Art can transcend, take you to new places and new ways of thinking through looking, experiencing and being present. Here's a few exhibitions I've seen this autumn that have made me look & think again:-
Agnes Martin is one of my favourite artists ever since I found her at Uni, so I couldn't miss this retrospective at Tate Modern. It was quite simply mind affirming. So meditative and zen yet so powerful and determined, so true and authentic while mysterious and overwhelming. It was one of the most amazing exhibitions I've ever been to. It's so hard to tell from pictures what they are like, their presence is so great and their silence so loud. I really love her works on paper as well, I'm always drawn to paper works as they are so familiar, so relate-able, free and spontaneous.
My paintings are not about what is seen. They are about what is known forever in the mind.' - Agnes Martin -
I didn't have much time on my short day trip to London but while heading for the train at Euston I popped into the Wellcome Collection to see Alice Anderson : Memory Movement Memory Objects
Which consisted of everday objects from a car to a guitar wrapped in copper thread mostly in blacked out spaces. This was strangely affecting and seeing how some objects had morphed and broken by the pressure of thread was beautiful, such power in such fragility.
I also saw Jackson Pollack: Blind Spots on at Tate Liverpool which was a bit small & mainly large black & white works. I loved his experiments on Japanese Paper and his melancholic energy.
While I was there I also saw the small Geta Bratescu exhibition full of sewn & paper collages, performance and drawing which allow her 'dedication to the drawn line' to dominate. I loved this quote of hers talking about drawing with her eyes closed: "without the 'freedom of the eye' the hand can better explore 'the freedom of its muscles"
and Cornelia Parker's Magna Carta Wikipedia Embroidery at the Whitworth Art Gallery,
What have you seen this autumn?
No comments:
Post a Comment