Part 1 - Personal reflections

I think that at this stage of the course it might be useful to record one of two observations as to how I have managed the process so far.

Part one of this course focused on Classical and Religious Art, a period I had previously paid little, if any attention to when visiting art galleries or museums.

It is always useful to remind oneself of what you hope to achieve by the end of the course, so reference to my learning objectives, as recorded in my Learning Log at the start of this course is required.

They are as follows

·         Have a better understanding of the relationship between styles and movements

·         Understand how and why styles and movements developed

·         Understand and appreciate the impact of styles and movements in the wider society

·         Learn how to look at art.

Full of enthusiasm I went on a mad scramble to visit art galleries and exhibitions and since September have visited

·         Tate Modern – Miro exhibition

·         Tate Britain – Romantics, John Martin and Barry Flanagan’s exhibitions

·         National Gallery – Dagas’s exhibition

·         Tate Liverpool – Magritte and the Alice in Wonderland exhibitions

·         Manchester Art Gallery – Ford Madox Brown exhibition

·         Lady Leaver Art Gallery – general exhibitions but used the time to focus on Grecian artefacts

·         Walker Art Gallery – general exhibition but focused on religious art.

·         British Museum – focused on Greek and roman artefacts.

·         Cautauld Gallery – general exhibition, but discovered  Wyndam Lewis an artist I have never come across before.

In addition I have read the following

·         A Crisis of Brilliance – (see previous blog entry)

·         Desperate Romantics - (see previous blog entry)

·         The Prometheans – (part way through)

and am developing a reading list (Christmas is coming so books galore ! ! !

Reflections

Therein lies the problem, I seem to have taken a scattergun approach to visiting galleries and museums as well as reading around the subject. The result has been a panic to try and meat the deadlines for the first assignment, having obtained one extension for this assignment already.

If I am honest I’m not sure that I have done justice to this section of the course as a result of all the visits I have undertaken and don’t think I have learnt as much as I should have done in respect of this period of art history.

However visiting the various exhibitions and reading a number of art books, and then recording my observations in my Learning Log has proved to be a useful and positive experience and should not be considered a waste of time.

I have had to reflect, analyse and the record, exercises that have helped with the exercises in respect of religious art and gothic architecture.

One of the challenges I have faced links I suppose to the issue of distance learning - not having the formal set up of lectures and tutorials there has been no one to ‘bounce ideas off’ or to share the learning with, or the deadlines that a more traditional way of teaching/learning provides.

I tend to be a slow starter and only really focus on the required task shortly prior to any deadline; this was always fine at work but I have found this approach not to be satisfactory for this course. Learning should be a pleasurable experience and not a chore whichI have run the risk of letting it become.

I did produce a ‘time table’ for this module which in part was useful for planning visits around family commitments but not quite as useful for the completion of such things as reports and annotations.

Learning

With reference to my learning objectives I would like to think that I have made some progress, not only with this module but in the wider field of art.

Surprisingly I find myself looking at buildings and noticing the architectural style and on occasions where styles seem to conflict, for example the area in Liverpool by St Georges Hall, many of the buildings, the museum, Walker Art Gallery and St Georges hall itself are all built in the classical style, even the Empire Theatre has Grecian columns but at one end of the conservation area we find the Great Western Hotel built in the French Renaissance style – it just seems so out of place !

St Georges Hall

Great Western Hotel

Whilst most of the reading I have done has not been directly related to this module, I have found it useful and one aspect that struck me was just how influential some characters were in the development if ‘movements’ e.g. Ruskin and the Pre-Raphaelites as well as ‘organisations’ e.g. The Royal Academy of Arts, the Slade School of Art etc.

This is also reflected in the module Classical and Religious Art, e.g. Pugin and gothic architecture, the monastic movement and the Craft Guilds of Florence etc.

I have begun to take more notice of art work I would have ordinarily walked by, for example whilst trying to identify a painting for the ‘developing your annotation’ exercise I spent some considerable time viewing the paintings on display prior to choosing Christ Discovered in the Temple by Simone Martini.

