Sophie Taeuber-Arp at Tate Modern

Sophie Taeuber-Arp isn't as well known an artist as she should be and Tate Modern has put on the first ever retrospective of her work in Britain and it is a joyous celebration of her life and work. Born in Switzerland in 1889, she was educated and went to art school in Munich, met her husband Hans Arp (also an artist), became part of the dada movement, exhibited with Kandinsky and Sonia Delaunay and sadly died in Switzerland in 1943. I hadn't heard of her before this exhibition but she is now firmly on my radar.

Something I immediately noticed was that her works were relatively small in size and were created for the 'average' home. They weren't created as big public works that could be bought by the rich or public institutions, these are works for me and you. They are also very colourful and largely abstract. Apparently Taeuber-Arp came to abstraction through dissecting textiles and many, at least the early works, are quite linear in composition. She also used a wide range of materials in her work, using graphite, crayons, gouache, watercolour, oils and other media like wool to make 'appliqué paintings'. 

As you'd expect from a dadaist she was involved in lots of different things within the movement and turned her hand to most things. She created puppets for the Swiss Marionette Theatre and a series of 'dada heads' like hat stands and she turned the wood herself. One of the 'heads' is a portrait of her husband. I loved the puppets and it would be fun to see them in action (I think there's a video in the exhibition but I missed it). 

As well as being an artist Taeuber-Arp was also an architect and designer and some of her furniture is on display, all modular and functional and could easily be in a furniture shop today. There's also a gorgeous rug hung on the wall that she designed and made and it looked very deep and rich. She used her rugs and tapestries as the basis for creating other designs and there's a cabinet full of her experimental watercolour designs based on the rug. I like the idea of riffing on a design, developing it for a different work. 

As I walked through the exhibition I noticed that the colour palette became deeper and richer before becoming very sparse as I came to her later works. The works became more angular and geometrical as she delved deeper into her own abstraction. Some of the later works were simple line drawings in graphite and/or ink from during the Second World War when she didn't have access to a studio or lots of materials. There's also a gorgeous landscape drawn entirely in graphite that shows what a great draughtswoman she was. 

Sadly, Sophie died of carbon monoxide poisoning from a faulty stove as she sheltered from the war in Switzerland in 1943 at the age of 53. It's very sad that we don't have her more mature works - who knows what she might have created after the war? Her friend Sonia Delaunay 'discovered' black in her 60s - what would Sophie have discovered?

Sophie lived and created in one of the most artistically stimulating times - the first half of the 20th Century. Der Blaue Reiter were working in Munich when she was there and dada sprung into life when she was ready to create, just as with Sonia Delaunay. There's a lovely photo of Sophie and Sonia in beachwear that Sonia designed at the opening of the exhibition. Sophie exhibited over the years with Sonia and with Vassily Kandinsky so that's pretty good company to be in. She discovered her own form of abstraction and pursued it for the rest of her life. I assume she isn't more well-known partly because she died during the war so wasn't there to celebrate the peace and create more great works. I wonder how she would have responded to the Abstract Expressionists and their huge canvases.  

This really is a very good exhibition that provides a good selection of her works across her lifetime. When I was there it was busy with a steady stream of people but not crowded, and I liked that since I could linger over the details of paintings without feeling I was hogging them. It seems to have been an unexpected success since Tate has run out of catalogues and is having to get more reprinted despite it being open for another couple of months. I'll definitely go back to see it again after the school holidays to spend more time with this wonderful artist. I need to learn more.

Yayoi Kusama's 'Infinity Mirror Rooms' at Tate Modern

Tate Modern currently hosts two of Kusama's 'Infinity Mirror Rooms'. The tickets for this exhibition were snapped up very quickly and it is currently sold out until October although more tickets will be released later in the summer for the remainder of its run until June 2022. If you can, grab tickets since it's well worth a visit.

I'm a late-comer to the joys of Kusama, only finding her in 2018 at at exhibition at Victoria Miro in Islington with her installations and artworks and, of course, an infinity room. I was stunned. So much colour and life, giant colourful shapes, pumpkins and flowers, large paintings, indoors and outside and a stunning infinity room in total darkness other than the lit up shapes hanging in infinite space. I loved it. I loved it so much that I sat in a queue to buy tickets to Tate Modern for over an hour when they went on sale - since when do you have to queue for tickets to an art exhibition? 

