Young artist Fujiwara represents an interesting departure for Tate St Ives, who usually focus on the St Ives landscape painters and sculptors of the early – mid 20th century. Fujiwara grew up in St Ives but was not impressed by the local scene – rather he longed to escape to bigger and better things, so he moved to Tokyo and then Berlin and Mexico City. He works with installations which create a feeling of archaeological remnants, and the influence of his architecture training at Cambridge University is apparent. Fujiwara cites Tracy Emin as one of his greatest influences, which may explain his enthusiasm for the installation medium.

Simon Fujiwara Installation

Source: http://www.carusostjohn.com/projects/frieze-art-fair/

 

Much of his work centres around biography and auto-biography, sometimes incorporating his family history. He envisioned an erotic novel based around his parents lives, and his work explores his distant relationship with his father, who lived on the other side of the world, and wasn’t great at keeping in touch.

The exhibition includes important recent works such as The Mirror Stage 2009–12, based around the story of an encounter with old-school St Ives artist Patrick Heron, and Welcome to the Hotel Munber 2008–1, an erotic novel where the protagonist becomes sexually obsessed with a hotel building.

Installation by Simon Fujiwara

Simon Fujiwara
18 January – 7 May 2012
March – October: Daily 10.00-17.20, last admission 17.00
November – February: Tuesday – Sunday 10.00-16.20, last admission 16.00
Closed 24, 25, 26 December
£6.50 (£3.90 concessions)
Free for Tate Members
Book online with Tate or call 01736 796226.

Tags: Art Gallery, artist, exhibitions, gallery, UK art
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Uk art galleries have some seriously big name exhibitions lined up for 2012. Here’s a run down of the biggest and best, with dates for your diary.

Picasso and Modern British Art at the Tate Britain
15 February – 15 July 2012
Pablo Picasso
The Three Dancers 1925
Tate © Succession Picasso/DACS 2011

Love or hate Picasso’s work, he achieved something remarkable as a figurehead of a movement which completely changed the nature of modern art. The Tate Britain’s exhibition will focus on this particular aspect of his legacy – that is, his influence on Western art as a whole, and the vast changes in societal structure and modes of living that informed such a paradigm shift in visual representation. To demonstrate a little of Picasso’s impact, the exhibition will include works by some of his biggest-name UK artist admirers, including Duncan Grant, Wyndham Lewis, Ben Nicholson, Henry Moore, Francis Bacon, Graham Sutherland and David Hockney.

Tate Britain is open every day, 10.00-18.00
Last admission to special exhibitions at 17.15
£14 (£12.20 concessions)
Free for Tate Members
Book online with Tate or call 020 7887 8888.

Damien Hirst at the Tate Modern
4 April – 9 September 2012

Another great who you’ll either love or hate, Damien Hirst, like Picasso, became known as a representative of a movement which took the fine art world by storm. Along with Tracy Emin, he is regarded as the figurehead and epitome of the Young British Artist movement, which challenged the established art work back in the late 80s and early ’90s. Fast forward just a few years, and the YBAs had been assimilated and became a firm and highly-lucrative fixture of the established art world.

Exhibition Hours
Sunday to Thursday, 10.00–18.00. Friday and Saturday, 10.00–22.00. Last admission into exhibitions 17.15 (Friday and Saturday 21.15).
£14 (£12.20 concessions)
Free for Tate Members
Book online with Tate or call 020 7887 8888.

David Hockney: A Bigger Picture at the Royal Academy
21 January – 9 April 2012

David Hockney interview from Royal Academy of Arts on Vimeo.

While best known for his swimming pools and portraiture, it’s really no secret that the prolific David Hockney has created notable works in just about every representational genre. The RA’s A Bigger Picture focuses on his landscape works, with depictions spanning a 50 year period.

Lucian Freud Portraits at the National Portrait Gallery
9 Feburary – 27 May

Source: http://www.npg.org.uk/freudsite/

‘I’ve always wanted to create drama in my pictures, which is why I paint people. It’s people who have brought drama to pictures from the beginning. The simplest human gestures tell stories.’

– Lucian Freud

Portraits were Lucian Freud’s defining genre, and this exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery concentrates on specific periods of work which demonstrate his stylistic development and technical virtuosity. The exhibition will feature over 100 works from international galleries and private collections, and represents a chance to see works never before on public display.

Booking and opening hours.

