Art and Architecture Archives

Thu 04 Oct 2007 3:30PM - 4:30PM
Mon 08 Oct 2007 9:00AM - 10:00AM

This amazing Sky Arts documentary profiles the life and times of one of the most underrated artists of modern times. Ignored by critics and public alike during his lifetime, Cézanne’s work didn’t start selling properly until after his death, as people realised that his paintings had value.

Many bracketed him with the Impressionists, but his way of portraying natural forms, revisited through a geometric viewpoint, laid the foundations for Cubism and Abstraction. It was this style that led to abuse from some quarters, and was the major contributor to the lack of exhibitions he was able to stage. What can be understood from the paintings is Cézanne’s deep-rooted unease with the human form, naked or otherwise, and his disquiet with personal contact, in his work and life in general.

The programme looks at numerous Cézannes, with comments from modern day critics and even Aline Cezanne, grand-daughter of the artist. Location pieces from around Aix-en-Provence, the artist’s home town, give the viewer a feeling of the landscape that surrounded the artist as he worked.

Want to comment on the programme? Have your say here.

A nine metre spider is being installed outside the Tate Modern as part of the Louise Bourgeois exhibition. Bourgeois, whose work spans seven decades, has her first outdoors installation with the unveiling of Maman. Crafted from bronze, stainless steel and marble, the sculpture is one of a series of six created by the artist. A female spider, this spectacular arachnid alludes to the strength of motherhood with metaphors of spinning, weaving, nurture and protection, which is a homage to Bourgeois’ mother, who she says was her ‘best friend….very clever…helpful and protective’.

Louise Bourgeois, now in her 96th year, was born in 1911 in Paris, moving to New York in 1938. Always at the forefront of new developments in art, she has pursued a wholly personal path. She has explored her ideas through painting, printmaking, sculpture, installation and performance, using extraordinarily varied media, from wood and stone to latex and rubber. This breadth of materials is balanced by an almost obsessive continuity of subject matter, deeply autobiographical in its references.

What do you think about art like this? Join in a discussion here and let your views be known to others.

Mueck’s sculptures are eerily life-like, quite often involving subjects in a state of undress. Knocking the spots off famous waxworks museums, visiting an exhibition of these pieces can be quite disturbing. Natural inhibitions come to the fore under the unblinking stares of some pieces, indeed it seems easier to look at those sculptures that have their eyes closed. It is like standing and staring at a live model as opposed to a painting. Startlingly accurate, even down to the veins under the translucent skin, these pieces are designed to make us look at the human form in its natural state.

Size matters in Mueck’s work. From the 15ft baby, entitled ‘A Girl’, to the vast ‘In Bed’, the sheer magnitude of the pieces reverses the spectator/sculpture relationship. The viewer feels under scrutiny, the size difference placing them in a subservient role. The sculpture certainly looks more at ease than the spectator.

What are your feelings on this sort of art? Jump into a discussion here where people are chatting about the impact of Mueck’s sculptures.

One of the most enigmatic artists of the 20^th Century, Mondrian surely wins the category of ‘most copied by infant school children’. His instantly recognisable geometric style - blocks of colour and thick black lines is explored in this SkyArts documentary. His progression from landscape artist to his more famous brightly coloured canvasses is tracked through thrity of his paintings, and his influence on modern day life and design is examined. How much Turner-inspired interior décor and furniture do you see in the shops? And how many by Mondrian?

Rejecting the conventional tenets of figurative painting which sought to depict reality, texture and three dimensions, Mondrian instead had a vision of art that was based on ‘a harmonious, expressionless sense of order’. In his life, he tried to strip everything down to the minimal, even going as far as using wooden boxes as furniture and having a very barren studio. Many people thought him to be a mathematically minded person, but as this programme shows, he was a lover of jazz and dance, yet this chaotic side to his nature was not reflected in his art. This enigma is demonstrated in the show, with contributions from critics and other illuminati.

Got any thoughts on Mondrian? Have your say here.

Opening later this month at the Louise T Blouin Foundation in London, this extensive exhibition highlights the distinctive and dynamic style of this well known architect. Still the youngest recipient of the Pritzker Prize (considered architecture’s highest accolade), Meier has been involved in projects such as the L.A. Getty Center and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Barcelona. Exploiting the natural light and space in which the buildings stand, Meier’s architecture evokes ‘spaces of aesthetic illumination and enlightened cultural values’.

