London Gallery Tour: November 2019

I spent some time on descriptive reflection (in my critical journal) after the visits so this represents my more analytical consideration of what I gained from the visits. It was an extraordinarily rich day and I suspect this is probably part one, as I let some of the influences filter through my thought processes.

At this point I wanted to focus on some of the core themes that have emerged:

• The appropriateness of scale. We saw works from the tiny figurines collected by Freud to the immense canvases of Mark Bradford. Each said something about the intention of the maker
• Multi-sensory: The works went beyond the visual to include soundscapes and in several venues, I was particularly struck by the smells. The clay ‘parquet’ of Camden Arts Centre had a strong earth smell that reminded me of trips to relatives in Portugal
• Identity: all the artists were exploring issues of identity in different ways. These ranged from personal reflections to more overt activism
• The nature of being: linked to identity I felt that all the artists were also looking at what it means to be human, several directly addressed issues of life and mortality
• Attraction: there were several works that, regardless of scale, I felt invited me in either through their content or texture
• Multiple media: I found that I was particularly drawn to artists whose works explored different media and different combinations. This was particularly evident in the Anna Maria Maiolino exhibition

Following on from the discussion at one of my crits about whether the viewer should be able to distinguish the artist’s intention without reading any additional information it was interesting to note that for many of the works I would not have known their context. In fact, with some I felt I never quite got to know what the artist had intended. Where interpretative materials were provided, I felt the additional information did add to the experience, but they were not essential. Mark Bradford’s pieces were so breath-taking that they did not need additional interpretation in the first instance. I was spell bound by their scale, texture and colour.

I am left wondering how any of this impacts on my own work. At this point I am thinking about shifting my scale, working with more texture in my collages, and doing more works with paper (possibly expanding my bookmaking forms).

The galleries visited included:

• The Freud Museum
• Camden Arts Centre
• Blain Southern
• Hauser & Wirth
• Whitechapel Art Gallery