Pieta
Ercole de' Roberti
Oil and tempera on wood panel
Painted about 1482 - 1486
Walker Art Gallery Liverpool

Christ Discovered in the Temple
Simone Martini
Tempera  and gold leaf on a wood panel
Walker Art Gallery Liverpool

 

On the day it became a choice between Pieta by Ercole de’ Roberti  and Christ Discovered in the Temple – why one over the other, well I think it boiled down to the three different facial expressions, each seemed to be saying something different.

One thing that has struck me is the debt that we owe to business men during the Victorian period, not only for the funding of many great building but their passion for collecting art, Lord Leverhulm, William Roscoe and Andrew Barclay Walker – all Liverpool business men.

 However there may be ethical issues in relation to the source of art collectors wealth e.g. Liverpool and the slave trade, as well as the art collected e.g. classical artefacts in the British Museum – why a whole temple? What must Greek tourists think when they visit such museums?

Learning points for the next module;

·         Focus on OCA requirements.

·         Develop better time management systems.

·         A little and often

·         Plan visits more effectively – e.g. what can The Walker Art gallery offer for the next module.

·         Time spent preparing for visits will save time later.

·         Make notes as I read the various chapters of the set text.

Alice in Wonderland - Tate Liverpool

This was the first thematic exhibition of this kind that I have been to, and, not sure what to expect, went with an open mind.

The focus of the exhibition was to provide an insight into the creative world of Carroll and the impact that the novels, Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass have had on artists throughout the past 150 years.

Lewis Carroll is a pseudonym for Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, born January 1832 – died January 1898.

One initial observation is that there was no free exhibition guide as there have been in previous Tate exhibitions I have visited...just a minor irritation as I have always found then to be a useful reference point whilst going through the various galleries as well as afterwards when reflecting on the visit.

The exhibition was in two floors, the first (a few exhibits) and fourth (the major part of the exhibition).

I found the exhibits on the first floor a difficult starting point for the exhibition as a whole as they were ‘modern’ e.g. florescent tubes spelling words hung from the ceiling (I should have made better notes for this blog – it might be I visit again and update this entry at a later date).

Entering the main exhibition area the first painting the visitor is met with Alice in Wonderland by George Dunlop Leslie. My first impression was the similarity in style to those painted by members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (see previous blog), and to my surprise on entering further was met with paintings by Rossetti, Hunt and Millais – it would seem that Carroll was a ‘fan’ and collector of the PRB – (strange then that he is not mentioned in Desperate Romantics as many other collectors are)

Alice in Wonderland
Oil on canvas
1879
George Dunlop Leslie

The beloved ('The Bride')
Oil on canvas
1865-6
Dante Gabriel Rossetti

John Tenniel is well known for his illustrations of both Alice books, one gallery had a wonderful collection of illustrations from a wide variety of illustrators, but not as many by Tenniel as I would have thought. One very nice touch were the table and chairs in one corner of a room where there were Alice book to hold and read.

Alice in Wonderland
magic lantern slide no.12
1900 - 1925

As you progress through the exhibition you are shown the photographic work that Dodgson undertook and we meet the Liddell family and Alice Pleasance Liddell in particular for the first time

Alice Pleasance Lidell
Wet collodion glass-plate negative

The exhibition carries on through the world of the Surrealist, Pop and Psychedelic art through to a selection of contemporary art ‘exploring ideas such as the journey from childhood to adulthood; language, meaning and nonsense, scale and perspective; perception and reality.’ (www.tate.org.uk/liverpool)

Dreaming Head
Tempera on wood
1938
Tate

Pool of Tears (after Lewis Carroll) 2000
Intaglio with hand colouring
Courtesy of ULEA, Inc

As raised in a previous blog (Barry Flanagan) I struggle to understand ‘modern art’ and two of the exhibits on show again highlighted this for me. The first by Samantha Sweeting  was a ‘video’ clip on a loop of a dead hare on a piece of grass with its front and hind leg being held and moved to create the image of running – ( see blog on Degas and the comments on Muybridge).

The second by Fiona Banner, this was a description of a porn movie written on a wall, twice.......

At this stage I felt like giving up, not because of my observations in my first entry i.e. ‘ I know what I like and like what I know’...but because if trying to understand and appreciate art is so hard I am better off directing my energies to different areas.

