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SUMMER"'l2:.0:05
WERS
PROFILE ANGELA F
The Long and Winding Road INTRODUCTION MIKE VON JOEL
EDITOR MIKE VON JOEL mvj@state-of-art.org DEPUTY EDITOR MICHAELA FREEMAN mif@state-of-art.org ARTIST'S PROJECT BOYD & EVANS CENTREFOLD P15-16 CONTRIBUTORS
ROBERT HELLER ROSIE MILLARD ALAN GOUK PATRICK HUGHES WILLIAM JACKSON LllZY LE QUESNE ROWLAND THOMAS ANGELA NEUSTATTER CHARLES KANE COVER PHOTO STEVE IBB PUBLISHED BY Momentum Publishing, 82 Kings l a n d Road, Lon d o n E2 SDP Telephone: 020 7920 7777
Fax: 020 7920 7770
E m a i l : editorial@state-of-a rt.org Web: www.state-of-art.org Printed by Trinity-Mirror Group. One Canada Square, Canary Wharf, London E14 SAP
ALL MATERIAL © MOMENTUM PUBLISHING 2005
STATE OF ART is an independent publication. Views expressed herein are those of the individual authors and not necessarily of the Editor, the Publisher or Flowers plc.
NEW WRITING ON ART Be ARTISTS ? T h e Ed itors wa nt to e n c o u rage n ew a n d origi n a l creative writi ng on t h e f i n e a rts. If yo u wa nt to p u b l i s h i n STATE O F A RT a n d be .c o n s i d ered for possibl e i n cl u s i o n i n a forthcomi n g a nt h o l ogy of n ew essays o n modern a n d co ntem porary a rt, co ntr i bute n ow!
IF .YOU WANT TO SUBMIT MATERIAL TO STATE Please note the followi n g: . we·do ·not require' 'exhibition reviews'.but any aspect of visual art is accepted. Essays should be 1000 words max .
- of the J'irst page ONLY on o_ne side of an A4 sh�et. Include yo.ur name, email and contact telephone number.
-·:
The _editors regret that no discussion can be entered)nto about any material, either before or after submission.. Successful writers will be contacted in due· course by the editors.
Michaela Freema11
.
_Deputy Edito�
State of Art
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Angela (she is a lways 'Angela' i n the same way Monroe is a lways Marilyn) has never deviated from her belief in the strength and innate qualities of British painting. Even gal lery projects, such as Artist of the Day, were designed to give . exposure to young-or neglected· �rtists who could notb.e taken onto the books i n a more formal way. Luckily, it is a philosophy that her partners and team support 100% and is currently being progressed most dynamically i nto the 21st century by Matth ew Flowers; her second son and Managing Director of the business. The overall operation now incorporates the commissioning and generation of original artists' prints ( Flowers Graphics) and a n art book imprint,. Mome.ntum Publishing. .
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on a floppy disc (or CD) in plain text (.txt or .rtf) with a print-out
Any material can only be returned with anSAE.
Angela
London d�n Flowers c, 3� vears o e
Do you read art magazines? Think you �an do better?
.Send aJI submissions to the Publisher.(address above)
ANGELA FLOWERS IS A legend. Accepted, there are a number of long established dealers in the UK that might be similarly rega rded but should the criteria be narrowed down to those representing living (mostly young) contempora ry British artists, then Angel a is a/most unique. I ncorporate the journey from a smal l set of non-descript rooms in Tottenham Mews to Kingsland Road - a vast, impressive designer space that can hold its own against any gallery in a ny city i n the world - then she is certainly unique. Add to the equation a pri me, centra l space in Cork Street (once the Robert Fraser Gallery) and a compact ga llery on New York's Madison Avenue, then the sobriquet legend is far from being an exaggeration. Attractive, generous and expansive by nature, with the added benefit of a subtle, acerbic sense of humour, a l l combine to make Angela a regular feature in the art pages of the nationa l press. As early as 1988, the critic Ed Lucie Smith even equates her status, in context, to that of Vollard and Ka hnweiler in an essay on British painting for The Independent.
The evolution of the Flowers' gallery makes i nteresting, and. somewhat i nspiring reading, especially as it encompasses one of the most tricky periods for art dea lers i n the UK- the aggressive and ruthless onslaught by the major auction houses i nto the traditional grazing areas of the independent galleries: the private collector and i nstitutional buy�r. The Guard_iim writer Angela Neustatter has known Angela Fiower� sin�e -�he early days i n Tottenham Mews arid once .recorded a deep conversation about .the long and winding road to becoming . . . .
a legend! An extract is
REPRINTED
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SUMMER--2"905
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FROM THERE TO HER 35 years in a London gallery INTERVIEW ANGELA NEUSVATTER IN THE world of Art dealers, where lots of serious push and shove and a well developed line in self-promotion are common fare, Angela Flowers seems slightly out of kilter, with her ready self-mockery, her willingness to tell you all the least successful things about her involvement with Art and the disingenuous way she describes herself as an 'art groupie', implying that she is some bedazzled outsider.
gra phing such artists as Barbara H�pworth and thefr works, and being paid with pieces of Art. She explains:
Director of the gal leries. I spoke with him soon after he had been thus promoted, he said : ' I do believe that 80% of the cur rent success the ga l lery is hav ing is due to me. Most of the en tre p re n e u ri a l s ki l l s I h ave learned a re from Angel a - she's got h uge ta lents but she has no business mind at a l l . She takes her cheque book out and adds things up instead of subtracting a nd she's a lways borrowing the petty cash . . .'
' Friends visiting the house began to think I was interested . An a r chitect friend then put the idea of a ga llery into my head a n d it grew a n d grew u nti l I beca me q u ite s u re that was w h at I wa nted to do. I asked for help from Adrian Heath, who at the time was chairm a n of the Artists International Association, and in due course through the AlA, I was offered the second floor of their premises rent free. I j u mped at the idea, Adrian Flowers paid for
Critic William Packer observed at the time : ' M att h ew runs two ga lleries a nd a mother'.
S H E CAN BE found at Flowers East, the la rgest of her gal leries and located just East of the City - tagged by sociologists as Lon don's most deprived a rea and noted by those interested in such things that it probably has more working a rtists per square meter . than Chelsea . Or maybe at Flow ers Central, a prime site·in the · heart of London's art world, Cork Street W1. Angela's passion for the work of her proteges is more than just commerce - she feels pangs of loss when the bits she has grown fond of are bought or taken away, and to circumvent too many pain ful partings she buys what she can herself. She looks too, to her original partner [and now h us band] Robert Helier, an enthu siastic patron of the arts, to do the same. Their modernist home in Highgate Vil lage has little wal l space or surface area left. She is feeling buoyant and opti mistic a bout the state of the art at p rese nt, a n d s p ec ifi c a l ly· about her galleries. But getting there has not been easy. I visited Angela on more than one occa sion at the gal lery she opened many yea rs ago in Lisle Street, i n Lo n do n 's West E n d , to fi n d her despairing over finances and the fact that ·she c·o uld- not get the world to share her enthu siasm (at least not to the point of purchase) for the a rtists she . had taken on. Today the change in fortunes is remembered as the date when Angela's second son Matthew became Managing
None of which worries Angela. She acknowledges the val ue of Matthew and the money-raising,'· p u b licity-creating schemes h e has generated in the past as wel( as the ' not ba<;f nose he has developed for finding new a rtists - · but knows that none of it could have come to pass without the ' co m p u l sive, i m p u lsive' ea rly risks she took. Her interest in Art first developed when her ex-hus band Adrian Flowers was photo·
Time for everyone: Angela with Sophie Herxagimer at �ork Street Party July 1989
the floor and the lighting a n d I had to find the a rtists to exhibit in·the gailery.'· Angela Neustatter: Did you have
a clear idea of what you wanted to do- was there a concept? 'My concept, my intention, was the. same then as now - to look for y�u n g "a rtist� a nd have a n u nfrightening ga l lery. I a lways said I would not show artists who
6state
state of art
ists Internationa l Association was not a bit pleased. Commit tee members resigned and a press release was sent out say ing I must not be ca l'l ed the Ange l.a F l owers GaHery but Angel a Flowers at the AlA. I don't know why to this day, especia l ly as they were getting a commis-
are dead or go further back then 1952. There are two reasons for that, I find it the. most interest ing approach and a lso life is hard for younger artists. 'At exactly the right moment Stu dio International organised a bus trip for critics. I joined it and we were ta ken to about seven a rtist's studios and it was from that trip that I found John Loker. He was a young a rtist then. I a lso knew Patrick Hughes' work. He had a lready had a fair amount of recogni tion and was exhibiting at the H a nover, but then that closed so I offered to take him on. I went to see Derek Hirs t and asked him to show with me. So with D e r e k a n d Patr i c k. H ughes I found myself picking up a couple of artists who seemed to h ave been u nfa i r l y dropped by galleries.'
tions. That has a lways seemed to me the point of it all - having a vision and being able to make it public and see if it excites other people.'
People weren't buying Art in the Seventies you say, yet they are doing so now. What brings about
....
That's right! '
There are a lot of peo ple, at any one time, who would like to open an Art gallery. Was it as effortless as you make it sound? 'Oh no, but I did have a l ucky th ing happen. I went to the John M o o r e ' s p r i ze-g i v i ng at t h e Wal ker Gallery in Liverpool and Tom Phillips h a d won second prize and was there. He was al r e a dy q u ite esta b l i s h ed, of co u rse, a nd was being a p proached by several galleries but he decided to come to me be cause I was the only one pre pared to h ave m u s i c playing while he was having h is exh ibi tion. Before opening I had made a point of getting to know sev era l of t h e critics so w hen I opened things went with quite a bang. But, do you know, the Art-
......
sion from my sa les.'
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By the time the lease on these premises had ended. Angela had met Michael White and Robert Helier w h o were prepared to back her. Premises came up in Portland Mews and she moved the gal lery there. But that was short-lived. The early Seventies was .a bad ti_me for selling art, a nd Ange l a fo und t h e bi l ls mounting and her nerves in bad s h a pe. S h e sold the lease_ to clear her debts and decided to operate ·from home: ' I worked th ere for e l even months or so, but I couldn't bear not being able to _put on. exhibi-
course it is nice to think you can invest money sensibly in some thing that is a lso pleasurable to have in your home. Bob Helier was asked to write one or two ar ticles around that time for the Fi nancial Times, on the subject of investing in Art. The fact is Art does go up. He did an analysis of the stock m a r ket which revealed that Art is a very good stock to have. I think people do ta ke notice of s u c h things.' W h en a p la ce came avai lable in Tottenham M ews Ange l a . once more raised the money and d ecided to try again. During the time working at home she had been nurturing her a rtists - Patri c k Hughes, lan Breakwell, John Loker - and felt that they were improv ing a l l the time. The gallery got off to a good start and put on exhi bitions the critics liked but they were not able to sell enough from the shows to be profitable:
....
So there was an ele ment of socia l con science?
SUMMER 2005
the change? What makes peo ple decide Art is a good thing to buy suddenly? 'Someone tells them.'
Divine intervention? A voice from above commanding them to go forth and purchase? ' I wish it were. In fact I think it has bee·n hard head�d business thinking. J ust before I began to see the change there had been some very big sales, particularly big ones of American col lections and that was being talked about. Art was being seen aga in as something with intrinsic value, -some!h ing worth �aving, and of
'We rea lised that we needed to do some thing to stimulate inter est in the gallery and to raise our profi le. Bob, Ange la Eames and I came up with the idea ofthe Artist ofthe Day which has been very successful and is wel l established now. What we do is to ask an established artist to recommend another artist and then we give them space to put . their work on for a day, and we publicise it and invite the critics. lt is a brea k for the young artist and obviously the fact they have been chosen by a.n established and successful artist is very good for them. Among the eminent a rtists to c hoose h ave been Elisabeth Frink, Anthony Green, Rola nd Penrose, Gilber t a nd George, Eliza beth Blackadder
and from the young artists se l ected Angela took on Nicola Hicks, Lu_cy Jones and.Tim Lewis,
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S'E�tte·-·of art SUMMER- 200'5-
who she describes as a genius.'
How risky is it taking on new art ists - what sort of an investment? ' lt is pricey these days. You h ave to feel fairly confident they are right for the times as well as ex cited, personally, by what they are doing.' During the years at Tottenham Mews Angela instituted the badge exhibition which she described as 'a gimmick that worked'. She got a wide range of her artists from the very well established - such as Tom P h i l l i ps and Patr i c k H ughes - to the newest and youngest, to design a badge and she exhibited the badges and the drawings which led to them. She also had a large-scale manufac ture of the badges to put on sale. They have since become collec tor's items. The other scheme to boost fortunes was the Print of the Month club, which Matthew set up. Angela explains: 'That was how he earned his pro motion. Before that he worked for me, very much as a paid em ployee with fairly lowly status, but he was proving very good and keen, and I can say that putting maternal indulgence to one side, so it seemed right to give him a more responsible role. Once he became Managing Director he began to take the business of making us profitable and more popular very seriously. With the Print Club, members have to buy four a year and we have a very wide range of work. Sometimes we p u b l i s h them o u rs e l ves, sometimes we buy in and prices range from about £60-£500. I think it's a good way for people to have worthwhile Art around if they cannot perhaps afford origi nal paintings. Another thing I feel stro ngly a b o ut is t h at Art sho"uldn't be for a rich � lite only, but one has to balance that with sel ling pictures which have taken a lot 0� work and time at a price Which means the artist and we can l ive. ' There are n o gimmicks these days:-'Angela rightly believes that
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t h e F l owers o peration h a s moved into ' a different league': ' lt happened because our artists real ly starting taking off, getting good critical notices and they began to sel l wel l . We took on Peter Howson, o n e of t h e G l asgow artists, and N i c o l a H i c ks a n d Amanda Faulkner have both done very wel l . And opening the first Flowers East was a very good move, it was well r e c e i ve d by t h e c r i t i c s , o u r established customers, and we got a l l sorts of new people from the Hackney area. We opened at weekends and that seemed to be a time quite a lot of people who work in the week come to see. lt's always a gamble - big ones - a n d with o ut B o b ' s [Helier] help, i n every way, none of my galleries wou ld have been possib l e . H e a ls o ta ught Matthew a lot of business skills which, indirectly, have been vital. There are all sorts of romantic notions about s uccessfu l Art dealers being instinctive creative people who spot genius, bring it to public attention and that is that. That may be a part of it, but as much it is about making tough economic decisions and trying to get a formula right. We started attending the big internationa l Art fa irs - C h i ca g o , B a s e l , Frankfurt, and again, that was a calculated investment of money and time, but it looks as though it was the right move . . .
