Photographer - Tony Ray Jones at the Science Museum

It was an entry in the wonderfully enigmatic and polemic quarterly Art magazine Jackdaw where I came across the work of Tony Ray Jones a British photographer who died all too young aged 31 back in 1972. His work is being shown at the ONLY IN ENGLAND exhibition at the Science Musuem's new Media Space.

He took the US documentary photography found in Walker Evans and more recently in the rediscovered Vivian Maier and gives it a very British look and feel. Where those US photographers used the streets and bars and to lesser extent their countryside Tony Ray Jones use the beach and the countryside to capture the British zeitgeist.

My two favourites from the exhibition which demonstrated British eccentricity and idiosyncracity at home on the beach and the countryside are:  Brighton Beach 1966 (I've been in similar seaside family pictures) and Glyndebourne, 1967 (a scene I 'm  sure you can see today!)

Glyndebourne, 1967

Brighton Beach, 1966

From a page on show from his  c1965 notebook  you can find tips and ideas which resonate today in our digital photography  age. I found stay with the subject matter (be patient) and get involved (talk to people) particularly relevant to me.

And yes, I did look for the Blacks and they were there both fictive aka in the blackened white faces style of the Black & White Minstrels, in the oddly named Bacup Coconut Dancers who seemed to be related to the equally odd Morris Dancer and yes both groups have there history 'lost in the mists of time' . There were of course some real blacks caught in the streets of Tony Ray Jones's London in 60's and 70's

Bacup Coconut Dancers, 1968

A good exhibition very intsrtuctive - recommended!

PS while doing the research for this post I came across the blog post of Blake Andrews in which he talks about rephotography, I have been meaning to do similar with a Jimi Hendrix picture....watch this blog

Another Bluebird ?

Belonging Walker Gallery Installation for Liverpool Biennial 2012. Image by © Mark McNulty 

Following on from my post about Katharina Fritsch’s Hahn/Cock  maybe this single colour bird thing is becoming a fashion ?

In an installation for last year's Liverpool's Biennal in an around its neo-classical Walker Art Gallery an artist uses multi-colour magnitude rather than the monochrome mass used by Fritsch in an attempt to create an aesthetic effect.

Belonging Walker Gallery Installation for Liverpool Biennial 2012.  Image by © Mark McNulty

Patrick Murphy’s Belonging is 150 ‘brightly coloured guests’ aka Ken Livingston's "rats with wings" aka pigeons painted various garish colours as appose to Katharina Fritsch’s Hahn/Cock single, 800kg bird. Murphy argues:

Belonging elevates the familiar site of pigeons [to] welcome, colourful visitors….. [evoking] questions about ownership and feelings of being accepted or marginalised. 

Belonging Walker Gallery Installation for Liverpool Biennial 2012 Image by © Mark McNulty 

I leave you to decide, for me Belonging is shop bought art, kitsch like Fritsch's.

A Cock-Up on the Fourth Plinth ?

Katharina Fritsch’s Hahn/Cock 
Aug '13 Photo © The Author

The pieces chosen for the fourth plinth in London's Trafalgar Square seem to be falling into the same pattern of much of contemporary  public art  today; they're Big, they're in a Unlikely place and they're Monochrome.

Look at Jaume Plensa’s Dream, visible from the M62 on the way into Liverpool; a white, 20m high structure of the thin, ashen face of a nine year old child; the planned Ebbsfleet Landmark Project By  Mark Wallinger at 40 to 50m impossibly, high white horse by the A2 visible to drivers to and from Ebbsfleet; Damien Hirst’s 20m Verity sinisterly, overlooking Ilfracombes’s harbour

The fourth plinth works seem to following this contemporary convention as most have been big pieces, in the unlikely setting of the plinth and with few exceptions, monochrome as seen in Elmgreen and Dragset , Powerless Structures, Fig. 101 or Marc Quinn’s Alison Lapper Pregnant and now Katharina Fritsch’s Hahn/Cock its plaque reads:

Hahn/Cock is a sculptre of a familiar domestic cockerel in ultramarine blue, made from fibre glass reinforced resin and fixed on a stainless-steel support structure.
The sculpture is 4.72 Meters high and weighs 800kg

Further that commonality of compositions perhaps has it source in the fact that three out of the six works artists’ share the same dealer – the White Cube – despite there being of thousands of dealers across the country with at least 500 in London.

