The Heart of Things

The Heart of Things is an exhibition of paintings and sculpture by Paul Hobbs and Sarah Kelly-Paine at the Menier Gallery from Tuesday 15 - Saturday 28 October, Mon - Sat 11 - 6, Fri 11 - 8, closed Sun.

Sarah Kelly-Paine's oil paintings use earthy colours and patterns drawn from nature and reflect her exploration of the organic nature of a creator God. She writes that the aspects of painting that always thrill her are colour, pattern and story. She finds deep satisfaction in a repeated pattern and feeds her imagination from trees, plants and earth. Her work, with its dots, dashes, flowing lines and circles, has synergies with the work of aboriginal artists.

Paul Hobbs’ conceptual work explores contemporary issues in the light of biblical values. His new installation ”Ten Words” comprises two sets of 165 wooden blocks giving telling glimpses of contemporary stories in relation to some time-worn words. Fragmentation characterises his works; small pieces separated but, like puzzles, which can be built to form a whole.

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Tom Jones - Charlie Darwin.   

Picasso, Duchamp and Craig-Martin

The blurb for Picasso and Modern British Art at Tate Britain states that Picasso remains the twentieth century’s single most important artistic figure, a towering genius who changed the face of modern art. This, in a sense, is stating the blindingly obvious and that the exhibition demonstrates this through the variety and vitality of the art which Picasso created.
The particular focus of this exhibition is on the reception which Picasso's work received in this country and some of the key artists influenced by that work. This is where the current status of Picasso's influence becomes less clear. All of the modern British artists in the exhibition, with the exception of David Hockney, are dead. Generally, the reputation and influence of these artists is (often undeservedly) not what it once was (particularly during their lifetimes). Again, Hockney with his recent and popular exhibition at the Royal Academy is to some extent an exception. But where this is leading is to question the extent to which the artists featured in this exhibition, including Picasso, are actually influencing contemporary art.

While Picasso and Matisse were the towering figures in twentieth century art and the principal influences on much modern art, in terms of influence on contemporary art they would appear to have been superceded by Marcel Duchamp who, by challenging the very notion of what art is with his readymades and by his insistence that art should be driven by ideas, became the father of Conceptual art.

In 2004 Duchamp's Fountain came top of a poll of 500 art experts to be named as the most influential modern art work of all time. Simon Wilson commented: "The choice of Duchamp's Fountain as the most influential work of modern art ahead of works by Picasso and Matisse comes as a bit of a shock. But it reflects the dynamic nature of art today and the idea that the creative process that goes into a work of art is the most important thing - the work itself can be made of anything and can take any form."

Michael Craig-Martin is one of those who have followed the logic of Duchamp’s concept of the ready-made by seeing everyday objects as models for works of art. Interestingly, and through a work (An Oak Tree) which can also be seen currently at Tate Britain, Craig-Martin asserts that this form of artistic creation equates to religious faith:

"An Oak Tree is based on the concept of transubstantiation, the notion central to the Catholic faith in which it is believed that bread and wine are converted into the body and blood of Christ while retaining their appearances of bread and wine. The ability to believe that an object is something other than its physical appearance indicates requires a transformative vision. This type of seeing (and knowing) is at the heart of conceptual thinking processes, by which intellectual and emotional values are conferred on images and objects. An Oak Tree uses religious faith as a metaphor for this belief system which, for Craig-Martin, is central to art. He has explained:

I considered that in An Oak Tree I had deconstructed the work of art in such a way as to reveal its single basic and essential element, belief that is the confident faith of the artist in his capacity to speak and the willing faith of the viewer in accepting what he has to say. In other words belief underlies our whole experience of art: it accounts for why some people are artists and others are not, why some people dismiss works of art others highly praise, and why something we know to be great does not always move us.

(Quoted in Michael Craig-Martin: Landscapes, [p.20].)"

It is interesting to note that, while the stylistic innovations of Picasso could be utilised to depict the central image of Christianity (i.e. the crucifixion, as in the work which Graham Sutherland painted for St Matthew's Northampton), it was through the innovations of Duchamp that the religious nature of artistic creation itself was deconstructed and demonstrated.

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M. Ward - Clean Slate (For Alex & El Goodo).

Anselm Kiefer: Il Mistero delle Cattedrali (2)

For a man who creates massive, magnificently moody meditations on mortality, Anselm Kiefer is remarkably chipper and chirpy when interviewed. Tim Marlow, his interviewer in oe of a selection of Kiefer films able to be viewed at White Cube Bermondsey throughout Il Mistero delle Cattedrali, clearly enjoyed the encounter while professing himself slightly mystified by some of Kiefer's more mystical responses.

