Category: Exhibitions
National Gallery Leonardo technical bulletin
October 27 2011
Picture: National Gallery, Leonardo's 'Virgin of the Rocks' (detail) in Infra-Red.
The latest National Gallery Technical Bulletin is out, and, wonderfully, freely available online with zoomable high-res images. Art History nirvana doesn't get much better than this. Essays include:
- Leonardo in Verrocchio’s Workshop: Re-examining the Technical Evidence by Jill Dunkerton
- Leonardo da Vinci’s 'Virgin of the Rocks': Treatment, Technique and Display by Larry Keith, Ashok Roy, Rachel Morrison and Peter Schade
- Altered Angels: Two Panels from the Immaculate Conception Altarpiece once in San Francesco Grande, Milan by Rachel Billinge, Luke Syson and Marika Spring
- Painting Practice in Milan in the 1490s: The Influence of Leonardo, by Marika Spring, Antonio Mazzotta, Ashok Roy, Rachel Billinge and David Peggie
Michelangelo (?) makes it to Rome
October 25 2011
The Kober family must be jumping for joy after their painting (which they believe to be) by Michelangelo is to be exhibited in Rome as part of an exhibition of the artist's work.
The painting affectionately known by the family as 'The Mike' was kept behind a sofa after a dusting incident knocked it off the wall. The painting is believed to date from c.1545 and depicts Mary with her arms open over the body of Jesus, whose arms are held by angels.
Although opinions on the painting are still contradictory, it marks an important stage in its acceptance since research by the owner begun back in 2002. Kober suggests that the painting was undertaken by the Italian master at the age of seventy and was painted for his friend Vittoria Colonna. It was eventually passed on to a cardinal, and archbishop and a family in Croatia where it hung in a castle for many years. The painting entered the Kober family through marriage from a German baroness who willed it to his great-great grandfather's sister in law.
Last year Michelangelo expert William E. Wallace didn't go as far as confirming its authenticity but didn't rule it out. The process of getting everyone to agree on attributions for paintings of this age is a long and tricky one, and no doubt this particular example will always be questioned. It is however a very interesting story well worth following...
More here.
By LH.
A masterpiece a month
October 25 2011
Pic: Tate Britain
As part of a bicentenary celebration Dulwich Picture Gallery will be displaying a different masterpiece every month.
Between 5th November - 5th December lucky visitors will get the chance to gaze upon David Hockney's 'Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy'.
This double portrait was undertaken by Hockney in 1970-1 and depicts his close friends, designer of textiles Celia Birtwell and fashion designer Ossie Clark. It is an artistic icon of an age which saw fashion break new barriers and visually records the couple's easiness within it.
The painting is vast (212cm x 304cm) and I personally cannot wait to see it. Each masterpiece is also accompanied with a lecture, details found here..
By LH.
Seeing double - Virgin of the Rocks
October 24 2011
Pic: canalblog.com
Here's an interesting article written for the Telegraph by Andrew Graham-Dixon on Leonardo da Vinci's two versions of 'Virgin of the Rocks' - at the Louvre and National Gallery.
The two paintings will be hung next to each other for the first time at the forthcoming National Gallery exhibition 'Leonardo da Vinci: Painter at the Court of Milan' - the most ambitious Leonardo exhibition ever staged. Exhibition details here.
By LH.
Going to Ottawa?
October 21 2011
Picture: National Gallery of Canada
Then the above exhibition looks like it's worth a visit. For those that can't go, here's a selection of the exhibits.
Another reason to go to the Gainsborough Study Day
October 21 2011
Picture: Holburne Museum
The organisers have been in touch to say that Rica Jones will also be speaking at the Study Day (14th Nov), on 'Insights into the production of Gainsborough's landscapes in the Sudbury-Ipswich period'. Jones, of the Tate conservation department, has made a hugely valuable conribution to Gainsborough studies with her technical analysis of Gainsborough's work, in particular his use of glazes.
See you all there!
