Author Topic: What exhibition have you just been to ?  (Read 31540 times)

What exhibition have you just been to ?
« on: 17 June, 2017, 11:39:18 pm »
In my case this is "Alphonse Mucha: In Quest of Beauty" at Liverpools Walker Art Gallery.    This is a touring exhibition which has been shown at several galleries in the UK, each exhibiting their own works by Mucha or work influenced by him.


I like Art Nouveau stuff, and my Mother has a couple of Mucha prints on the wall. 


It's a low light exhibition, as a lot of the stuff was intended as ephemeral advertising materiel and was printed on low quality paper. 


Several of his posters for actress Sarah Bernhardt are featured & his descendant Tasmin Ormond narrates a video about their relationship.   There are the commercial illustrations he did for advertising biscuits, perfume, cigarette papers(!) and bicycles  :D





Other parts of the exhibition showcase his influence on other artists including some with Liverpool connections, and there are several bronzes by his friend Rodin as well as photos of Mucha with his friend & roommate Gauguin, including one of him playing piano sans culottes :jurek: [size=78%]   [/size]

I'll have to see this again, as I visited late in the afternoon & got chucked out before I'd seen everything.  I was also wearing my contact lenses, and the mono vision set up of one eye for distance & one eye for reading doesn't work well in galleries.


http://www.concrete-online.co.uk/alphonse-mucha-in-quest-of-beauty-at-the-sainsbury-centre-review/


http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/walker/exhibitions/mucha/index.aspx


https://annesophieatuea.wordpress.com/2015/11/07/alphonse-mucha-in-quest-of-beauty/


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hellymedic

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Re: What exhibition have you just been to ?
« Reply #1 on: 18 June, 2017, 02:39:15 pm »
I think I saw a Mucha exhibition not that long ago.
Might have been September 2015 in Bournemouth but I'm not sure.

ETA...https://yacf.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=70466.msg1915334#msg1915334

Re: What exhibition have you just been to ?
« Reply #2 on: 19 June, 2017, 05:08:12 pm »
With it due to close at the end of this week, today I got around to visiting the Barbican to see "The Japanese House: Architecture and Life after 1945"

I've been visiting Japan for nearly 50 years, my other half is Japanese, and I've visited many family homes, modern and traditional, but never seen anything like the extreme examples exhibited. It doesn't give any hint of what Japanese house architecture is really like and how it has developed over the years. It's sheer sensationalism curated by pseuds.

A total letdown and disappointment, and I've rather lost faith in the Barbican's artistic judgement.

robgul

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Re: What exhibition have you just been to ?
« Reply #3 on: 19 June, 2017, 06:54:27 pm »
Went to the Hockney exhibition at Tate Britain about a month ago (it finished at the end of May) - some fascinating, and weird, stuff - the more recent pictures of countryside in Yorkshire were splendid - can't say I enthused over the series of nude, virile young men diving into swimming pools in Los Angeles.

... we had also been to the Hockney portrait show last Sept at the Royal Academy - that was excellent.

Rob

Re: What exhibition have you just been to ?
« Reply #4 on: 19 August, 2017, 07:11:23 pm »

Wandered down to Tate Liverpool for "Portraying A Nation - Germany 1919 - 1933"


2 linked exhibitions of the work of photographer August Sander, from his "People of the 20th Century" project and the paintings & prints of Otto Dix. £12 and runs until 15th October.


The Sander exhibition is chronological, with an explantion of historical events & context written on the wall (in poorly contrasting grey ink) showing life & conditions in Germany after the war & the rise of the nazis.





The next part of the exhibtion has a warning that some people may find some of the materiel offensive,  there is a lot of work from Dix's Krieg series, showing his experiences in the trenches, as well as his portrayals of low life in brothels & cabarets many of which were seized & banned by the nazis.  A contrast is the stuff he painted for his friends children & a childrens picture book.








It's a big exhibition & there is a lot to see, but well worth an hour or two of your time.


http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-liverpool/exhibition/portraying-nation-germany-1919-1933


https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/jun/22/portraying-a-nation-germany-1919-1933-review-art-at-its-most-deliberately-obscene


http://www.theartsdesk.com/visual-arts/portraying-nation-tate-liverpool-review-–-inspired-juxtaposition


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/art/what-to-see/weimar-art-delivers-historical-sucker-punch/





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Re: What exhibition have you just been to ?
« Reply #5 on: 15 October, 2017, 11:27:56 pm »
Spent a couple of hours today admiring the Frick Collection. Just Wow! The guy had taste & money. Such a pity he was a thoroughgoing bastard.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frick_Collection[/font]
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Jaded

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Re: What exhibition have you just been to ?
« Reply #6 on: 16 October, 2017, 07:57:01 am »
Went to the RWA Annual Open Exhibition last Thursday evening. Mostly not my cup of tea, but a few pieces I’d have bought if I had any money and wanted to buy art.
It is simpler than it looks.