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it annoys me when people worry about artists changing style. I never see why they shouldn't. lt doesn't invalidate their work be cause they don't have a single approach - people get very in volved with artists they l i ke.
Isn't there a proprietorial thing when people look at pictures, a
You have seen a lot of Art move- ·feeling the artist ought to have ments in your years running gal- done this for me, so that if it is leries, what appeals to you most? wrong they feel put out?
Is it, perhaps, seen as second best, there's the feeling anyone ccin take a photograph so it can not really be Art? Yes, that is probably right and yet it isn't true of course. Good p h otogra p hy is very diffi c u lt to do and the reason I go on show ing it is that I think it expresses
1970 : In the Begin ning Clockwise: John Loker,
The upsurge of the new British figuration - which has been go ing for a while now- excites me a lot. The spirit, the liveliness and inventiveness are exciting and it is the style a lot of very good youn� artists are using. I also have a bent towards Surrealism, and there is quite a strong feel ing for the abstract just now: I have never been very keen on Minimalism, althoug� I have a lqt of respect for the techniques and the skil l that goes into it. What I also l i ke is that artists will move between styles sometimes and
Exactly. And as a dea ler one of the things you have to work out is what w i l l and wil l not a ppea l to your customers, and try to guide them to someth ing which they w i l l l i ke and want. And also try to explain what the artist is doing·if he or s h e c h a·nges di rection. I've a lways s hown-pho togra p hy_ beca use·l 've a lways collected it a nd I consider it a wonderfu l Art form at its best. But I don't manage to sel l - th e En g l i s h · s e e m n ot t o b u y p h otogra p hy, e�c e pt ·at t h e specia l ist ga l l eries.
Brendan Neiland, Roy Ascott, David Troostwyk, Derek H i rst, Angela Flowers, Patrick Hughes, Lis Sutton , Tom Phil l i ps
far left· Angela with ceramic artist.and art critic Em manuel Cooper.at a Flowers East private view, July 1989
state of art ·SUMMER 2005
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and once you have a fixed notion of what Art is and should be it can be very restrictive.
diffe rent fee l ings, a different viewpoint to painting, although not necessarily different subject matter. I remember our exh ibi tion of Adrian Flowers' work. He was determined to demonstrate that photogra phy need not be shown in the usual way, so he blew photogra phs u p and put them on canvas. lt was stunning but expensive. Other a rtists of mine who have used photogra phy, but from the standpoint of a rtists trained as painters, are lan Breakwell and David Ward. I feel strongly that in my position I should be trying to break down prejudices and push the bounda ries. I don't like the idea that we draw a box around something de fined as Art and that is it. In taking on new, young artists one is always looking for new ways, new ideas,
ESTATE
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A n oth er ga llery in Irela nd? where did that fit in? I re l a nd is my bolt h o l e . As a mother of five children and one ofthem, Rachel, who has Down's Syndrome, needing special care, I have never felt I wanted to work absol utely every hour. I've felt that family life and some space for myself were important. So the house in Ireland was seen as an esca pe to tranquility. lt's an old cottage in West C o r k , b u t I loo ked at the back and won dered about putting some Art there. Some yea rs ago I con verted it into a tiny ga llery and put on an exhibition of an Eng-
lish painter who was living in Ire land. The second year we had a wonderfu l exh ibition by Nicola Hicks with scu lpture in the fields and her stunning drawings in side. The Northern Ireland a rtist Felim Egan exhibited as wel l . I got a bit of criticism at first for not using a l l Irish artists, but I ex p lained that my point was to bring them Art they m ight not otherwise see, and that seemed to be satisfactory. lt worked well even though it was only open for three weeks a year. The locals came, which I enjoyed very much and it gave me quite a different response.
So now, looking back over these years and being regarded as a doye n n e o f the a r ts, wha t pleases you most?
art market
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61 works; as opposed to 2003, when 66 works raised only$7.5 million. Interestingly, in the contemporary market, it was Damien
Saatchi Gallery. The auction houses act as a
Hirst who leapt into second position last year
barometer of fashion and trends, as well as establishing, regulating and re-enforcing
with total sales of just under $24 million, whereas his previous year's sales would have
placed him well down the order with a turno ver of a mere $4.5 million, but from less sales. It would therefore be foolhardy to use
price ranges in all categories of art. From these, the most fascinating and revealing statistics are analysed and published by vari ous art market information organisations, the most informative being Artprice. But this is
by no means a new phenomenon; as far back as 1968, the late Willi Bongard published his annual 'Kunstkompass', which ranked contemporary artists on the basis of a points
record prices for Maurizio Cattelan for his
New York for $2.7 million and Damien Hirst's The Fragile Truth sold by Sotheby's
London for £1.12 million. Other works by John Currin, Murakami, Rachel
system. The highest number of points would
be achieved for a major museum exhibition but more would be gained for reviews in
prestige art magazines and still more as a result of acquisitions by major museums and galleries. In the 1980s, Anselm Kiefer was
continually at the top of this list, whereas currently it is Gerhard Richter and Sigmar Polke who are contesting the top position. It would seem that there is a certain German bias in the 'Kunstkompass' list, which still
continues to be active, as other information would indicate that both Jasper Johns and Damien Hirst command sigruficantly higher
sales at auction than the Germans. One might suppose that in the event of a million pound Richter being sold at auction, the order of
·things would change. But according to the results of 2004, Jasper Johns' sales were an
_
has been auctioned since 1990. The market share though has remained fairly constant with the US sustaining a dominat ing 46%, followed by the UK with an aston ishing 30% of the world market irrespective
of EU import tax constraints. Significantly, the French market shrunk 2% to 7.2% but remained substantially greater than the rest
of mainland Europe. In the Far East there
these rankings as a reflection of an increased demand for an artist's work without analys ing the quality and quantity of the particular pieces. Even so, it has to be acknowledged
was little indication of a re-emergence of Japan, though the Hong Kong market
grown', with the �xception ofWarhol and curiously Jean-Michel Basquiat, whose works are still attractive to, and much sought after by European buyers and collectors. Both the American and British auction mar kets m 2004 increased by over 30% from that
The battle for supremacy between the two
that the market for the American Modernist of the post war era is very much 'home
of the previous·year and could well surpass the heights of 1990 in real terms this.year. The world wide annual auction sales turno ver, discounting eBay, grew to over 3 billion dollars despite the reduced niJ!Ilber of trans action. One report even suggested that cer
tain Impressionist artists would never reach
the price levels of 1990, indicating that even such notable paintings as Renoir's Au
Moulin de La GaZette sold in May 1990
for $71 million, would now sell at a loss as the average Renoir prices have since
fallen by 47%. This is a quite ludicrous statement as no Renoir of mllseum quality
Guardian. She contributes regularly to many major newspapers and magazines.
La nona ora, sold by Phillips, de Pury& Co.,
comment WILLIAM JAC .SO
results have more influence on the Art Mar ket as a whole, than any other activity or event, be it the Turner Prize, B.asel or the
journal ist well known for her work with The
the fact that the demand for his work was greater in 2004 than for any other artist world wide. Of the younger artists, the year saw
ps l&ne
impressive 24 million dollars, achieved from
A n g e l a N e ustatter is a p r ofes s i o n a l
Turner Train sold for an amazing $4.9 mil lion by Christie's in New York, re-enforcing
c loc
THERE IS LITTLE doubt that auction
Obviously the fact that I have managed to get through the hard times without losing my good artists so that today I can see them being successful, which is wonderfu l for them and for me too. And because I am addicted to Art it seems peculia rly fortu nate to have been able to make a life like that. But what makes it stil l better is that I 've managed to integrate it with my private life, my fa m i ly life. Bob is very in volved and, as I 've said, he en joys the Art and buys it, so we share that v�ry closely. And then there is Matthew running the ga l l e ries. So work and life are wonderfu lly intertwined . . . '
remained strong and is the one to watch as China emerges as potentially one of the great economic powers of the next decade.
giant auction houses in the 2004 season was clearly won by Sotheby's, who handled 223 ·of the 378 works selling for over a million dollars each. Their great success was as a result of the dispersal of the Whitney Col lection which included Picasso's Garcon a la Pipe, selling for an all time auction record
of$93 million. Other sensational prices were achieved for a Gauguin at$35 million and a Modigliaoi selling for $28 million. Of the top ten sales , nine were auctioned by Sotheby's and one by Christie's being Monet's London, Parliament, effect of sun in the fog, selling for$18 million. In the contemporary market, which rose by 17% in the year, there were 22 works sold for over one million dollars. The highest price was for Jeff Koons' Jim Beam J B
Whiteread and Jenny Saville realised record
prices, underlining the demand for these artists in the prime market. The Artprice 2004 ranking of artist by auc
tion turnover revealed some extraordinary. statistics and does in fact clearly demonstrate how quickly fashions change. Top of the list, inevitably, was Picasso, but what was so re markable was the enormous increase of value from 2003 of$75 million for 1,650 works to
$240 million for 1,264 works in 2004. Other l?ig movers were Matisse, up from no.78 in 2003 to no.6, with a total for fewer works of $38 million; Manet, up from no.706 to no.14 on $25 million and Fontana up from no.33 to no.15 and a turnover increased from $8 million to $25 million.
state of art
STATE O
SUMMER 2005
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opinion ROBERT HELLER
I c..
APPEARANCE AND reality are the
say, by scribbles which look to be guar
twin pillars of art At the simplest level,
anteed tum-offs. More important, per
the magnificent self-portrait by
haps, boring work sometimes sells for
Rembrandt that hangs in Kenwood ap
exciting prices. The high sums paid for
pears to mirror the great painter's face
videos, photographs, ready-mades,
and costume. In simple reality it is an
multiples, etc. by 'new' artists attract
assemblage of marks made in vari
media attention and are fed by it- wit
ous colours and strokes of pigment
ness the astonishing contents sale of
on a flat surface. Over the years this
Damien Hirst's fa iled Pharmacy
duality has become the theme of an
retaurant.
unending conflict between artists; those to whom the subject matter is
Somebody paid £600 ,000-odd for
vital, the end to which the physical
commercial dining chairs worth a quar
reality is a means, and those to whom
ter of that in stores, simply because
the means is also the end.
they had once been chosen (maybe even sat upon) by Hirst. Would the
This was highlighted in April by two
buyer have bought so extravagantly if
abnormal exhibitions. The Serpentine
Hirst had not received mountainous
showed rubbish gathered by a re
publicity? To ask such questions is ab
spected artist, Takahashi. Part of this
surd. Hirst has become a brand, and the
work was its fmal distribution to gal
brand value, just like that of a new
lery visitors. Over in Germany another
scent, is created in large part by the
respected artist, Vanes sa Beecroft, got
marketing activity. It may be a coinci
scores of women to spend hours, na
dence that the biggest backer by far of
Hirst has become a brand, -
.
and the brand value, just like that of a new scent, is created in large part by the marketing activity.
prices, that is a market verdict which has to be accepted. But you don't have to agree. If you believe that a work of art is trite, boring, imitative, inept, un interesting, unworthy, self-regarding, etc. etc., by all means say so, and never mind whether or not it has been se lected for the Turner shortlist.
a plinth or easel if they saw one.
If, on the other hand, you believe that
But Tom is right, artists should be
tifs in an intelligent and evocative man ner is terrific, say that too, and fulfill
an artist who handles intelligible mo
ked save for transparent tights, exhib
the Hirst Tendency, Charles Saatchi,
iting themselves in Berlin's New Na
was an advertising man of rare genius.
pleased that anybody is putting
tional Gallery. In both exhibits the act
But this is one of those coincidences
nioney into art, especially big money.
the rest of your duty by urging others
of creation and its meaning, if any, are
in which I choose not to believe.
Here motives and taste are immate
at least to study the work- even if that
rial. In the end, the conflict will be
doesn't lead to purchase. Diversity is
It has seemed to me that this clash must
resolved by time. Art has no finite
in the very nature of art, and its sup
It doesn't matter that once you've seen
cause resentment between artists; that
value, only the value of the money
pression by the market or by appointed
tights-clad nudes showing their
makers of genuine appearance art -
that a given person at a given mo
and self-appointed priesthoods is the
breasts, you've done that. Repetition
in which the magician/artist transmutes
ment is willing to exchange for the
enemy of all artists.
art in question. Whether the price is
one and the same.
100
somehow doesn't remove the stamp of
inert materials into simulacra of real
novelty, which is one of the driving
life, engaging fantasies, enchanting ab
justified is neither here nor there.
forces behind this false realism- false
stractions, etc. - would understand
Who knows? I know nobody who be
the Hirst Tendency - bad reviews in
i� the same way as reality TV, which is
ably resent the art of false reality. Af
lieves that Hirst's dot or spin paint
New York for possibly bad paintings,
There are signs of a reaction against
so unreal as to be positively surreal.
ter all, the magicians see publicity;
ings are worth either buying, or more
reassertions by respected critics of
The art world has shown endless en
fame and sometimes fortune disappear
than a casual glance, but the auction
the virtues of historical greats, deri
thusiasm for the repetition of concepts
ing in the direction and into the pock
rooms offer a different opinion- and
sion directed at a massive tome in
that one might have thought had been
ets of publicist/artists whose work they
who am I to argue?
which fashionable academics seek to
Me, that's who. Fashion in art is like
paintings. Let's face it: emperors do sometimes think themselves newly
exhausted by great originals like ·
expound how we should all look at
may feel self-evidently inferior.