The first room of the exhibition includes some text and photos of Kusama along with a 'viewer' with coloured windows to look through into infinity that you can't really get close enough to see properly. The next room includes more photographs, a film on rotation and the two infinity rooms. The first is 'Chandeliers of Grief', a dark room with one source of light - the chandelier hung in the centre of the room surrounded by mirrors so it's reflected for miles in all directions. It took a few seconds to adjust to the disorientating effect within the room but I soon got the lay-out and became more adventurous. I made the mistake at looking down underneath the chandelier to see the depths stretching on forever, down down down forever, a drop without a bottom to squash into. Scary! 

The entrance to the next room, 'Filled with the Brilliance of Life', is just a few yards away and siren-called me to visit, so I did. Brilliance indeed. The room is dark but includes approximately 4, 597,348 tiny lights (I gave up counting at that point) suspended from the ceiling and all reflected in the mirrors and the little stream either side of the walkway to create an infinite universe of colour (don't mis-step or you'll get a wet foot). I think I was grinning madly the entire time I was in that room. 

The room itself isn't very big but the lights go on forever in infinite space. The colours keep changing every few seconds, morphing from one display into the next, showing a new vista and new possibilities. 

I loved that room so much that after I exited I immediately walked round the outside back to the entrance to go in a second time, on my own for a while and it was magical.

Entrance to the exhibition is timed and you're given a couple of minutes in the room in groups of two or three - the rooms are quite small so there's not much space and the numbers are kept small for both safety reasons and for enjoyment. If you want some joy in your life book tickets to this exhibition as soon as they become available, you won't be disappointed.

'Forest for Change' at Somerset House

The new installation in the courtyard of Somerset House is 'Forest for Change' by Es Devlin and it really is a small forest. It's odd to see the usually pristine and bare courtyard now filled with various trees. Other than the annual Christmas Tree, I wonder when the last time was that a tree actually stood where Somerset House now is? It's there to celebrate the London Design Biennale and highlights the United Nations' Global Goals and I suspect it'll do a great job of bringing in the curious to get some education about the Goals and what they mean to us. It worked with me.

The forest is all that big really - it's in a courtyard after all - but there are plenty of little trails amongst the trees so you can inspect the trees, shrubs and individual plants as you wander. Woodchip covers the ground to give it more of a feel for the forest and eases walking on the cobblestones. The trees aren't terribly old or tall so, wherever you look, are the buildings of Somerset House poking out above the trees. You can't miss it. Entry to the Biennale is by ticket but visiting the forest is free of charge whenever you're in the area.

Keep walking through the forest and you come to a clearing with a circle of metal 'monoliths', one for each of the UN Global Goals. They're in different colours and partially mirrored and seemed to be very popular with visitors while I was there. 

The first Goal is 'No Poverty' and the side of the 'monolith' includes a quote from Nelson Mandela: "Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the action of human beings.". 

I really liked it and it does an excellent job of attracting visitors - a forest at Somerset House? - and drawing attention to the Global Goals. Take time to look around the 'monoliths' and see which quotes have been picked to highlight each one. Plus, it's free to enjoy so why not?

'Sensing The Unseen' - Gossaert at the National Gallery

Jan Gossaert's 'Adoration of the Kings' is the subject of a Room 1 exhibition at the National Gallery at the moment. The exhibition was being set up on my last visit to the Gallery in December 2020 before we went into lockdown again so I made a point of seeing it now that the Gallery is open again and I'm so pleased I did. Gossaert's 'Adoration' is a favourite painting of mine and it's always astonishing to see how much detail Gossaert managed to cram into a single painting. I've seen it often so it's a joy to explore it in a new way.

Room 1 exhibitions focus on a single painting or a narrow theme to look in detail at something. Room 1 is, as you'd expect, the first room you come to in the gallery off the (former) main entrance and foyer except that the main entrance has now moved to the Sainsbury Wing so, all too often, it's one of the last rooms you're likely to visit, especially in these pandemic days. Exhibitions are generally on for a short time, only for a few months, so we're lucky that the Gallery decided to extend the Gossaert exhibition after lockdown.