Alongside his architectural work, Meier has been working on ceramics, sculpture, collages, photography, furniture and product design all ofwhich are showcased in this retrospective. The collages in particular are of note; a record of his travels, they comprise papers, tickets and cuttings collected on his travels, which express space and pivotal moments. The sculptural pieces made from junk metal bring to mind skeletons of some weird and unnatural animals from another time. Coupled with his art and architecture, these establish Meier’s unparalleled versatility as a designer. Well worth a visit, and if you have any thoughts on his architecture, why not join in with others who are talking about his latest projects (in New York) here.

Although ArtsWom fully support liberal artistic expression, we understand that some people may visit this site and not know what sort of content is contained within. Therefore, we are not replicating the image currently being debated on these pages but if you are interested in seeing the artwork please click on the blue text.

Never knowingly dodging an issue, ArtsWom wants to know your views on whether the image seized from the Baltic Centre in Gateshead should have been taken in the first place. Described as ‘having the potential to cause offence’, the image, entitled Klara and Edda Belly-dancing, depicts two young girls, one of whom is sitting with her legs spread. Police have stated that the picture may breach child pornography laws. On loan from Elton John’s massive collection, the photograph is one of a series by artist Nan Goldin called Thanksgiving.

The extravagant pop diva has defended the photograph, saying that it has been ‘widely published with no objections’, and has indeed been auctioned twice at Sotheby’s. The photograph was hung in a gallery that, in separate rooms, had pieces depicting intravenous drug injection, defecation and penetrative sex. So, do ArtsWom readers think this is a knee-jerk over-reaction by the authorities in the current paedophile-obsessed climate? Or is it a victory for sense and decency? There is a lively debate under way at Digital Spy, so why not see what others are saying.

For further reading, Jonathan Jones of the Guardian Art Blogs tackles the issue forcefully and effectively in his article, Goldin’s Art is Not Porn.

As a respectable and credible arts blog whose dedication to all that is good and fruitful in the world of the arts is impeachable, ArtsWom thinks the below link is not big and not clever. We merely present it here on these pages to highlight - that and the fact it made us chuckle a little.

Cartoon Brew - not for those with a mature and well-developed sense of humour!

It’s almost a perversion of modern celebrity culture that, despite a suitably active environmentalist body in Hollywood, the leading famous face championing the dangers of climate change amongst us Britons could arguably be named as ex-presidential hopeful, Al Gore. Bear in mind that this is despite the fact that Leonardo DiCaprio has been sinking his teeth into a revealing documentary about the environment, and Angelina Jolie’s ‘hunky’ boyfriend, Mr. Brad Pitt, narrates the six-part series exploring the “economies of being environmentally conscious”, Design E2 – currently showing on Sky Arts.

Design E2 is an original creation from Kontentreal, and claims to showcase the “innovators, inventors and architects who are driving positive change and helping re-design the world we live in making it a better, cleaner world for all”. More can be learned about the show by visiting the accompanying website which is loaded with a wealth of additional resources and beautifully designed to boot.

If the environment is more important to you than sleep (or if you just fancy being soothed softly to slumber by the sultry tones of sexy Brad) you can catch episode 4 in the series tonight at 1.30am on Sky Arts channel 267. If this seems too much to ask, the show continues in the more manageable timeslot of 5.30pm on Saturday 29th September. The documentary is also being presented in HD on Sky TV channel 268.

Follow this link to discuss the issues raised in this show on the Sky Arts website.

FC Barcelona have just revealed the new design for the revamp of the famous Camp Nou, the massive, intimidating arena which has cowed many a team into submission before a ball has been kicked. Sir Norman Foster has been commissioned, and his ‘disco stadium’ design has certainly caught the imaginations of fans in football forums. Apparently inspired by the work of Gaudi in the nearby city, the new stadium is designed to fit ‘proudly into the [city’s] architectural heritage of distinctive and colourful buildings’.

