Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts (only two works)

I cannot do the Summer Exhibition at the R.A. It's too crowded, there are too many displays, and in order to see what the artwork is and by whom, you have to look in the catalogue. I just find it so frustrating and irritating. We went to see the Michaelina Wautier exhibition which was wonderful, and which I will post on soon, I hope. Ken wanted to look at the Summer Exhibition which he did while I did other things. He came out and talked to me about two artworks which he enjoyed, so I popped in, rushed through,  to have a look at just those two. 

Tim Shaw, Pin It on Them (Associated Artwork from the Installation: Shut it Piggy),  (old pillows and clothes on a steel frame)

Trump and Netanyahu, clasping hands, barbed wire around their wrists

standing on some of the devastation and destruction they have caused.

Michael Sandle, Vipera Palaestinae or Allegory of Consciencelessness in Gaza, (charcoal drawing)

Tony Blair, another facilitator of the genocide in Gaza.

 

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)
 

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)