210. ISLEY STANDING by NAVAD KANDER

Islay Standing, ©Nadav Kander, courtesy Flowers Gallery, London

BODIES - 6 Women, 1Man

Flowers Gallery London

                  until February 8th                             

'Wherever I may be, my pictures seek to expose the shadow and the vulnerability that exists in all of us, and it is this vulnerability that I find so beautiful'.

Coated in white marble dust and set against the stark background of the photographer's studio, the subjects of this set of dramatic chromogenic prints tease us with references to Classical and Renaissance art. Some also resonate with what we know of religious iconography and tomb sculpture. But that is not the focus of this exhibition.

In Islay Standing she turns her face away from the viewer, with her hair tumbling and twisting like that of Botticelli's Venus. She stands revealed, yet concealed, with outspread fingers shielding her eyes from some unseen danger - or from the viewer? Below, in Audrey with Toes and Wrist Bent we see a woman reclining with toes and fingers curled and compressed in an uncomfortable and unsustainable stance.The use of the sitters' names remind us that these are real people, individuals in the here and now, and not mythological figures.

Drawing on the conventions of earlier art works, Kander is  inviting us to engage in a visual dialogue between the past and the present, between notions of 'perfection' and the  beauty of a living, breathing human being. He exposes the shadow and vulnerability that exists in everyone, unique and idiosyncratic as we are.  The result is tender, wise and compassionate. For once we escape the scarifying pressure of artificial airbrushed perfection and that of sickly sentimentality.He describes his work as 'an enquiry into what it feels like to be human' and invites us to meditate on the beauty which lies in our all-too-human vulnerability.

Zoe Pilger's review The Naked Truth in the Independent on 14.1.13, referenced below, alludes to other work by Kander, including his prize-winning Yangtze, The Long River.

Audrey with Toes and Wrist Bent, ©Nadav Kander, courtesy Flowers Gallery, London

Post Script: Some years ago at the V&A Mark Quinn's life size marble sculptures of people with disability also challenged and displaced the classical ideal of 'beauty' and the category of the heroic and perfect nude. His work was placed amid the V&A's historic collections,including two works by Antonio Canova. In 2006  his statue of Alison Lapper, naked, disabled and eight months pregnant, was mounted on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square. She appeared again in glorious splendour at the Paralympic Games last summer.
nadavkander.com/
http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/reviews/the-naked-truth-nadav-kander-bodies-6-women-1-man
flowersgallery.com
markquinn.com
 
BODIES 6 Women, 1 Man by Nadav Kander, published by Hatje Cantz

209. SIR ANTHONY DOWELL by PHILIP HARRIS

oil on canvas, 1995  37 3/4 in. x 16 in.   © National Portrait Gallery, London

POETRY OF MOTION at the NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY

'Oh, you don't need to worry, I don't work that way'.
Sir Anthony Dowell, C.B.E.,dancer and former Artistic Director of the Royal Ballet, describes in a lively Independent article, referenced below, his fears about how much time it would take when he learned that Philip Harris wanted to paint his portrait. The artist assured him that he only needed a couple of hours to photograph him. 'I didn't even have to go to his studio; he came to my house. He wanted to photograph me in very strong light, so when he came over we went into the garden.I was photographed in blinding sunlight, and I remember thinking that the portrait would be very much warts and all'.

Sir Anthony agreed to allow Philip Harris to 'choreograph' this work. 'Because I had put myself in the hands of choreographers for years I didn't mind...It's not a known position, but it gives the sense of dance.  He also chose my outfit. He wanted ...this very stark black-and-white look. The light reflects on me and the shirt and that catches the eye'.

Two Figures Lying in a Shallow Stream, 1992
Oil on Linen, 72" x 48"

When I read that the portrait was commissioned as part of Philip Harris's reward for winning First Prize at the  BP Portrait Award in 1993,  I checked his winning entry and was delighted to see Two Figures...again. As Susan Hiller has said, 'There are certain images which once seen are part of one's imagination forever'..As you stand in front of this portrait, you are looking at a stream so real you are tempted to dip your hands into it. Beneath are the artist and his partner Louise, two bodies on a carpet of natural materials and artefacts arranged with the care and precision of a still life. Is it a trompe l'oeil? Is it surrealism? Is it radical realism, ostensibly the world but not as we know it? There's a degree of discomfort about a painting which contains within itself both the ultra real world and a dream-like other worldly character. I find it unforgettable.
www.philip-harris.com
 www.npg.org.uk › Collection
.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/the-sitters-tale-sir-anthony-dowell-1098520.html
 www.istd.org/staff/sir-anthony-dowell/

Norbert Lynton  -  Painting The Century 101 portrait masterpices 1900-2000, introductoin. Published by NPG (2000)
Sandy Nairne  - 500 Portraits: BP Portrait Award  Published by NPG (2011)

208 LYNN SEYMOUR by ANDREW LOGAN

Copper sheet and glass set in resin, 97 in. (2465 mm) high, Photograph © National Portrait Gallery, London

Poetry of Motion

 This image is not exactly what you see in the gallery, because the work is suspended from the ceiling high enough the viewer's head. In fact, the first glimpse is disturbing: the sculpture swings slightly as people walking round the room disturb the air. You look up and see a sharp 3 dimensional cubist depiction of a dancer, her body scooped out, her head, hands and feet making their way through the frozen folds of her hollow robe. Just who is hanging there and why?

