Barbara Hepworth: Tate Britain

Three things struck me at Tate Britain’s current Barbara Hepworth exhibition ‘Sculpture for a Modern World’ – 1. Her relationship with the landscape and natures’ influence on her work, 2. Her consistent control over her self-image, and 3. Her commissions filling urban landscapes today. In each of the seven exhibition rooms (carving, studio, international modernism, equilibrium, staging sculpture, guarea tropical hardwood and pavilion) Hepworth’s relationship with nature and particularly the seascape of St Ives in Cornwall is palpable, never more so than in room five where a film entitled ‘Figures in Landscape’ describes the sea hollowing out rocks, beautifully echoing Hepworth’s hollowing out of wood and stone in her sculptures. Likewise the exhibition highlights Hepworth’s constant manipulation of how she and her pieces were portrayed to the public, from early on in her career when she carefully organised photo albums of herself and her pieces in her studio with partner and fellow artist Ben Nicholson, to her close interest in how she was represented in the media as her recognition grew, and by the 1950’s her staging of sculptures and creating collages of false backdrops for her pieces. Finally I was surprised to learn how much her art fills the urban landscape, for example her ‘Winged Figure’ erected on the side of the John Lewis building on London’s Oxford Street in 1963 which I walk pass most days oblivious. I appreciated how the exhibition’s loosely chronological approach allows visitors to follow the evolution of Hepworth’s style and her various spiritual, political and personal influences. I also liked that it celebrates the raw materials themselves; tactile marble, lapis lazuli, alabaster, onyx, anhydrite, ironstone, hoptonwood stone, fossil stone, teak, elm, plane, Burmese wood, African blackwood, and finally bronze (a material little used until the end of Hepworth’s career) are all displayed to great effect.

For more information visit their website

The Alice Look: V&A Museum of Childhood

On my way home from a frustrating meeting with my estate agent and surveyor on Saturday afternoon, I passed the V&A Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green and decided that a step back into my childhood and the alluring world created by Lewis Caroll would be the best antidote for my adulthood frustrations. I have been curiouser and curiouser to visit ‘The Alice Look’ exhibition since it opened on 2nd May and it was just the escapism I needed… split into 4 categories comprising Alice in Wonderland’s beginnings, follower of fashion, inspiration and global Alice, it explores Alice’s relationship with fashion since her inception 150 years ago. As a lifelong fan of these books, I was surprised to learn it was Lewis Caroll himself who created the first images of Alice in a handwritten manuscript that he produced for the real ‘Alice’ (Alice Lidell – the daughter of a family friend) minus the pinafore, striped stockings and hairband we now automatically associate with the character. In the first published version she continued to be dressed in a yellow outfit worn by many middle-class Victorian children, and it was not until Through the Looking Glass was published 6 years later that she gained her hairband and stockings. And she wasn’t dressed in blue – the colour most widely associated with her – until the Disney animation in 1951! The exhibition goes on to look at the various reprints and special editions over the last century and a half, her influence on designers, stylists and photographers, as well as her various incarnations across the globe including Swahili Alice in a local kanga dress, and a Japanese Lolita-style Alice. My only criticism is that it could and indeed should have been larger, calling five or six display cases an exhibition is a little misleading and I was left craving more.

For more information visit their website

 

Alexander McQueen’s Savage Beauty: V&A

The V&A’s current blockbuster exhibition ‘Savage Beauty’ closes with Alexander Mc Queen’s own words;  I’m going to take you on journeys you’ve never dreamed were possible” which summarises what this exhibition has managed to achieve nicely. It is a lesson in how to take the museum visitor on a journey (when you’ve got a budget!) and immerse them in a world from Savage Beauty through to every form of Romantic (Gothic, Primitive, Nationalistic, Exotic and Natural), with a ‘Cabinet of fashion Curiosities’ and the designers vivid interpretation of Plato’s Atlantis thrown in for good measure. Each room not only showcases different collections but captures an entire mood; red, black, leather and lace from collections with evocative titles like ‘Nihilism’ and ‘Highland Rape’ immerse the visitor in Savage Beauty, a corridor of skulls and bones leads the visitor into a tribal space inhabited by mannequins with perspex tusks dressed in horse-hair and pony-skin with real crocodile heads used as shoulder pads, and expertly showcases a collection titled ‘It’s a Jungle Out There’, whilst futuristic silver horned mannequins on a white tile floor adorned with digitally created graphic prints and blaring techno music pay homage to Mc Queens last fully realised collection ‘Plato’s Atlantis’. The almost overwhelming double-height ‘Cabinet of Curiosities’ focusses on the designers one-off pieces and with so many elaborate creations displayed side-by-side it is difficult for the visitor to know where to begin let alone maintain attention on one item without your eyes wondering. Clever use of Mc Queens own words to describe his collections and mirrors allowing visitors to view his expert tailoring from every angle make it a poignant tribute of one the UK’S most visionary and rebellious talents – and I’d highly recommend  a visit!

