Exhibitions update

An exhibition of contemporary watercolour painting, featuring 90 works by 80 artists, is now on show at the Mall Galleries, London until Saturday 19 September.

Visiting information: 14 – 19 September 2015. Mall Galleries, The Mall, London SW1. Daily, 10am – 5pm. Admission free. www.mallgalleries.org.uk.

The London exhibition will be followed by The Smith & Williamson Tour to venues across the UK, including Castle Fine Art, Birmingham (10 – 18 October 2015) and Guildford House Gallery, Guildford (14 November 2015 – 2 January 2016).

I visited the exhibition yesterday with Zi Ling who has two works in the show. Zi creates portraits or explorations of relationships by working from photographs with which she feels an intuitive connection. The result, in the case of her portrait Jonathan, is a visceral, expressive image which is among the most affecting in the show.

Tomorrow I will be at The Lovely Gallery in Sydenham for the Private View of Exuberant Flourishing by Clive Sheldon. 

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Rickie Lee Jones - Jimmy Choos.

 

Ernst and Michael Fuchs

'The Vienna School of Fantastic Realism formed in 1946 and included Ernst Fuchs, Rudolph Hausner, Wolfgang Hutter and Fritz Janschka. Arik Brauer and Anton Lehmden joined later. The group saw itself as surrealist although they were already moving away from the surrealist painting of the 1930s towards a more visionary approach. Technically their work had the clarity and detail of early Flemish Painting.

They were quite influential on the continent, but little known or appreciated in Britain. In 1957 Hausner fell out with surrealist orthodoxy after completing his first Adam picture and split from Fuchs and the others to pursue his own vision. Fuchs had already moved away from surrealism into visionary mannerism. He painted a number of paintings with religious subjects culminating in his triptych The Mysteries of the Holy Rosary for the Catholic church in Hetzendorf, Vienna.

His paintings from the late 50s to the present day have extraordinary visionary power. Babylonian Cherubs, visions of Christ and other mythological subjects explore the roots of middle eastern religious experience. The power of colour, form and content set his work apart from modernism.

In 1970, he began to work on monumental sculptures. Later in 1973, he acquired the Otto Wagner Villa in Vienna, which he subsequently renovated completely and which is now the Ernst Fuchs Museum and contains a complete range of his work to date. He then undertook stage designs for operas, especially Wagner. In the 1980s, he had a number of international exhibitions including a retrospective in Venice. In 1993 he had a major retrospective in Russia — one of the first major western artists to do so.'

'The life of Ernst Fuchs has been everything but conventional and filled with extremes. This is reflected in the works of Ernst Fuchs, which are very special and often mysterious. A reoccurring theme in his paintings are religious and supernatural elements, reflecting on his deep spirituality and the fact that he is Jewish and later was baptized roman-catholic. Ernst Fuchs himself mentioned that he always created pictures and images resembling dreams and hallucinations.'

'Michael Fuchs was born in Paris, France in 1952. He spent his childhood and youth with his mother, Geraldine Krongold, in New York City and Los Angeles.

1970 artist leaves America to study painting with his father Ernst Fuchs and Anton Lehmden at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, earning a Masters degree in Fine Arts in 1976.

In 1980 he commenced with studies in architecture under Gustav Peichl at the same Academy, receiving a Masters degree in Architecture in 1987.

Since 1971 the artist has travelled throughout Europe and the USA showing his work in numerous group and one-man exhibitions. Among the many commissions Mr. Fuchs has received, he has persued portraiture with special intensity. The human face, he maintains, is the culmination of nature. He is especially known for his portraits of celebrities, nobility and public leaders as well as private persons and families. His commissions hang in cities such as New York, Los Angeles, San Antonio, San Diego, Knoxville and Washington D.C. as well as Boca Raton, Denver and Santa Fe. In Europe portraits of his hang in Vienna, Graz, Salzburg, Vaduz, Paris, London, Hamburg und Zürich as well as Maastricht and Berlin, Lübeck and in Bremen.

Together with oil painting, Michael Fuchs studied the old-masters technique of etching and has, since 1970, worked continually to build up an impressive repertoire of copper-plate etchings, which have received international recognition. Since 1990 the artist has lived and worked in Klosterneuburg, near Vienna.

In 1998 he was honored by giving his Holiness Pope John Paul II a painting of the Holy Family, during the Pontiffs visit to Austria.'