The answer is Lynn Seymour, a distinguished actress-ballet dancer, who joined the Royal Ballet in 1959. Her dramatic gifts were the inspiration for many leading roles is such productions as Romeo and Juliet in 1965,  Anastasia in 1971 and The Two Pigeons in 1961. She left the Company in 1979 to become Ballet Director for the Bavarian State Opera.

The intention of the National Portrait Gallery in their current exhibition Poetry of Motion is to show works where artists have tackled the problem of  depicting the moving body by experimenting with new forms and new media. The hope is that a non-conventional approach captures something of the grace and vigour of their subjects, be they athletes or Olympians, dancers or choreographers.

The artist Andrew Logan is said to belong  to a unique school of English eccentrics,  challenging convention, mixing media and playing with accepted artistic values.On his web site he writes ' My reason for living is to give enjoyment and pleasure to others through quirky, humorous and extravagant mementos. I hope you will find the same pleasure and enjoyment when visiting this site'.

He said of Lynn Seymour '(she) flies, she does not dance'.
npg.org.uk
http://andrewlogan.com/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/4705376/Lynns-dance-to-the-music-of-time.html -.

207. DUNCAN GOODWIN by MARTY ST JAMES and ANNE WILSON

Multi-monitor video portrait, 1990     © National Portrait Gallery, London

POETRY OF MOTION

National Portrait Gallery, London until February 10th.

Duncan Goodhew's life was changed forever when,  at 10 years of age, he fell 18 feet from a tree and, through a damaged nerve, lost his hair. The story is told that, already dyslexic, he decided to harness his talent for swimming. He did it with such vigour and determination that in time he became the best in the world. He won the  men's 100 metres breaststroke Gold  Medal at the 1980 Moscow Games and this multi media video celebrates his brilliance as a swimmer. To see the Olympic race from start to finish go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=NB85OmAwWxk..

The work can be seen in Room 37  at the National Portrait Gallery, in a small exhibition entitled Poetry of Motion. When I was there it felt like a quiet side chapel in a bustling cathedral, viewers concentrating on paintings and sculptures which were trying to do the nearly impossible: depict dancers and athletes not as subjects sitting for a portrait, but as moving, living performers.

In the centre of this still image, the medal sparkles below Goodhew's characteristic bald domed head and between the turquoise pool water reflected in the pupils of his penetrating eyes: .But in a moment it will be gone. At one point all ten screens are flooded with choppy vibrant  water, with the remaining eleventh image at the base showing ten toes balanced on the edge of the pool; a few moments later he's braced for a dive, flexing his fingers, his hands. his shoulders, his trunk, waiting, waiting in silence; suddenly he is diving on every screen from every angle - back, front, side, close up under water, gaping mouth emerging for breath. Another set of stills shows eleven identical close ups of his hands pressed against the black and cream tiles of the swimming pool edge, perhaps the moment of arrival - or even victory.

The artists' use of a video sliced into moving segments is a perfect choice of medium.  Championship swimming must mean chopping up a huge task into little bits; precision as well as unleashed energy; patterned repetition; and times of  silence, times of stillness.

Toned bromide print on Kentmere paper, May 1996
13 7/8 in. x 13 7/8 in. (354 mm x 354 mm)  © National Portrait Gallery, London

This remarkable bromide print (1996) by Alistair Morrison is another view of  Duncan Goodhew's arresting appearance and memorable eyes.

npg.org.uk
 http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2012/feb/24/duncan-goodhew-my-greatest-mistake

www.annewilsonartist.com/
martystjames.com/
http://www.alistairmorrison.com/
www.youtube.com/watch?v=NB85OmAwWxk..

206. UNTITLED (2012) by ISA GENZKEN

© Isa Genzken Courtesy the artist, Hauser & Wirth and Galerie Buchholz, Cologne

HAUSER & WIRTH
 Saville Row

 until January 12th

 Never feature the same artist twice - a rule I instituted fairly soon after I started my blog. It makes sense as I live within reach of hundreds of galleries and thousands of  artists. No two days are alike. But I'm making an exception: I have featured Isa Genzken's work before when it was at the Saatchi Gallery (Blog number 137)

This piece makes a striking impact as it greet you in Saville Row. At first glance it's nonsensical: a column of tall white plinths topped by plaster casts of busts of Nefertiti. As the wife of the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten 3,300 years ago, she remains one of the most famous icons of feminine beauty of all time. Leaning at her feet is a reproduction of the Mona Lisa, painted by Leonardo da Vinci a mere 500 years ago - and still a Western icon of a beautiful woman.

But what is Nefertiti doing masking her face with something designed to put her in the shade, to obliterate her beauty? Like any gangster or celebrity-seeking-anonymity she has a pair of  sunglassess perched on her lovely nose.And the Mona Lisa is 'de-faced' too, for Genzken has collaged an image of herself onto the reproduction.