Antoni Gaudi (1852-1926) is best known for his individualistic designs for some of Barcelona’s most prominent buildings. Prominent amongst these is his unfinished masterpiece, the Sagrada Familia, the massive cathedral which resembles a lump of melted candle wax. Fascinated by organic form throughout his life, Gaudi was not influenced by the geometric shapes favoured by some of his contemporaries, but incorporated the growth patterns of plants in his designs. His gardens, full of parabolic arches and secret grottoes are often featured in showcases of Barcelona, revealing his undeniably unique style.

Does this approach to architecture translate to the design of football stadia, however? The new shell for the Camp Nou evokes the image of a harlequin’s costume, but includes features that will undoubtedly improve facilities for the fans. Opinion from fans is mostly in favour of the new look, but whether it is a true reflection of Gaudi’s principles is still under discussion.

Graduate of Northumbria University and all-round good recycling bod, Simon Daniel-Brown has come up with a cunning way of attracting our attention to the iconic shape of the coat hanger. Designed in sections so that councils can build their seating areas in whatever shape they want, like a big train set, this magnificently calculated structure has different uses for different punters. Depending on where one sits on the structure, one can enjoy splendid isolation, or interact with those sitting behind or next to them on the bench-style seats. His design has won him the 2007 RSA Wired Award.

This £7500 prize will allow Daniel-Brown to continue his work to develop ways to break down the resistance that has built up in the British conscience to social and personal interaction in seating areas such as parks, airports and train stations. The chrome plated design of the seat (which isn’t actually made from hangers, just based on the shape of them, for comfort purposes, obviously) is such that it will stand out from, or reflect the environment in which it is situated. The backless nature will encourage users to approach from both sides, sitting back to back, thus enabling more interaction.

A coathanger as a chair, who’d have thunk it?

These images have been perforating the surface of the infinitely stretched bedspread that is the interweb all over the place. And with good reason to, they’re bloomin’ great, ArtsWom must credit Core77 for drawing our attention enough to the point of writing about it and in fact making it the new showcase.

Gadl’s 360° panoramic creations create from landscapes bizarrely proportioned miniature planets. They remind us of the bubble in The Fountain that Hugh Jackman spends a third of the film in - enclosed spheres of self contained existence. Or marbles, full of colour and distended artifacts that have been gluttonously sucked into eloquent mutations.

With over 180 images who don’t you make the jump to gadl’s flickr page and let us know which one you would most like to live on.

With the news that two young men have recently been imprisoned in Manchester for 15 and 12 months respectively for tagging trains with their graffiti, a debate rages on as to whether this is a viable art form. Undoubtedly criminal damage according to the letter of the law, proponents of graffiti as art say that the murals have brightened the previously drab and grey urban landscape. But does daubing property with what amounts to colourful signatures warrant being labelled as art?

Britain’s most famous and outspoken graffiti artist is Banksy, whose pieces are usually comments on political situations. Some of his most famous recent work has been on the Wall of Separation in Israel, painting ‘holes’ and ladders, mocking the very existence of the barrier. His urban work in the capital often takes the form of a pre-cut stencil, necessary for reasons of expediency. It wouldn’t do to get caught in the act of creating a political statement. Described as ‘beautiful, witty and gently subversive’, his guerrilla tactics extend to hanging his own work in famous galleries, including the Tate, the Louvre and New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Carrying his slightly off kilter art in a bag, pre-glued, Banksy (real name forever to be withheld) slips the canvases onto the wall while security’s eyes are elsewhere.

Whether or not the graffiti of the youngsters who defaced the trains is as valid as art as Banksy is a discussion that will go on for some time, but the social commentary and political statements that he leaves on walls are in a league of their own. Whether or not the inhabitants of the buildings that he paints agree with his views is a moot point. Also under debate is whether the art actually does give the urban environments a voice which they otherwise could not express, which is a claim of his supporters. Whatever your view, Banksy has certainly become a well-known name (if not a face), and raised the profile of graffiti to the point that it is regularly discussed in arenas such as this.