Cudzoziemiec

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Re: What exhibition have you just been to ?
« Reply #7 on: 02 November, 2017, 08:31:11 pm »
I went with my son, we both liked most of it though certainly not all. Definitely didn't buy anything. This was my son's favourite:


He reckons it shows the sun and a teepee, the artist called it Moonlight and Sailboat.

Got told off for touching an exhibit at I Believe My Works Are Still Valid. There was a wooden crate with slots in, each slot held one canvas and it looked as if you were meant to pull them out to have a look. So I did. Couldn't make much sense of most of it, I'm afraid. Might have helped if I knew Korean!

Went to the Grayson Perry at the Fini. I liked the tapestries, didn't like the pots.

And an exhibition of Terry Pratchett art at Salisbury, which turned out to be more art than his life and work, contrary to the title, so gets mentioned here too.


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hellymedic

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Re: What exhibition have you just been to ?
« Reply #8 on: 02 November, 2017, 11:18:24 pm »
Mum & I went to Poster Girls at the London Transport Museum on Tuesday.

Enjoyed it. We like commercial art!

Found the gallery too narrow to step back, which was a shame.

Jaded

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Re: What exhibition have you just been to ?
« Reply #9 on: 03 November, 2017, 07:56:29 am »
Went to the Grayson Perry at the Fini. I liked the tapestries, didn't like the pots.
Went on Saturday. I had similar views on the work to you.
 Also took some photos, one of which is in have you been out with your Camera today.

edit

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Cudzoziemiec

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Re: What exhibition have you just been to ?
« Reply #10 on: 03 November, 2017, 10:34:14 am »
I forgot to mention Centrespace! It's always worth dropping in on Centrespace as you never know what's going to be there (unless you check in advance of course but I never do). Sometime's it's closed and last Monday it seemed to be still setting up; there were things on the walls but there was a woman hoovering, with big white areas taped off on the floor. However, she beckoned me in and... offered me a cup of tea! Of course I said yes and she brought out some homemade cake too.  ;D Turned out she was a performance artist, her partner does the paintings – though as he explained they're not so much painting as produced according to some pattern he works out based on the 64 hexagons of the I-Ching (no, I don't understand this, but he does) – and they were getting ready for a show with her dancing around the paintings to music they'd written. All based on "focus and stillness". I didn't stay for the dancing and I didn't really like the paintings much, though I did like their metallic colours, but it's not often you get tea, cake and a conversation about metal oxides, the I-Ching, life on the Irish border and in Devizes, Catholic cemeteries and stuff in such random circumstances! These people: http://www.mrplusfm.net/myNewNet/
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hellymedic

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Re: What exhibition have you just been to ?
« Reply #11 on: 15 November, 2017, 08:23:30 pm »
Mum and I spent yesterday in the Royal Festival Hall, looking at the Canon World Press Photographer and 'Inside' - prisoners' art, curated by Anthony Gormley.

There was little 'happy' or joyful in either exhibition.

There is much which is horrible in humankind.

Jaded

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Re: What exhibition have you just been to ?
« Reply #12 on: 30 March, 2018, 03:04:15 pm »
Went yesterday to The Vanity of Small Differences by Grayson Perry, in Bristol, which is shown along with Hogarth's Rake's Progress and David Hockney's interpretation.

Rather good, along with the talk from a member of one of the families used as inspiration.
It is simpler than it looks.

Cudzoziemiec

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Re: What exhibition have you just been to ?
« Reply #13 on: 30 March, 2018, 06:25:32 pm »
Went yesterday to The Vanity of Small Differences by Grayson Perry, in Bristol, which is shown along with Hogarth's Rake's Progress and David Hockney's interpretation.

Rather good, along with the talk from a member of one of the families used as inspiration.
Didn't know about that – destination!
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Jaded

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Re: What exhibition have you just been to ?
« Reply #14 on: 30 March, 2018, 07:23:23 pm »
It's the Bristol Arts and Something Museum.

The one next to the Wills Building, if I've got the name wrong...
It is simpler than it looks.

Cudzoziemiec

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Re: What exhibition have you just been to ?
« Reply #15 on: 30 March, 2018, 07:38:05 pm »
Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery, I think. Everyone just calls it the Museum.
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Aunt Maud

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Re: What exhibition have you just been to ?
« Reply #16 on: 30 March, 2018, 07:50:40 pm »
I took my youngest daughter to see Balenciaga at The V&A, it was very good.

We're going to see Kahlo and Picasso in the summer.

Re: What exhibition have you just been to ?
« Reply #17 on: 30 March, 2018, 09:36:13 pm »
Went to see the Picasso 1932 at Tate Modern.

It was very interesting to see works from a single year gathered together, especially the progression of ideas through drawings to paintings. I'm not a Picasso buff so some might have been lost on me, and I'm certain I wouldn't have gone if I'd had to pay the £22  :o admission price!
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hellymedic

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Re: What exhibition have you just been to ?
« Reply #18 on: 01 April, 2018, 05:22:05 pm »
Many galleries give 'carers' free tickets if they are pushing crips like me around and I get concessionary entry so Mum & I get our cultcha fairly cheaply...