Marcel Duchamp long decades ago. But Tom Phillips, for one, refused to
fashion anywhere, it encourages mis
Moreover, you might expect media that
agree when we both addressed the
placed enthusiasm and excess, not least
clad when actually naked, but that
quite recently poured derision on Carl_
Angela Flowers Gallery's Chri_stmas
financial excess. If an artist like Hirst
phantom folly is part of the price that
Andre's bricks at the Tate to be posi
dinner in 2004. To paraphrase him
gets elevated to millionaire status and
must be paid to enjoy the real thing.
tively outraged by the recreation of a
(I hope fairly) he saw the alternative
slut's bed, using the original objects
artists, like all such movements since
playing themselves, so to speak. Not a
modern art began,
bit of it. The Turner Prize shortlists and
searches for different modes of ex
as legitimate
the media headlines (increasingly re
pression; and its reception as some
spectful) go to art which is esoteric and
thing to be neither deplored nor cel
often platitudinous, even boring. But
ebrated, J:>ut just treated as a fact of
that doesn't matter, either.
life.
-I ��ve been called a Rogue Elephant, a Cannibal Shark, and a Crocodile. I am none the worse. I remain a caged, and rather sardonic, Lion in a
He didn't feel, as I did, that
.
plinth sculptors and easel painters Boredom is a psychological condition
were being unfairly shunted down
which embodies a reaction to the
into the first division, while the pre
'work'; it is as valid as its opposite,
mier league places went to newer peo
excitement; admirers may be turned on,
ple who wouldn't know what to do with
particularly contemptible and ill-run zoo. PERCY WYNDHAM LEWIS
BLASTING AND BOMBARDING 1937 ..
state of art. SUMMER 2005
1 ostate
�RT Never mind the quality feel the ratings STATEO .
.
opinion ROSI
obviously going to garner cover age; the Royal Academy's sensa tional show ofBotticellis' pen and ink drawings for TheDivine Com edy was one such case in point.
Others benefit from bringing the marketing people in and drum up
MILLARD
press excitement about, say, a
long-lost painting which has mi ITS TRICKY. GETTING an art
show will make it onto a bulletin
need, and are willing to spend time
raculously surfaced in time for the
work onto the pages of a newspa
but an equally interesting exhibi
and energy catering for it; others
exhibition (Tate Britain's Tudor
per, or the running order of a tel
tion of, say, de Hooch, will not.
haven't got that zeal. Tracey
show had one such painting, a
Emin's touch withjournalists has
portrait of Henry V III's elder
Which leaves a huge crowd of art
probably cemented her sponsor
brother Arthur), or a notion of as
files and so on in the arts pages,
ists jostling for attention in the
ship from the likes ofBeck's Beer
tonishing value (the press sur
but actually commanding a slot in
other camp. This is what one
and Vivienne Westwood, but may
roundin g the opening of the
evision news bulletin. I'm not talk ing about coverage, reviews, pro
the news pages. What makes a
might call Water Cooler art. And
not guarantee her artistic immor
Gilbert Collection dwelt lovingly
certain painting, or sculpture
it doesn't matter if the artist him
tality. Coverage on the news may
on the worth of theFaberge Eggs,
newsworthy? and why does the
self or herself is eminently respect
or may not increase the value of
the English silver and so on).
media seem as if it prefers certain
able; if the art work is sensational
an artists' work, but probably
artists over others? Why are some
in any way, It will make a head
doesn't; the turnover on Cork
Quite apart from events and exhi
artists always going to end up
line or two. Into this vat one can
Street reacts to subtler influences
bitions, however, artists would be
speeding onto the agenda, while
therefore pop Bill Viola, whose
than whether Bill Viola, or Anish
wise not to try and market
others languish in their slip
naked man on the door ofDurham ·
Kapoor is appearing on the Six
themeselves as 'newsworthy'.
Cathedral got everyone talking,
O'Clock News. Martin Creed was
Doing something which is delib
Anish Kapoor, whose Sky Mirror,
undoubtedly 'hot' following the
erately provocative can have an
To understand why some art is
a parabolic mirror outside Notting
global coverage of his illuminated
unfortunate habit of backfiring, as
news, and other art is not, you need
ham Theatre was (wrongly) cred
room at the Turner Prize, but that
the scampish antics of The
to understand the tortuous way arts
ited with the potential to
has probably worn off by now.
Stuckists, never tire of revealing.
news is usually flagged up to a
geons and therefore obviously a
Equally, Grayson Perry, about
Theirs is the sort of approachjour
news editor, which involves the
hilarious story, and of course the
whom it could be said has become
nalists are wearily familiar with.
stream?
fry
pi
reporter either "selling the story"
king of arts news himself, Damien
to a busy desk by the attention
Hirst.
grabbing device of either a huge name or an outrageous art work. .... Hirst, who combines a pleasing This is why Lucian Freud's murky
media savvy with the ability to
portrait of the Queen got on the
make pieces which look knockout
news, because it involved both.
on television, has now become so
Paradoxically, Freud's constant
adept at commanding the news
refusal to be interviewed on tel-
agenda that he threatens to leap
evision or in print has probably
from the Sensational camp into the
... turnover on Cork Street reacts to subtler influences than whether Bill Viola or Anish Kapoor is appearing on the Six O'Clock News. into an almost perfect arts news
Sort of "What time is your march/
also heightened his appeal. Yet
Huge Name division, as does
item, was selling his pots for good
demonstration going to happen?"
DavidHockney, who clearly rather
Antony Gormley. But not yet.
m oney
his
Response: "Whenever you turn
likes being interviewed is also an
Equally, if Tracey Emin an
transvestisism and enviable verbal
up." Which clearly will not do. Not
long
before
artist grand enough to command
nounces she will be at an open
fluency made him a good egg on
least does it make the artist look
the attention of the news crews
ing, the news cameras get sent
late night television chat shows.
silly, but does not factor in all the
whatever he does;
hence a new
along, not so much to shoot her
Hockney exhibition or offering,
art work, which can sometimes
whether an opera set or the cover
myriad other rationale behind a What, then, can be gained by a
running order on a news pro
look a bit delicate on the screen,
high media profile? There is no
gramm e or lineup on the pages of a newspaper. Artists may not like
of the Bradford phone book, will
but to record what she has to say.
doubt thatturning the TurnerPrize
have its shout on the news.
The opening and rechristening of
into a television spectacle has ben
it, but the truth is that their mugs
Tate Britain only made the BBC
efited Tate, whose admissions for
will not get onto the bulletin unless
This "newsworthy because they
One O'Clock news because Tracey
the Turner rocketed once it al
it is a reasonably slow news day.
are great" brigade of artists is a
was in the lineup on the steps.
lowed the cameras in. Art 'events'
There is nothing like death and
limited one, however, and only
Why bother with a shot of (say)
such as the Monet, Cezanne or
destruction in the real world to put
contains a few other names along
PeterBlake when you have Tracey
Vermeer blockbuste:rs also profit - creativetypes firmly in their place.
sideFreud andHockney; Eduardo
in her designer gear camping it up
from giving news rooms "exclu
Paolozzi is probably up there, as
for all its worth?
sive access"; but those shows would have probably been sell
is Bridget Riley. Naturally the news editor has had to have heard
This sounds overtly cynical, but its
outs anyway. Very clever galleries
of the artist in question, which in
not meant to be. Some artists have
can sometimes get the cameras
cidentally is also why a Vermeer
understood what the newsrooms
into smaller shows which aren't so
Rosie Millard is Arts Editor of the New Statesm a n and was Arts Correspondent for BBC News, 1995-2004
state of art
state 1 1
SUMMER 2005
Rem Koolhaas at Casa da Musica Porto February 2005
courtesy of The New Yorker
tra d iti o n a l portrait. A b u i l d i ng is made by m a ny people, we should i n c l u d e some of t h e wo rke rs . I wou ld l i ke the photogra ph to i n c l u d e t h e envi ron ment outside of the con cert h a l l , maybe with my back to camera " We d iscussed my i d eas, that I fou n d the sta i rcase a n d its rad ica l perspective very in teresting and that we would be able to create someth ing together here. Koolhaas peered i nto the ca mera . . . the view i s compositionally interest ing of cou rse but what can we make ha ppen with in it? I suggested mak i n g a l o n g expos u re , Koo l h a a s sta n d i ng sti l l whi lst workers wa l ked past h i m a p pea r i n g b l u r red . H e l i ked the idea a n d w e moved o n . T h e previous d a y I h a d a d m i red a n e n ormous r i p p l ed glass w i n d ow over 60 m etres long. Stopping i n fro nt o f i t Koo l haas p u l l e d i n a you ng student a rch itect, obviously overawed at being incl uded in the photogra ph. As I looked through my cam era , the glass bent a n d d is torted the faces very sl ightly as I moved the tri pod, rather l i ke the long m i rrors in fa i rgounds elongate or com press a reflection. Stra ngely over the origi n a l m a n uscript of the
REM KOOLHAAS
THE FI RST WEEK of February 2005 I attended a meeti ng with El isabeth
Biondi, senior creative di rector of The New Yorker. Elisabeth's office
work and was keen that the loca tion should be a site u n der con struction with a l l its i n herent prob
career. Five days later I was flyi ng over Porto, the concert h a l l easily
visible below, its d ia mond shape glea m i ng i n the sun. A tour of the
a rticle I had written the word Dis
tortion. Kool haas is a m a n of m a n i festos. I h a d a rra n ged for la rge cards to be on hand a nd suggested that he write slogans that had a p
is on the 20th floor of a modern
lems rather than one site a l ready built. Casa Da Musica , the new con
block a bove Times Square. I had
cert hall in Porto was a l m ost fi n
it was to change traditional typology
pea red i n
joined as staff photogra pher th e
of a concert h a l l , Kool haas h a d
previous month and the magazine
ished and d ue to open in April. lt see m e d t h e o bv i o u s c h o i c e .
succeded a nd h a d i n fact created
t h e ca rd s . "A rc h itectu re is Too S l ow" " K i l l the Skyscra per" were
was keeping me busy. I had a l ready
El isa beth a n d I were aware that
a building that was tota lly contem
two, he declined the latter but not
worked on three assignments. "How would you l i ke to photogra ph Rem Koolhaas?" My i m med iate re sponse, yes, was q uickly followed by where? Kool haas is one of the most i nteresti ng a rchitects working today. He is a cham pion of the new
i nterior confirmed that d ifficu lt as
Kool haas wou ld a l most certa i n ly
pora ry. There were too many possi
the first a n d scrawled the words
want to be i nvolved i n the creative
bilities to photogra ph h i m i n , but it
across the board . I fi n ished with a
process, a situation that was both exciting and worryi ng. I n a nticipa tion of that it was i m portant to have
was i m perative the portrait include the environment. I particula rly l i ked the sweeping fi rst floor stai rcase
portrait of h i m nervously clicking his pen whilst sta ring out atthe hall. There was an i ntense atmosphere
plan ned a strategy.
a n d decided to begin there.
d u ring this last portrait a n d he said he looked !o rwa rd to see i n g the results.
As is the norm with N ew Yorker as
Next morn i ng wh ilst setting up cam eras ana l ights we were i ntrod uced. Rem Kool haas is tal l ... 6' 4" a n d
Seattle Libra ry is spectacular and
sign ments, books, articles and pho tographs get sta.cked u p on my stu dio desk. One i n particular "Deliri ous New Yo rk" writte n i n 1976
i n n ovative a n d places h i m as one of the leadi ng l ights of modern a r ch itecture. I am a n admirer of h is
caught my imagination. The book was the manifesto of a young a r c h itect at t h e b egi n n i n g of h is
and voices open contem pt for many modern trends i n a rchitecture. H is ca nti levered d esign for the n ew
Deli rious New York on
ca n a p pea r ste rn . H e has close
I had left my copy of Del i rious New York on top of a camera case. Rem had spotted it a n d picked it up with
cropped hair, bright blue eyes a n d a n eagles sta re. He was i m medi
a sm i le . On the i ns i d e page h e
ately d i rect. " W h a t h ave y o u pl�n ned? I a m not i nterested i n a
wrote , " P h otogra p hy is too s l ow too ! " ·
state of art
1 2state
M E N T
the spectator.. The contrast between these two qualities causes the seer to adjust his presumptions about where the window is. All my work is con structed in reverse perspective. My
The Man on the Flying Trapezium
rooms etc. appear to recede, follow ing the painted perspective clues rather than the obtrusive lumps of wood. The planes appear to move to accommodate our guesses as to where they are. This is similar to the hollow mask which appears to be a positive face. The intaglio effect, where we see a negative space as a positive one, must be as old as clay for early man must
N PATRICK HUGHES
K HUG H [eS
ATR
SUMMER 2oos
have noticed that, for instance, hand prints in clay appeared to be hands when given the right illumination. I have built this wish to perceive an
K
ACCORDING to the O.E.D., Euclid (c.3 00 B. C) used the word trapezium
i
for all quadrilateral figures except the
•
square, rectangle; rhombus and rhomboid, but he did not go into the varieties of trapezia. Proclus, who wrote commentaries on Euclid's geometry in A.D
unlikely hollow as a likely prom
.
450, kept the name
.
r---...
.,.
"'
inence into my work. Compared to the hollow face my work is at a dif ferent level of abstraction. In those plaster casts, detail is point for point
I
the same, a bit like a photograph. In my work the artificial perspective, an abstraction from natural perspective,
trapezium only for quadrilaterals
is the thing. There is much less lit
having two sides parallel, subdivid
eral accurate representation. And all
ing these into isosceles and scalene
my planes are 45 degrees to the sup
trapeziums. In my art I make scalene
porting wall, there is no overall per
trapeziums. The interesting thing is
spective -- as the floors show. Just as
that trapezium is Greek for table, a
the mind makes a picture ofthe world from its roving observations -- so dif
table in perspective.
ferent from a camera -- my reliefs Perhaps ancient Greek scenic design
construct a sense of space from a
ers used artificial perspective. The
series of disparate representations.