This is not meant to be a ‘cop out’ as I have discovered John Martin, Ford Maddox Brown, will be going to visit Adolphe Valette’s exhibition at The Lowry and have read about the Pre-Raphaelites,  read A Crisis of Brilliance and am currently reading The Prometheans(John martin and the Generation that Stole the Future) by Max Adams and have built up a reading list covering the Impressionists, Wyndham Lewis, Caravaggio,  da Vinci and Michelangelo, so am open minded ... but I just don’t get it, and life is too short to waste time .... I think I had better stop there.... There is a long way to go on this course!!!!!

As a thematic exhibition I got a little lost and didn’t fully grasp what some of the artist were trying to say.... it seems I’m not on my own... ‘All theme shows end up testing the strength of their own premise. This one proposes what it never truly bears out; the idea that Alice has been an inspiration to generations of artists’. (Laura Cumming – Observer - 6th November 2011 - page 35)

Degas and the Ballet - Picturing Movement. Royal Academy of Arts

I visited this exhibition during the October half term, as part of a visit to London linked to this course (see blogs on Martin and Flanagan)

The exhibition was divided into 10 sections;

·         Introduction

·         Describing the dance

·         Mobile viewing

·         The panoramic gaze

·         The human animal

·         The dancer in movement

·         Degas the photographer

·         Dagas’s late years; the animated figure

·         Colour and dynamism

·         Coda

‘This exhibition explores Dagas fascination with movement for the first time, presenting some of the most remarkable pictures and sculptures of the dance created over his long career’  (Exhibition guide – section 1)

To be faced with so many pictures of the same subject area could run the risk of being monotonous, but not in this case. Whilst the subject was dance and the ballet the complexity of some paintings e.g The Rehearsal and the beautiful simplicity of others e.g. Study of legs kept me fully engaged.

There were a number areas that stood out for me, the first being the sculpture Little Dance Aged Fourteen, I have seen this piece before, but it was exhibited with the following paintings/sketches

·         3 studies of a nude dancer

·         3 studies of a dancer in the 4^th position

·         3 studies of a dancer

·         2 studies of a dancer

·         5 studies of a pair of legs

3 studies of a dancer

5 studies for a pair of legs

3 studies of a nude dancer

On one wall of this gallery the curators had ‘copied and split’ the seventeen images from the paintings listed above and placed them around and image of the Little Dancer to show how Dagas had moved around  his model.... ‘Contrary to his usual practice, here it is the ballerina who remained still while the artist himself became an observer in movement’ (Exhibition Guide – section 3)

Little Dancer, Aged Fourteen
Painted bronze with muslin and silk
Tate

One aspect of the exhibition that fascinated me related to the work of Muybridge, Marley and Richer, all of whom were interested in movement and the form of the human body. Muybridge and Marley used developing photographic techniques to show how movement took place. Richer was an anatomist, physiologist and sculpture.

Examples of their work were on display,  two bronzes by Marley, Flight of a Gull 1887 and Progressive Stages of the Flight of a Pigeon 1887, and The Race – Group of Three Runners, by Richer. ( I have been unable if locate any images of these, but have located a series of photographs of a bird which provides an idea of how the sculptures looked and an image of a sculpture of  two athletes by Richer)

Two athletes

Dagas was aware of the work of these three and in fact he made a number of drawings from Muybride’s ‘photographs of horses and female nudes, and some of his sequences of dancers seem to reflect Muybridge’s published imagery’ (Exhibition guide section 5).
Towards the end of his life Degas was once asked why he always painted ballet dancers, he replied that 'it is all that is left us of the combined movements of the Greeks' (pg 30 Observer review 18.09.11)...in ballet Degas found an in an inexhaustible source for his modern classicism with its emphasis on the body' (Laura Cumming Observer Review 18.09.11)

I thoroughly enjoyed this exhibition, there was a wonderful balance between his paintings and sketches and the 'new photographic techknowledgy' with an emphasis on how the two were interrelated.

Barry Flanagan Early Works 1965 - 1982. Tate Britain

I visited this exhibition during the October half term, it was held at Tate Britain at the same time as the John Martin exhibition (see previous blog)

It might be that seeing two such differing exhibitions within an hour ( I had some lunch) was not the best way to view Barry Flanagan’s work, but for whatever reason I really struggled to understand his work.