The exhibition is a sort of 'sound and vision' immersive experience  focusing exclusively on the one painting. There is timed entry and you walk into Room 1 and take your place in one of the three 'pods', standing in a circle on the floor in front of a large screen showing an enlarged detail of the Virgin with glints in her hair. You hear the sound of the wind, dogs barking and the chatter of the crowds around you as the camera moves slowly around the painting showing enlarged detail after detail. I've seen this painting many times but who knew that the dog in the centre actually has eyelashes? I suspect this is what the title of the exhibition refers to, the amazing details in the painting that we haven't seen but we know there is more to it.

It was the amazing details of the painting on the screen in front of me that astonished me. The sound element enhanced the experience but I was blown away by what I was seeing. This is such a great idea for an exhibition and I hope the Gallery tries it again with other paintings.

The incredibly detailed photography panned around the painting taking in details of the rich clothes and faces, details of the background and the offerings to the new king from the three kings. The film focuses in on where Gossaert signed the painting around the black king Balthasar's hat (under his crown) that I'd never noticed before since it's actually so small. This exhibition really is an advert for looking at the details in paintings. You never know what you might find.

In a way, this exhibition is giving us the view of the painting that curators and restorers have with the incredible detail. I'll never get close enough to the painting to see the highlights in the Virgin's hair or the embroidery details in Balthasar's hat or his rich robes but I now know it's there.

The camera climbs slowly to the top of the painting and the final few close ups are of the angels flying above the scene and then up towards the star that the kings and shepherds have followed, getting closer and closer and we look into the heart of the star. Such detailed work that is impossible top see when you look at the painting when hung on the Gallery's wall, almost breathtaking

You're then invited to step outside the pod to view the painting hung on the wall and listen to the voice of Balthasar as Theresa Lola reads her poem about Balthasar's journey as he hears people call out to him, comment on him, the strangeness he feels being in the presence of so many different people. And then the light dims and the door is open and it's time to leave. It was an astonishing experience and I felt privileged to be able to see it.

Sadly there's no exhibition book or even postcards so I'm pleased I took my own photos of what I saw on the screen. I want to see it again.

The painting was created between 1510-15 in oil on a wooden panel and is about 5'9"x5'3".

'The Making of Rodin' at Tate Modern

The big exhibition at the newly re-opened Tate Modern is all about Rodin, particularly his work in plaster. The Musee Rodin in Paris has loaned a lot of works to help show Rodin's process of making sculptures. There are sketches (often in watercolour), small models of much larger sculptures, many versions of body parts to practice getting hands, for example, just right, and even nude plaster statues to get the stance of a model just right before adding the clothes. There are some fascinating pieces here. It's not the biggest exhibition but is well worth seeing.

The first exhibit is 'The Age of Bronze' in a room of it's own. A willowy young man cast in bronze. It's a gorgeous statue but it doesn't really fit in with the rest of the exhibition and I suspect it's there to say 'this is what Rodin was capable of doing', with it's smooth, elegant lines and surfaces before moving on to the rougher plaster 'sketches'.

The next room is big and has a load of works on a central display to walk round in the one-way route so you get a chance to see the front and back of the statues. 'The Thinker' is, of course, the first thing you see, but I think my favourites were the 'sketches' of figures Rodin produced to try out his ideas. There's a rather portly 'Balzac' and a few studies for a naked 'St John the Baptist'. There was also a lovely small statue (small? maybe three feet tall?) of one of the figures in 'The Burghers of Calais', naked here even though he wears a full-body robe in the actual finished work. This was Rodin working out what the stance should look like and it's quite clear when you look at both the study and the finished work which character he was working on. It just wouldn't occur to me to do a naked study to work out how a clothed figure should look. I was most impressed.

