Marina Abramovic
In order to get in to see the new exhibition by Marina Abramovic in New Yorks Museum of Modern art you have to slide between two naked people facing each other in a narrow doorway.
“I didn’t want to step on their feet,” said Lallier, a student from Montreal. “We feel shy and they don’t, and they’re the ones that are naked.”
When the artist Marina Abramovic and her then-companion Ulay first performed the piece, called “Imponderabilia,” in Bologna, Italy in 1977, the police showed up.
Last week, the 63-year-old queen of performance art , dressed in a flowing dark-blue dress, and looking extremely pale, sat down at a small table in the towering atrium of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. She will be there, motionless and silent, every day during museum opening hours for the next three months. This is the duration of her retrospective, The Artist is Present – the first career survey Moma has ever given to a performance artist – which is taking place concurrently up on the sixth floor. In the atrium, Abramović is making the title of her exhibition literal. And members of the public can share in her presence by sitting in the empty chair opposite her and engaging in silent eye contact for as long as they want, or as long as they can.
“I have to be like a mountain,” the artist told me a couple of days before going into her “big silence” for the performance. She will go home every evening when the museum closes, but, in order to sustain her meditative state, she will not speak until 31 May. “The atrium is such a restless place, full of people passing through. The acoustics are terrible – it’s too big, too noisy. It’s like a tornado. I try to play the stillness in the middle
What is Art?
This is one of those questions that completely frustrates me. You can get variations on the same theme, such as “Is it Art?”. What makes it Art?” etc. For Gods sake ! Stop being paranoid. Just enjoy it or not as the case may be. People are too busy worrying as to whether they are being conned or not and not really looking at the “art”.
You dont often here anyone say “What is Music?”. Most people have a good sense of all types of music from Modern classic to freeform Jazz and do not get bogged down in the Philosophy. It is after all a basic lack of understanding that puts ”Art” in this place and this is backed up with the fact that Art education in this country appears to end at 16 whereas Music carries on throughout a lifetime with no question as to its very nature just questions on its relevance. The fear with Art can be summed up in the sentance, ” I do not understand it therefore it is either dangerous or trying to make me look like an idiot “. It is almost as though people have a Medieval sceptisicm with that cries “Burn the Witch” evert time Damien Hurst puts another cow in formaldhyde.
You can , as I have tried on many occasions preach to the unconverted and like John the Baptist speak out in the wilderness with faith and fervour. But the message never seems to get through.
Nowadays there is nothing I like more than to wander through galleries looking at modern art and listening to people comment on it. Vague theories that try to impress their listener are mixed with plebian moans of exasperation. ”Its like those bricks! What was all that about?”
Surely the worst is the phrase ” Its not proper Art”. This is usually spouted by very conservative idiots who cannot get themselves past Impressionism. To them Modernity is something akin to Satanism . A subversive force that is out to destroy all that is good in this jolly lillte green island. These are the people that look at the past as the halcyon days and the future as a bleak apocolyptic nightmare.
Style over substance – Jack Vettriano
You might not know the name but you will immediately recognise the work. Vettriano is one of this country’s ( Scotland that is ) most successful artists. He has however completely divided opinion. Critically he is held up as a pariah, yet he is one of the most sought after artists around.
His iconic “The Singing Butler” was sold for £744,500 (nicely more than a million dollars) at an auction in 2004 whereas in 1992 it was rejected for a Royal Academy show. It’s estimated that he annually earns around $500,000 in royalties from print sales. Then he creates original paintings that can go for around $60-75,000 each. Oh, and he was awarded the OBE and also picked up an honorary doctorate from Scotland’s St. Andrews University.
He is undoubtedly a very seductive painter. His work exudes atmosphere . Like a Fellini film in oils he draws you in. His technique is again exceptional. The detail and realism shows great craft. But there is something unsatisfying about the work. time and time again I have come back to his paintings and left with a feeling of……gloss. Like looking at manequins parading in Cosmopolitan poses. The technique might be real but the paintings are not. We just want them to be, and I think it is this frustration that really hurts. I want the paintings to be real , I want to relate to the characters and have empathy or attraction. But what I actually get is envy . Surely it is no coincidence that this painter is so successful at a time when the popular culture is towards fame and celebrity. Leonardo had Lisa . Vettriano should have Price ( Katie).
The British Museum & the Anderson cat
To me the British Musuem is the 8th wonder of the modern world. You cannot fail but find something that causes those hairs on the back of your neck to rise on each and every visit. On one of my earliest visits I was wandering through the Egyptian gallery and marvelling at the monumental heads of Rameses II and Sethos II when I came across a very small ( life size ) sculpture of a green cat. The sculpture is now known as the Gayer-Anderson cat after Major Robert Grenville Gayer-Anderson who donated it to the British Museum. The statue is a representation of the cat-goddess Bastet. The cat wears jewellery and a protective amulet. The earrings and nose ring on the statue may not have always belonged to the cat.While they certainly are ancient, an early photograph of the cat shows the statue wearing a different pair. A winged scarab appears on the chest and head, it is 42cm high and 13cm wide .
I was struck immediately by just how beautiful the object was. How delicate and light it looked . The colour the line the form everything seemed perfect. Then I noticed that the scuplture was made from Bronze and over 2500 years old. I was amazed that something so sophisticated could of been made when we were throwing rocks .