Leonardo as homosexual
October 20 2011
Picture: Wikipedia
It's started - just when you thought the art world had covered every Leonardo angle in the run up to the National Gallery show, now the 'he was gay' headlines. From Jonathan Jones in The Guardian:
The idea that Leonardo could be aroused by a woman at all is a bit of a surprise. This is not the image of him that has come down to us. Ever since Renaissance witnesses recorded that he loved to surround himself with beautiful young men, his homosexuality has been an open secret. As a youth, he was twice accused of sodomy, though never prosecuted (apparently because the young men who were charged with him came from powerful and wealthy families). Yet Leonardo, as Vasari's account of his life and the artist's own notebooks confirm, went on to live openly with a household of youths led by Salai, his handsome, thieving apprentice – to whom he eventually left the Mona Lisa.
Jones makes much of Sigmund Freud's analysis of Leonardo's sexuality. Since Freud's theory was built partly on the nutty notion of finding hidden symbols (a vulture, above) in Leonardo's Virgin and Child with St Anne, I can't give it much time. Jones goes onto identify the central problem with the gay Leonardo theory - why is his (known) output dominated by so many portraits of beautiful women? Indeed:
The artist had a theory about art and sex [...] In his notebooks, he argues that painting is the greatest of all the arts because it can set a picture of your lover before you. A pastoral painting can remind you, in winter, of summer in the country with your beloved. He goes further, into blasphemy. He boasts that he once painted a Madonna so beautiful that the man who bought it was haunted by unseemly thoughts. Even after it was altered, perhaps with the addition of crosses and saintly symbols (as was done in Leonardo's second version of The Virgin of the Rocks), it still gave him an erection when he tried to pray. So in the end he returned the painting to Leonardo, who delighted in this pornographic triumph.
In which case, where are the similarly erotic paintings of boys? Now, I'm not at all trying to argue that Leonardo either was or wasn't gay. He probably liked a little of both, so to speak, and, well, why not? But it will be a shame if the coming crescendo of Leonardo coverage is dominated by ill-informed speculation over his sexuality. He was a genius first, and epic artist second. Shagger probably comes some way down the list.
Update: It's spreading - check out the 'phallic animal' caption here.
'The First Actresses' exhibition
October 20 2011
Picture: National Portrait Gallery, London
I saw the National Portrait Gallery's new 'First Actresses' exhibition yesterday. It's well worth a visit; a nicely set out show of celebrated actresses from the 17th and 18th Centuries, from Nell Gwyn to Sarah Siddons. The exhibition's curators have selected some fine works. The highlights for me were two of Gainsborough's finest full-lengths, Madame Baccelli (Tate) and Elizabeth Linley, on loan from the National Gallery of Art in Washington. The NPG have also rebuilt their temporary exhibition space, with great success.
The catalogue has some informative contributions, and sets out actress's (sometimes precarious) place in society with clarity and panache. However, if you're interested in the portraits themselves - say, their provenance or the circumstances surrounding their creation - then you'll be disappointed. I looked in vain for any information on the newly discovered portrait of Nell Gwyn. Both catalogue and exhibition are devoid of any meaningful research on the artist's role in the portraits. And surely it was thanks in part to the artists that the actresses achieved their fame (not least when it came to popular engravings). Some might say this is worrying in the National Portrait Gallery, and perhaps tellingly two portraits are exhibited with tentative attributions (and there's at least one attribution I have great trouble believing). Where have all the portrait experts gone?
Before I start ranting about connoisseurship again (and it really doesn't detract from this splendid exhibition), let me turn to condition. The two Gainsborough full-lengths here are in excellent preservation, and hung low so you can really look into them - a great treat. Likewise, George Romney's Emma Hamilton on loan from Kenwood House is, in its uncleaned but readable state, a glowing endorsement of what is called 'country house condition'. Sadly, the same can't be said of Verelst's daring and beautiful portrait of the naked Nell Gwyn. This has been cleaned for the exhibition, and, as can be glimpsed from the photo above, has lost something of its original delicacy. Verelst is known for his porcelaineous finish and crisp drawing, as can be seen in Nell's hand. But while the picture may have been succesfully cleaned, its restoration, the process of repairing the damaged and missing areas of original paint, leaves something to be desired. For example, there are too many missing glazes, such that the curls in her hair and the shadows around her face don't read as they should. Even the purple drapery looks overly bruised and damaged.
