gallery visits
1) Tate modern- 08/07/16
On my first gallery visit to the Tate modern in central London, I explored many different types of art mediums and styles such as Picasso's distortion technique. I didn't personally gain as much inspiration from the work of these artists as I would have liked but I could appreciate the process behind their work and how it came to be. For example the work using television from different time periods and shows are set up in a way so that the viewer can experience television from a different time period to their own. This could be construed as taking a look into a hidden world as the these recordings allowed the artists to show life of everyday people but also artists's and notable people from the past such as Charlie Chaplin. Although this does think with my theme this idea of the televisions almost contrasts to that of mine, as I am mainly focusing on the hidden world's of nature and what this nature once was. The collection as a whole seemed to have no focal point and displayed art from all different walks of life and mediums. Many notable artists/Photographers displayed their work such as Picasso's with his work 'The weeping woman', Lorna Simpson, Bernd and Hilla Becher and Tracey Emin's 'My Bed'. Even though unrelated to my theme I felt like I really understood the mood of the piece and the emotions that are conveyed. Although some would argue that the objects and layout of the bed had no meanings or connotations I would prefer to think that the objects placed have an emotional connection to Emin but also convey a sense of 'confessional-ism' as the bed is covered in empty alcohol bottles, cigarette butts etc I feel like this is creating a universality to engage its viewer.
2) National portrait gallery
On my second visit, I went to the National portrait gallery. Personally I preferred the national portrait gallery due to the mix of old and new, thereby there was more that fit into the category of decay and natural beauty. The national portrait gallery hosted more notable artists and work such as Andy Warhol and his work with Audrey Hepburn and Amy Winehouse ('Amy-Blue'). by Marlene Dumas. The focus of the National Portrait gallery was the portrait side of art and photography. Apart from the few distorted portraits most of the work was realistic and represented the natural beauty of the models like in Brian Duffy's 'David Bowie' series. Although I am focusing on the natural world and decay and I can still use the concept of 'Natural beauty' in my future work but adjust to suit my theme. Another route I could take would to look at portrait and but still incorporate decay and natural beauty by using an older person and a beautiful background.
3/4) Serpentine/ Sackler gallery
On my third and fourth gallery visits, I visited the Serpentine and the Serpentine Sackler gallery. Located in Hyde park this is a very modern gallery continually updated to suit a contemporary theme. This was my favourite of all of the galleries visited because of the wide array of modern contemporary takes on artwork mixed with distortion techniques as-well as the use of sculptures and 3d artwork not as heavily present in the other galleries visited . The mix of 2D an 3D installations really appealed to me as the viewer can interact with the artworks. With artists such as Etel Adnon and Micheal Craig Martin the gallery attempts to use modern artists deemed unrealistic in their time , so they can now be appreciated by their modern audiences. The serpentine exhibition takes landscape as its focus and artists such as Alex Katz. Katz’s landscape paintings exemplify his life-long quest to capture the present tense in paint. Regardless of their scale, Katz describes these paintings as ‘environmental’ in the way in which they envelop the viewer. I am aiming to focus on realistic naturalistic beauty whereas the majority of the artists exhibiting their work in a more undefined and abstract manor so I haven't found an artist suitable for my theme from these galleries so far.