Elmgreen and Dragset , Powerless Structures, Fig. 101 
Photo Aug '12 © The Author 

Marc Quinn’s Alison Lapper Pregnant
Photo Feb '07 © Fred Penfold

The artists invariably claim to bring ‘fun’ to art as well as addressing issues on the borders of some human emotion or physical dilemma. In Fritsch’s case  Hahn/Cock  “plays on the tension between reality and apparition, between the familiar and the surreal or uncanny” according to her publicists aka dealers - White Cube - on their web site.

For me, there is no aesthetic content in this cock at all, it is kitsch; on a par with mass produced blow moulded wellington boots ‘She captures and magnifies the uncanny’ her defenders say. Cock, uncanny ? Sigh!  Nonsense!

National Gallery, St Martin's, Hahn/Cock, Nelsons's Column
Photo Aug'13 © The Author and iPhone

This is art as spectacle, for tourists. This is ornamentation. Decoration. A backdrop to countless thousands of Trafalgar Square sightseers’ digital photographs, period.

There has been one work on the plinth that has worked for me, Yinka Shonibare's Nelson's Ship in A Bottle. Yes,  it's a cliché, a re-working of his trade-mark wax cloths nevertheless it works for me, proof that Fourth Plinth art can be more than a Big piece in an Unlikely place and Monochrome!

Yinka Shonibare, Nelson’s Ship in a Bottle
Photo Sometime after May '10  © The Author

ArtEverywhere - Stanley Spencer's Neighbours

Stanley Spencer, Domestic Scenes: Neighbours 1936 , Oil on canvas 76 by 51 cm

I am a big fan of Stanley Spencer (1891-1959) the visionary, multi faceted  English artist , so much so I help out as a volunteer or custodian as we are called at his eponymous Gallery in Cookham, Berkshire, England.

Spencer’s popularity has increased in recent years reflected in the fact, his Neighbours 1936 was voted one of Britain’s favourite works of art  in the Art Everywhere project.

So the public and I had the chance to see Neighours on billboards all over the country.

I was lucky enough to find Neighbours twice on a trip into London last night:

In the Tunnel connection Charring Cross Tube Station to its Railway Station

At the end of the platform of Euston Square Tube Station

ArtEverywhere is a brilliant idea - putting great works of art voted for by the public on billboards all over the country. The 50 works which made the short list  range from the abstract of Bridget Riley's Blaze 4 to the historical figurative of John William Waterhouse's The Lady of Shallot , demonstrating how popular Art is in general and Spencer in particular. 

Photographer - Walker Evans

Walker Evans Negro church, South Carolina, 1936

First came across Walker Evans preparing for a presentation at the Victoria and Albert and more recently researching for a forthcoming article on Appropriation Art. 

He has a very simple direct style his photographs are unromantic, factual - documentary - which I like very much as the photographs ask questions while maintaining an aura.

I have unwittingly (more of this when I discuss Appropriation Art) used this documentary style myself.....

Michael Ohajuru Storage Shed Somerset 2009

 

Photographer - James Ravillious

Writing about Vivian Maier and her work brought to mind another favourite photographer of mine - James Ravillious - he too worked in back and white. Where Maier captured  city life, Ravillious captured country life

Both extracted something enigmatic, endearing and enduring from the compositions they captured  from their sitters and scenes.

I find Ravillious's work equally as inspiring as Maier's 

Photographer - Vivian Maier

August 11, 1954, New York, NY

Vivan Maier took over 150,000 pictures most of which were never developed or seen in her time. Only to be discovered as one of the great photographers of the 20th century after her death. And only after the self-storage space she rented sold the contents of her storage as it went unpaid after her death

What an extraordinary back story her life brings to her work. Nevertheless her art alone speaks itself, for her work really needs none of the art historical discourse cum rhetoric so nessesary to support so much of what tries to pass as art today. 

To me, her work is inspirational .

National Gallery Saint's Alive Exhibition is Institutional Dad Dancing

What do Tate Modern’s 2008 exhibitionStreet Art , Royal Academy’s 2011 appointment of Tracey Emin as Professor of Drawing and most recently - June 2013 - the National Gallery’s Saints Alive, an exhibition of the works of Michael Landy, all have in common ?

LEFT    J. Travolta DANCING Grease 1978
RIGHT R. Gervais DAD DANCING Office 2001

They are all the museum equivalent of DAD DANCING – venerable institutions desperate to stay hip, trendy , relevant in a world that has changed , moved on to newer, often brighter things .

LEFT Tate Modern 2013
               RIGHT Tate Modern 2008 with Graffiti aka Street Art aka Urban Art

LEFT Drawing Royal Academy collection once attributed to Michelangleo
RIGHT Tracey Emin drawing She Lay Down 2011 

LEFT From National Gallery Collection Sassetta's The Stigmitisation of St Francis 1437-8
RIGHT From Saint's Alive M. Landy's response to Sessetta's work 2013

I would argue they do not need to engage in such demeaning pranks like Landy’s automatons, which not only comprise but, bring into question the validly and relevancy of the institution and its works. And like Dad's dancing they can be very embarrassing.