Royal Academy of Arts, London, 22 Sep – 9 Dec 2007

Art Knowledge News have pointed us in the direction of this intriguing new exhibition. Collected from over 30 different galleries and private lenders, this will be the most comprehensive collection of Baselitz’s work for some time. The drawings, paintings and sculptures will enable visitors to consider over 50 years. Variously decribed as hostile and austere, Baselitz’s images are often aggressive, featuring semi-abstract figures, free brushstrokes and large areas of colour on the canvas. This may come from his inspirational sources, which he claims are, diversely, the art works of the mentally ill, African, French and Italian art, and 16^th century printing.

Thrown out of art school in East Berlin after just one term for showing ‘sociopolitical immaturity’, Baselitz began to project a sense of antagonism and seclusion in his work, often depicting his subjects upside down in later pieces, to free them from the constraints of the canvas. Another reason for doing this was to enable him to mix the abstract with the realism of his painting and turn the work ‘on its head’, which was to become a motif for his work. Recently he has returned to this style, although in a more straightforward fashion, which the artist calls Remixes.

Working in many media, from linocuts through pen and ink and paint, and producing work from opera sets to sketches to sculptures and diptychs, much of Baselitz’s prolific catalogue will be on display in this exhibition.

Constantly overshadowed by his more flamboyant contemporary Andy Warhol, and lambasted by critics for simple copying when his first comic book pieces came out, Roy Lichtenstein has since become arguably the Ugly Duckling of the Pop Art movement. If Warhol was the father of the Pop Art movement, Lichtenstein was the uncle no one talked about. The plagiarism charges certainly did not help his early career, accused as he was of taking the original art of DC Comics artists such as Tony Abruzzo and Irv Novick and producing ‘flat uncomprehending tracings of quite sophisticated images’.

But look how iconic his art is today. Adorning many a living room, and with originals on display all over the world from the Museum of Modern Art in New York to the Tate in London, Lichtenstein is heralded as a groundbreaker, despite him saying that his art was ‘as artificial as possible’. Using the Benday Dots method of painting, his art mixes the comic book stylistics of heavy outlines and bold colours with the reproduction of blown up photographs. Whilst Warhol was experimenting with silk screen printing of images, Lichtenstein was altering comic book drawings, twisting their meanings and words. Some of his pieces were comments on controversial events, such as ‘Whaam!’ which depicts a fighter plane blowing up another, seen to be a criticism of the Vietnam war.

Whether you concur with the critics that his enlarging of comic book images makes them static and lifeless, or think he produced some of the best Pop Art of the movement, Lichtenstein is now regarded as an important figure, rising from the shadow of the criticism and blossoming like the original ugly duckling.

For the first time ever, China is allowing a portion of the world famous Terracotta Warriors to be exported, and the British Museum are the lucky recipients. Twenty of the extremely delicate pot soldiers arrived over the last two weeks, carefully packed in giant crates, along with accompanying terracotta horses and other relics. They will form part of an exhibition at the British Museum that runs from 13 Sep – 6 Apr 2008, entitled China’s First Emperor: The Terracotta Army.

Originally crafted by over 1,000 skilled workers, the army was built and installed to protect the mausoleum of the first emperor of China Qin Shi Huang. Discovered in 1974 by farmers drilling a well in Xi’an, the 8,099 life size figures of the army were intended to protect the emperor in the afterlife and help him start a new life there. Arranged in perfect military formation, the warriors differ in uniform and hairstyle according to rank, and each one has an individually crafted face, making it a truly unique, almost human, collection. The British Museum has pulled off a coup in securing the loan of a small selection from the larger group, and is well worth a visit.

Coming via Geekologie this innovative multi-purpose furniture may not be comfortable, and look like it was designed for Lego men, but nevertheless, ArtsWom reckons it is pretty groovy.

Designed by sdesignunit the 2+1 does, as Geekologie suggests, appear to be Tetris pieces made into living commodities. This is no bad thing! However, it is made of cardboard which may be an issue to those with poor spatial awareness who, upon spilling their evening beverage witness their dining table turn to pulp. We say dining table, but the 2+1 is not named arbitrarily. As well as being a dining table with two chairs, post gastronomic activity it switches into a sofa for a spot of goggle box watching. When it all gets too much and the lad of nod calls, a quick re-jig sees the 2+1 transform into a single bed.

Created to serve the purpose of singles with a lack of spatial capital this diverse function furniture could be the future!