Moving along and there is 'The Burghers of Calais' standing on the floor rather than raised up so a lot easier to see the details. There's a bronze cast of this statue outside Parliament so I'm familiar with it but it was fascinating to see this original version and walk round it peering at the details. The Burghers were six leaders of Calais in 1346-47 who surrendered to King Edward III to get him to spare the city. They expected to be executed but were spared. It's a great work and I wandered around it several times looking at the details. Look at those legs, the feet and hands, the way the clothes fall ... it suddenly all made sense why he would model the naked bodies before adding the clothes.

There are, of course, many more works to see at the exhibition but these are my highlights. The exhibition only opened a couple of weeks ago so there's plenty of time to see it yet and it's well worth a viewing.

'The Kiss' is also on display but outside the exhibition and it's great to be able to walk all the way round the work. They're definitely into a full-on snog.

'Rupture No 1: blowtorching the bitten peach' by Heather Phillipson at Tate Britain

Tate Britain has re-opened and there's a grand new installation by Heather Phillipson to experience. Heather's title is 'Rupture No 1: blowtorching the bitten peach' but I prefer mine: The All-Seeing Great Horned God Of A Thousand Eyes.' My title is more descriptive and very apt for those wishing to worship him and partake of the visions and wisdom in his inner sanctum. 

The God resides in the central halls of Tate Britain in a glow of changing colours and mysteries. First up are millions of video screens built into piles of rock salt (probably previous offerings) featuring some of the God's eyes, thick ropes descending from the ceiling, speakers dotted around to feed us wisdom in random sounds and lights changing colours. And then you see the Great Horned God standing tall, almost touching the ceiling. He's a God for the seasons, covered in sheets of newspapers to keep him up to date and current. 

If you walk between his legs you can see his priests involved in sacred mysteries around the holy pool of water and, if you're lucky, you can go into the inner sanctum to see the altar and witness the glowing prophecies from the God's ecstasies. If you're very lucky, you will emerge into daylight again a changed person. The Great Horned God is generous.

Do I need to mention that I loved this installation and let my mind go wandering in all the shapes and colours and textures and lights? I shall return to worship at the feet of the God.

Favourite Paintings: 'Orange Balloon (4 Paul Adams)' by Sir Frank Bowling

I had no idea who Frank Bowling, now Sir Frank Bowling, was when I went to see a retrospective of his work at Tate Britain in 2019 but I soon perked up when I saw the colours he discovered. I love the idea of a young Guyanese man coming to London to become a poet and artist, going to art school with David Hockney and then becoming a celebrated artist with studios in London and New York who is still painting and creating today. But I'd never heard of him. 

I saw many of his paintings in the retrospective exhibition but the one that stays with me is 'Orange Balloon (4 Paul Adams)'. Paul Adams was the first black player on the South African cricket team after apartheid and this is a tribute to him. I wonder what he thought of the painting. The painting is over 6' tall so is a big piece.

Sir Frank clearly loves his colours, his abstract expressionism and his acrylic paints. He still paints at the age of 87 and his grandchildren help to deliver his vision by manipulating the paints on his behalf, just as Matisse had assistants to help with his cut-outs. 

Important Fra Angelico News

In important news about Fra Angelico you need to know that the predella panels to 'The Annunciation' in the Prado in Madrid are currently being restored. The five small panels under the main altarpiece show scenes from the life of the Virgin: Birth and Marriage of the Virgin, The Visitation, The Nativity, Presentation in the Temple, and The Dormition of the Virgin. They're possibly my favourite predella of the Fra's and I have no doubt that they will burst with colour once the restoration is complete. I'm looking forward to seeing them again when we can travel safely.

You're not allowed to take photos in the Prado so this photo is of the full altarpiece from the catalogue of the excellent exhibition about Fra Angelico at the Prado a couple of years ago.

Favourite Paintings: 'An Allegory (Vision of a Knight)' by Raphael

A painting I always like to see in the National Gallery is Raphael's 'An Allegory (Vision of a Knight)'. It's very small at just over six inches square and is easy to overlook on the wall with so many bigger paintings by the master but it's those gentle colours that first attract me, so typical of the Florentine renaissance. The painting begs many questions with what is it really about and why is it so small being top of the list (for me anyway). The label beside the painting assumes it's of the Roman soldier Scipio dreaming of Virtue and Pleasure being offered a book, a sword and a flower, representing the aspects of a knight and notes that it's painted in oil on a poplar board. Was it commissioned and, if so, who by, or was it just something he fancied doing? I'm suspect there's been lots of academic research into the painting.

