Promises, promises

Ok it's not tomorrow but the day after and rather late at that but what I am going to do now is to give you the last stage of the recent (heavens' it has receded into the distance already!) trip to London and that was the visit to Tate Britain after I debarked(?!) from the river boat:

 

This piece is by Anthony Caro and would be typical of why I love to visit Tate Britain - or as I originally knew it: simply the Tate Museum of Modern Art; Caro has, as I have already noted, died in his nineties just recently.

I had forgotten about the Bacons and was particularly delighted to see the pieces that have become part of my collage work

 

 

I include this closeup for the brushwork of which you will see more in a bit - more reflections there too.

 

Great to be able to get these close-ups and amazing quality with just the phone camera

One could not go to the Tate without paying even a brief visit to the Turner Rooms:

 

Again look at Turners bush work - it really is extraordinarily vigorous.

And of course, Mr Moore:

 

I particularly liked these  - they are not what most people would think of when considering Moore

 

 

King and Queen - this is one of my favourites - I originally saw a picture of this in moorland on a Scottish hillside and it appeared so elemental

 

 

Barbara Hepworth

 

Reg Butler

-again two great British sculptors from some years ago who don't seem to get much mention now

 

 

Jacob Epstein - Rock Drill ; this is in fact only  part of the original; Epstein didn't like it and indeed it is also very untypical of what Epstein would be noted for ... but I love it - it is so truculent

 

 

This is a painting by William Orpen called The Mirror (1900) with which I was unfamiliar but considering our recent brushes with the Arnolfinis I couldn't resist it ; have a look at the close-up:

 

 

 do you think he had Van Eyck on his mind?

 

Finally here are a few drawings I did while in the presence of greatness:

 

 

Back to print next

 

 

 

On the path of steel

Its been a while, but I promise to do better.

This post will be short but I just had to record the fact that I am on the train to Nenagh - unfortunately its a bit dark to take in the fascination of this single = line track and its tiny stations - on with a single line through it and platforms on each side - really bizarre!

OK charge is about to go - will be back tomorrow - lots of work to record and some interesting contextual

Cantering along the path

This might sound as if it's all rather easy - wrong; however, it is at least happening and beginning to accelerate somewhat  so here is where I am at now:

First the linocuts

 

Proof

 

Two colour on newsprint and I would have to say I love to print on newsprint

 

 

The drawing - I held the tooth in my mittened hand, sketched it, then drew it to the size of the piece of lino

 

Transferred it to the lino (sorry -this is upside-down)

 

The lino-cut - I like the bit of resistance in the grey lino

 

The proof

 

 

The wall now - the two lower ones are prints

 

Etching is continuing apace

 

 

the two plates cleaned

 

 

The two first prints - more tomorrow and hopefully some aquatinting  - the plate has been rosined but not cooked yet.

 

 

..............

 

 

 so this is where they're coming from

 - They will have to be stopped.

 

 

 

Across the river

Let's resume our perambulations around London.

On Saturday morning got tube to Mansion House and walked down a delightfully quiet Queen Victoria Street in the middle of the City - a man casually cycled down the middle of the empty street.

One turns left and there is the new footbridge straight across the river to the wonderful Tate Modern. (The bridge is called the Millenium B and was part designed by the great sculptor Sir Anthony Caro whose obituary I read with sadness yesterday - he was in his nineties and still working.)

 

and looking left there is the extraordinary Shard

 

 you really need to check out the house at its foot to get some scale

 

My main reason for going to Tate Modern on this occasion was that I had a ticket booked for the  Paul Klee retrospective. when I had heard that this was opening two days before I was coming to London I couldn't believe my luck and better still when I arrived about an hour too early the gatekeeper laughed and said ' you're fine - go on in'. This was really good because when I was coming out - about an hour after my specified time, it was really packed and I missed all that

 

 

 

Paul Klee falls into the same category for me as Henry Moore - a very powerful influence at a very formative time.

[I should perhaps note here that I was very law-abiding and did not take any pictures so the images I show are of pictures I saw there, but downloaded]

 

The exhibition was really excellent and if you were to read any of the reviews they are uniformly extremely warm.

 

Here are some pictures and a story or two.

 

I was walking and looking when I rounded a corner and was faced with this:

 

 

It is variously known as   'Battle-scene from the Comic Opera The Seafarer'  and

'Sinbad the Sailor' and it is a w/colur from 1923.

 

When I saw it  I was stunned, for the last time I was in front of this was in it home gallery of Basel in the mid- sixties. I was hitching around Europe with an art student friend - Mick O'Sullivan' - and we purposely stopped in Basel because we knew there were Klees there.

Some years later when he had his first show the biog said that he studied in Basel..........yeah,for about an hour! - I've always been a bit suspicious of biogs since.

Anyway a year or so later I bought a reprod of this on card and it has been with me ever since ( a bit battered now) - the first thing put up in any new abode.

 

I went on an just marvelled at the drawing and water-colour work:

 

 

Historical Site -1927

 

 

Harmony of the Northern Flora -

 

Uncomposed Objects in Space - 1928

 

 

Greeting -1922

 

Low-lands - 1929

 

I particularly liked this one for the subtlety of the colour-balance and the tranquillity of wet landscape receding to the horizon - maybe Julian Opie looked at this

 

Part of the ticket deal was that I got a ticket to another show - a retrospective of Mira Schendel, an artist with whom I was completely unfamiliar:

 

 Now the confession;

I'm afraid I wasn't quite so altruistic at this exhibition mainly because I was so astounded at what I saw:

 

 

this was a terrific installation of hanging threads filling a whole room

Really these shots don't do the artist the credit she deserves and I intend to investigate a lot more - there was another installation consisting of a large number of different sized white cards with black text, except for one black card with white text - description is poor it -  needs to be seen.....experienced.

[later addition -I had forgotten that I did a rough sketch on the spot  so her it is just to give you some idea:]

 

 

 

You know, I nearly 'didn't bother' going in - what a loss that would have been. The other thing that struck me was how Eurocentric we really are: because Mira Schendel's artistic life took place in Brazil, I knew nothing of her; I am ashamed.

 

I went for a tour around the gallery to see what of their permanent collection was up; reduced because they are undergoing a major building programme to open late next year I believe. Even the Turbine Hall was out of action:

 

 

 Anyway, the collection:

 

Tanguy

 

up-and- coming young Spanish artist

 

I loved the windows but I and Joseph Beuys don't really get on

 

great collection of Russian revolutionary posters

 

Love the texture and tone here

 

I have seen this many times but it still affects me deeply

 

this exhibit plays interestingly with the Orientalist idea - I wonder what Edward Said would have thought about it

 

As I was going down the escalator this reflection appeared - I think I am going to have to gather all the reflective pieces together and see what happens

 

I left Tate Modern and headed upriver by boat to the next visit  - Tate Britain - but along the way some images presented themselves:

 

A wave washed over he front of the boat

 

 

The ceiling of the ferry terminal

 

You realise in somewhere like London how rural ones normal surroundings are and even that Limerick is not a very big town.........but that's not a bad thing