The Photographers’ Gallery – Dieutsche Börse Photography Prize 2010

The Photographers’ Gallery – Dieutsche Börse Photography Prize 2010 (February 12 – April 18 2010)

4 out of 5

In its 15th year, the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize is intended to recognize a living photographer of any nationality who has made the strongest contribution to photography in Europe during the preceeding year. The The four final nominees are on display at the Photographers’ Gallery, which tends to host excellent shows. This year is no exception.

Having settled nicely into its new location off Oxford Street, the Photographers’ Gallery presents the work of the four nominees over two separate floors giving Sophie Ristelhueber the unfair advantage or disadvantage of introducing the viewer to this year’s nominees with her ground floor space. Ristelhueber’s large scale photos are good, but they lack cohesion and are ultimately superseded by the competition.

On the second floor, the other three nominees battle for the prize, with the mood starting from humorous to nostalgic and lastly to sombre. Anna Fox’s work, humorous and provocative, starts the second floor tour. Visually interesting, her work includes portraits as well as photos of household objects accompanied by humorous poetry. Zoe Leonard’s work provides an entirely different atmosphere. Focusing on the overlooked items in modern life – shoes, abandoned stores, old posters, her photographs are excellent. Smaller in scale than they could be, they are completely devoid of human life. The last nominee, Donovan Wylie tugs at the heartstrings with his photographs of the Maze Prison in Northern Ireland. The emotional heavyweight photographs show torn and bent metal fences in a landscape of desperate desolation. Wylie’s work is especially interesting in that it transforms symbols of pain and conflict into aesthetically beautiful and architectural photographs.

Overall, an excellent exhibition by four talented photographers. The judges have their work cut out for them.

Tate Modern – Arshile Gorky, A Retrospective

Tate Modern – Arshile Gorky, A Retrospective (February 10 – May 3 2010)

4 out of 5

The Tate Modern launches its spring season with an excellent show presenting a lifetime of work by one of the more underrated American painters, Arshile Gorky. Despite the confusing promotional materials that advertise Gorky’s portraits, the exhibition is a cornucopia of geometric design. Incorporating influences of several artistic movements, the majority of work is abstract with a focus on patterns and angles.

Gorky’s transformation from a pupil of others to a master with his own voice is clear. The initial rooms have hints of Cezanne, Picasso, Klee, and Picabia as the colours alternate between depth and translucency. Room 3 is the black and white palate cleanser before colour assault of room 4, where the exhibition really takes off as the scale of the work increases. This is where Gorky really hit his stride as an artist with his own vision of pale lemon yellows, bright oranges, and full reds.

Only one room (7) reflects Gorky’s skill as a portraitist. Of Armenian origin, Gorky and his family moved to America when he was still a child, but this immigrant experience and the hardship that his family suffered early on never left him. The profundity of that sadness and uncertainty for the future comes across in Gorky’s portraits. Despite his skill as a portraitist, Gorky’s true talent lies in his abstract work. Rooms 10 and 11 are the exhibition’s highlight with every painting a visual spectacle full of frenzied energy.

The last room focuses on the sad end of Gorky’s life and the health difficulties he suffered leading up to his suicide. Understandably, the work in this room is sombre. The colours are dense and dark and the compositions take on a sinister mood reminiscent of a beautiful but desperate wasteland.
Overall, a fantastic show of an excellent artist.

Tate Britain – Chris Ofili

Tate Britain – Chris Ofili (January 27 – May 16 2010)
5 out of 5

The Tate Britain has started the new year with an explosive show by former Turner Prize winner, Chris Ofili. The mid-career retrospective traces Ofili’s evolution from relying on shocking materials and provocative subject matter to spirituality and the subtle language of his latest paintings.

Interestingly, as modern art has moved on with new mediums based on technology and subject matters that continue to push the line of what is acceptable and what is art, using elephant dung in art no longer seems as outrageous as it did back in the early 1990s. Nevertheless, Ofili’s work hasn’t lost its power to inspire the viewer. Ofili’s work may draw influences of others in inconspicuous ways, but it is unmistakeably and uniquely his own. For example, his early use of small dots or beads of paint may hearken back to Australian aboriginal art, but Ofili makes that element his own. Similarly, the use of pop figure references and teenage glitter is not new, but it is imaginative in combination with the other elements of his work.

Halfway through the exhibition, the viewers are led through a dark hallway to cleanse the senses and prepare them for the visual onslaught that is room 3. In an enclosed dark space reminiscent of a place of worship, the Upper Room paintings stand out as vintage Chris Ofili.