Romans did, there are doors in Pompeiian frescoes that are trapezia.1
A key detail of the inverted faces is
The trapezium js the classic form of
the importance oflighting the hollow
perspective. When used with its par
from below, to mimic the usual light
allel lines vertical, a trapezium can
ing from above. Because my work is
represent rooms or buildings or
not hollow but prominent, the light
doors, or any rectilinear structure.
ing is a little easier. But I do fmd it
The top and bottom edges represent the height of the spectator relative to
1652,
important to paint light and shade
rect geometry. Perhaps Brunelleschi
colonnade, in Rome,
is made
into adj acent planes to distinguish
used a camera obscura, a dark box
in false perspective in stone. In
them, and to reinforce that with spot
implied to be where the top and bot
with a pin-hole, precursor of the
Samuel van Hoogstraten's Perspec
lighting on exhibition.
tom lines are extended to meet.
modem camera, which throws an
tive Box with views of Dutch Inte
the obj ect. The vanishing point is
upside-down picture of the scene Adelbert Ames Jnr's Rotating Trap
ezoid Demonstration is a painting of
outside on to the inside of the box. The rationalization of perspective
rior, c 1 660, in the National Gallery, London, walls are, to some extent,
The virtue of my array of trapezia,
made in perspective. Ames's Rotat
roof or sky, and another represent and its rectangular frame amounts to
ing Trapezoidal Window works very
a window as a trapezium. It is stuck
was a pivotal moment in Renaissance
on a stick on a turntable that slowly
thought -- a coming together of
well with both eyes open and from
and regularly rotates the window. But
geometry, technology, skill in paint
various positions.
the window seems to move j erkily,
ing, and the social idea of the in
backwards and forwards in a myste
dividual point of view.
ing the floor, is that the whole a:rray a picture governed by, loosely, the rules of perspective. There is special
My own constructions also work very
rious way, as we entertain different
topped by a plane representing the
fun, rather like a eat's cradle of string,
well with both eyes and from many
in seeing the way in which the sepa
ideas about where it is in space, and
Ames's terrific innovation was to
points of view. Since this quality does
rate parts accommodate each other
then give up those ideas to adopt
make his window in perspective
not reproduce in photographs -- it
by stretching and shrinking and turn
others. Artificial perspective shows
rather than to merely draw it, and
does in moving film -- you will have
ing in unison. Neuroesthetically
things usually from the side or from
then to move it in front of the spec
to take my word for it. My paintings
speaking, we have perception per
above or below. It is a drawing of
tator. Perhaps the Gubbio studiolo
do not have to be mechanized like
ceived, which results in confusion.
Ames's window, for as the viewer
the further they are away from us. But
( 1 4 72-6), installed in the Metro
politan Museum, New York, where
walks across the floor one sees great
The sequence of development is, first
when you make a window in perspec
there is a whole room with perspec
lumps of space turning round in the
to draw in artificial perspective on a
tive it has a unique shape which im
tive intarsia (inlaid wood) is a step
opposite direction to our movement.
flat
plies a viewer's position.
on the way to constructing it in per
As the Ames window turns, the per
Hoogstraten and Ames, to shape
spectiv e .
spective goes the right way (this is sometimes called forced perspective,
planes in perspective; and then in my
because it is perspective exagger
together and in reverse, with the fur
things as if they were getting smaller
In
the
fourteenth
c entury
And
P alladio
and
S camozzi ' s Tea tro Olimpica in
1580,
p lane ;
s econd,
like
v an
case, to add a number of these planes
Brunelleschi rationalized the per
Vicenza,
spective system with vanishing
manent sets are made in perspective.
ated) and then the wrong way with
ther part of the door or wall nearest
points and horizontal line and cor-
And B oromini 's Palazzo Spada
the vanishing point turned towards
to the seer, and the closer part further
whose wooden per
..:
- state of art
state 1 3
SUMMER 2005
away. A further development I have added to Ames 's strategy is that I do not use mechanical motion but use the movement of the viewer. His moving window results in a p er ceived oscillation where the move ment is in fact regular, my viewers p erceive the trapezia as moving though they are not, and to the same extent that you move.
rotating counter-clockwise soon ex p eriences himself or herself rotating clockwise and the drum as station ary. Similarly in the Haunted Swing illusions people perceive themselves as moving and the room which is moving around them as stationary.2 But these set-up s govern your entire visual field, my art works �hen seen in a room from many p oints of view.
The thing about vision is that it is just not vision. We may stand still to look at paintings and sit still to read, but this is artificial, we naturally move around and interact with the world. Near things move faster in our visual field than further things, so as we move about this ' motion p arallax' tells us where we are relative to our environment. When you move about in front of my pieces this informa tion is completely misleading, be cause my pictures imitate the reced ing of reality in detail, but in large making receding reality advance to wards you. Marcel Duchamp says somewhere that the spectator is half the art experience, the artist only the first half, and I am pleased that in my p ictures this is p articularly true. When people are not there they do not work.
I think that the power of artificial perspective, whose basic sign is the trapezium, is based on gravity. The force of gravity is vertical, but it re sults in a lot of horizontals as things rest on the surface of the earth or parallel to it. When the horizontals of floor and ceilings and roofs and doors are seen as receding they make a trap ezium out of their oblongs. Lines and edges that are aligned with gravity are usually perceived as ver tical... and ones that are parallel to the horizon are usually perceived as horizontal. This fact is evolutionarily important because of the ubiquitous and portentous effects of gravity on survival. The usefulness of being able to tell the difference between gravitationally upright objects and tilted ones is difficult to overestimate. Upright objects tend to be relatively stable in gravity, whereas tilted ones are likely to fall over.3
Why do my still p aintings appear to move ? Your eyes are telling you that you are moving to the left, while your feet are telling you that you are mov ing to the right. We prefer to believe these solid bodies are moving than our bodies and eyes are out ofkilter, as if we had been sawn in half. And they continue to move even when you have been to the side and seen how they are constructed. A stationary person seated inside a drum that is
I pai nt objects as I th i n k the m ,
_
n ot a s .1 s·ee th em PABLO PICASSO
CUBISM JOHN GOLDING 1959
Painters paint not their subj ects - otherwise Canaletto would have been a p ainter ofVenetian houses, a house painter -- but the space between them and their subject which ends at the subject. In my pictures the spectator creates space and moves it around. Lump s of it turn like a chorus line in unison. They stop the moment you stop . We have the mental power to move mountains. There is a conflict between what you think we know and what we perceive. The obliqueness of perspective is a virtue in itself. Head-on is not the best way to learn about things. We need an angle. One way of making something unique is by taking some thing away from it, making it useJess, making solid space. If p ainting in p ersp ective a s practiced by the Renaissance was a reaction to the camera obscura; and if Cubism was a reaction to photography, even ster eoscopy, in its wish to represent ob jects from different points of view; then Hughesque reverspective could be seen as a reaction to the cinema and television in its wish to make moving pictures. Films are projected at 24 frames per second. At about ten
The vestibular system of the middle ear tells us about our balance, as do other parts of the body, for instance the feet and the buttocks. When this information is added to the visual information neurologically, we usu ally know where we are i:i:l space. But in my illusions our movement with our bodies is contradicted by infor mation from the eyes.
frames per second they are perceived as static images. My guess is that my pieces seem to move, like films, be cause the rapid succession of percep tions adds up to a presumption of movement. My aesthetic has three main parts: an examination of geometry as allied to perspective; a consideration of rep resentation, how pictures of things, b o oks or landsc a p e s , convince p eo p le ; and the i m p o rtance of chiaroscuro and colour in distin guishing planes. My researches ex amine the visual p erception of space, the importance of edges; and the in tegration of contradictory clues. These researches inform each other, and help me make pictures which follow you round the room.
NOTES 1. Wh ite, J, 1957, The Birth and Rebirth of Pictorial Space, p.261, London, England, Faber and Faber. 2. Hughes,P, and Wade, N, 2002, 'Perceptual Pilgrimages', p.1160-1161, Perception. 3. Pal mer, S.E., 1999, Vision Science, p.333, Cambridge, Massachusetts, MIT Press.
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Heron to Patrick's studio at St Ives in March 1985, to write- a n introduction for the cata logue of t h e fo rthcomi n g B a rb ica n Gallery exhibition . Patrick had a bout of shingles and was tucked up in bed in London with. Pierre Sc hneider's book on Matisse. I kept saying, much to Katharine's a n noya nce I 'm sure, ' But they are not finished ! ' That was my first response, a nd says much about 'where I was coming from' as the America ns say. I hauled out a much earlier pictu re from a store room where it had lain since the 1960s: Fourteen Discs July 20 1963 and preferred it. 'This one must be in the show' I insisted, no doubt impertinently.
In 1998 the painter Alan Gouk visited the late Gallery to view a retrospective exhibition of works by his friend, the late Patrick Heron. Subsequently, he made an essay length entry in his journal which incorporated reminiscences dating back to 1965 and his days at the British Council. This extract offers an intimate and informed comment on Heron's evolution as one of Britain's foremost abstract painters.
AN EVENING WITH PATRICK
RON : JULY 1198
Retrospectives a re s u pposed to afford fai r-minded people the opportu n ity for fair-minded comment, to see beyond petty partiality, tb savour and weigh, to form a ba lanced and dignified judgment on the h ighs and lows (if there a re a ny) of a n a rtist's development. Some hope in Patrick's case, given the record of ritual abdication, of confessional critica l impotence, which has dogged appreciation throughout his career.
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lt was the day after the longest day - 22nd June - and a sunny one at that, staying bright late into the evening, perfect viewing in the louvre filtered light of the late's modern wing. I ' l l leap to my ma in impression . The square room (No.6) which ushers in the remarkable post-1982 resu rgence in Patrick's spirits has fou r superb pictures, but Big Purple Garden Painting July 1983-June 1984 takes the pa l m . I found myself b l u rting qut an involu nta ry exclamation of a mazement and this was the fifth time I 'd seen that pictu re,_ in d iffe re nt setti n gs. lt h a s p ro m pted t h e biggest _ove rh a u l _of _ assumptions in !TIY life as a painter. Why had I not seen right away how great it was? (its red companion is perhaps equa lly good in a d iffe re nt, eve n more risky way) . So m u ch for insta nta n eous perception and the involu ntary judgment of the eye!
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I'd first seen Big Purple Garden Painting and others like it (though not the red one - it had n 't been painted-yet) on avis-it with Katharine
top Patrick Heron selects Alan Gouk for Artist of the Day i n 1994. Courtesy Flowers East
ARCH IVE
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top right Pa ďż˝ l Feiler, Patrick Heron and Bryan Wynter at the Arnolfi n i , ra re a rch ive press photo. Courtesy Redfern Gallery, London
Now Fourteen Discs is a great pictu re, one of Patrick's very best. What struck me right away was the strongly satu rated, yet h a rmonio us co l o u r, a n d that momentary deep-delving plu nge of t h e scyt h i n g edged b l u e , which sets everything roc ki ng and bou ncing (gently of course, as in all Patrick's work) a punchy b u t a ve ry s pa c ey p i ctu re , inexhaustibly spacey, miraculous really. lt teeters on the edge i n more ways than one, a n d that is w hy it rema i ns so exciti ng. lt h olds the pivota l point of the exh i b iti o n i n t h i s exc e l l e nt h a n g i n g (by N ic k Se rota a n d staff). The 1950s build up to it, a nd the 70s pictures fall away from it. B u t to ret u r n to f3ig Purp le Garden Painting. I saw it next at t h e Ba rbica n i n J u n e 1985 , w h e re it bega n to come o n stronger, a few yea rs later at Wad d i ngtons', a nd again in a group show Colour in Modern Painting at Stoke City Art Gallery in 1990, before it finally went to Canada. At Stoke it bega n to dawn on me j ust how gently, persuasively, it h a d insi n u ated itself i nto my imaginatio n , a n d h ow good it rea l ly was. The ga l l e ries were la rgely artificia lly lit, and yet this p ictu re brought a dra ught of fresh s p ri n g- l i ke n atu ra l l u minosity in to the- rooms. Its
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pa le l ight and de l i cately t h in paint winning out over a l l the competing 'strong' colours that surrou nded it: t h e 1-:!ofm ann, N o l and and Bush infl uenced 'abstract' colours, my own work included. I felt it was the best painting in the show, better even than Fourteen Discs which was also present (though it's a close run thing even now). Yet sti l l not h ing h a d q u ite prepared me for the surprise at the Tate in the evening light, eyesig h t ada pted to t h e disconcertingly dark and light absorbing saturated reds and d e e p v i o l ets of t h e 1 9 7 0s pictures, of wa l king into room N o . 6 . Th ere was Big Purple Garden Painting again, all of a piece, a l l of a sudden, a magic moment of supreme assurance by an artist at the height of h is powers (and he would do it again in 1994 with the Camden Art Centre pictures). How Heron had managed to pick h i ms e l f u p fro m t h e t w i n disasters that ended t h e 1970s, exhaustion and the death of his wife Delia, we shall never know. N o doubt h e h a d h e l p fro m fri ends and fa mily. B u t p i c k h i mself u p h e certa i n ly d i d . There i s a characteristic and rather touchingly tentative essay by Alan Bowness in t h e Tate cata logue, a re-printing from 1972, to explain the tendency for pa inters to t a ke l onger a nd longer to reach maturity as this century has progressed, there being so much to assimilate from t h e e a r l ier pioneers (of abstraction for instance):
'I have a suspicion', he says 'that the grand gestures possible fifty and more years ago can 't be made today... ' 'As far as the public is concerned the painter of the late twentieth century is as likely to slowly impose his personality on his contempora ries as he is to suddenly break through. That moment of break-through will continue to exist, as it must mark an essential stage in any artist's
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development. But I expect there to be a growing awareness about the stature of certain artists, a realisation that what may have s e e m e d p e riph e ra l, even ligh tweigh t, in fa ct has a relevance and a fundamental seriousness which may surprise us... ' 1 Why t h is s h o u l d be s o is a complex issue, which probably says more about the m indset of c u ra tors, critics, libera l-a rts counci llors and administrators (in t h eir headlong p u rs u i t of academic novelty) t han it does about t h e painters. But as a general observation it is, I think undeniable. I endorse it, and a p p l a u d Bowness for h i s candour and reticence i n raising it. ' l dio�atic innovation' , that darling of the curatorial mind, is somewhat less than half of what it is that draws us back again and again for sustenance to a great work of pictorial art. To extract t h e fu l l w e i g h t of pictori a l potentiality, to bring it to fruition,
is as hard if not harder than the initial statement of the idea. This is why it is often m inor artists who innovate, and major artists who fulfil I. r think of J C Bach and Mozart, of Jongkind and Boudin in relation to Monet; of Gris and Matisse; of Satie and Debussy, if indeed Satie was first with anyth ing (Lockspeiser has his doubts). Picasso's Demoisel/es d'Avignon or Stravinsky's Rite of Spring, are only unprecedented to those unaware of the rich mix of influences which gave rise to them. What makes them original is t h e i m proba b i l ity of t h eir synthesis and the pressure, as El iot puts it, under w h i c h t h e synthesis ta kes place.2 The m id to late 20th Century wit h the obses s i on u n precedented is, i n fa ct, a blight on understanding of the forces which shape great artistic periods where artists pl undered one anot h e r free l y a nd surpassed the sources of their borrowing. Indeed, why borrow at
Pa i nti ng is si lent poetry - a n d poetry is painti ng with the gift of speech . S I M O N ID ES
DE GLORIA ATHENESIUM
a l l if one is not able to surpass one's sources in some aspect or anoth er. To be obsessed with origina l ity is a sign of fear that one has only a little to give and that it can be stolen. There was no s u c h fea r a m on g t h e ( Ce z a nn e I m pressionists excepted) for instance, o r t h e Fauves, o r the Cubists: only a hea lthy give and take - Pissarro to Cezanne, Cezanne to Pissarro, Monet to Renoir, Renoir to Monet - and thence to Bonnard and M a t isse. And w h a t a m u t u a l exc h ange is t h ere! Especia l ly w h en it co m es to t h e gre a t architectural motif of t h e interior with window o pe n i n g onto a sunlit garden, which they both raised to monumental heights. Matisse was undoubtedly first, but does it m atter? He could never h ave envisa ge d t h e symphonic enrichment Bonnard would bring to it. This is how the greatest of all paintings come into being! My first c l ose encounter with Patrick's paintings took place in early 1965, at the British Council Fine Arts De partm ent, w h ere a l m ost my first t a s k was to overs e e the c a t a l og u e preparation for t h e Sao Pau/o Biennale ( Pasmore and Heron). The paintings were handed to m e , as it were , t h e selection h av i n g a l re a dy b e e n m a de c h i efly by Alan Bownes and
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th a n i n reprod u ctio n . I h a d recently been impressed by a la rge cre a m a n d p i n k-go l d Clyfford Still i n the G u l benkia n exh i biti o n at the Tate i n the sum mer of 1964. And here were these plain and factua l pictures, of a wel l n igh Wittgenstei nia n M a n et sa i d , c o n cisio n . 'concision, in art, is a necessity and a point of style; a concise man makes one reflect. . ' 3 .