Kiefer was very clear about his creative processes, beginning with a clear concept which inspires him to create but which then undergoes significant change in the process of creation with the resulting work often not relating to the original concept at all. Concepts are clearly of significance for Kiefer with this exhibition deriving from his interest in alchemical ideas and processes but his works are so layered with significance that they are much more than and are about much more than the animating concept.

Ronald Goetz has claimed Kiefer as 'a deliberately, if idiosyncratically, religious painter.' He argues that allusions to Kiefer's 'own strangely skewed versions of Christianity, Judaism, gnosticism and alchemy abound, and he has acknowledged that he thinks a great deal about religion ‘‘because science provides no answers."' 'Somber, guilt-ridden, accusing, mocking, enigmatic -- Kiefer’s vision of life, religion, ideology, national identity and history has been charred by the flames of the Holocaust ... The ‘‘God is dead’’ theologians and our current theological deconstructionists can claim a profound ally in Kiefer.'

This is to overlook however the extent to which Kiefer's is a transformative art; one that deals out distressed, decaying or dying imagery and objects in ways that create awe-ful, powerful works which overwhelm with their size, physicality, emotions and ideas. He scores and scars his images into thick paint which dries and cracks to form expansive wastelands in front of which symbolic found objects are hung. His oxidisation technique, another alchemical aspect, seems to mean that these works are never resolved but are always changing, always in flux.

'You have to find a golden path between controlling and not controlling, between order and chaos' Kiefer has observed. 'If there is too much order, it is dead; if there is too much chaos, it doesn't cohere. I'm continually negotiating a path between these two extremes.' This is the creative process which, as he notes, accelerates 'the transformation that is already present in things' and which brings his dead objects and images back to significant, signifying life.

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Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - People Ain't No Good.
    

Exhibition reviews

Today I was fascinated to see, and a little underwhelmed by, Michelangelo Pistoletto's The Mirror of Judgement at the Serpentine Gallery.

Pistoletto is a leading figure in the development of both Arte Povera and conceptual art and this installation has had rave reviews, including the Guardian calling it "a beautiful and mind-expanding experience." As in much of his work, Pistoletti has here made use of religious concepts, imagery and phrases together with his repeated use of labyrinths and mirrors. He has written that "the mirror is the mediator between the visible and the invisible, carrying sight beyond it's normal possibilities" but has also stated  that the "image in the mirror is objective; there is no interpretation.”

Pistoletto argues that at "the beginning of our century, the avant-garde made art again autonomous." "Art ceased to be a symbol of religious and political power" and "actively takes possession of those structures such as religious which rule thought; not with a view to replacing them itself, but in order to substitute them with a different interpretative system, a system intended to enhance people’s capacity to exerting the functions of their own thought." This is where Pistoletto's labyrinth is intended to lead us. We move past symbols of four religions (a prayer mat, statue of Buddha, prayer stall, each before mirror, represent Islam, Buddhism and Christianity respectively, while a pair of large arched mirrors stand in for the Jewish Torah), to a central chamber containing a mirrored obelisk and the New Infinity sign (Pistoletto's symbol for the Third Paradise; a fusion between the first paradise in which terrestrial life is completely regulated by nature’s intelligence and the second Artificial Paradise which is developed by human intellect).

All this background information seems necessary in order to relate to Pistoletti's intent for this work; meaning that the work relies on a literary interpretation. The ambience at the Serpentine, at least as I experienced it, is not particularly contemplative as notices ban the touching of the work (due to its fragility), gallery attendants chat in corners, and there is no sense of the prayer objects inviting use. Visually, the concept is literal; mirrors judge us each time we use them and Pistoletto's installation doesn't alter that experience significantly without knowledge of the literary concepts that underpin the work.

Also at the Serpentine currently is this year's Gallery Pavilion designed by Peter Zumthor. Zumthor's pavilion as a "hortus conclusus", an enclosed garden, also relates to concepts of Eden or paradise. In Zumthor's essay about the pavilion, he begins by writing: "We come from nature and return to nature; we are conceived and born; we live and die; we rot or burn and vanish into the earth."

Out of Australia at the British Museum begins with the opposite; the wilderness inspired expressionism of the ‘Angry Penguins’ group of artists – Sidney Nolan, Arthur Boyd, Albert Tucker and Joy Hester. Arthur Boyd is a favourite artist and his prints do not disappoint formed, as they, through their fevered, passionate mark-making, echo the strength of the content. The exhibition includes an early work in Boyd's highly original Nebuchadnezzar series. Boyd and Tucker both address the passionate and predatory aspects of eroticism, something that also features in Eric Gill: public and private art, the other British Museum exhibition that I visited today. Gill combined sensuality and spirituality in images such Divine Lovers, which forms the centrepiece of this small review highlighting the wide range of his work. The effect that knowledge of the abusive element of Gill's sexual practice has on our response to the sensuality of his work is rightly noted but the primary focus is on his art and ideas.

