Tracy Emin - A Second Life

A Second Life by Tracy Emin

at Tate Modern.

I have to start by saying that I am not doing this exhibition justice in this post. We went to Tate Modern to see Nigerian Modernism and Theatre Picasso, and thought we would have a look at the Tracy Emin exhibition. I knew I would not be impressed by it, and my fears were confirmed. I was basically bored. This, of course, is not the first exhibition I have been to that I have found boring, or not to my taste, but usually, if that is the case, I just don't blog about it. In Emin's case however, given how central she is to contemporary art in this country, I have decided to do a post. I have chosen a minimal number of exhibits just so that I have a reminder.

The second thing I would like to say about the exhibition is that it was packed - absolutely bursting with people. The room where they were showing a film about Emin was so full, you could not go through it. Nigerian Modernism had an average kind of crowd, and Theatre Picasso had a lot of people. But, this was absolutely bursting. I knew Emin was a popular artist, but this was incredible. 

My Major Retrospective II, 1982-1992, 2008, (180 photographs, canvas, card, wooden shelves, ink)

These tiny photographs, mounted on stitched fabric, document Emin's art school paintings. After an abortion in 1990, and experiencing what she has described as her 'emotional suicide', she destroyed the originals.

looking closer

looking closer

My Future, 1993, (passport, human tooth, ink on paper)

There's a Lot of Money in Chairs, 1994, (appliqued armchair)

'It's not what you inherit, it's what you do with your inheritance. I inherited my great-gramdnother's armchair. My nan said to me 'there's a lot of money in chairs' - she meaent people stuffed money in chairs, not that the chair is money, but I took it like 'yeah, it's my inheritance, what do I do with it?' So what I decided to do was make it more than it is. I decorated it with my life story...

I wrote the book Exploration of the Soul, went around America, with the chair and book, doing readings to American people...'

I Needed You to Love Me, 2023, (acrylic on canvas)

Rape, 2018, (acrylic on canvas)

Trinity Hill, 2019, (acrylic on canvas)

You Heard me Scream, 2022, (acrylic on canvas)

I Never Asked to Fall in Love - You Made me Feel like This, 2018, (acrylic on canvas)

My Bed, 1998

looking closer

You Kept it Coming, 2019, (acrylic on canvas)

The End of Love, 2016, (acrylic on paper)

Not Fuckable, 2024, (acrylic on canvas)

And So it Felt Like This, 2018, (acrylic on paper)

You Should Have Saved Me, 2023, (acrylic on canvas)

The Crucifixion, 2022, (acrylic on canvas)




 

From Bruegel to Rembrandt

From Bruegel to Rembrandt 

at Compton Verney, Warwickshire.

Drawings made by over 50 different artists in the Netherlands, in the 16th and 17th centuries.

The artists approached the task in three main ways: drawing from life or from direct observation;  drawing from the mind;  drawing from memory.

Jacques de Gheyn II, Four Srudies of a nude woman combing her hair, 1602-03, (black chalk, pen and iron gall ink)

Ferdinand Bol, Woman sitting in front of a mirror, 1635-50 (pen and brown ink, brown wash, sporadic black chalk)

Bol was one of Rembrandt's best pupils and his early drawings, like this one, were highly influenced by the master.

Unknown student or follower of Rembrandt Harmensz, van Rijn, Sleeping Woman, 1635-70

Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn, Head of a man wearing a pointed beard and a cap, 1647, (black chalk)

Cornelis de Vos, Studies of a child, (black and red chalk)

Landscapes:

The transition from fantasy to naturalism within Netherlandish drawing can easily be seen in landscapes. In the 16th century, landscape started to be recognised as its own genre, rather than as a backdrop to a narrative scene. From the beginning of the century, depictions of landscapes primarily derived from an artist's own imagination, often informed by works by Italian masters, such as Titian. The growing interest in naturalism from the end of the 16th century affected landscape drawing as artists increasingly left their studios to study the natural world up-close.

Seeing the drawings in the next two sections, made me sooo homesick for Amsterdam.

Jan Brueghel the Elder, Forest path with a horse-drawn carriage crossing a ford, 1600-1615, (pen and brush in brown, blue, dark grey and redk ink...)

Pieter Stevens, The flight into Egypt, 1600

Roelandt Savery, Rocky landscape with woods, crossed by a river and a torrent, 1607-08

Henrdrick Averdamp, River landscape, 1625

Hendrick Avercamp, Study of a fisherman bringing in his net

Hendrick Avercamp, Study of a man seen from behind


Village and City Life:

Hans Bol, Ring jousting in front of a pond in an imaginary city, 1593

Abraham Bloemaert, The backgammon game

Adriaen van Ostade, Interior of an inn, 1680

Jan Brueghel the Elder, Study with figures, horses and carts, 1602

Jan Brueghel the Elder, Villages going to the market, 1605-20

Esaias van de Velde, View of a Village, 1624-25

Frans Post, a village in Brazil, 1652

Maria Sybilla Merian, Branch of a guava tree with Army Ants, Pink-Toe Taraabtulas, Huntsman Spiders and Ruby-Tobas Hummingbird, 1702--3

Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn, An old lady supported by a young girl, 1642

Gerbrand van den Eeckhout, The meeting of Rebecca and Eliezer at the well, 1661, (oil on canvas)

Gerbrand van den Eeckhout, The meeting of Eliezar and Rebecca, 1661

Pieter Huys, The descent into Limbo, 1547-1577, (oil on panel)