The Art of London

I enjoy exploring a range of different galleries and exhibitions both in and outside of London, so choosing an exhibition for this essay proved difficult. I am influenced by many styles and artists who all differ greatly from each other. However, their uniqueness is what interests me. Recently, I have been to the Saatchi Gallery, Tate Britain, and Tate Modern. All of these galleries had beautiful displays and in this essay I will be reviewing my favourite exhibitions and artists from what I saw.

The Saatchi Gallery

At the Saatchi Gallery, I was drawn toward the show room dedicated to Philip Pearlstein. The show specifically focused on his paintings from 1990 to 2017, which was a combination of life drawing, still life, and abstract images. The show consisted of eight large oil paintings of nude women surrounded by objects in a style, which Pearlstein calls, “Post abstract realism”. Philip originally started his artistic career painting and in commercial design with Andy Warhol in New York. After branching out, he worked in the Abstract Expressionist movement in the 1950s before moving onto Realism. He explains that he finds life drawing interesting as the human body is “a shape that is always changing.” In the 1980s, Pearlstein started adding objects into his pieces, often where models are holding or laying across the items. There is evidence of these interesting compositions in his work from the 1980s and throughout his contemporary work. The work in this particular show includes pieces of this nature, going against the norm of typical life drawing. His pieces are bright and colourful, making them eye-catching and interesting. However, his pieces also feel very detached, as there are several different aspects to them which generally would not be seen together. This feeling of detachment entices you as a viewer and makes you want to look into the concept and ideas behind the paintings in more detail. The painting in this show that I like the most includes two women laying across a rug surrounded by models of ducks. I enjoy this piece because it feels less crowded than the other paintings so it is easier to understand what is going on. The colours in this piece of work are generally quite dull, using cool tones, with the exception of the bright rug drawing your attention to it and the woman laying on it. Pearlstein has a very clever eye when it comes to the layout of his work with a specific skill in drawing your eye to the main parts of his pieces, even when there is a lot going on.

Tate Britain

My favourite exhibition at Tate Britain was in the "Art Now" room, which showcases work from contemporary artists. At the particular time that I went, there was a display by Marguerite Humeau, a French artist living and working in London. The exhibition was called Echoes and focused on confronting life and death and the power of nature. It consisted of two white polystyrene sculptures based on the Egyptian Gods Wadjet and Taweret. There were barrels filled with a liquid in the centre of the room attached by wires to the walls and sculptures. The whole piece has a very chemical feel which relates to Humeau’s description of it being "part temple and part laboratory." The whole piece has an Egyptian background which I find very interesting as both an artist and someone who enjoys studying historic events. Echoes mixes the nature of human life with the idea of biological engineering by combining chemicals and poison with the beauty of a temple and peace. In the background of the installation you can hear an electronic musical accompaniment which Humeau describes as Cleopatra’s voice. The walls were painted a toxic yellow, created from the venom of a black mamba python. This continues with the theme of Cleopatra as she was killed by a snakebite. As well as visiting the exhibition, I did further research on this work as it intrigued me. I found a video of Humeau talking about her work and influences. She explains that she enjoys looking into factual history as well as mythical studies. She mainly produces large scale installations, often combining sound and sculpture with the subject matter usually based on history and the idea of life and death. Marguerite states that “Each installation is an ecosystem” and should be an experience. After visiting this exhibition, I can agree that her work is an interesting experience as it is not just a visual piece of work, but also plays into other senses, like sound.

Tate Modern

Towards the end of my visit to Tate Modern, I discovered the artist room for Bruce Nauman, an American artist who produces quite controversial pieces. I have previously researched Nauman so I was excited to see his work in person. I personally think he is a very interesting artist as he often works with wordplay and his work is designed to make you think and question them. The neon piece "VIOLINS VIOLENCE SILENCE," made in 1981, makes connections between words that you would not usually associate together. The piece involves neon tubing and the words light up on a loop, so occasionally they lit up together challenging the "relationship between language and meaning." The bright colours of the neon contrast from the negative connotations of the words. During the 1960s, Nauman joined art movements in Los Angeles and San Francisco which kick started his artistic career. He works with a wide range of media including sculpture, video, and printmaking. As well as words, a large amount of his work is based on investigating the human body, whether it is physical, mental or just phallic. He often uses his own body as a basis for his work through the use of performance and video as well as casting. His untitled piece of a circle of hands, made in 1996, displays several casts of his own hands suspended in a circle, connected by the fingers. When looking at the hands as a whole piece, they appear to be miming penetration. However, when you inspect the hands individually, they could be pointing or displaying the "okay" sign. Similar to his work involving words and language, this piece also could be interpreted in a range of different ways, depending on how you understand and display them. Through using sound and the human voice he also experiments with our need to communicate with each other.

My Favourites

The show of Philip Pearlstein’s work was interesting because of the production and layout of his work, although to improve it, a few of his different pieces could have been added. When looking at this exhibition, it would appear that painting naked women is the only art that he produces, but this is not the case. Instead of having all the same kinds of painting, the show might have better represented the artist if a male life drawing was included, or a portrait. I enjoyed the composition and colour schemes of the pieces the most. My favourite exhibition out of these three is Echoes because of how abstract and unusual the concept is. I have never seen anything like it before. The idea of designing the paint colour to replicate snake's venom showcases that sometimes the concept of the piece is more important than how it actually looks. The sounds in the background allow you to forget that you are in a gallery and lets you feel at one with the work, which is a hard environment to create in a busy area. The Bruce Nauman show room was well presented and displayed a wide variety of the work he produces. With the sculptures and neons in the centre of the room, film and video work to the left, and print to the right, you could easily navigate the show, making it more enjoyable. Increasing the volume of the film work may have improved the exhibition, as it was hard to understand what was being said over the noise of the crowds in the room.

To conclude, I enjoyed visiting these galleries and experiencing the different styles of art on display. I prefer looking at paintings and sculpture as I feel I understand them better and can appreciate them more, as illustration and sculpture are my preferred mediums to work with. The exhibitions I like the least are the film and video pieces because usually they are interviews and footage of people, which doesn’t interest me because I feel that you can view that type of art anywhere on the internet. Also, I feel that, when you work with film, the emotions you are tying to convey do not come through as well as if you was expressing them physically.

Go Outside

I hope this gave you some insight on the interesting things going on in London at the moment. Just remember that there is always something new going on and this was a very small look into the amazing exhibitions out there. I really do suggest taking a look and experiencing the contemporary and historical art scenes for yourself.