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Karol Szymanowski - Stabat Mater Dolorosa.

Speaking in tongues

Art Below's Stations of the Cross exhibition at Marylebone Parish Church may be over but Paul Benney's 'Speaking in Tongues' and ‘St. Jude Thaddeus’ from his 12 Apostle series remain on display through May 2015.

The subjects of 'Speaking in Tongues' are all friends and contemporaries of the artist, and are depicted as the Apostles with Pentecostal flames hovering above them. The reflective surface allows the viewer to appear to be part of the group in an extraordinary and thought-provoking way. Benney's depiction of light emanating from the head as an animation of the spirit has echoes in the imagery of many different religions and is a particular fascination for Benney. 

'Speaking in Tongues' follows on thematically from the major exhibition of Benney's widely publicised show Night Paintings at Somerset House, where he is an artist-in-residence. The work brings together Benney's talents as both a contemporary artist and one of the UK's most celebrated portrait painters.

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Talking Heads - This Must Be The Place.

Who are you?

Grayson Perry's Who Are You? exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, linked with his Channel 4 series of the same name, raises important and interesting questions about the nature of identity. Perry writes:

'The fourteen portraits in this exhibition, displayed among the Gallery’s Collection, are not primarily concerned with what the subjects look like. They are images about the nature of identity, snapshots taken from the narratives of people’s lives. Our sense of ourselves feels constant but our identity is an ongoing performance that is changed and adapted by our experiences and circumstances. We feel like we are the same person we were years before, but we are not.

As my subjects I have chosen individuals, families or groups that somehow represent some important facets of the nature of our identity. I have attempted to portray the character of the identity journey they are facing. They have changed religion or gender, they have lost some of their physical or mental faculties, they have lost status, they belong to a group that is hoping it will be seen differently by society. All of them, I thought, show us something of the negotiations we are all involved in, unconsciously or otherwise, around who we feel we are and how we are seen.

For most of us, most of the time our identity works for us so we do not question it. But when it does not feel right, or is under threat, then we are suddenly made very aware of how central and vital our identity is.'

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The Who - Substitute.

David Ritz: Divided Souls and Messengers

I've just finished Sinner's Creed, the excellent collaborative biography of Scott Stapp written by David Ritz. In 1986 I reviewed Ritz's biography of Marvin Gaye, Divided Soul, for Strait, the Greenbelt newspaper, noting that 'While Ritz sticks with his original premise or image the sheer volume of contrasts which he draws out of Gaye's personality reveal someone rather more complex than a simple black/white division of personality would suggest.' Something similar could be said of Sinner's Creed which also revolves around the conceit of a divided soul.

Interestingly, between the writing of the two books Ritz himself became a Christian:

'David Ritz recently embraced Christianity, and Messengers is a tribute to the people who awakened his personal faith and to others, both famous and unknown, whose words—sometimes set to music—have inspired millions of believers. The gifted photographer Nicola Goode contributes glowing portraits of each of them.

There are stories and reflections from Bishop Noel Jones (brother of Grace); Harlem’s own Rev. Dr. Calvin Butts; Rev. Peter J. Gomes of Harvard; gospel mega-stars Donnie McClurkin, Kirk Franklin, Marvin Winans, Smokey Norful, and Candi Staton; Christian life coach Dr. Arlene Churn; Dr. Mable John, a Los Angeles evangelist and former backup vocalist for Ray Charles; Chris Burge, a former Wall Street executive salesman who is saving souls in New York City and is also now a well known author; and a Washington, D.C., pastor who also runs a window-washing business. In voices joyful, clear, and strong, these mighty men and women of God convey messages of faith, love, and hope addressed directly to the heart.'

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Candi Staton - His Hands.

50th birthday party

I had a great time on Saturday at my 50th birthday party thanks to the kindness of family, friends and folk at St John's Seven Kings. I am very grateful for all those who were able to come, all who helped with the evening (my family especially, the Keenan's - with Bob responsible for the wall display above - and Maria Wright), all who contributed to the wonderful selection of food, and for all the good wishes expressed. Mal Grosch did the calling for the dancing, my daughters did the photo displays, while friends from commission4mission showed their creativity in their gifts (see Peter Webb's painted wood relief portrait of me plus Harvey Bradley's mugs above).

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Stevie Wonder - Happy Birthday.