above: Patrick Heron
Fourteen Discs July 20 : 1963 oil on ca nvas 1963 152.4 x 213.4 cm
(destroyed in the MoMart art store fire, London 2004)
right Patrick Heron
Black and White Composition oil on ca nvas 1956 127 x 101.5 cm
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H er b ert Rea d . T h ey were hanging on the office walls; I saw t h e m i nto p a c k i n g cases, i n s pe cted t h e m on retu r n . I r e m e m b e r go i n g o u t to th e printers with Patrick to check the proofs of t h e cata l o g u e re prod u ctio n s . lt w a s a five colour process, giving successive c o l o u r s e p a rati o n s for e a c h colour stage, m ore expensive than the more usual four, and supposedly giving better quality colour, greater fidelity. There was some consternation from Patrick that this did not a p pear to be h a p pe n i n g ( perh a ps because o n e of t h e s e p a rati o n s was black/grey). He was intrigued by the odd reversals of tone of the original image and consequent dramatic changes to the effect of h is designs at each of the separations - as, say, a d isc which i n the fi nished picture would appear violet surrounded by blue-green , next to yellow, at one stage wou l d come o ut as white, surrounded by bright cyan bl ue, n ext to yel l ow, a tota l ly different image. lt is a little odd to me that it is at a l m ost exactly this point in the Tate exhibition, April 1965, that I first h ave m isgivi n gs a bout Heron's colour. Almost as if he were try i n g to matc h t h ese
i ntense i n k-derived, chemical dye fluorescent colours, with raw cobalt violet against acid lemon yellow - in Yellows and Reds with Violet Edge: April 1965 - and that it should be this picture, above a l l others, that journalists se l ected to fe ature i n t h e i r 'treatment' of the show. And this ra ises o n e of t h e pere n n i a l tor m e nts for pai nti n g tod ay. There are certain areas of colour, certa i n hybrid fl owers, high ly pitched sil k and satin fa brics, w h i c h m o d er n o i l p i g m e nts sim p ly ca n n ot match either in intensity or hue. Even Matisse, in his a nemones, had to settle for a d u l ler a pproxi mation by opposing a subterfuge of light creating tints. Once again, it is not absolute, literal brightness or intensity that cou nts, but the reciprocal interaction of colour u pon colour. I was, in 1965, still fully in thra l l t o t h e g l a m oro u s va c u ities (though I did not then know them to be s u c h ) t h e wid e-o p e n for m ats , t h e c l o u d i ly-a rtfu l irresolution about internal edges and perimeters, the mandatory silver a n d gold baguette-frames, of the Abstract Expressionists. M y o w n prefere n ce was for Gottlieb a nd Sti l l , n ot that I ' d seen much of their work other
l t was n 't u nti l 197 5 at t h e Rutland Gallery, after I'd fal len further i n thra l l to the ' post painterly abstractionists' Morris Louis and Ken neth Noland, and c o m e out on the oth er side somewhat disenchanted, that I was rece ptive to t h e m ost p o sitive a s p ect of Patri c k ' s painti ngs. T h e Rutland Gallery had re-assembled many of the pictures first shown in Patrick's first two New Yor k sh ows at B e r t h a S c h a efe r ' s ( 19 6 0 1962). My own gra ph of Heron's d eve l o p m e n t p l a ces t h ese p i ctures, a long with th ose of 1958-59, as a series of mini peaks within the years 1956-65, toget h e r with t h e Ga lerie Lienhard show in Zurich in 1963. I ' d l i ke to h ave s e e n m o re p i ctures fro m th ese yea rs included at the Tate. From sometime in 1965 there is for me the begi nn i ng of a hiatus, rather a long one - right through u ntil 1978-79 in fact. And this eve n i n g v i ewi n g at t h e Tate confirmed it once again. What do I find objectionable about the p i ct u res of t h e 197 0s? T h e o ptica l tre m or set u p a t the frontiers between colour areas related predominantly by a fierce sim u lta neous contrast - of red against green (for insta nce) b l e a c h es out, the one colour losing to the other in conti nuous oscillation at the retina. After images induced by this op-flicker effect tend to float acros_ s the l a rger exp a nse�. eati n g i nto them dizzyingly but unpleasantly. Such optical effects do not add to the delight of pictures. They d etra ct from th e m . T h e 7 0s p i ct ures a lso suffer through a bs o l ute re l i a n c e on the
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conceptua l swiftness of thei r composition, with rapid drawing by felt-ti pped pen, no changes being allowed d u ring fu rth e r stages of their painting. l t i s a mystery to me how Heron came to commit h imself to s u c h a method. lt disal lows that subtle adj usting and re-adj usting of colours, as the effect of their interaction on one another is felt, which had marked his greatest successes in such as: Squares in Deep Cadm ium : Ja n u a ry 1958; Lux Externa : May-June 1958; Brown Ground with Soft Red and Green : August 1958; Horizon ta l Stripe Pain ting : Novem ber 1 9 5 7; G rey a n d Yellow (with Circle) : October 1958 Februa ry 1959; fo r example. So it is with relief and no l ittle relaxation that we are suddenly back in the room of 1983-85 pictures. lt seems to me now that this is the greatest break-through in Heron's oeuvre, coming at the age of 63-65, the most youthful and 'idiomatically innovative' in ways which only a lover of painting wou ld even recognise. But the
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best pictures have already gone (except for Red Garden Painting : June 3 - June 5 1985). Justthink, at the time of the Barbican show, these big pictures could have been had for relatively little - twenty of them for the price of one small Howard Hodgkin, or a quarter of a Lucien Fre u d . What kind of insanity is this? Heron's mastery of white, as a colour, prefigu red in the lovely l ittle White Pain ting (Pa le Squares): 1961 has grad u a l ly emerged since the fi rst pictures in the Ba rbican s h ow. White Garden Painting: May 25 - June 12 1985, for example, in the course of which he had observed how .much the white ground (or silky-grey white ground in the case of h is favou red lead-primed canva s ) co u l d be made to change colour with the merest to u c h es , f l e c ks o r s p ots of another colour, or a few widely s paced tube-s q u eezed cross h atch i n gs or zigzags. T h i s discove ry h a s now been heightened to the point where white has become the primary agent of space and l ight (as he
would h imself put it) without ever remaining simply a ground. Thus the most recent room at the Tate is bril liantly brighter than any of the others, w ith none of that grubby-fuliginous-academic look that one associates with the minimalist avant-garde, white as process. Painting which is about process is usually painting about dying; that is w h e re p rocess leads - 'our white, abstract end'4• Expos u re to it dea dens t h e senses for the rest of the day, whereas painting like Patrick's is a tonic for the eyes. His whites are fu lsome, fu lgent, effu lgent even, crisp and clear, 'eager to meet us ha lf-way', alive with vibrations from the seen world. No-one is more eloquent than Patrick himself on the sources of h is painting in 'the white ocean reflected light, which a lmost bleaches things in its diffuse radiance' 5 of St Ives, so I won't even try. But this is the most challenging feature of h is newest paintings. Despite the w h o l e h isto ry o f w h ite avant-ga rde p a i nting from M a l ev i c h to N ic h o lson, to B ri c e M a rden, Robert Ryman, Agnes M a rtin, or l a n M c Keeve r, H e ron h as b rought an enti rely new and superior brand of l uxe - calme et vol upte - and in so doing ha� revivified the genre for others. The bri l l iance and sparkle of H e ron's w h ites, w h ite as the single most important agent of p i cto ria l space, drawing with w h ite, one m i ght c a l l it, is something q u ite new to painting (though others have tried). Matisse's use of white is q u ite d i ffe rent, a ltogeth e r more nuanced and modu lated with grey (the paper cut-outs aside pa per is paper, paint on canvas is another world). lt genera l ly occurs as a halo of priming, with traces of charcoal pentimenti, or a faint stain of charcoa l or pencil m i xe d w i t h tu rpentine, a s Matisse h a s felt for the placing of h is silhouettes. One finds th is sort o_f grey-wh ite in H e ro n ' s e a r l i e r w o r k, i n Ch ristm a s Eve: 1 9 51 fo r
instance, w here fading of the original priming combined with discolou ring from the charcoa l dust raised as Heron's bold and impulsive drawing maps out the spaces, creates a modulated grey matrix in w hich the semi transparent coloured glazes, for the most pa rt, swim l i ke tropical fish in grey water. The main featu re of the 1994 Camden Arts Centre pictu res (again I should l i ke to have seen more of them reassembled at the late) was the simultaneous presence of many strands of very loose, open c u rvy-interwoven dra wing, an ove r-laye ring in w h i c h the earliest ca l l igra p hy inter-penetrates the later, as if a w�ry English Matisse had taken u p w h e re Monet l eft off and thrown in some defacing graffiti after-thoughts for good measure. J ust as the most u p-to-date of to day's j a zze rs a re m o v i n g towards a n African complexity of ove r l a i d m u lti-rh yt h m s w i t h 'funky' accents, s o i n painting, it wou ld seem, we a re in a world of contra p u nta l ove r-l aye ring of spatial drawing. Heron is at the cutting edge of this tendency. ·
I rememb e r h o w enth ra l l e d P atri c k h a d been b y t h e enormous picture L e Concert of 1955 which filled the enti re end wa l l of the last room of the De Stael retrospective at the Tate in 1981. There is an echo of h is pleasure at re-discovering Le Con cert ( i t h a d not been inc l uded i n t h e posth u m o u s s h o w at t h e W h itec h a p e l i n 1 9 5 6 ) i n H e ro n ' s o w n R e d Garden Painting. This i s often the way Patrick's and most other painters' pictu res a re triggered, at l east in pa rt. T h ey a re reco l lections in tranq u i l ity o r p e rtu rbati ons· of t h e s p i rit, prompted by flashes of delight taken in some sudden insight of pictorial possibility hinted at in the savo u red d eta i ls, o r t h e grand befuddling of the senses induced by a great picture. And often these h ints come from severa l sou rces simultaneously, combining in the unconscious i m p e rm i ss i b l e ma r r i a ges of
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experience, some blindi ngly obvious, but h itherto den ied affinity between the seen and the painted. To pai nt greatly, one has to steep oneself i n the plastic rhythms of the great Europea n masters. Th is is where the English school has a lways fa l len down. Heron's awareness of this bifurcation of sensi bility has been more acute than most. H is subject has been not only St Ives light, but St Ives light mediated th rough inti mate acquaintance with the many mea ns by which the sensation of light has been created in paint by the great masters - since Corot and M a net. M a net introduced this dou ble consciousness. His originality and his qual ity, as one of the greatest of a l l pai nters, a re founded on it. Even though we feel that he was a l most i ncapable of pa inting convi ncingly unless he had the objects, or the sitters in costu me, right there in front of him . in the studio (and h is pai nterly instincts never fa i l him when they are) we a lso feel that as Degas said of h i m : 'He never painted a brushstroke without the old masters in mind' (Chardin, Goya, Fra nz H a ls, Velasquez). lt is given to very, very few pai nters to introduce something a bsolutely new. Those who succeed, and Ma net is one of them, do so by endeavouring to respond with as much technica l innocence as they ca n com ma n d to the circu msta nces of natu ra l daylight i n which they find themselves. Ma net bri ngs pai nting into the light of m odern day, and it is tha n ks la rgely to him that there is i n modern pai nti ng a progressive clea ring and brightening, not only of the palette, but a lso of the rendered daylight i n which objects a re bathed . Monet and Matisse would take this further - Monet, through his devotion to chromatic rea lism (he is perhaps the furthest out of a l l pai nters i n h is d isregard for pictorial precedent); Matisse th ro ugh h is su preme gift for ha rmony in the l a m bent play of a poeticised i u m i nosity. He too, from the early N ice yea rs onwards, is reluctant to pai nt a brush-stroke without the presence of h is sitters a n d his beloved objects. Ea rly o n , Patrick H e ro n wrote of Picasso: 'We often have the feeling, before his pictures that here is painting at a remove, as it were, in consciousness: tha t this painter is not presenting his awa reness of a ny subject so m uch as his a wa reness of tha t awareness! The process o f painting becomes more and more the subject of a painting . . ' (But never beyond a certa i n point, o n e h as n ow to a d d . ) .