Flanagan’s  (1941 – 2009) sculptures are ’the product of a unique exploration of the interaction of idea, form, material and process.’ (Exhibition guide 2011) – I have to say I don’t understand what this means (I might do by the end of this course) and therefore I suppose appreciating the sculptures in all of the six galleries was problematic.

The galleries themselves were bright and airy, with few exhibits in each allowing the viewer space to study each piece from several angles.

Flanagan used a variety of materials, sand, rope, cloth and bronze casting which he started to use in 1979.

Working my way through the various galleries, and with reference to the free guide, I was confused by such phrases as;

‘....the context of post-minimalist and anti-form art that prioritised process and material over structure’ (Gallery2)

‘...the two-dimensional beyond the limits of the picture plane; it is a ‘medium of perception’ re framing sculptural form’ (Gallery 3)

It was not until I reached the later galleries did I find pieces of sculpture that I felt ‘comfortable’ with, these being the bronze sculptures of hares, which complimented the two large sculptures in the large internal open space of Tate Britain.

Leaping hare, embellished, 2/3Jan 1980

I think I fell into the trap of saying to myself things like, why is a structure made out of ‘hessian, sticks and string’  which looks like the wigwams we used to make as children art?

Untitled 1970
Hessian, sticks and string

I continued this vein of thought, when walking back to the tube I passed a set of washing lines, one with clothes on, taking a photograph I thought to myself why with a little bit of ‘editing with photo-shop’ would what I’ve created not be considered and  yet ‘line 3 ‘68’ is?

line 3 '68
felt and rope
Barry Flanagan

Blowing in the wind
 2011
fabric, plastic and metal
Tom O'Dwyer

I have much to learn!

It might be that I need to undertake further reading on the subject of ‘modern art’ to gain a greater understanding of what artist were trying to achieve, though I did like the bronze sculptures of hares, I found them amusing and full of life.

Hare with drum

Exercise Pugin on Gothic

What, in Pugin’s view, was the overwhelming advantage of Gothic over other architectural styles?

In attempting to answer this question I feel that’s it important to reflect upon what Gothic architecture is, and for this exercise will focus on English Gothic.

In its simplest terms Gothic architecture is defined by

·         Pointed arches

·         Vaulted roofs

·         Buttresses

·         Large windows, and
·         Spires.

Taken from The Story of Western Architecture

Taken from The Story of Western Architecture

English Gothic can be sub-divided, and each sub-division had its own characteristics;

·         Early English (c.1180 – 1275) – pointed arch known as the lancet, the use of which allowed for a more open airy building, larger windows and a greater variation in proportions as the use of pointed arches created the possibility of spanning higher together with the use of wider gaps using narrower columns.

Salisbury Cathedral (excluding the tower and spire) it is in the Early English style

·         Decorated (c1275 – 1380) – both windows and vaulting became more elaborate. Windows became sub-divided by closely spaced parallel vertical bars of stone (mullions), finishing where the arch started, filling the ‘arch space’ with a lattice work of stone called tracery. Vaults were built with an increasing number of ribs.

York Minster

·         Perpendicular (c1380 – 1520) – windows became larger with slimmer mullions allowing for greater scope for stained glass craftsmen.

Gloucester Cathedral - central tower

The development of Gothic design and the building of Gothic structures relied upon skilled, imaginative and creative architects and craftsmen, and with religion being the driving force of this architectural movement, those who created these buildings did so in the service of god

During the 16^thand 17^th century, Gothic architecture gave way to the Renaissance style until in the 19th century there was a revival in Gothic architecture.

The Renaissance ushered in a more classical approach to architecture, i.e. reference to the Greek and Roman elements of strict proportions, columns (Ionic, Doric and Corinthian ), colonnades and domed roofs, and British architecture was dominated by the ‘classical canon’ until the mid nineteenth century.

During the nineteenth century there was a reaction against impact of the industrial revolution, and a number of voices were beginning to be heard railing against not only the ‘mass production’ of the time but the perceived view in the art world being promoted by the newly established Royal Academy of Arts, ‘Idealisation and generalisation were the corner stone’s of the RA dogma. Nature should be improved on rather than copied.’ (Pg 29.Desperate Romantics Franny Moyle 2009, John Murry)

Pugin, (1812 – 1852), the son of a French aristocrat, developed his love of medieval Gothic  architecture on tours abroad with his father, who worked as an artist and draughtsman, eventually for the architect John Nash.