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Re: What exhibition have you just been to ?
« Reply #19 on: 06 April, 2018, 11:41:31 pm »
The Charles I exhibition at the Royal Academy.  Fascinating.  Really well displayed, so the pictures look bright and colourful, not the blackened dead appearance I associate with old masters.  Interesting how much of it was lent by HM The Queen.  I wonder how much of that is normally available to the public, not much I'd guess, hence the point of the exhibition.  The audio thing, the earphones that tell you what you are looking at, definitely added something to the experience too.

And the Living with gods exhibition at the British Museum which, for me was less successful.  The initial exhibit, the 40,000 year old "Lion Man" was interesting, the rest of it not so much.  The choice of items to display was, I thought, odd, given the wealth of material at the disposal of the museum.  It finishes this weekend anyway.

Cudzoziemiec

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Re: What exhibition have you just been to ?
« Reply #20 on: 07 April, 2018, 10:03:55 am »
Grayson Perry vs Hogarth x Hockney, as mentioned by Jaded upthread. No talk but there's a film of how he made it, including various families he met in the course of research, which was interesting. I also liked the preparatory sketches – more interesting, in a way, than the finished tapestries.
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Cudzoziemiec

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Re: What exhibition have you just been to ?
« Reply #21 on: 07 April, 2018, 05:50:48 pm »
Perhaps not a typical art exhibition but still an exhibition: the First World War photographed by women photographers. Some of the images were surprisingly playful, for instance three soldiers on a see-saw (I don't think it was meant to be a see-saw, probably some sort of lifting device, but they were playing on it) and one of a woman in nurse's uniform astride the ruin of a tank, like a conquering hero(ine).
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Re: What exhibition have you just been to ?
« Reply #22 on: 07 April, 2018, 07:21:55 pm »
I saw the Charles I exhibition a couple of months ago, it's wonderful.  See it if you can before it finishes next week. 


Last weekend I visited my local museum for http://www.artinliverpool.com/review-terracotta-warriors/   Several of the warriors & associated exhibits have been brought over from China.  An interesting & enjoyable view, but far too crowded.  A couple of days later I got an email saying that a few more items had arrived & inviting me to a members only evening view  :-)


After that I wandered down to Tate Liverpool for https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/mar/30/kens-show-review-tate-liverpool-non-expert-eye-ken-simons  which has some things I'd quite like on my wall...
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Re: What exhibition have you just been to ?
« Reply #23 on: 13 April, 2018, 12:48:19 am »
Sawdust and Sequins: The Art of the Circus. Bristol

At RWA, which, apparently, is the only regional Royal Academy. All the others are national, apparently.

For me it was patchy, with Peter Lavery’s circus photography being the highlight. It was great to see some of Sir Peter Bake's work first hand, particularly as he was there. Plus we could have bought some of the works, for the price of a half decent bicycle.

An artist at work


Sir Peter Blake cutting the cake


The 160th birthday speech
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Re: What exhibition have you just been to ?
« Reply #24 on: 15 April, 2018, 10:52:56 pm »
A weekend in London getting some culcha.    As a small & teen I was dragged round stately homes & antique fairs by my parents. I didn't enjoy this & as a result treated my art classes at school with undisguised contempt.   Sorry Mr Thomas.... :-[


First stop was Monet & Architecture at the National Gallery.  I've seen some of the pictures of Rouen cathedral & St Lazare before, as well as a lot of the London paintings, but seeing so many of the different versions hung together is quite something.  Well worth a visit.  https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/apr/08/monet-and-architecture-review-exhibition-national-gallery


Next was the Queens Gallery for Charles II - Art & Power https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/dec/07/charles-ii-art-and-power-review-queens-gallery-london
This was OK, but didn't really enthuse me.  Not sure why?  Some lovely paintings & drawings, but the things that made me smile the most were the early papers from the Royal Society, seeing the names of Hooke & Flamsteed  was giving me flashbacks to Stephensons "Baroque Cycle", and for an insane hour or two I contemplated re-reading it !


Sunday I strolled from my luxurious lodgings at Southwark Travelsplodge to Tate Modern, for Picasso 1932. https://www.ft.com/content/66c4f8b8-2159-11e8-a895-1ba1f72c2c11  I've never counted myself Picasso's biggest fan, but felt thats as it was here, and I get free admission (Tate member, I blame a manic pixie dream girl on the desk in Liverpool)  I ought to go.   I didn't regret this at all, it's a fantastic exhibition & the audio guide is really good, I even bought the accompanying book.


Back to the RA for the last day of Charles I , I'd seen this before, but had had to rush it, so paid £20 again to see it at leisure. (The RA is expensive!  It's "Friends" scheme costs far more than membership of the National Gallery or Tate. Even the cafe is pricey!)

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