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I n t h e world a t l a rge, t h e ' co n ceptu a l ' h a s tri u m phed over the experientia l , the ' p u re sensory i ma ge ' , 'the i m med iate visua l conscio usness of thi ngs ' . The 'sym bolic' h as tri u m phed over the ' u nsym bolic', the aggressive over the ' u naggressive', the a l lusive over the ' u n a l l usive ' . And H e ro n 's pai nti ngs a re self-reflexive i n a n ot h e r s e n s e . W e a re co n sta ntly awa re o f affi n ities a n d correspondences with earlier H e ro n pictu res. Even i n Big Purple Garden Painting, w h e re the b u rgeo n i ng i nfl ux of sensation of n atu ra l l ight is m ost m a rked , one is awa re too of a P roustia n exploration of e p i p h a n ies from ea rlier phases of Hero n 's painting · life - the b i rthday cake a nd egg-pla nt leaf-forms in Christmas Eve: 1951 1oom l a rge, a n d Christmas Eve: 1951 itself refers one back to the extrao rd i n a ry lvo n H itchens m u ra l in Ceci l S h a rpe H ouse at Pri m rose H i l l . And soon we a re back with The Piano: 1943 w h i c h H eron , I t h i n k rightly, regards as the m oment of discovery of h is true tou c h , an a mazing prefigu rement of his later s i m p l i c ity of style a n d the com pass of his e m oti o n . H ere he is, co m menti ng on its i n cepti o n :
Contemporary British Artists p hotogra p h by Saranjeet Walia courtesy St. Martins Press
'The window is open and you can see over the sill - which comes right out of s·onnard and Matisse - those li nes of ora nge, blue and ora nge - i nto the bushes a nd trees . . .' and I thi n k we can take it that he was aware, even in the throes of pa inting it, that Bonnard and Matisse were its antecedents, at least in pa rt. And there is no shame in that. On the contra ry, it is only the art-public's obsession with the unprecedented that has made one self-conscious about ra ising it. In the end, it is by referring us back to other pa inti ngs, other great paintings, as much as our response to the im mediate bu rgeoning present that the a rt of painting is constantly renewed, from sources within and without. N OTES
1. Ala n Bowness 2. John Richa rdson Picasso Vo/ 11; Richard Ta ruskin : Stravinsky and the Russian Tradition (OU P 1996) 3. John Richardson : Manet Phaidon 1982 - the artist in conversation with Georges Jeann iot (1881) 4. Studies in Classic American Literature : Me/vi/le by D H Lawrence 5. Patrick Heron : Five Types of Abstraction - Ben Nicholson The Cha ngi ng Forms of Art, 1955 Alan Gouk ( 1939- ) born Be lfast but brought up i n Scotl a n d . Pa i nter a n d
critic. Fo rmer H ea d of t h e Advanced Scu l pture Cou rse at S t M a rtin's School
of Art, Lo n d o n 1970-1989. Work i n the col lections of : Arts Co u n c i l ; Scottish Arts Co u n ci l ; G u l be n kia n Fo u ndati o n ; Tate G a l lery; British Cou n c i l ; Flemi ngs; a m o n gst others.
Patrick Heron ( 1920-1999) see:
Mel Good i n g : Patrick Heron Pha idon Press 1994
state2 1
state of art SUMMER 2005
STATE ·
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like form made from thick bars, overly
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J O H N G I B BO NS a sense of motion, action and energy, and represent a coherent and meticulous exploration of the relationship between inner and outer spaces. Three delicate sculptures from
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JOHN GIBBONS TALKS about how one 'enters' his sculptures in imaginative perception and how, in each different series, this process has its own character. "Art needs to engage with the imagination" he said. "In some of the sculptures you enter and stay inside, in
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bulky for its compact size. It is a blunt, weighty cage that encapsulates a dramatically empty space, wherein lies a small platform, the stage for a crucial, missing event. Resembling a crude robot, or a primitive prison, it reveals an intense and restricted inner chamber. What beast is it designed to restrain? In relation to this series of 'heads', Gibbons talks of motorcycle helmets, of masks, and a concept of protection or hiding the self. These sculptures form heavily armoured shells for an ethereal, somewhat weakened and suppocated, inner space.
Transference 124.5 x 57 x 56.5 ems left
The solo exhibition New Work represents a broad spectrum of Gibbons' recent output from 1999 to 2004 and a number of themes can be traced in the various series. While all the works are variations on an essential structure of thicker or thinner steel bars, bent and wdded together to make basic cage-like forms, · the different series have distinct qilalities and function in diverse ways. Some are lumpen and mutant, others restless, . brooding and violent, or serenely poised. These airy volumes combine a stillness and strength inherent in the material with
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an inside. Inside spaces are always different to outside ones -- if it's through a door or even just the other side of a railing, the reality of the two spaces is
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very succinct and different." Many of Gibbons' sculptures have two parallel 'skins' inside one another, as if the inner world has its own lining, and there is a buffer space between inner and outer. Gibbons describes a connection between this function of his work -- of fluctuating focus and constant exchange between inside and outside -- and ''the way that
are formed from clean, ordered rows of narrow upright bars which loop over, back and down, creating elegantly intersecting and parallel planes of empty space. Alternating bars lean slightly -forward or back, creating a motionless, noiseless, rhythm. Titled The Weaver :S Story, or Rhythm Play, they naturally bring to mind a calm and enduring activity -- nature somehow called to order, and function. Gibbons explained how these pieces came out of watching people weaving and knitting during his childhood on the West Coast of Ireland. "I remembered watching my mother and
Sta i n less Steel 2001-2
others you enter and pass through, and in another series it is as though you are pulled into it by a train, you follow, travelling in and out and in again."
surprised to discover that even though the pieces were open, I still had to make
my aunt knitting. They went into a kind of altered state, it's a trance-like mind state, a kind of meditation. There is a fascinating subliminal rhythm, which is very human". Gibbons later became interested in the weavers at Winchester School of Art where he teaches. "I watched how the wool was threaded - the animation of simple machinery. It is a very succinct world within itself. It is very complete, and it actually produces something". The following series are "other ways of considering mind" says Gibbons. Several sculptures are strongly reminiscent of a human head, varying from approximate life size to vastly bigger. Within (200 1) is a brutal little piece, a grimacing head-
New Life
Sta i n less Steel 2004 89 x 91 x 7 9 ems
A series of larger works from 2004 are rounder, airier and more organic. Some still roughly resemble the shape of a human head, whereas others have become more abstract entities, swelling and bulging disproportionately into the space around them. These are made from thinly or densely tangled bars that snake around, clasp and hook one another to form a bumpy and approximate outer surface. The relationship of inside and outside is a central element of Gibbons' work. His objects are volumes which the viewer peers into, and yet, made from lines; remain porous, open. "When I started making linear sculptures I was
we engage with the world around us and the inner self'. Ann Elliott ' s curatorial concept 'Sculpture in the Workplace' brought the steel works of John Gibbons into the imposing foyer of One Canada Square. It is in many ways an obvious coupling - both the setting and the work are monumental, energetic and assertive, both combine strength and solidity with elegance. The sculptures however have a subtle range of organic form which resists the building's colossal, angular accent. Strangely using the same semi mat steel as much of the decor and structural aspects of the boisterous building, they nevertheless suggest keen movement and weight qualities. Where Canary Wharf is a monument to commerce and the achievements of effort
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and will, the sculptures refer to growth and change and mental or feeling states of other kinds. They effectively temper and humanise the space. t.-
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dinary collection of original posters celebrates the bold creativity at the heart of Enthusiasm. Pb£ 19.99
Peter Doig: Works on Paper
148 pages, 100 colour Illustrations. Hardback. 2005.
This publication focuses solely on Peter Doig's works on paper, examining the artist's themes over the past twelve years. Doig's signature atmospheric works have helped to revive the popularity of figurative painting, a genre lately overshadowed by photography and video a rt. Inspired by many pictorial modes, from paint ingto film to photography, Doig distils images to create works that possess an ephemeral, timeless quality, while he visits notions of rec ollection and fantasy. Approximately 100 im ages, many reproduced here for the first time, are accompanied by a suite of short stories written by Margaret Atwood especially for the publication, providing a comprehensive view of the celebrated artist's career to date. Hb£ 38.50
SPRING RELEASES : FINE ART BOOKS le CATALOGUES EDITED CHARLES KANE TEXTS ROWLAND THOMAS mysteriousness. The painter applies dark col ours, mainly brown and ochre, used in a rich variety of h ues. This pai nterly device en hances the shadowy and obscure setting. The d rawings by Borremans comment humor ously on middle-class etiquette and restraint.
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layers. · Harvey Kurtzman, creator of Mad Mag "Crumb's material comes out of a deep sense of the absurdity of human life. At a certain kind of psychological level there aren't any heroes, there aren't any villains, there aren't any heroines, and even the victims are comic. · - Robert Hughes Hb£ 14.99
Rackstraw Downes 224 pages, 100 colour and Hardback. 2005.
Rackstraw Downes paints down-to-earth, of ten gritty features of today's American envi ronment in an unflinching and highly realistic style. This book is the first to provide a mu lti faceted picture of his work, its intellectual fou ndations, and its place in the history of a rt - from both outside commentators and Downes himself. Beautifully illustrated, with copious examples from thirty years ofthe a rt ist's work, the book makes emi nently clear why Downes is widely regarded as a "paint er's painter". lt showcases many of the art ist's panora m ic pictures - pai nted with a strong sense of place and a m i niaturist's sense of scale. The images, which depict in d ustrial parks, construction sites, housing projects, refineries, razor wire, and landfills, stimulate fresh thoughts about these suppos edly unattractive sights. Bathed in the light of a precise time, the paintings resonate with a strikingly evocative quality. The three essays that accompany Downes's a rt provide rare insights into the way a painter th inks and works. Sanford Schwartz explores the relation ships between the artist's personal and intel lectual background and his oeuvre. Robert Storr situates Downes in the context of a number of highly prominent contemporary art ists such as Chuck Close, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Jasper Johns, Gerhard Richter, and Robert Smithson in a way that offers a new interpretation of Downes's work, while mak ing clear its importance within twentieth-cen tury a rt. Downes's own essay, Turning the Head in Empirical Space, presents a direct, firsthand account of his working methods within a larger d iscussion on spatial para digms of Renaissance and post-Renaissance modes of painting. Hb£ 32.50
Enthusiasm: Films of Love, Labour and Longing
Exhibition catalogue: Whltechapel Gallery
(Aprll 1 - May 22, 2005). 168 pages, Illustrated In colour throughout Paperback.
Robert Bechtle: A Retrospective Exhibition catalogue : San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (February 12-June 5, 2005); Modern
Art Museum of Fort Worth (June 26-August 28, 2005). 208 pages, 110 colour and 10 b&w Illustrations. Hardback.
Tracing Robert Bechtle's career from his ear l iest paintings of the 1960s to the present day, this is the defin itive book on one of the founders and foremost practitioners ofAmeri can Photorealism. Created in close collabo ration with the artist, the publication accom panies Bechtle's first retrospective exhibition. Lavish plates feature reproductions of ap proximately ninety of Bechtle's most signifi cant a rtworks, from large-scale oil paintings to intimate watercolours and drawings. These magnificent illustrations portray the range of the San Francisco-based pai nter's iconic im agery of California - the rows of palm trees, stucco houses, and the ubiquitous automo biles that spurred suburban expansion - as well as his l esser-known but equally compel l i n g fa m i l y scenes a n d stark i nteriors. Bechtle's preference for wide, empty spaces; his flat, sun-bleached palette; and his de tached mode of recording random details im part a singular sense of alienation to his sub jects. His deadpan paintings capture the es sence of the postwa r American experience, in which Galifornia often serves as the test ing gro u n d for the realization of national dreams. Hb£ 29.95
Michael Borremans: The Performance
Exhibition catalogue: S.M.A.K., Stedelljk
Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Gent, (February 5 -
Aprll 10, 2005); Parasol Unit, London (May 3 -
June 30, 2005); The Royal Hlbernlan Academy, Gallagher Gallery, Dublin (July 14 - August 28,
2005). Patrlck T. Murphy, Hans Rudolf Reust and Zlba de Week Ardalan. English and German text. 120 pages, 75 colour Illustrations. Hardback.
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M ichaEH Borremans was born in 1963 i n Geraardsbergen, Belgium. H e lives a n d works in Ghent. The figures in Borremans' paintings are preoccupied with a meticulous task. The pai nter has caught the individuals in action, totally committed and concentrated.However, any specificity ofthe character's engagement and any notion of concrete time and place · are abolished. The p e rs o n a ges a re re p re-. sented in a s p h e r� of n e utral ity. _This con text u a l vaguen ess triggers a s p h ere of
They navigate a course between mild irony and tragedy. Fear and uncertainty blends with satire and feigned naivete. Because of the scale differences within one work, the d raw ings appear as sketches for theatrical decors or environmental interventions. Whether or not the drawings a re two-dimensional mod els, is undetermined. Again, Borremans leaves the question unanswered. Hb £ 19.99
This catalogue accompanies the exhibition in at the W h ite c h a p e l G a l le ry, w h e re N e i l Cummings a n d Marysia Lewandowska trans form the lower galleries into a social club and th ree cinemas showing Polish amateur films made by factory workers in the Communist era. I n contrast to a programme of official newsreels glorifying factory production, these fi lms p roject the hopes, h u m o u r a n d re pressed fantasies of a generation. Since 1995, Cummings and Lewandowska's numer ous projects have explored the relationship between art and the invisible power structures that regulate our everyday lives. They have worked with museums, banks, a rchives, ad vertising agencies, places of education and department stores in London, Geneva, Copen hagen and Paris. Enthusiasm investigates how the amateur, the enthusiast or the hobbyist works invisibly within the relentless flow of
The R. Crumb Handbook 440 pages, Illustrated In colour and b&w
throughout Hardback. 2005.