Edvard Munch: The Modern Eye
28 June – 14 October 2012

Edvard Munch
The Sick Child 1907
© Munch Museum/Munch-EllingsendGroup/DACS 2002

Known best for his painting The Scream, which has transferred over from fine art into popular culture to become a universally ubiquitous and recognised poster piece, Munch was a Norwegian Symbolist painter working from around 1880-1942. The Modern Eye shows Munch as a 20th Century Artist, representing the details of everyday, modern life within the times he lived and worked.

Exhibition Hours
Sunday to Thursday, 10.00–18.00. Friday and Saturday, 10.00–22.00. Last admission into exhibitions 17.15 (Friday and Saturday 21.15).
£14 (£12.20 concessions)
Free for Tate Members
Book online with Tate or call 020 7887 8888.

Turner Monet Twombly
22 June – 28 October 2012

Outside of the main London galleries, there are plenty of exciting and big name exhibitions going on in the rest of the UK. One such show, at the Tate Liverpool, focuses on J.M.W Turner (1775-1851), Claude Monet (1840-1926) and Cy Twombly (1928-2011), exploring similarities in their styles, approaches and inspirations. It’s a chance to see some iconic pieces such as Monet’s Waterlilies and Turner’s romantic landscapes and seascapes.

17 October – 23 June
Open Tuesday – Sunday, 10.00–17.50
Closed Mondays (except Bank Holiday Mondays).

24 June – 16 October
Open Monday – Sunday, 10.00–17.50

Closed on Good Friday and 24–26 December

£12.20 (£9 concessions)
Free for Tate Members
Book online with Tate or call 0151 702 7400.

Tags: art, exhibitions, galleries, London, UK art
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Time off over Christmas? I hope so. The time between Christmas and New Year is the ideal chance to get out and about and see a few of the many exhibitions that London’s art galleries have to offer. We’ll start with…

Alex Hartley’s “The World is Still Big” at the Victoria Miro Gallery
22 November 2011 – 21 January 2012
Free

Alex Hartley Clearing, 2011. Constructed mixed media on C-type photograph 90 x 72 x 7 cm 35 3/8 x 28 3/8 x 2 3/4 in
Source: http://www.victoria-miro.com/exhibitions/_426/

This is an exhibition of Hartley’s large-scale photos with scale-models of architectural structures painstakingly build into the surfaces of the prints. Somewhere between a steam punk inventor, an early 20th Century mustachioed explorer, and a tree-house dwelling earth child, Hartley creates images dystopian architectural pieces – scale models of super-villan hideaways in remode desert landscapes. True to the explorer archetype, Hartely has gone on intrepid expeditions into the high arctic, and the gallery show includes objects and artefacts from his expeditions.

Ai Weiwei: Dropping the Urn (Ceramic Works, 5000 BC – AD 2010) at the VA
15 October 2011 – 18 March 2012
Free

Coca-Cola vase, Ai Weiwei, 1997, Neolithic vase (5000-3000 BC) and paint. Courtesy of André Stockamp & Christopher Tsai collection, Ancram, New York
Source:http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/a/ai-weiwei-dropping-the-urn-ceramic-works,-5000-bc-ad-2010/

Ai WeiWei is a conceptual artist who I can really get excited about. He creates pieces that are truly thought-provoking, and does so with a light touch. His works are often almost visual jokes, but in a way which is subtle and doesn’t shout its message. “Dropping the Urn” includes the use of Neolithic and Han Dynasty Ceramics transformed and reinterpreted. For example, the Coca-Cola urn above has been repainted, and the exhibition features an original Han Dynasty figurine contained in a Johnnie Walkey whiskey bottle.

Hokusai’s Great Wave at the British Museum
3 November 2011 –
8 January 2012
Free
Room 3
Open late Fridays

Hokusai’s Great Wave is one of the most recognisable, reproduced and popular images in the whole of international art history. It’s even been reinterpreted as a mural on a house in Camberwell, South London. This exhibition presents a unique opportunity to learn about the history and context behind this iconic piece.

Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849), Under the Wave off Kanagawa (detail). Colour woodblock print. Japan, Edo period, c. 1831. Acquired with the assistance of The Art Fund.
Source: http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/exhibitions/hokusais_great_wave.aspx

Wildlife Photographer of the Year at the Natural History Museum
See the best wildlife photos on the planet.
21 Oct 2011 – 11 Mar 2012

The Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition attracts amateur and professional entrants of all ages from around the world. The best entrants are chosen for exhibition, and this is a show that will astound and amaze, and give you a fresh perspective on animals and the natural world. Photographers go to extraordinary lengths to get these images – for “Pester Power”, pictured below, Mateusz Piesiak wrapped his camera in a plastic sack, lay down on his front and dragged himself across the wet sand to get these detailed shots of oystercatchers feeding on Long Island, New York.