Whitstable Wind Farm
Here is the first completed painting of the new decade. A view across Whitstable bay to the wind farm on the horizon. I am trying very hard not to do too much in a painting. Looking back at some of the earlier work I am concious that there is just too much going on and they look very busy. So here is an attempt at a more minimal approach.
For a better view of the painting and to see others please visit my website :
www.limbirons.com
The Searchers
You,ve been there before . Lying on the sofa flicking through the 400 channels of rubbish available to you on Sky when all of sudden you come across an old favorite. A film you must of seen countless times before but the last time you saw it was long enough ago for you to get a sentimental rush of excitement as you realise that you are ready to watch it again.
This was the case for me last night as I accidentally bumped into “The Searchers” by John Ford. Now some say that this is his best film, and I must admit there are times when I agree and other times I waver towards “She wore a yellow ribbon”. I guess it depends what mood you are in.
The problem I have with the film, other than its obvious racist viewpoint, is it f lows really well up to Futterman. Then it loses its way a bit until the wedding scene. What makes the film so good then? Certainly the iconic cinematography is well documented with the way in which the open doors are used to frame some of the climactic scenes and the obligatory use of Monument Valley . But for me it is the acting that is so surprising. Wayne is superb , definatley his best performance. Also the supporting cast are great with Mose Harper and his rocking chair and Ward Bond as Capt Clayton.
Obviously the most discussed aspect of the film is its examination of the ‘dark’ nature of Waynes character Ethan, brooding and vengeful and deeply racist. The tension gradually builds as to what Ethan is going to do when he finally rescues Debbie from the Comanche. In the event he saves her and takes her back to the family. It remains unresolved though. You feel as though Ford really wanted the alternative ‘black’ conclusion but like Ethan he keeps his ‘dark’ side under control. The film is bitter sweet and leaves you with a sense of unease.
Spooky stuff at the Tate Liverpool!
One of the highlights for me this Christmas was a visit to the Tate in Liverpool. Housed in the converted Albert Dock and right next to the Echo Arena it is one of the best galleries outside London. On the ground floor you walk past the weighty Epstein “Embrace” all chunks and soap, and straight into a Rothko room. Epstein’s brutalism is counterweighted perfectly with the sombre and subtle Rothko’s. But it was the third floor that really has all of the highlights. Devoted to showing sculpture it has some real gems in it.
Epstein – Rothko – Mueck
Ron Mueck: Hyper-Realist Sculptor
Ron Mueck’s work is really disturbing. What makes it so powerful? It is the relationship between the hyper reality of the work and the respective size. The girl standing leaning against a wall is real apart from her eyes which are dead and lifeless ( and cross eyed ) and the fact that she is 9ft tall.
This head is very like the head I first saw at the British Museum right next to the Christmas island monoliths. Spooky stuff
Looking at Muecks work is not a solitory activity. You feel like you are people watching. Other people reactions to the work are facinating. Some almost bump into it only noticing the detail up close and are suddenly shocked. You actually hear gasps of astonishment!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Mueck
Delicious Delilah
Those Swiss guys sure know how to make clocks!
A trip to the Tate Modern is always a pleasure. Just starting off from Cannon st tube station with a gentle walk through the city to St Pauls and then left across the Millenium bridge to the imposing ediface itself on the South Bank is a great start, and certainly gets you in the mood for some of the new wonders to be seen.
First on my list for this visit was the “Big Black Box” by Miroslav Balka. The experience is like a cross between a Hitchcock film and Close Encounters. Good to start the tour with a chuckle even if it is a nervous one.
Then onto some of the serious stuff of which there were 2 highlights for me. Both installations :
Anselm Kiefer – “Palm Sunday” Wow what a treat. Just the monumental energy and resolve in this work is impressive enough but then you go through all the intellectual meanderings about Global warming and the apocalypse. The road between desert island idyll and Bikini Atoll.
Normally the Kiefer work would of been the highlight and it almost was. However as I was looking for the exit I accidentally went into Energy and Process Peter Fischli & David Weiss (Room 11). At first glance this is a room in transition. The builders are half way through redecorating it. But then you start to look into it in more detail and notice something strange. Looking at a discarded pack of cigarettes you suddenly realise it isnt real. There is something wrong. Then you discover that everything is sculpted, everything is unreal. The amount of detail, and obsession that has gone into the work is amazing.
Everything in the room is made from Polythene foam and acrylic paint.
On the way out of the room a couple entered and took a brief look around immediately dismissing it as complete rubbish. Obviously not realising that all of the objects were sculpted and not ready made. You feel as though you want to tell them to take another look. You want them to know the pain and work the artists have endured to complete this . But you dont. There is a certain amount of self satisfaction that you have sussed it out they have not.
Those Swiss guys sure know how to make clocks!
Meredith Frampton 1894-1984 Marguerite Kelsey
Not my usual sort of painting. But I first bumped into it in the Tate Modern a few years ago, and it is the sort of work you cannot help but fall in love with when you see it in the flesh. Reproductions just do not convey the depth of realism in this work. The sheer technical mastery is awe inspiring. The subtlety of the brush and the spirit of the sitter all come through beautifully. When you walk into the Realism gallery ( room 9 ) at the Tate this painting does not stand out immediately, the colors and textures are just too subtle for that. You almost bump into it by accident. Your eyes are drawn to the hands and the triangle negative shape that the left arm makes against the couch.
In the end you feel you know Marguerite very well. She must be a feisty independent free thinking woman. No jewelry adorns her , no necklaces rings or bracelets. The thing is she should be ‘plain’ but is everything but.
This really is a polished gem of a work.