Telling the story of how a loser-schmuck be came a cultural icon, and is more than j ust another celebrity tell-all sexploitation. This brand new hardback collection of original car toons with never before published work, takes the reader on a unique journey through the l ife and times of one of the 20th century's most notorious and influential counter culture artists, the only underground cartoonist to be accepted by the fine art world. The R.Crumb Handbook is divided into the four enemies of man: Fear; Clarity; Power and Old Age. Work ing with his old drinking buddy and co-author Pete Poplasky, the four chapters a re easily di gested. With over 400 pages of cartoons and photographs, Crumb's often controversial ly regarded views toward Disneyland, growing up in America, hippie love, art gal leries, and turn ing 60 are revealed. By tracing his qevelop ment as a cartoonist from his tormented child hood in the 1940s through to his coming of age as an a rtist in the psychedelic revolution of the 1960s, Robert ·crumb visually treats us to the pressures and influences, that the modern mass media has on h u m a n con sciousness, and includes over 80 personal photographs, a_nd 300 images taken from per sonal sketChbooks and comic books, as well as fine artfrom museums. For the serious stu dent of late capitalist cu lture and the thou sands of Crumb enthusiasts everywhere this · book is indispensable. · MCrumb probes, delveS, he ·peels back the
15 b&w Illustrations.
Joan Jonas: Five Works Exhibition ·catalogue: Queens Museum of Art, New York (December 14, 2003 - March
14,
2004). Susan Howe and Jeanne Heuvlng. 176
pages, 162 colour and 177 b&w Illustrations. Paperback. 2005.
'official' culture, frequently adopting a coun ter-cultural tone of tactical resistance and criticism. While leisure in Poland was organ ised through factory-sponsored associations, amateur activities became an asylum for the marginalised, for d reams of happiness, love and freedom. A reconstructed film cl ub inte rior bears witness to the socia.l and creative history of the club mem bers. The films them selves range from short satirical animations and experimental films to ambitiou� docu mentaries and epic romances. Arranged into themes of Love, Labour and Longing the pro grammes celebrate everyday l ife, reflect on working environments and ind ulge in per sonal, sexual and political longing. A film a r chive provides a rare opportunity to explore films found·butnot screened, while an extraor-
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Joan Jonas (b. 1936) is one of the most im portant women a rtists to emerge from the late 1960s and 1970s. Working in New York as a scu lptor, by 1968 she moved into what was then considered new territory - mixing per formance with props and mediated images, situated outdoors in natural or industrial en vironments. In her early works, such as Wind ( 1968), Jonas filmed performers stiffly pass ing through the field of view against a wind that lent the choreography a psychological mystique. Songdelay (1973), filmed with tel . ephoto and wide-angle lenses, drew on Jonas' recent travel (n Japan where she saw groups of Noh performers clapping wood blocks and making angular movements. Jonas's works were first performed in the :l-960s and 70s for some of the most influential a rtists of her generation, including Richard Serra, Robert Smithson, Dan Graham and Laurie Anderson. While she is widely known in Europe, her grou n.d breaking performances a re lesser known in the United States, where as critic Douglas Crimp wrote of her work in 1983, ·�the
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TITLE Making Short Films
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AUTHOR Clifford Thurlow
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PUBLISHED Berg Oxford RICE £12.99 246pp. i-x prelims. 234mm x 156mm. 30 bjw il/us. appdx. bibliog. index. REVIEW MIKE VON JOEL
THERE IS DISCONTENT a mongst a certai n tribe of you ng artists, those that like to pepper t�eir conversation (about themselves, natural ly) with expressions like 'edgey' and 'cool'. Why so? lt's the state of Video Art. Or more precisely the lack of status of this a rt form . Video Art is, of course, a contemporary visual a rt form that you either support or disdain. lt is hip, poignant, i mbued with a deep intel lectual resonance and absolutely 'cutting edge' - or it's tenth rate amateurish fil m making that wouldn't even make an aud ition tape for the trainee ind uction of the lowliest ad agency. But the cu rrent d i lemma for the blokes with haircuts (and the equivalent women VA's) is the lack of recognition, of ego strokes - and rea l income! Painting is hip, being a painter is hip and there are many tangible rewa rds for those with a ny sort of reputation, and i mage, to maintai n . The press - and television adore the curled l i ps and off the cuff sarcasm of the ageing YBAs, but for some reason the VA's are excluded from this fount of national affection. However, it's the British tradition that adversity soon resu lts in some sort of spastic reaction and, having had a taste of the 'fi l m ' making process, today's video a rtists are tal king movies. Fi l ms! Fil m maki ng! An idea not unconnected with the fact that the social sea rchlight is moving away from the florid faces of contemporary pai nters and onto (or back to, depending on you r point of view) movies and moviemakers. Thanks i n pa rt, one assumes, to the chea p availability of 'distribute yourself' CD-rom media, the relative economy of digital camerawork and the abi lity to professionally edit the results on any decent home computer. And the number of international film festivals fa r exceeds the art fair circuit, still dominated by painting and sculpture gal leries. Quentin Tarra ntino, Al modova r - say no more : integrity, high profile, independent . . . very 'cutting edge' and so famous. Artists making dumb video clips may be a recent development but a rtists making short fil ms - this has an historical i m perative: Cocteau, Salvador Dal i to Andy Warhol to Julian Sch nabel. So the publication of Clifford Thurlow's latest book MAKI NG SHORT FI LMS cou ld not be more aposite. lt's a handbook, a teach-your-self tutorial from script to screen that even the most l i m ited intellect can grasp and use coherently. lt offers an opportunity for the ran k outsider to learn how to present a fil m project in a manner that would convince the professionals a n d to i nfiltrate the new buzzin' vogue: the short film . Clifford Thurlow is an interesting writer. Based in London and Spain, he is a sHck (in the best possible sense) wordsmith. In 2004 he published a book on Salvador Dali - his own Spa n ish home bei!lg not a m illion m iles away from Dali's at Cadaques - . based on a series of i nterviews with Ca rlos Lozano, a member of Dal i 's menagerie of effete apostles. Even for those versed i n a rt history, and with a jaund iced sensitivity to any more Da l i nonsense; Thurlow's upbeat and pacey prose breathed new l ife into its decrepit subject a nd truly offered a fresh perspective on the manic Surrealist (wh ilst simultaneously appearing to succeed
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in keeping a tight rei n on Lozano's more extravagant fl ights of fancy). Add itionally, its eye catching title The Sex Life of Salvador Dali was guaranteed to attract attention from a l l q u a rters. Thu rlow bri ngs his personable style to MAKING SHORT FI LMS and turns what is effectively a step by step text book i nto a n easi ly. assimilated, fact packed tutorial with a l l the dyna m ism and panache of a contemporary novel. Progressive sections (the Scri pt; the Producer; the Director etc) unfold as a guide to the i nfrastructure of a fil m making blueprint that ca n be l ittle d ifferent to that for a ful l blown, feature length movie. Not forgetting a cha pter on Finance & Distribution and a deta i led a ppendix on fi lm festiva ls and usefu l contact add resses. A particular point of interest is an origi nal story, and reprinted in the book, Greta May. Thu rlow himself developed the scri pt (reproduced in fu ll) and d irected the fi lm as a short, screening Greta May earlier this yea r alongside Berg's book launch pa rty at a Soho cinema. Proof a bsolute of the author's devotion to his subject! Other complete projects jemmied i nto this neat 246pp paperback are Noise Control (Doyle/Bicat); G. M (Pickles) and Room�Eteven (O'Cal laghan/Bri ll) incorporating scripts, storyboard and insider com mentary. All i n all an essential tool of the trade and indispensi ble for the embryonic a uteur. Never one to pass up the opportunity to i ntegrate the rich and famous, and with no shortage of these i n movie-land, Thu rlow peppers his text with pithy quotes and the asides of movie legends from both in front of and behi n d the viewfinder. Perh a ps the one that will have the most resonance for video a rtists (reti red) and buddi ng artist fil m-makers everywhere is from vetera n Burt Lancaster : .
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'Burt Lancaster, after 30 years as a Hollywood leading m a n , got to d irect for the first ti me and relished bei ng the early bird on the set each morning; he enjoyed dealing with the "tempera mental actors" and their "little problems". At the end of the day h e was anxious to pick up the rushes and he'd spend half the n ight studying them. "When you a re a Director you a re God, and that's the best job in town ".' A very a rtworld concept that one !
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24state rupture that is effected in modernist practices has subsequently been repressed, smoothed over. • Yet, in restaging early and recent works, Jonas continues to find new layers of mean ings in themes and q uestions of gender and identity that have fuelled her art for over thirty years. This cata logue accompanies the first major exh ibition Jonas's work in a New York mu seum. The exhibition incl udes a selection of the a rtist's most significant installations, a video room, and a su rvey of Jonas' d rawings, photographs, and sketchbooks. Curated by Valerie Smith, QMA Director of Exhibitions, the show brings together key works from Jonas's career including Organic Honey's Visual Te lepathy (1972), The Juniper Tree (1976), Vol cano Saga (1985), Revolted by the Thought of Known Places ... (1992), and Woman in the
·state of art SUMMER 2oos modern and avant-garde, Kippenberger em ployed the most sparkling cliches of the me dia, politics and publicity to question both our social reality and the history of our culture. His extraordinary sense of humour and his overw h e l m i n g capacity to give shape to thought are expressed not only through the versatility of his media, but in the titles ofthe pieces themselves, which he considered to be a n im portant part of his work. Benedikt Taschen, whose fa mily's collection is exhib ited simultaneously at the main building of the Museo Reina Soffa, has paid special at tention to Martin Kippenberger's work, col lecting more than one hundred pieces. The closeness established between the two men - over years of close colla boration on books for the Taschen publishing house and other projects - is reflected in the quality of this collection. The addition of works from the col lection of Albert Oehlen, built primarily on per· son a I gifts from Kippenberger or excha nges of art between the two artists, adds an even more intimate dimension to a profoundly personal exhibition cata logue. Hb£ 34.99
ceived grants from the Guggenheim Founda tion to photograph i n colour on the streets of New York, where she had photographed two decades earlier i n black-and-white. But tragi cally, the best of these pioneering colour pic tures were stolen from her apartment in 1970 and she had to start over again. In 1974 the new work was shown as a continuous slide projection at New York's Museum of Modern Art - an early example of a slide show pres entation by a museum and one of the first exhibitions of serious colour photography any where in the world. Slide Sh ow presents more than one hundred photographs - including eight surviving images from the 1959-60 series-more than half of which have never been exhibited or published before. This im pressive monograph is a worthy successor to her magnum opus, Crosstown (2001}, which included the largest collection of her colour pictures to date, and to her more intimate vol ume of black-and-white work, Here and There (2004), which presented more than eighty "unknown• Levitts taken over six decades. Hb£ 28.99
The Stanley Kubrick Archives
Portrait of the Artist:
544 pages. Hardback with CD and booklet. 2005.
Well (1996/2000). This publ ication also in cludes her portable My New Theater series (1997-1999) and Lines in the Sand (2002), with sketches, colour reproductions of all the exh i bited works, and an interview with Jonas by Susan Howe and Jean ne Heuving. Pb£ 19.00
Kippenberger ExhlbHion catalogue: Palaclo de Velazquez, Spain
(October 20, 2004 - January 15, 2005). 212
pages, Illustrated In colour and b&w throughout. English, French and German text.
Part 1: The Films In 1968, when Stanley Kubrick was asked to comment on the metaphysical significance of 2001: A Space Odyssey, he replied: "it's not a message I ever intended to convey in words. 2001 is a nonverbal experience .... I tried to create a visual experience, one that bypasses verbalized pigeonholing a n d d i rectly pen etrates the su bconscious with an emotional and phi losophic content." The p h i losophy b e h i n d Pa rt I bo rrows from this line of t h i n k i ng: from the o p e n i n g sequence of Killer's Kiss to the fi n a l fra m es· of Eyes Wide Sh ut, K u b rick's com p l ete fi l m s w i l l be presented · c h ro n o l ogica l ly a n d word l essly via fra m e e n l a rgem ents. A com p l etely n o nve rbal experience. Part 2: The Creative Process Divided into cha pters chronologically by film, Part 2 bri ngs to life the creative process of Kubrick's film making by presenting a remark able collection of material from his a rchives, including photographs, props, posters, a rt work, set designs, sketches, correspondence, documents, screenplays, d rafts, notes, and shooting schedules. Accompanyingthe visual material are essays by noted Kubrick schol ars, articles written by and about Kubrick, and a selection of Kubrick's best interviews. Hb £100.00
Hardback. 2004.