Succesful conservation is about so much more than technical skill - it requires a degree of artistry, and a sense of art history, that not all conservators are blessed with. Those restorers who lack that artistic feel often make a conscious decision to leave damage exposed - and call this approach 'minimal intervention'. But, while nobody likes an over-restored picture, there is a middle ground, which involves the careful re-introduction of retouching medium in the manner the artist would have intended.
The most succesful conservation is often a collaboration between restorer and expert, rather like a talented violinist under the guidance of a veteran conductor. The conductor may not be able to play the violin themselves, but in having spent their whole life studying, say, Beethoven, knows better than the violinist how the bare notes on a page should translate into a characterful performance. In Nell Gwyn's case, therefore, a quick refresher course in Verelst might reveal where the picture would benefit from judicious intervention - a retouch here, and a glaze there, and suddenly a picture can be transformed.
London's latest arts venue
October 18 2011
Picture: Two Temple Place
This is a must visit - a new exhibition space in central London. Two Temple Place was built as the home of Viscount Astor in 1895, and is on the Embankment between The Temple and Somerset House. Now, it has an exciting new role as a venue to display the best publicly owned art from UK regional collections.
The Public Catalogue Foundation has recently highlighted just how rich and varied the UK's 'national collection' of art is. But so much of it is hidden away, either in storage or the attic offices of local authority offices. So this new venue, housing temporary themed exhibitions, will be a great treat for us perpetual gallleryists.
The inaugural exhibition is William Morris: Story, Memory, Myth, with exhibits drawn from the William Morris Gallery in Walthamstow, and opens on 28th October till 29th January.
The V&A goes to India
October 18 2011
Picture: V&A
Interesting to see that one of the first major acts of the V&A's new director, Martin Roth, is to open a loan exhibition of the museum's paintings in India. His personal presence at the opening is an excellent move, and further proof that the UK's heritage can act as an unbeatable diplomatic, cultural and economic asset. The museum has also created a new India 'hub' on its website. From ZeeNews:
The Victoria & Albert Museum in London is carrying the cultural pact signed between India and Britain in July 2010 to the next level, with a series of art initiatives involving Indian cultural heritage. "The V&A Museum has a collection of 45,000 Indian art and objects of arts and it is natural that we should work on the collections together," Martin Roth, director of Victoria & Albert Museum, said here.
"We have also created a new India website to attract tourists and art lovers to the museum. India is a such a huge country and the tourism is growing," the director of the museum said. The museum, which opened a showcase of 100 Kalighat paintings at the Victoria Museum in Kolkata Saturday, has two more exhibitions on its roster to promote Indian heritage.
Kalighat paintings were devotional works offered at the Kalighat Temple in Kolkata, and depict Hindu religious figures. They were first painted in the 19th Century, and were a by-product of the European style of painting introduced to India by the British. you can see more examples from the V&A's collection here.
Later this year, another Indian exhibition will open at the V&A: 'Rabindranath Tagore: Poet and Painter' will assemble some fifty works by the artist (1861-1941) to celebrate the 150th anniversary of his birth. Opens December 11th till March 4th.
Gainsborough study day in Bath
October 17 2011
Picture: Holburne Museum
What could be nicer than spending a whole day discussing Gainsborough, surrounded by some of his best landscapes, in the city in which he painted?
