Theatre Picasso

Theatre Picasso

at Tate Modern, London.

In this exhibition artists Wu Tsan and Enrique Fuenteblanca have 'staged' Tate's entire Picasso collection asking us to consider the meaning of performance through Picasso: 'how he created a public persona and transformed the way we look at art, profoundly influencing how artworks are collected and encountered today...'

We were told that 'Picasso cultivated and performed a public persona that was part 'genius' and part 'outsider'. This persona helped to shape our idea of the Artist as a solo creative, a prolific master and a mysterious marginal figure in society.'

Tsang and Fuenteblanca see theatrical techniques incorporated into Picasso's persona.  It is apparently evident 'in the way he performed his dramatic brush strokes for the camera, and in the way he crafted his own image through appearances in magazines and films. To grasp Picasso beyond his mythology, it is important to understand how he used these tools for performance.

Performance has traditionally given us permission to play with topics and behaviours otherwise considered taboo. Picasso frequetly worked with the obscene in both intimate and overtly political ways. Picasso performed the role of a tragicomic artist by bringing onto the stage things that some may not wish to see'.

So, the George Economou gallery was transformed

part of it was turned into a stage

where people could see

Projections of some of Picasso's works.

Confused? Well, so was I. I could not quite get the point they were making, I could not see its relevance to Picasso's work. I just think it was an attempt to 'create' something, to make an impact. So, I just concentrated on treating this as yet another exhibition where I looked at the works on the walls, which I really enjoyed, and this is what this post is about.

Dish of Pears, 1936, (oil on canvas)

Seated Woman in a Chemise, 1923, (oil on canvas)

Flowers, 1901, (oil on canvas)

Girl in a Chemise, 1905, (oil on canvas)

Nude Woman with Necklace, 1968, (oil on canvas)

Nude Woman in a Red Armchair, 1932, (oil on canvas)

Dora Maar Seated, 1938, (ink, gouache and oil on paper on canvas)

Woman at the Window, 1962, (aquatint and drypoint on paper)

Portrait of a Woman after Cranach the Younger, 1958, (linocut on paper)

Weeping Woman, 1937, (oil on canvas)

Goat's Skull, Bottle and Candle, 1952, (oil on canvas)

Head of a Young Boy, 1945, (lithograph on paper)

Fruit Dish, Bottle and Violin, 1914, (oil on canvas)

Bottle of Vieux Marc, Glass, Guitar and Newspaper, 1913, (printed papers and ink on paper)

The Three Dancers, 1925, (oil on canvas)

The dancers evoke both joy and deep longing. It is often read as an allegory of a tragic love triangle entangling friends and lovers of Picasso's youth.

Minotaur, 1935, (tapestry, wool and silk)

The Acrobat, 1930, (oil on canvas)
 

Richard Long

Richard Long, in Artist Rooms

at Tate Modern.

It had been a while since I saw any of Richard Long's work so I was pleased to see this very small exhibition in one of the Artist's Rooms at Tate Modern during our last visit there.

One of the main proponents of Land Art, Long has been making art by walking since the late 1960s. Through the simple creative act of moving through the landscape, Long extends the possibilities of sculpture to explore ideas of place, time and distance. His walks, and the sculptures made along the way - water poured on a rock, a path trodden in the earth, the rearrangement of scattered stones and sticks - are recorded through photographs, maps and text works.

Long has made work on all seven continents, walking in some of the remotest landscapes on earth. Rooted in his deep affinity with nature, his radical approach to art and the language of sculpture has made him a vital influence on a generation of artists.

'My work really is just about being a human living on this planet and using nature as its source... I enjoy the simple pleasures of wellbeing, independence, opportunism, freedom, dreaming and happenstance; of passing through the land and sometimes stopping to leave (memorable)  traces along the way'.

For this post, I have concentrated on the indoor sculptures which develop these same ideas, made from natural materials like stoness,  bit of wood, or tidal mud applied with his hands or feet. 'I am interested in universals: stones, water, mud, hands, days, symmetry, gravity'.

Norfolk Flint Circle, 1990, (flint)

'A circle outdoors is part of the place it is in, sometimes as far as the eyes can see, while indoors the circle and materials demand more attention.

looking closer

Waterfall Line, 2000, remade 2025, (cornish china clay on emulsion)

'The mud works are another aspect of the physicality of my work, like the walking. I always have a precise idea of the overall form of the work, which is balanced by the spontaneity of the execution. The speed of my hand is important because that's waht makes the splashes, which show the wateriness of the mud, and water is the main subject and content of these works, they show its nature. I make the top half of the image, and nature - gravity - makes the other half'.

Red Late Circle, 1988, (slate)

'I like the fact that every stone is different, one from another, in the same way all fingerprints, or snowflakes, or places are unique, so no two circles can be alike'.

looking closer

South Bank Circle, 1991, (Delabole slate)

looking closer

Sahara Circle, 1988, (digital print on paper mounted onto aluminium)

A Line in the Himalayas, 1975, printed 2004, (digital print on paper mounted onto aluminium)

'I like the idea that my A Line in the Himalayas... made on the Khumbu Glacier below the Everest icefall, the sculpture would be on the move, slowly disintegrating and disappearing down the moraine, as soon as I had made it. It is not my intention to make monumental or permanent works on a walk'.

To see more of Richard Long's art in this blog you can go:

here for Seven Days Walking on Mount Olympus

here for Uncommon Ground

and here for the Athens Slate Line

Lunch at the Saxon Mill

The Saxon Mill, a former watermill at Guys's Cliffe dates back to the 12th century. It is now a restaurant and bar. We had a lovely lunch here.

Behind the mill there is a footbridge and weir, and this is the view from the bridge.

 The other side of the bridge.

River walk

We went to Stratford on Sunday. We wanted to walk as well as go to the outdoor market but we did not have much time so we just did the town river walk. We usually walk much further, along the railway track, past the race course, but this walk was relatively short.

 We parked by the recreation ground, and started walking across the green

and soon reached the river, the theatre across the water.

Two white geese and their six babies...

They are my favourite water birds, so seeing their babies was a real pleasure

They soon got fed up with all these people gawping and moved off

There was also a boat race going on

with a lot of music, shouting and counting

which was all coming from here, the start of the race.

We moved on, crossed the bridge to the other side

had a wander around the market and bought some homemade soda bread

the race was still going on

The theatre cafe was very busy

Took the path that runs along the river

We could see the racing boats through the trees

it's a lovely, shaded path

in the church grounds

view from the bridge

and we were back on the other side of the river

the water lillies are about to flower

the first weir

the second weir

this is my favorite part of the walk

the trees are so grand and imposing

we had come full circle and were back to where we started from - the babies and their parents.