Mateusz Piesiak
Pester power
Source: http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/whats-on/temporary-exhibitions/wpy/photo.do?photo=2794&category=57&group=4

Royal Manuscripts: The Genius of Illumination at the British Library
11th November – 13th March 2012

The library might not be the first place you think of when you want to see an art exhibition, but the British Library’s latest exhibition is well worth drawing attention to. It’s a chance to see the Library’s collection of illuminated manuscripts – illustration from the medieval period, many of which are in amazing condition and are executed in stunning colour. According to the Library, the manuscripts are

our most vivid source for understanding royal identity, moral and religious beliefs, learning, faith artistic trends and the international politics of the period.

The Shrewsbury Book
Rouen, 1444–45
British Library, Royal 15 E. vi, ff. 2v
Source: http://www.bl.uk/whatson/exhibitions/royalman/about/index.html

From me and everyone at Art2Arts, have a fabulous festive season and a colourful New Year!

Tags: art, Art Gallery, artist, artists, exhibitions, gallery, London, painter, Painting, UK art
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In 1865 a young girl vanished down a rabbit hole, emerging into a fantasy land which has captured the imagination of children and adults ever since. Like other 19^th century novels such as Bram Stoker’s  ‘Dracula’ and Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’ , the original novel has been eclipsed by the sheer volume of spin-offs, copies  and related art-work, films and TV shows.  This exhibition is the first to try and explore how the fantasy world of Wonderland influenced the world of visual arts.

Source: http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/exhibitions/aliceinwonderland/default.shtm

The magic  world created by Lewis Carroll is a highly visual one, populated by bizarre yet appealing anthropomorphic beasts and characters. Caroll himself drew illustrations for his books and some of these are shown in the exhibition alongside the original manuscript.  You can also see the original drawings made by the artist John Tenniel, who provided 42 wood engraved illustrations for the first edition of the novel.

Wonderland was embraced by the early Surrealists who were engaged in creating their own fantasy land in which natural laws were suspended and physical objects lost their solidity. The spirit of Alice is alive and well in paintings by Max Ernst and Salvador Dalí. Conceptual artists of the 60s and 70s, such as Marcel Broodthaer,  Joseph Kosuth, Peter Blake and Yayoi Kusama also drew on Carroll’s world of twisted logic and linguistic ambiguity.

Scale and perspective (“Drink me!”),  meaning and nonsense (“Drawling, Stretching, and Fainting in Coils”) and the perception of reality (“All persons more than a mile high to leave the court”) provide the link to contemporary art, with artists such as  Anna Gaskell, Annelies Strba and Torsten Lauschmann all on display.

In the end the sheer volume and diversity of the art purporting to have been influenced by Alice and her illogical friends can make the exhibition somewhat confusing. With its seemingly endless collection of Alice memorabilia including biscuit tins, playing cards, crockery, numerous early editions of the novel, photographs of the children Dodgson based the novel on after a punt down the river Isis, there is plenty to keep the fans entertained but the artwork itself is patchy and in some cases, just plain bad, creepy or irrelevant.

The motivation of the great man himself in photographing and spending endless hours entertaining pre-pubescent girls has been well explored and the presence of five artworks which have been declared ‘unfit for children’ suggests that this aspect of the author’s psyche has not been ignored.

The exhibition opened on  the 4^th of November . If you are a fan of the female predecessor of Harry Potter or fascinated by 19^th century fantasy literature you will find plenty to absorb you. If you are a lover of great art you may well be left unmoved. Ultimately, we are reminded that ‘Alice in Wonderland’ is no more a children’s book than ‘South Park’ is a kiddies’ cartoon. Don’t take the kids but take the child inside you and catch this exhibition before it disappears, like the Cheshire cat, on January 29^th 2012. Visit Tate Liverpool’s website for more information.

