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)