There will be a Gainsborough Study Day at the Holburne Museum in Bath on Monday 14th November, price £50. The day will coincide with the museum's Gainsborough landscapes exhibition. Speakers include:
- Dr Martin Postle, (Assistant Director for Academic Activities, the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art and Trustee of the Holburne Museum)
- Dr Susan Sloman (exhibition Curator)
- Prof Deanna Petherbridge
- Hugh Belsey (Senior Research Fellow, Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, London)
- Dr Steve Poole (Principal Lecturer in English Social and Cultural History, University of the West of England)
- Prof Peter Holman (Professor Emeritus of Historical Musicology, University of Leeds)
The 'Monet of Manchester'
October 14 2011
Picture: Guardian, detail from 'Manchester Ship Canal'
A new exhibition of the works of French artist Adolphe Valette opens at The Lowry in Manchester tomorrow. Valette is best known as Lowry's teacher. Runs until 19th January. More here.
Perugino exhibition in Munich
October 13 2011
This looks like a good show: a major exhibition at the Alte Pinakothek on Pietro Perugino, Raphael's master. Opens today till 15th January 2012.
The British in India - the artist's view
October 12 2011
Picture: YCBA, Thomas Daniell, 'The Indian Rhinoceros', c.1790
An exhibition on the artistic legacy of the British in India has opened at the Yale Center for British Art. Adapting the Eye: An Archive of the British in India 1770-1830:
...explores the complex and multifaceted networks of British and Indian professional and amateur artists, patrons, and scholars in British India in the later eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and their drive to create and organize knowledge for both aesthetic and political purposes. Selected from the Center’s rich holdings, the exhibition includes a diverse range of objects from both high art and popular culture, including albums, scrapbooks, prints, paintings, miniatures, and sculpture, demonstrating how collecting practices and artistic patronage in India during that period constituted a complex intersection of culture and power.
Rajtastic. Runs until December 31st.
Guffwatch - Oxford edition
October 12 2011
Picture: Modern Art Oxford - 'Abraham Cruzvillegas, La Familia, 2009. Coconuts, artificial hair, steel wire and glue. Image courtesy of kurimanzutto'.
A reader has sent me this, from Modern Art Oxford:
Abraham Cruzvillegas - Autoconstrucción: The Optimistic Failure of a Simultaneous Promise
Cruzvillegas has created a series of new works for Modern Art Oxford that respond to the diverse contexts of the city of Oxford and the artist’s own personal background: The Optimistic Failure, a large-scale suspended sculpture in the form of a ‘mobile’, adorned with representations of Amazonian tsantsas (shrunken heads) made from animal dung, grass and soil collected from Port Meadow, Oxford; and The Simultaneous Promise, a mobile sculpture constructed from a tricycle and sound system that plays recordings of the artist’s interpretations of songs from his childhood and new songs by Oxford bands. These commissions are presented alongside two other new works: Blind Self Portrait as a Post-Thatcherite Deaf Lemon Head. For 'K.M.', in which found paper items are layered in thick monochrome paint and pinned to the gallery walls in a geometric pattern; and Untitled Scratching Relief with Builders Groove 3, a drawing incised directly onto the walls of the Upper Gallery and inspired by the route explored by Cruzvillegas’ during his visits to Oxford.
Update - a reader writes:
Guffwatch amused me today. Poor MoMA. Still the Deaf Lemon Heads would make a good name for a band. It reminded me of a guy called Victor Wynd, vendor of oddities, who owns a unique shrunken head of a European, priced (cheaply I would think) at £35,000.
Sounds like a bargain. Wonder who he (the head) is.
Strikes at the National Gallery?
October 12 2011
I learn from Art History Today that security staff at the National Gallery are threatening to go on strike, perhaps even during the Leonardo exhibition. Budget cuts have forced the National to put one warder in charge of two rooms, instead of a warder to a room as before.
Obviously, the recent attack on the Poussin, above, means this is an unusually sensitive issue. But it would be a shame if strike action disrupted the gallery. The National suffers more than other galleries from strikes because it is overly unionised. Now is probably not a good time to say that I occasionaly see warders not doing their job very well (for example, playing Sudoku).