Tags: Alice in Wonderland, art, Art Gallery, artist, exhibitions, gallery, Tate Liverpool, UK art
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Recent controversy over the reselling of tickets for this exhibition of Leonardo da Vinci’s surviving paintings at the National Gallery in London, which have been re-selling at an eye-watering £300 (18 times their original price) is an indication of the appeal that this paragon of ‘Renaissance Man’ still has for the public in general and art lovers in particular. The Renaissance ‘Rock-Star’ is famous for being an engineer, scientist, inventor and polymath but this exhibition is the first to concentrate on his technical development and artistic aims as a painter.

Source : http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/leonardo-da-vinci-painter-at-the-court-of-milan

The exhibition, which opened on November 9th and runs until February 5th 2012, was a sell-out and has been a critical and financial success for the gallery, despite the fact that there are only nine paintings on display from a total of around 16 known to have been painted by Leonardo. However, there are also numerous drawings and sketches giving an insight into the thought process behind the creation of each painting.
The works cover the period of approximately 17 years, between 1482 and 1499, when Leonardo was in the paid employ of Ludovico Sforza, the Duke of Milan and a patron of the arts during the Milanese Renaissance. The most famous paintings of the period ‘The Last Supper’, which was commissioned by Sforza, and the iconic ‘Mona Lisa’ are not in the exhibition but, despite the absence of arguably the two most famous paintings in the history of art, the exhibition is considered as a ‘once in a lifetime’ opportunity to see ‘the most complete display of Leonardo’s rare surviving paintings ever held.’

Indeed, one of the paintings “Christ as Salvator Mundi”, was originally attributed to one of da Vinci’s pupils. It’s provenance is still disputed by some critics but a later revaluation saw the value of the painting inflate from a trivial £45 to a staggering $200 million – an inflation rate even higher than that of the exhibition tickets!

During this period of Leonardo da Vinci’s life he was able to concentrate almost entirely on developing his painting technique. Thanks to the Duke’s patronage he had the time and the resources to develop his skills to the point where he could blend an almost photographic realism with a deeper sense of mystery and idealism, creating icons of beauty which still leave us breathless more than 500 years later.

The paintings on display include ‘La Belle Ferronière’ , ‘Madonna Litta’ , ‘Saint Jerome’ and two versions of ‘Virgin of the Rocks’, one owned by the gallery and recently restored. Although the ‘Last Supper’ itself is absent, there is a copy of the painting made by his contemporary Giampietrino, together with sketches and the preparatory drawings Leonardo made for the original.

So if you feel compelled to join the carefully controlled crowd flocking to this exhibition try not to pay £300 for the privilege, although if the hype and the critics are to be believed, and this really is a unique and not-to-be-repeated-in-our-lifetime opportunity to see some of the most beautiful paintings ever created, it may just be worth it.

Leonardo Da Vinci, Painter at the Court of Milan runs until 5th February. Ticketing and opening time information are available at the National Gallery Website.

Tags: art, Art Gallery, artist, exhibitions, gallery, Leonardo Da Vinci, London, painter, Painting
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Until the 2nd of January, Tate Britain is showing a retrospective of Barry Flanagan’s early works. Best known for his leaping hare pieces, Flanagan studied at St Martin’s School of Art from 1964 -66, and the exhibition covers his progress from 1965 -1982. Flanagan was a pioneer – as one of the first scultptors to use unconventioal matierals such as sand, sticks, and hessian rags, he created controversy and paved the way for a new generation of sculptors who would look for the physical and emotive qualities in ungalmorous materials, including waste materials.

Source: http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/exhibitions/barryflanagan/default.shtm

“Time and again, we see Flanagan bringing the best out of his unpromising materials, shedding new light on traditional sculptural concerns such as weight and matter, surface and space.”

- Evening Standard

As Flanagan’s career progressed, he began to work increasingly in the far more traditional medium of bronze. These bronzes include depictions of elephants, cougars and horses, as well as hares. These sculptures seem to have fairy-tale like qualities; they echo human feelings, but never in a sentimental or truley anthrompommorphsied way. Flanagan’s particular focus on hares began when he saw a hare in a butcher’s and was struck by its appearance. He said that hares are

“rich and expressive,” with “the conventions of the cartoon and the investment of human attributes into the animal world”, both of which are “very well practised devices in literature and film… If you consider what conveys situation and meaning and feeling in a human figure, the range of expression is, in fact, far more limited than the device of investing an animal – a hare especially – with the expressive attributes of a human being. The ears, for instance, are really able to convey far more than a squint in an eye of a figure or a grimace on the face of a model.”