He converted to Catholicism, a conversion  ‘which left him with a fervent desire to express his faith through architecture’ (www.britainexpress.com/history/bio/pugin)

He identified two rules

·         That there should be no features about a building that are not necessary for convenience, construction or propriety

·         That all ornament should consist of enrichment of the essential construction of the building

Further stating that ‘the neglect of these two rules is the cause of all the bad architecture of the present time..’  (pg 664 A World History of Art – Honour and Fleming. Laurence King 7^th Edition)

Having converted to Catholicism, I would imagine that whatever work Pugin undertook it would be ‘for the greater glory of God’, and given the historical Christian driving force of English Gothic architecture and his love of the style, it seems only natural that he linked faith and work, ‘advocating the Gothic style as a matter of religious principle’.. considering the ‘Italian renaissance style as not only bad architecture but also immoral’. (pg 194 The Story of Western Architecture Bill Risebero 3^rd edition 2002 Herbert Press)

Interestingly, the work, both written and designing had an influence on John Ruskin (English art critic and theorist) He wrote The Seven Lamps of Architecture, which have running thorough them the idea of God and the contribution craftsmen can bring to the building, they are as follows;

• Sacrifice
• Truth
• Power
• Beauty
• Life
• Memory
• Obedience

He in turn had a huge influence art during his like, being able to make or break up and coming artists - the power of the written work to influence is nothing new!

John Martin

John Martin, (1789 - 1854)

I visited the John Martin exhibition at Tate Britain during the October half term. Up until I saw adverts for this exhibition I had never heard of him.

He was a popular artist of the Victorian era, painting large, detailed biblical catastrophes, as well as developing mezzotint images. (Mezzotint is a printmaking process, in which half tones are produced with out hatching or cross hatching. The tonal quality is achieved by 'roughening' up the plate with thousands of little dots, and during printing the the pits hold the ink and the plate is wiped clean.)

The deluge
1831
Mezzotint with etching

The exhibition filled six rooms and were titled as follows

• The young artist
• The blockbuster paintings
• The mezzonites
• Decline, crisis and recovery
• The Last Judgement triptych
• The later paintings and watercolours
  
  

His images are extremely detailed, (the images attached to this blog do not do justice to his work), the landscapes are immense, whilst people and buildings tend to be much smaller, creating the impression of entering into his apocalyptic visions.

Interestingly, when his his works went on tour throughout England he produced sketches/plans detailing aspects of the painting, e.g. listing, buildings and people.. A facsimile was produced for the exhibition, detaing' The Fall of Babylon, Belshazzar's Feast and the The Destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum

The Destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum
1822-26
oil on canvas
Tabley House collection
University of  Manachester

Section of painting, Martins accompanying plan indicated that from left to right we were viewing.

 (13) The Greek temple,

(14) The Greek theatre and soldiers

(15) The lesser temple

Martin has proved to be an inspiration to film makers, authors of science and fantasy fiction, science fiction illustrators as musicians, with his pictures used on a number of album covers.

The epic scenes in such films as Independence day, The Day After Tomorrow and 2012 owe a debt to Martin. Attached are two images, one showing a still from the film 2012 and the second a section from The Great day of His Wrath. The similarities between the two can be seen quite clearly, the large vista and small detail, the image of total destruction.

Room 5 contained The Last Judgement triptych; The Last Judgement, The Great Day of His Wrath and The Plains of Heaven. There was an audio accompaniment, as there was originally when these paintings went on tour in the 1800's.

 

One painting in room 6 caught my eye, Romantic Highland Scene (I have been unable to find an image). The gallery notes stated that 'until now this watercolour has been known as Joshua Spying out of the land of Cannan. However close observation reveals that the main figure wears a tartan and a plumed hat and that the figure next to him is a woman with long black hair. This suggests a Scottish source, rather than a biblical one, possibly Walter Scott's, The Lady of the Lake.'

Having just read Desperate Romantics (see blog) Scott's work was used as source material for the Pre-Raphaelites, and whilst Martin's work is vastly different from the Pre-Raphaelites the influence of the literary world touched many artists, acting as an inspirational source for many.