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The Smiths - Cemetry Gates.

Arts round up

Yesterday I visited Lorenzo Quinn's Equilibrium exhibition at the Halcyon Gallery:

"Having been exhibited on all five continents, Quinn’s works are widely sought after. Major commissions include the United Nations, the Vatican and a sculpture for Bacardi to honour the hometown of its founder in Sitges, Spain. His cultural influence has been recognised in an iconic advert for Absolut Vodka, entitled Absolut Lorenzo, part of a campaign featuring celebrated international artists. Truly international in his outlook and reach he has received wide success in the highly regarded Middle Eastern art market. Highlights include his iconic sculpture Rise Through Education in Doha, Qatar (2005) and a new commission to create an Olympic Tower, to be unveiled in Doha in 2010.

For Equilibrium, Quinn has created 30 new pieces including What Came First?, Love and Home Sweet Home. What Came First? depicts male and female forms, each within an egg-shaped marble hemisphere, displaying the sculptor’s rich figurative symbolism at its finest. The Love series of kinetic sculptures features paired hands, a recurring theme in Quinn’s work, representing the four stages of a relationship. Hypnotic and graceful, the works evoke the hands of strolling lovers. Considered the greatest challenge for an artist depicting the human form, for Quinn hands convey the intimacy of human interaction in a simple, powerful way. In Home Sweet Home, he uses the female form cocooned in barbed wire to represent the claustrophobia and isolation of victims of domestic abuse. Quinn and his wife are active in their work for charities supporting victims of domestic abuse.

Accompanied by his most popular works such as Adam and Eve, Force of Nature and the colossal Hand of God, 'Equilibrium' presents an oeuvre of work mature in style and demonstrative of Quinn’s visceral empathy and technical accomplishment."

Quinn's Give & Take III (see above) is on public display in Berkley Square.

At the Air Gallery I met Paul Hobbs and saw his 'Jubilate!' exhibition. The semi-abstract acrylic paintings in this exhibition are "inspired by natural and architectural forms, and the spaces in between, in creating a visual feast of pattern, colour and movement."

I first came across Paul and his work through an exhibition of his conceptual pieces at the Christian Resources Exhibition and then saw some of the same works at an exhibition in Cambridge. Paul explained that he aims to alternate between these more interactive works and his abstract pieces in terms of the focus of his work and his exhibitions.

Paul also leads workshops in schools, conference centres and churches which are planned to suit a group’s interests, and usually involve a practical exploration of materials and themes used in his own work.

I had arranged to meet another artist, Ally Clarke, at the exhibition; one of several meetings recently with artists as a result of commission4mission. Ally studied Sculpture at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in Dundee and is inclined to create installation works complimented by photography, drawing, collage and print. Enjoying creative collaborations, she has recently worked with a Sculptor/Performance Artist producing film and performance works. It was to apply her visual art skills within a Physical Theatre Company that initially brought Ally to South East London in ’98 and she has been based in Peckham and Camberwell ever since, currently working as Artist in Residence at the Bradfield Club in Peckham.

Rosheen Browning is an artist that works to visualise text with spiritual depth. This could be poetry, quotes or bible. She uses found (and hoarded!) papers and fabrics alongside traditional drawing tools such as pen or pencil. Colour and texture are very important to her and says that she "paints with paper, if you like." She has a background in Graphic Design and is a qualified Art Teacher.

The Henningham Family Press are David and Ping Henningham who have an ongoing programme of performance events and books that they publish and distribute. They collaborate with artists and writers they know to make small editions of books made to last in every sense. They also run seminars and events from their home and other places. Their books have been acquired by several important collections, including University College London, Chelsea College of Art, and the Tate.

Jonathan Bentall aims to paint the numinous. He writes that his aim is:

"a hinted sense of otherness expressed through perceptual imagery. It’s an outcome of meditative/contemplative experience rather than pre-conceived form, and the endeavour is leaning toward the creation of work which seeks to reference the interconnectedness between spiritual and physical dimensions. In terms of pictorial language I’m fascinated by what has been termed the inward and the outward aesthetic. Through the outer manipulation of paint I’m looking for an inner weight to begin to establish its presence; a weight which does not completely abandon reference to our sensual experience of space/time, yet also points elsewhere. I am interested in exploring the invisible, inner core of a painting in the tradition of the mystics."

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Thea Gilmore - Red, White and Black.