Leonardo's Self-Portrait to go on display in Turin
October 11 2011
Picture: La Venaria Reale
A new Leonardo exhibition will open at La Venaria Reale near Turin on November 18th, to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Italian unification. The highlight will be Leonardo's Self-Portrait drawing. According to the exhibition website, the drawing will be on display 'for the first time ever' (which I find hard to believe). The show runs until 29th January 2012.
A tale of two galleries...
October 10 2011
Picture: BG
Rant Alert...
This weekend I went to both the Ahsmolean and the National Gallery. At the former, you can take pictures (e.g., above - I love their low, busy hangs), and the room attendants are cheery.
At the latter, I saw a hapless elderly tourist get bellowed at by a room attendant for seeming to lift his camera. It was such a loud and rude shout that everyone in the room was visibly startled. More and more galleries are allowing photos for personal use - the National should too. And it should stop shouting at its visitors. (I don't like to criticise the National - but as I have my name on their wall, I hope they'll forgive me...)
Brian Sewell on Grayson Perry
October 7 2011
Would you be surprised if I told you Brian Sewell does not like Grayson Perry's new show at the British Museum? Not only does he dislike Perry's pots, but he also wonders why the BM invited him to exhibit in the first place:
I quite see why the director of the BM accepted Perry's proposal for this wretched little show.
Boyishly provocative, aesthetically levelling, too clever by half and ultimately shallow, the reasoning was that with Perry's name, face and persona attached to it, thousands of loyal Perry fans will become fans too of the British Museum.
How naive - exhibitions of Hirst and Freud made no new friends for the Wallace Collection, and they were not held in such derision. Perry is not a man of scholarship, nor of credibility, and neither informs this puerile, silly and self-aggrandising show. Everything is subordinate to Perry's work; the largest exhibit is his, the exhibition's feeble climax is his, and his pots will rise substantially in price now that they have been exhibited in the British Museum. If the director was too unworldly, the trustees should have recognised the commercial implications of Perry's impertinent proposal - dealers in his pots are certainly rubbing their hands with glee, while the rest of us must pay £10 to see these pointless juxtapositions of Perry's current stock in trade with BM property. Was he paid a fee for his curatorial services and for writing the embarrassing nonsense of the catalogue?
"Do not," he writes in it, "look too hard for meaning here." Do not look at all.
The exhibition, The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman, runs until 19th February.
Look at this painting - did you notice the missing piece?
October 6 2011
Picture: Tate
As I mentioned earlier, the Tate has restored the missing section of John Martin's Destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum. The decision to restore it was undertaken with the help of a vision scientist, Tim Smith, who tracked the eye movements of 20 people to see how they reacted to the damage in the painting. Not surprisingly, they noticed the missing section. He has written an article about the process:
The decisions made by conservators when restoring important works of art have a direct influence on how the final painting will be perceived and there is a lot of psychological insight that can inform this process. For example, computational models of visual attention can tell a conservator whether a crack or the loss of a segment is likely to capture the viewer's attention and how this will change depending on the context in which the painting is viewed.
For the damaged John Martin we decided to compare how viewers attended to and made sense of different digital reconstructions of the painting by recording viewer eye movements. An eyetracker uses high-speed infrared cameras to record where a person looks on a screen. This allowed the TATE to foresee how viewers might attend to the final product before embarking on costly and time-consuming work on the painting itself.
[...]
In the neutral version of the painting the mouth of the volcano and part of the city is lost and instead the viewer dwells on the edges of the loss, spending significantly less time on the foreground figures. The consequence of the different gaze pattern is that when asked to describe the content of the painting, viewers of the unreconstructed version did not realise it was a painting of an erupting volcano. The painting had lost its meaning and viewers could not view it as originally intended by Martin.
The difference in gaze behaviour between the completely restored and unrestored (neutrally filled) versions confirmed our intuitions about how destructive the loss was. [...]
Isn't this an explanation of the bleedin' obvious? I'd love to know if this exercise cost the Tate anything.
