he was in difficult conditions and no matter where he was he kept making art but also because as an artist myself living in completely different times and situation from him I do find that I am dealing with similar problems constantly moving in rented accommodation due to high prices kind of effects the size of one works as I am constantly looking at materials or to make art works that one can easily transport and store because while Schwitters had his wife who helped him transport his works from Germany. I generally have do it myself on public transport to the amusement of my fellow passengers so I tent to make my art work light and easy to transport and store because big art works are difficult to store with no available space or money. London might be getting bigger by the day but artists works are getting smaller due to lack of space & funding.

It is impressive that even during the internment period he was able to produce 200 works: abstract paintings, assemblages and portraits; considering the lack of art supplies which meant he had to be resourceful to obtain the materials he needed ripping the lino floors to make cuttings, dig up clay during his walks or making sculptures out of porridge. I did find sad that he was one of the last to be released from the camp.

Schiwtter collages while he was in England incorporate fragments from packaging, newspapers, bus tickets which where reflective of British life. While in 1945 while he staying in the Lake District he used more natural organic elements in his compositions, he also made naturalistic paintings of the landscape around him and where he created the Merz Barn a follow up to the Hanover Merzbau also considered to be one of the lost important works of European Modernism.

After he was release from the camps he moved to London where he  explored the transformation of ready made images so there is shift in his collages as they incorporated ready made images, English words, typography, stamps, cartoon strips, food labels, magazine photographs such ex. Pine trees and where also included fragments of phrases which had direct reference to contemporary politics and popular culture but he still used everyday items so like in previous times his work kind of reflected the environment in which he found himself and was made in. In London he also performed the Ursonate.

Scwitters continued to explored small sculptures but in this period he focused more in making hand sized sculptures. He made this from found materials again such as stone, wood, bone combined with completely different elements such as dried fruit, he was combining painting with modelling which challenged traditional boundaries separating painting and sculpture.

Kurt Schwitters Difficult 1942-1943

Kurt Schwitters  Relief in Relief 1942-1945

Kurt Schwitters Merz Picture 46A. The Skittle picture 1921