For more information visit their website

Defining Beauty: the body in ancient Greek Art: The British Museum

Regardless of arts funding cuts, £17.50 admission fee seems a lot for an exhibition. This is made all the more acute when you realise the exhibition is largely populated with pieces normally on display for free within the museums’ permanent collection; yet this is how much The British Museum are charging for their current blockbuster ‘Defining beauty: the body in ancient Greek art’. Perhaps my expectations were too high, but with promises to display everything “from the abstract simplicity of prehistoric figurines to breath-taking realism in the age of Alexander the Great” I was left sorely disappointed. The exhibition opens assuredly with five life-size or larger statues including the iconic discus-thrower by Myron (used as the lead image for this exhibition), however you quickly realise the majority are Roman copies or replicas rather than the Greek originals I was hoping to see. Despite poignant quotations on the walls from Socrates, Aristotle and Eurprides, the replica’s become even less convincing in the next room as the blindingly bright colours painted onto statues and gold-leaf Helen of Troy resemble a Christmas grotto rather than an exhibition celebrating classical sculpture. For me, the exhibition also lacked context throughout and failed to give visitors an understanding of the statues original meaning, use or placement. On a more positive note, some highlights include a 1^st century BC Roman bronze baby with outstretched arms which is impressively realistic, the ‘Hermaphroditos’ which looks deceptively like a sleeping woman until you walk around it and see the male genitalia on the other side, and a two inch high bronze statue of Ajax driving a knife into his chest (depicted with an erect penis to convey the trauma of the moment)! Sadly however, these glimmers of hope are not enough to make up for how underwhelming the exhibition is as a whole.

For more information visit their website

Conrad Shawcross: Dulwich Picture Gallery

Dulwich Picture Gallery and contemporary art are not words you hear together very often…. I’d even go so far as to say they’re an oxymoron (although perhaps that’s a little harsh!). Currently however an energetic series of sculptures and an accompanying lightwork installation by artist Conrad Shawcross are on display, adding interest to the quaint south London gallery. “Counterpoint” the name given to the installation is displayed in the Gallery’s atmospheric mausoleum, and the industrial oak and steel frame contrast beautifully against the marble columns and stain glass of the Gallery founders’ burial chamber. In addition, three robust cast iron maquettes (scaled-down versions of the larger Shawcross sculptures recently erected in nearby Dulwich Park) punctuate the length of the enfilade, and deliberately get in the way of visitors usually clear passageway through the Gallery. These too conflict and jar with the heavy red walls, Old Masters paintings and Regency architecture of Sir John Soane’s purpose built space. It is an abstract visualisation of musical harmonics, and displaying the installation and sculptures together allows visitors to appreciate the journey the artist has been on. To summarise; the installation has four spinning arms and at the tip of each arm is an electric bulb, and at the base of each arm a bevel gear. Each gear is set to a different ratio (representing either the octave, fifth or fourth within the harmonic scale) and the patterns of light thrown by this create different ‘knots’ of light when captured using a slow exposure photograph – and it is these ‘knots’ of light which inspired the three sculptures. Love it, hate it or be confused by it – this installation is certainly stimulating conversation and getting people to question what’s in front of them, which is exactly what art should do in my opinion.

For more information visit their website

Plantin-Morteus Museum: Antwerp, Belgium

The Museum Plantin Moretus in Antwerp is a little known Unesco World Heritage Site that up until last weekend I’m ashamed to admit I’d never even heard of! The 440 year old former residence and print-works of Christophe Plantin and his heir and son-in-law Jan Moretus is a unique place to visit; the dark wood and original tapestry interiors smell centuries old, the 17^th century floorboards creak under foot, the gilt leather walls cry out to be touched, and an enviable library fills your nostrils with the aroma of old parchment. The rooms are numbered to help orientate visitors and ensure a set route through the museum, however I still felt free to explore and roam the idiosyncratic town house… crouching under low doorways, ambling up narrow stairwells and venturing in and out of the beautiful courtyard garden the building centres around. It has been a museum since 1876 when Edward Moretus esquire sold the building and its contents to the Belgian state and city of Antwerp for that exact purpose, and it opened to the public within a year. The eclectic collection invites just as much exploration as the building and comprises period furnishing and paintings, 640 manuscripts, 80,000 printed items, 25,000 books, etching plates illustrated by the likes of Rubens, Van Dyck and Jordaens, as well as the two oldest printing presses in the world dating back to 1600. It’s always good to be pleasantly surprised by a less celebrated museum and the fact that I had a fun-fuelled grin on my face throughout my visit is testament to how convivial the building and its collection are. The fact that it is not a “big-name” also meant it was minus the throngs of tourists that its neighbour Rubens House museum had, which only made for a far more intimate and enjoyable experience.

For more information visit their website