Thinker on a Rock by Barry Flanagan

I personally find Flanagan’s work most interesting when considered side-by-side with his interesting bohemian character and lifestyle. He was a true and uncontrived eccentric, who regularly wore tweed suits paired with sandals, regardless of the weather, and late in his life, played out an itinerant existence in a vintage camper van, with his partner Jessica Sturges.

Barry Flanagan: Early Works 1965-1982 is at Tate Britain until 2nd January. Booking is advised.

Tags: art, Art Gallery, artist, Barry Flanagan, exhibitions, gallery, London, sculpture, Tate Britain, UK art
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Self Portrait by LS Lowry

Source: http://www.spiritnottingham.com/venues/djanogly-art-gallery/lowry

Nottingham’s Lakeside Centre is showing several lesser-known pieces by LS Lowry until 5^th February.  Lowry is best known for his depictions of working-class life in Salford and other industrial Northern towns. His matchstick figures are instantly recognisable, and the combination of realism in his work with a gentle and understated feel have meant that his style is very accessible and is extremely popular both in the art world and outside of it.

The new exhibition at Nottingham is exciting because it shows more varied subject matter, like his landscapes painted at the Lake Dsitrict, Yorkshire Moors, and Derbyshire, along with a brooding set of self-portraits, known as the “Horrible Heads” series.  Later in his life, Lowry also created several seascapes while on holiday at the Seaburn Hotel in Durham, and he also depicted the ports and coal mines that surround the town.  Neil Walker, curator at the Lakeside Centre, said:

“This is a timely exhibition revealing Lowry as an artist far more complex, individual and varied in his subject matter than is widely recognised. it will include works from public and private collections many of which have rarely been seen in public before and will come as a complete revelation to those who only associate him with pictures of the Lancashire mills.”

From 1905, Lowry studied at the Manchester Municipal College of Art, where he studied under Peirre Adolpeh Valette, a French impressionist artist, who was an important influence on him. Lowry said that “I cannot over-estimate the effect on me of the coming into this drab city of Adolphe Valette, full of French impressionists, aware of everything that was going on in Paris.” He then went on to study at Salford Royal Technical College, where he developed his interest in industrial landscapes.

The Fever Van by LS Lowry

By the 1950s, Lowry was a celebrity, and my most accounts was a shy man who got tired of being approached by strangers. There is a story that he always kept a suitcase by his door so that he could claim to be just about to leave if anyone called on him and he felt like being on his own. In one case this backfired when a visitor offered him a lift to the station, and Lowry had to buy a ticket to take him just one stop to avoid detection.

Since his death in 1976, Lowry has inspired a cultural legacy; as well as his inspiriing innumerable artists, the Lowry Gallery in Salford Quays, was names after him.

The Dianogly Gallery at Nottingham’s Lakeside Centre is open from:

Monday-Saturday 11am-5pm

Sundays and Bank Holidays  12 noon – 4pm

Tags: art, Art Gallery, artist, exhibitions, gallery, Lowry, UK art
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This year’s Turner Prize exhibition is held not in London, but in Newcastle’s Baltic Gallery. The exhibiton will now alternate year-on-year between the Tate Britain and other major art galleries around the UK. The 4 artists shortlisted this year are:

Karla Black

Karla Black is from Scotland and studied at Glasgow School of Art. She makes ephemeral sculptures from materials such as cellophane, paint and sellotape, which often have a visceral feel. Images are sourced from www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk

Forget About Faces - Karla Black - 2008

Karla Black - Forget about Faces - 2008

Hilary Lloyd

Hailing form Halifax in Yorkshire, Hilary LLoyd makes work in mixed media and dimension, ranging from video to photography to performance. The subject can be anything from roller-skating to paint patterns left behind on a studio floor.

Hilary Lloyd - Installation. Source: artlyst.com

George Shaw

George Shaw is a painter based in North Devon who makes surprisingly emotional and nostalgic photorealist paintings of mundane clips from urban landscapes. Image source: www.guardian.co.uk

George Shaw: Scenes from The Passion: The Cop Shop, 1999-2000

Martin Boyce

Glaswegian Martin Boyce creates really strong and striking architectural sculptures, which take inspiration from modernist design history. Image source: www.channel4.com

Sculptural Installation by Martin Boyce

The Turner Prize Exhibition runs at the Baltic until 8th January 2012. The Tuner Prize winner will be announced on 5th December 2011.

Tags: art, Art Gallery, artist, Baltic Gallery, exhibitions, installation, painter, Painting, sculpture, Turner Prize, UK art
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