Raphael must have used the tiniest of brushes to get so much detail into the small painting, maybe the brushes used for illuminating manuscripts? The landscape is suggested than fully realised but it provides an excellent backdrop to the three figures.

I'm looking forward to seeing this painting again when the National Gallery re-opens when lockdown is eased.

'Poly Styrene: I Am A Cliche' The Documentary

The documentary about Poly Styrene had its world premier at the Glasgow Film Festival on Saturday 27 February 2021, not the ideal time during a global pandemic and when the UK was still in lockdown but it had to be released some time so why not now. It was partially funded through crowdfunding campaigns, the first of which was in 2017, so it was great to see what we'd all helped to fund. It was well worth the wait, a beautiful film narrated by and featuring Poly's daughter, Celeste Bell, with never seen before photos and film clips as well as more familiar material. 

The film tells the story of Marion Elliott-Said, the woman I know as Poly Styrene. Celeste tells us about Marion's childhood in Brixton, about her largely absentee father, the racism of the time, about her hopes and dreams and seeing the Sex Pistols and deciding to reinvent herself and start her own band. And that's what she did and X-Ray Spex was born. 

This is the period of her life that most of us know Poly from, the daring young woman fronting her own band singing about oppression, consumerism and identity, hardly the subjects for pop songs back then and so she stood out from the crowd. That great run of excellent singles and the amazing classic album that seared Poly into the public consciousness and, it seems, affected her own mental health that led to the break up of X-Ray Spex. Her first solo album ('Translucence') was so different from her punk records that she was dropped by her record label. 

Celeste tells us of her parents marriage and Poly moving in to live with the Krishnas in the mansion that George Harrison bought for them and then taking Celeste to live there as well. Poly doesn't seem to have been a very good mother and Celeste ran away to live with her gran. Poly's mental health problems seemed to keep returning and this was a particularly sad section of the film.

The film skips forward to the triumphant gig at the Roundhouse in 2008 and Poly's re-emergence as a songwriter and performer leading to the release of 'Generation Indigo', Poly's last album in 2011. She died of cancer shortly after its release. The film ends with Celeste taking her mum's ashes to India to scatter in the birthplace of Krishna. It's particularly poignant that the last song on the film - as it's the last song on 'Generation Indigo' - was 'Electric Blue Monsoon' to Krishna.

The film covers the life of Poly Styrene with insights from her daughter Celeste and family, friends and people who were influenced by her. The film relies heavily on archive material rather than talking heads - we see none of the people talking about her other than Celeste and that's one of it's strengths. The narrative and flow isn't interrupted by people popping up every now and then to talk about Poly, we hear their words against archive video scenes or photos. It's also beautifully filmed with long panoramic shots and very clear and sharp cinematography. In that respect, it's quite a beautiful film. 

It's also a very honest film and I suspect Poly would approve of that. She was and is a cultural icon to many people but that doesn't mean she has to be perfect in every aspect of her life and she wasn't. Does that affect how I view her? Not in the slightest.

A film can't tell you everything about someone's life and there has to be some editing so there's nothing about the '90s or early '00s until the triumphant Roundhouse gig in 2008, nothing about the reunion gigs or 'Conscious Consumer' or 'Flower Aeroplane' albums. In a way, that doesn't matter since they weren't key to Poly's story. What was key was her magnificent re-emergence with 'Generation Indigo', the joy of it and working with her daughter Celeste on the record. And the ultimate sadness of her death mere weeks after the release of the album and doing interviews from the hospice to help promote it. 

Marion might have left us but Poly lives on and Celeste should be proud of this film, a great tribute to her mum. It's sad in places, in many places, but it's also joyful and life-affirming. Poly had no role models to help her or inform her journey but today's generation has her and so many others to draw upon. Poly has more than earned her place in our cultural history and this film cements that. See this film if you can and learn about the icon and the woman. Well done Celeste.