London
Wednesday 23rd October 2013 - Friday 25th October 2013
As part of the fine art degree course my second trip was a visit to London, from 23rd October to 25th October 2013, this is so that I could get primary research of artists from a variety of different galleries. It was a great chance to get to know people on my course, see the tourist side off London and be part of the hustle and bustle as well as look at artists. I found the experience rewarding and I understood why artists decide to work and display their art there. Everything was faster and the underground took me a while to understand but I managed to get where I needed to be. There are many architectural buildings that I found interesting both modern and old, that mixed well together. Also the amount of cranes intrigued me, as this is due to the fact that they were in every cityscape, it shows the upcoming city that London is becoming. Furthermore cranes themselves are unusual as it looks like they should topple over. The street signs are appealing as they have the borough picture and shorten name as well as the street name itself. There are many famous places in London for example the millennium bridge which I walked over and found that people put lockets on the bridge then throw the key into the Thames and the London Eye that I was able to see during the day and lit at night. Big Ben and London Bridge was something I saw from afar but made me understand the greatness and power of the attractions. I found out that in London they have bike stations, as we don’t have any in Leicester and the fact that they were not damaged or vandalized is surprising. The parks in London were beautiful even more with the change of season, the gates to the entrance were grand and very Art Nuevo, and that it had a sculpture made it noble due to the materials used. There are multiple art on the streets, this came from sculptures that I stumbled across to graffiti street signs, all this made it existing to be in London.
Wednesday 23rd October 2013 - Friday 25th October 2013
As part of the fine art degree course my second trip was a visit to London, from 23rd October to 25th October 2013, this is so that I could get primary research of artists from a variety of different galleries. It was a great chance to get to know people on my course, see the tourist side off London and be part of the hustle and bustle as well as look at artists. I found the experience rewarding and I understood why artists decide to work and display their art there. Everything was faster and the underground took me a while to understand but I managed to get where I needed to be. There are many architectural buildings that I found interesting both modern and old, that mixed well together. Also the amount of cranes intrigued me, as this is due to the fact that they were in every cityscape, it shows the upcoming city that London is becoming. Furthermore cranes themselves are unusual as it looks like they should topple over. The street signs are appealing as they have the borough picture and shorten name as well as the street name itself. There are many famous places in London for example the millennium bridge which I walked over and found that people put lockets on the bridge then throw the key into the Thames and the London Eye that I was able to see during the day and lit at night. Big Ben and London Bridge was something I saw from afar but made me understand the greatness and power of the attractions. I found out that in London they have bike stations, as we don’t have any in Leicester and the fact that they were not damaged or vandalized is surprising. The parks in London were beautiful even more with the change of season, the gates to the entrance were grand and very Art Nuevo, and that it had a sculpture made it noble due to the materials used. There are multiple art on the streets, this came from sculptures that I stumbled across to graffiti street signs, all this made it existing to be in London.
Tate
The first gallery I visited was the Tate,
I had been before briefly but this occasion I had time to fully take in all the
art. I found some areas of Tate easy to move around and look at the art with
ease where as in other sections I found it cramped with numerous people in the
way. There was a variety of different artwork, sculpture, paint and
installation; each section had its own space which I was fond of as it was
easier to see what each artist take was on using a similar style, technique or
media.
An Artist that appealed to me was Dorothea
Tanning the piece ‘A Mi-Voix’, 1958,
I originally thought was made from charcoal but found out that it was oil on
canvas. What drawn me to this was the mixture of tone throughout the whole
piece and the shapes that she uses gives it an all most abstract look and
surreal so people can interpret and see the piece differently. It plays with my
mind like I need to see something there that I can name in order to understand
it. Personally it looks like a table where people are dinning, like they are in
a French cafe. She stated that due to the lack of colour gave it colour.
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Dorothea Tanning, A Mi-Voix, 1958,
Oil paint on Canvas
Bank Side Gallery
The
second gallery that I went to was Bank Side; this was just a short walk from
the Tate. It was only a small gallery but was full of paintings, there was
space to move but I found there being too many pictures on one wall, it was
overpowering and the subtle paintings were being taken over and not given their
own credit. Most of the work in there was landscapes; this interested me as when
I look at a piece I always want to know where it is they have produced it
of.