So here we see a striking .column of totemic poles which are at one and the same time nonsensical, playful, harmonious - and salutary. At a time when women hobble around in ricketty shoes seeking painful procedures and expensive products in the hope that they will be admired and loved for what they are not - because they do not trust what they are - we need art like this. It doesn't wag fingers or scold. Instead it invites us to reflect on a lineage of feminine beauty and examine the (usually passive) place of women in art history.

As Genzken says. 'There is nothing worse in art than 'you see it and you know it...that's a certainty I don't like'.

 There is a beautiful piece about her work by Colm Toibin in
http://www.colmtoibin.com/content/isa-genzken 

hauserwirth.com
.hauserwirth.com/artists/8/isa-genzken/biography

205 MONUMENTAL by FELICITY AYLIEFF

THE PLACE TO GROW:

 175 years of the
 Royal College of Art, Kensington Gore 
until Jan 3rd

An exhibition consisting of  work by students who have attended the Royal College of Art during the past 175 years is bound to be riveting. And it needs time...

...but suddenly there is Monumental by Felicity Aylieff, who has been teaching Ceramics & Glass at the Royal College of Art for the past decade. The scale of the piece can best be demonstrated by the picture below showing the artist in her studio. Is she working on a 'ceramic' or a 'sculpture'?

It's the stuff of fairy tales. Ali Baba (and his men?) could hide in it . It might be brimming over with gold coins and sapphires. Water could be turned into wine in such a vessel. It could stand guard at the foot of a magnificent flight of stairs leadnig up to the stars. The meaning of life could be written on a scroll curled up inside it. Or it could be a coffin, or the resting place of a tranquil mummy. It's a piece so surprising and  overwhelmingly beautiful that it is a show-stopper.

Porcelain in various shapes and sizes - crenelated, asymmetric, tapered, tubular, the list is endless - we have met and loved before.Their colours can drench the eye, they can be seraphic , but they mostly know their place. But here is a piece which defies humility.

And how is it made? In 2007 Felicity Aylieff took up residence at the Pottery Workshop Experimental Factory in the historic 'porcelain city' of Jingdezhen, China, while on sabbatical from her work as Professor of Ceramics at Bath Spa University. In China she began working with the family business specialising in making enormous traditionally-formed and decorated porcelain vases.The surfaces of these pots explore contemporary translations of traditionally used techniques.

She shares  a studio in Bath with the   potter Takeshi Yasuda. and recently co-founded the Red House Design Studio with Yasuda.

Unlike many  other works of art, ceramics cry out to be touched and held and appreciated close up. The artist's own website incudes some glorious images of her work which is the next best thing to standing beside them.

aylieff.com 
rca.ac.uk
takeshiyasuda.com
ceramics-and-glass@rca.ac.uk

204. THE PASSION, NUMBER 57 by GEORGE SHAW

THE PLACE TO GROW:

 175 years of the
 Royal College of Art, Kensington Gore 
until Jan 3rd

THE PLACE TO GROW is a remarkable exhibition of work by artists who were students the  Royal College of Art sometime during the past 175 years. George Shaw completed an MA there in 1998 and was shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 2011.These paintings - like much of Shaw's work - are of the council estate on the edge of Coventry where he grew up amid grass and trees and woodland. His works are 'fragments of memoirs', pages of a book of life. He once told  Matthew Cain from BBC Channel 4 that he identifies more with writers than artists. 

 

One of the things that makes his work instantly recognisable is the purity and sheen of his medium: Humbrol enamel paint, more often than not associated with model railways and Airfix kits. It's an unpretentious material, readily available, cheap, does what it's told. It rejects the flamboyance of oil and the fragility of water colour. The result is paintings which are ultra real, in that they tell us more than the eye can see. It makes the mundane, the quotidian, mysterious. And look at our vantage point: we are pressed back on the other side of the road, cut off by a wide grey empty road which occupies nearly half the painting.

The Passion, The Path on the Edge

Look too at the muddy track, the dense green vegetation, the places where the sun does - and does not - penetrate. The mystery is compounded because no one's there. But these unpopulated houses and  lanes are alive with possiblities of danger, boredom, pride, routine, competition, pleasure, duty, discovery. . At times they seem to be teeming with human presence.  (In comparison, look at the bull terriers and wheelers and dealers populating   Ray Richardson's paintings as he recreates a corner of the South London where he was born and bred). (Blog 189) .

In the artist's own words: 'I started to make these paintings out of a kind of mourning for the person I used to be: an enthusiastic, passionate teenager who read art books and novels and poems and biographies and watched films and TV and listened to music and dreamed. They are paintings of places that were familiar to me in my childhood and adolescence, places in which I found myself alone and thoughtful. They are places in which I forgot things. ... I paint the paintings of all the times and all the thoughts I lack the language to describe. For the one single moment that I can recall, I feel a dull sadness for the thousands I have forgotten'.

'I haunted the place and now it haunts me'

.rca.ac.uk

guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/feb/13/george-shaw-tile-hill-baltic-interview