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The first one man exhibition of the German artist Martin Kippenberger (b.Dortmund 1953 - d.Vienna 1997) at a Spanish museum d is plays a total of one hundred paintings, sculp tu res and d rawings. The works, reproduced in full in this superb publ ication, a re selected from two of the finest collections of the a rt ist's work i n the world: those of publisher Bened i kt Taschen and fel low a rtist Al bert Oehlen. Kippen berger's a rt has been posthu mously exh i bited at several of the most im� portant a rtistic events ofthe last few decades, including the Documenta X in Kassel, Ger many; the Skulptur in M unster, Germany; the Kunsthalle in Basel, Switzerland; and, most recently, museum shows in Karlsruhe, Ger ma ny, Vienna, Austria a n d Eind hqven, the Netherlands. Kippenberger had close links with Spain: he lived in Tenerife in 1984, and later i n Seville and Madrid with Albert Oehlen. His one-man shows at the Leyendecker Gal- · lery (Tenerife, 1985) and at the Juana de Aizpuru Gal lery. (Madrid, 1984, 1988 and 1989), and participation in group shows at the Museo de Arte Contemporanea de Sevilla (Que calor 1 1 , 1989) and at the Fundaci6n La Caixa, Barcelona ( H e i mweh H ighway 90, 1990}, have earned him a following among a growing number of young Spanish artists. This inaugural exhibition at a major museum aims to i ntroduce the a rtist to a wider audience in Spain. A member ofthe generation of versa tile artists that emerged on to the international scene during the 1980s, Kippenberger did not limit h imselfto just one artistic medium. Paint i ngs, sculptures, photographs, d rawings, in stal lations, catalogues, posters, and i nvita tions to exhibitions were treated with equal strength of expression by the a rtist. Both
120 pages, over 100 colour Illustrations. .
16 - December 21, 2005). 192 pages, 150 colour
Illustrations. Hardback. 2005
For over 30 yea rs from 1962 to 1995 Jorge Lewinski has been photographing Britain's most important artists. With over 150 por traits, this volume shows the range of his con siderable output. Lewinski often returned to photograph the same artist over a number of years and these portraits catalogue not only the lives of the artists themselves but also the changing styles of British a rt during this period. Lewinski's images invariably show art ists in their studios, giving an insight into their creative processes and working lives. The book is an i m portant and fascinating docu ment of an exciting period in the history of British art. Hb £ 29.95
Richard Alien Morris: Retrospective 1 958
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2004
Exhibition catalogue: Museum Haus Lange,
Krefeld (October 2004 - January 2005); Museum
of Contemporary Art, San Diego (May 5 - August
28, 2005). 176 pages, 147 colour and 10 b&w
Illustrations. English and German text. Hardback
Born in 1933 in Chula Vista, California and now resident in San Diego, Richard Alien Mor ris is known as a "painter's painter", whose works over a fifty year career passionately ex plore the potential of painting as an a rtistic practice. This comprehensive book begins with his first representational early work in 1958 and ends with his latest works from 2004. Beginning with early works in which Morris honed his skill by borrowing motifs from contemporary and old masters, the retrospec tive will include examples of his work from the many different styles he has adopted through out his career. From portrait faces reminis cent of cartoon caricatures to his own version of constructivist painting made with coloured adhesive strips, Morris has experimented with
John Minton: Dance Till The Stars Come Down
Spaldlng, Frances. 344 pages, 24 colour and 39 b&w Illustrations. Hardback. 2005
John Minton (1917-57) was an artist, a Bohe mian and, in his own lifetime, a myth. During the 1940s and early 1950s he become a cen tral figure with i n Soho, an intimate friend of, among many others, Michael Ayrton, Robert Colquhoun, Lucian Freud and the poet W.S. G ra h a m . He enjoyed early su ccess as a painter and was associated in the 1940s with the English N eo-Romantics. By the early 1950s he had become the most admired and influential i l l ustrator of h is day. Frances Spalding's sensitive account of Minton's l ife and work makes use of letters, a rticles and revue sketches by Minton hi mself, as well as many. interviews with the artist's friends and acquaintances. She brings out the. many con flicts within h i m , and shows how these were reflected in his art through its combination of romantic imagery and taut severities of style. His deep melancholy was for the most part kept hidden behind a euphoric generosity and a wild restlessness. But gradual ly, like his al coholism, it became all-pervasive, and tragic and embittered he took his own l ife, aged thirty-nine. This new edition incorporates a new preface by the author and a new appen dix featu ring l ists of public col lections, exhi bitions, illustrated books and book jackets, and a select bibliography, it will be widely wel comed by art historians, curators, dealers and all those i nterested i n this fascinating period in British a rt and culture. Contents: Acknowl edgements; Foreword to the new edition;
almost every aspect of gestura! and hard-edge painting. After his extremely idiosyncratic in terpretation of Pop Art in the sixties, Morris turned towards abstract painting at the be ginning of the seventies and developed an al most infinite love of experi mentation, which gave rise to an assemblage technique in which he cut his rejected paintings into strips and piled them onto a new support. He more or less deconstructed the entire spectrum of Abstract Art from the Classical Modern on wards. His own peculiar humour is an impor tant factor in the spirited way he tackles the unwritten "rules" of painting. Hb£ 24.50
Funny Cuts: Cartoons and Comics in Contemporary Art
Nakas, Kassandra and Pfarr, Ulrlch and
Schalhorn, Andreas.
144 pages, 121 colour and
16 b&w Illustrations. Hardback. 2005
This book takes as its point of departure Pop Art's revolutionary referencing of comics and concludes with the most current trends in con temporary a rt, reflecting in many diverse ways its dialogue with the commercial and 'trivial' picture worlds of comi.cs and cartoons. New Germ a n and i nternatio n a l a rtists q u es tion political a n d social realities a n d their
Pa i nte�s a· re subject to tre m bl i ngs of the joi nts, blackness of the teeth, d iscolou red
Slide Show: The Colour Photographs· of Helen Levitt Hardback. 2005.
Four Decades of British Art
Exhibition catalogue: Chatsworth House (March
Introduction; Background and Schooldays; Art School and Paris; A Complete and Fixed Ex pression of the Living; Revelling by N ight; Johnny's Circus; Mad Tearful Gaiety; The Hopkin Myth; Now Cracks a Noble Heart; Notes; List of I l lustrations; Index; Appendices: Public Collections; Solo Exhibitions; Listing of Ill ustrated Books and Book Jackets; Select Bibliography. Hb£ 40.00
.
World-rerioWr!ed for her iconic black-and-white street photographs, N ew York City's visual poet laureate H�len Levitt also possesses a little-known archive of colour work, which has been collected for the first time in Slide Show, _ her third powerHouse Books monograph. I n 1959, and again i n 1960, Helen Levitt re-
- com plexions, melancholy, a n d the �oss of the sense of smel l . BERNARDINO RAMAZZI NI DE MORBIS ART/FIC/UM DIATRIBA 1700
state25
sJate:;of art SUMMER- 2.00.5 own i d entity through the mythological poten tial of comics and animations and also in the creation of new virtual identities using video art. Artists: Yoshitaka Amano, Angela Bulloch, Marcel Dzama, Tim Eitel, Err6, lnka Essen high, Oyvi nd Fah lstrom , Artu ro Herrera, Hideaki Kawashima, Mike Kelley, Roy Lichtenstein, Takashi Murakami, Yosh itomo Nara, J u lian Opie, Philippe Parreno, Raymond Pettibon, Al exa nder Roob, Wilhelm Sasn a l , Dorothea Sch u lz, David Sh rigley, Thaddeus Strode, Herve Telemaque, AndyWarhol, Sue Williams and others. Hb £ 22.00
William Roberts: An English Cubist
Andrew Gibbon-WIIIiams. 152 pages. 60 colour and 40 b&w Illustrations. Hardback. 2004
William Roberts was a key player in the .devel opment of Cubism in England before the First World War and the longest surviving member ofWyndham Lewis' Vorticist movement. When he died in 1980, however, he was u nfairly thought of as an artist whose avant-garde hey day beggared his subsequent career. William Roberts: An English Cubist looks for the first time at the whole range of Roberts' work and asserts his true status as a major contributor to the art of the twentieth centu ry. Roberts was unique in as much as he was the only English a rtist of his generation who suc ceeded in manufactu ring a mature style in which was preserved something of the aes thetic of Cubism. Moreover, during the cou rse of a long career he employed this style to de scribe a vast array of mostly metropolitan sub ject-matter and in doing so constructed an unparalleled panorama of modern life in Eng land. His range was im mense. As an official war artist for both the Canadians and the Brit ish, Roberts produced two ofthe most mean ingful images of the First World War. Adept at portraiture, he not only painted an extraordi nary l ifelong series of h imself and his family, but tackled a number ofthe most famous per sonal ities of his age i n c l u d i ng Maynard Keynes and T. E. Lawrence. No other twenti eth-century British artist focused on the ec centricities of London life with such perspi cacity and wit. William Roberts' l ife was one of a rtistic and practical struggle not helped by an intransigent and latterly hermetic per sonality. Widely ill ustrated with reproductions of his work, William Roberts: An English Cubist offers a fuller understanding of the l ife and work ofthis major British artist. Contents: Ac knowledgements; Foreword; Preface; Early life; The great Vortex; To the front; Back to
Bohemia; Into the West End; Out of town; Back in the Vortex; Established at last; Life after William Roberts; Epilogue; Ch ronology; Se lected exhibitions; Public collections; Illustra tions; Bibl iography. Hb£30.00
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JOHN RUSKI N
Slmon Schama. 160 pages, Illustrated through out In colour and b&w. Hardback. 2005
Although much has been made of her debt to the giants of twentieth century British figura tion, Lucian Freud and Francis Bacon, Jenny Savi lle herself claims the work of Willem de Kooning as " my textbook of painting...And Pollock - his paintings are balletic". Linda Nochlin cha racterises her as being "at heart a conceptual artist", who "has more in com mon with feminist performance art and the imagery ofthe photographed body-object than with that of an old-ti m e paint-slinger l i ke Freud". lt seems that Saville is that rare crea tu re - a "pai nterly" painter with an underlying conceptual rigour that does nothing to dimin ish her evident and immersive delight in her materials. Born in Cambridge in 1970, Saville took her diploma in the Gl asgow School of Art in 1992. Her first exhibition proved a resound ing success, and was enti rely bought up by the Saatchi Gallery in London; since then she has received a n u m be r of i nternati o n a l awards a n d has taken part in many group and solo exhibitions, including Sensation: Young British Artists from the Saatchi Collection (London, 1997) Territories at the Gagosian Gallery, New York ( 1999); Ant Noises 2 at the Saatchi Gallery, London (2000) and Dispari ties and Deformations: Our Grotesque at the Fifth I nternational Biennial in Santa Fe, New Mexico (2004). She lives and works in Lon don and Palermo. This long-overdue catalogue raisonne is accompanied by a new text on Saville by Simon Schama. Hb £26.99
discussed: the la ndscapes of Pem broke shire and the South of France, before and after the Second World War; and the scenes of devastation produced for the War Artists scheme ru n by Sutherland's great friend Ke n n eth C l a rk . The book a lso i n c l u d es sections on the early 1920s etchi ngs and on the i n itia l emergence of his portraiture with the creation of Som erset Maugham in 1949. Carefu l ly sel ected works by other a rtists, past and present, i n whom Suther l a n d took a n i n terest, s u c h as B l a ke , Pa l mer, Nash and Masson h e l p to set his work i n a historical context. Publ ished to accompany the exhibition at the D u lwich Picture Gallery i n June 2005, this long-over due and m u ch-awaited book (there has not been a s u bsta nti a l Sutherland show i n London since 1982) co mprises 8 0 oils and works o n p a p e r d rawn from p u b l i c a n d private co l l ections throughout t h e UK, and it offers a sel ective interpretation of his painting rather than the usual career retro spective. Pb £ 19.95
Tai-Shan Schierenberg Willlam Packer. 120 pages, over 110 colour Illustrations. Paperback/ Hardback
A m o n ogra p h on Ta i-S h a n S c h i e re n b e rg written by Wi l l i a m Packer with a u t o b i ogra p h i cal text by Ta i -S h a n Sch ieren berg. I n cl udes re p ro d u ctions of Schieren berg's intimate portraits of family and friends, his portrait commissions of John Mortimer and Seam us Heaney as well as his subtle Norfolk landscapes. pb £14.95 hb £19.95
Graham Sutherland: Landscapes, War Scenes, Portraits 1 924- 1 950 Exhibition catalogue: Dulwlch Picture Gallery
(June 15 - September 25, 2005). Martin Hammer.
Patrick Hughes
192 pages, 95 Illustrations. Paperback.
John Slyce 160 pages, paperback
Focusing on the period from the mid-1930s - when Gra h a m Sutherla nd esta b l ished h is identity as a modern pai nter - to the 1950s, when his. influence began to wane, this im portant book explores the works that led both critics and fe l l ow a rtists to 'declare Sutherland the most exciti ng a n d compel l i ng voice i n contemporary British painting. Two particu lar stra nds of h is i magery are
Exhibition .Catalogue.
In this book, the first to handle the enti rety of H u g h es' work, J o h n S lyce gives a n entertaining and intell igent account of the artist's formation and the im plications of his paradoxical art. Fi rst published in 1998, the new edition has been updated with 2 new c h a pters by the a ut h o r a n d 30 n ew reproductions. pb £19.95
7 0 C h a ri n g Cross Roa d WC2
Bestsel l ing Art Books Spri ng
2005
Museo d'Arte Contemporanea, Rome £ 1 9.95
WILLIA� ORPEN Politics- Sex and Death Exhibition Catalogue.
Imperial War Museu�
·
£29.95 .
In .. Camera. FRANCIS . .BACON . Photography, Film and .the Practice of Painting M� Harrison . T&H £35.00 · ·
·
DAMIEN HIRS'[ The Agony · & the. Ecstasy: Selected Works 1 989-2004 Museo Archeologico. Nazionale £29�95
. · .
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�-·5 . . Schatz Hauser.. Deutschlands:· . Kunst in adligem Privatbesitz Exhibition Catalogue
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An Artist should be fit for the best Society - and kee p o ut of it�
Jenny Saville
SHIPLEY . J ENNY SAVI LLE
El
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Munich £39.95
6 .- . COLLAGE: The: Making of Modern Art . Brandon Taylor Thames . & Hudson £29.95
_
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PICASSO
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The Real' Family Story. �livier Widmaier Picasso. Prestel £ 1 9� 99
8 . , CARAVAGGIO The Final Years. . Exhibition Catalogue . . National Gallery, · London £28.0.0 . · ··
9· 10
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GIOVAN : BAniSTA · MOROtU
lo sguardo sulla- realta 1560- 1579 - Simone Facchinetti Silvana Editore £24.95 .
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