The artist that I
found interesting was Artist Sophie Knight who produced ‘Autumn Trees, Saville Gardens, Virginia Water’ made from
watercolour and body colour. Her work has some control yet is loose and allows
the colour to fade together. What has appealed to me is the texture she has
produced, it is soft yet crisp, it relates to the season she is trying to
produce, autumn. The colours also give away the season but the way it is
delicately splatted on the page makes it feel almost warm. After looking at it
for a while I finally noticed that it was a single tree, not in the woods or
forest, making it lonely and the colours fit in with this. The way that the
tree floats down is somewhat out of proportion but this make the piece feel
whole and your eyes follow the pattern of the tree. As well as there being
hardly any detail makes this piece to me overall intriguing and stratifying to
look at.
Sophie Knight,
Autumn Tree, Saville Gardens, Virginia Water,
Watercolour and Bodycolour
Jerwood Gallery
The third gallery I visited was the
Jerwood Drawing Gallery; I was fascinating to see how many different artists
with different styles drew. Artists use different techniques, some realistic,
some scratchy all different but appealing to look at in some aspect. The
gallery flowed allowing me to look at all the work in detail, spaced apart so
that one didn’t dominate the other. The gallery had videos with headphones so
that you could actually see how the drawing was created, this I found useful as
I was able to see how I work is different to another artist.
Jeannette Barnes was the artist that I
was mainly drawn to, this was due to the messy and scratchy marks she makes is
similar to the work I create. There is either an overload of information and
things to see, this can be quite dark and overpowering. Other times the marks
are not as harsh and what she has drawn is minimalistic but still is appealing.
Her main focus is cityscapes which I am interested in as it is always changing
and something to look at, and people as they always act differently, some
rushing, some enjoying the scenery, etc. The media she uses, etching, dry point
or just sketching gives it a new vibe that is given across to the audience.
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Jeannette Barnes
Ticket Booth Grand Central - Etching
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Jeannette Barnes
Empire State
Serpentine Gallery
The
next day I continued to visit galleries; I went to was the Serpentine Gallery.
It was in the middle of a beautiful park and I found it weird that there was so
much space designated to one artist, Marisa Merz. She was part of the art movement
Art Povera. Personally I think the space could have been used well as I found
her work repeated itself far too often and what I did see did not really appeal
to me. She used everyday objects and making new strange objects out of another
media. She did installations, sculpture and paintings all displayed in a
variety of different ways, from hanging to being placed in the centre of the
room on the floor. Personally I find some of her work very morbid and the very
little colour she uses is unappealing or she goes in the other direction and
there is too much colour that clash with one another. Also the marks she uses I
find very random, as if they shouldn't be there.
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Marisa Merz, 2013, Installation
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Marisa Merz, 2013, Installation
Saatchi Gallery
Next I
visited the Saatchi Gallery and I found it useful that each style or media,
such as painting or installation work in all in the same room. The artwork
flows from room to room which made it more astatically appealing when viewing a
piece.
There is a
room that is designated to painting of the artist, Annie Kevans; there is a big
space in the middle that allows the audience to step back and view the work
from afar. Also the work that she has done is a series of paintings all the
same size of dictators in history such as Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin when
they were children, boys. It goes round the room allowing you to scan the room
quickly and compare each picture. What make each piece are the eyes, they are
very dark, like the person in the image is planning something and as it is
about the past we know what they have done. This is what makes it the piece
interesting. After doing some research I found out that they are not the real
faces but plays on the idea that everyone was a child once, innocent.
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Annie Kevans, 2004, Oil on paper, 51x41cm
Hayward Gallery
The final
gallery was the Hayward Gallery, I found again that in some areas were
overcrowded and as if they decided to see how much art they can put in one
room. However some of the rooms are quite welcoming. An artist that I saw was
Dayanita Singh photography work, who tries to relate everyday life; she gives
the truth how it is. She sometimes uses certain coloured films to create an
intense colour. Her work ‘Dream
Villa’ is somewhat magical due to the contrast in colours that is
used, the way the golden lights bounce makes it attractive; it also gives it a
sense of speed in the city, and it is never still. Whereas ‘Poppy’ is the opposite, dark but not that dark that it becomes
depressing and unfocused yet still has the sense of loneliness. It gives
questions like who is this person and why is she laying there like that? This
then gives the images depth and interesting to the audience.
Dayanita Singh, Dream Villa 11, 2007, C-type print, 46 x 46 cm
·
Dayanita Singh, Poppy, 2006, Silver gelatin print, 25 x 25 cm
Overall I
managed to get some great primary research of artists as well as see and be
part of the atmosphere of London. It was a great experience.
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