In their day the works they house were, most times, at the leading edge of communications with the most challenging and provocative ideas. I believe they should never forget this and at all times respect that heritage. So, given the opportunity I would recommend these venerable institutions made themselves relevant by making connections using modern communications rather than kitsch capers.

Anthony Caro at Gagosian Near King's Cross

POV Anthony Caro  Torrents 2012, rusted,(96 x 126 x 70 inches)  - Photo

Had a few minutes to spare after a volunteering interview near King's Cross so, I took the opportunity to visit its local Gagosian Gallery.

It was holding an exhibition of Sir Anthony Caro's Work Park Avenue Series. Originally commissioned for New York's Park Avenue the project was cancelled for financial reasons. Caro has used the research and designs to inspire and create the works for this exhibition.

The works are truly monumental - huge! Typically 10 foot long by 5 foot deep by 6 foot high. Each work dominated its space but this wasn't a crowded installation, as the gallery space was equally huge, so that each piece had room to be itself.  The polished hard grey floor and the white walls isolated as well as complimented the works - wonderfully.

As usual no photography in a Gagosian Gallery but this time not even the chance to 'steal' a shot such was the tight security aka the Men In Black and CCTVs. So the best I could do was the lame POV composition shot outside the gallery you see at the head of this post and 'borrow' a shot from the exhibition's website to complete the post.

Caro compared with Nash

Despite my misgivings on sculpture for instance eg "Where do you look first ?" "What's the best angle?" I was impressed. There was something going on with  each piece. Hard to put one's finger on what that something was or articulate it nevertheless there was something there. Caro was saying something - not sure what but something!

One work which really struck or rather spoke to me was In the Forest. The best shot I could find was part of a Gallery Installation shot where it is in the centre, at the rear of the photograph as shown above.

I was minded of Paul Nash's Equivalents for the Megaliths 1935. Although coming from  a very different era and media the cylindrical form unite the works: one could envisage Caro's forms substituting Nash's and vice versa. Both works have (for me) a lightness, as well as an openness: Nash is set in the countryside, Caro's work would exist equally well in the countryside as it would have in the urban NY Park Avenue.

One last but mercenary point - the prices. When enquiring about the price  I was advised that I would need 'talk to a sales consultant' aka If you have to ask the price you can't afford it, c'est la vie! 

The Chewing Gum Artist

Prior to meeting  Ben Wilson theChewing Gum artist I would have been sceptical as to his artistic credentials - having spent sometime down on the pavement with Ben I'm a convert. Apart from being a very genuine and sincere bloke his work is engaging and fun as well as being  not without purpose as they are often site specific or dedicated.

I met Ben on Garry Hunter's current, innovative excursion into curation - Fragments of Isolated Faculty. It's an art walk come geo caching trail in  Trinity Bouy Wharf and its surroundings.  The Chewing Gum Trail by Ben Wilson was on the pavements adjacent to East India DLR as one of the objects on Garry's trial, which ranged from Andrew Baldwin's, seemingly steampunk inspired, Fish Bike Sculpture, actually on the Wharf, to the enigmatic Electric Soup Mural by Bruce Mahalski in the near by Orchard Place.

It was, as I was walking back to take the DLR home. that I discovered Ben prostrate working on piece of gum shown above. I couldn't resist the opportunity to confront Ben only to discover a really pleasant, chatty and engaging artist committed to his work and life style. We had a very pleasant chat for a good 40 mins.

Our chat revealed him to be a family man , how he'd suffered for his art at the hands of Royal Academy Security Guards ,we had common interest in one Englands greatest artist - Stanley Spencer and Anish Kapoor was a fan. All in all a rounded individual who had found his life's purpose. Some other random discussion points: he's  been doing this work for eight and half years; he records and photographs each work; he sees restoration of his work important.

I was particularly impressed when he found an old work which he immediately set  about renovating from its decayed state  to a pristine lovely newness complete with its date. It was a site specific work a mini reproduction of a lone figure approaching  the lightening bolt sculpture infront of the building behind the work, painted in winter when the foreground tree was without its leaves, showing just how much detail Ben can cram into such a small space.

I look forward to coming across more of Ben's eccentric, witty and revealing work while encouraging you to keep your eyes down and open to find his work, there are over 8,000 pieces out there so you could get lucky!