The last two rooms of the exhibition are dedicated to Ofili’s work since he moved from London to Trinidad in 2005. Gone are the loud elements of his earlier works. No animal faeces. No glitter. No beads. Just fluid colour caressing larger than life canvasses. In abandoning all his previous tricks, Ofili lets the paint speak for itself. And what a fascinating tale it spins. I can’t wait to see what’s next in the storybook.

Saatchi Gallery – The Empire Strikes Back: Indian Art Today

Saatchi Gallery – The Empire Strikes Back: Indian Art Today (January 29 – May 7 2010)

4 out of 5

After three excellent shows since moving to its new location near Sloane Square, the Saatchi Gallery turns its attention to the modern art of India. Like the other exhibitions, there is a mix of work – some excellent and awe-inspiring, some good, some questionable and some just plain devoid of emotion. Gallery 1’s rendering of some of Mahatma Gandhi’s words is an excellent, if oddly coloured, introduction to what the viewer will experience in the galleries to follow.

Gallery 2 continues to impress with a bindi-covered heart, amongst other works. And then, the viewer reaches Gallery 3 - solely dedicated to the whimsical, intricate, and fascinating work of Huma Bhabha. Other highlights include various taxidermy animals doing unexpected things in suitcases and pipes, sarcastic armies made out of metal and other objects, and sculptures made out of ordinary house objects.

The rest of the show contains several highlights. Schandra Singh’s and Jitish Kallat’s work is especially excellent as is the work of Ajit Chauhan and Bharti Kher. Despite its lack of subtlety, there is something to be said for the provocative and bold work of Rashid Rana. Offensive to some, but true to others, Rana’s work represents what the Saatchi Gallery is all about – that inextricable mix of beauty, insight, and shock.
Yet perhaps, what’s most interesting about the exhibition is coming to terms with what classifies Indian art or Indian artists as Indian. In today’s fluid world where borders matter less and less, influences from other cultures are everywhere, and where residencies, nationalities, allegiances, and names are changeable, one can become confused about what Indian art is and what it is not. But ultimately, that question doesn’t matter as much as the quality and aesthetic prowess of the art, both of which are in abundance in this exhibition.

Royal Academy of Art – The Real Van Gogh: The Artist and His Letters

Royal Academy of Art – The Real Van Gogh: The Artist and His Letters (January 23 – April 18 2010)

5 out of 5

The Real Van Gogh show is certainly the Hollywood blockbuster of this spring’s exhibitions in London. What the real surprise is, however, is just how good of a show it really is. Van Gogh is one of the artists whose work suffers badly from overexposure. But despite this, the real surprise of the exhibition is its power to still amaze. Each work is beautifully set in an atmosphere of deep colour walls that enhance the intensity of the paintings’ colours.

Thankfully, the exhibition doesn’t include some of the most overexposed images, as those are reserved for his museum in Amsterdam, and instead includes some equally as stunning but less known paintings. Their colours are stunning. The exhibition includes some fascinating letters that Van Gogh wrote to his brother, amongst others, which reveal his own insecurity about his talent and the direction of his work. What’s most interesting about the exhibition is that it incorporates Van Gogh’s early works, when he had decided that he wanted to be an artist but hadn’t quite found his voice. These first paintings are well executed but of average inspiration – they could be easily mistaken for ones done by any number of other artists. Yet the context of that early work really makes the viewer appreciate the uniqueness of Van Gogh’s latter paintings. We feel privileged to see the early steps of an artist and his evolution from pupil to master.
The letters and drawings that accompany his paintings add a nice element. Overall, the Royal Academy of Arts has presented another excellent show in a long-line of wonderful exhibitions. The only drawback is the inevitable crowds that such a high-quality show draws. Try to go early or on a weekday to retain some of the intimacy and awe of the work.

Estorick Collection – On the Move Visualising Action

Estorick Collection – On the Move Visualising Action (January 13 – April 18 2010)
5 out of 5

A gem of an art gallery focused on modern Italian art, the Estorick Collection can do no wrong. The collection is set in a beautiful house with whimsical furniture and includes an excellent permanent collection that include the likes of Modigliani and a personal favourite Zoran Music. The current show is no exception to this quality offering and explores movement in art. Presenting a mix of photography, paintings, sculpture and other objects, the exhibition includes some wonderful works.

The photography of the late 1800s is especially strong. The exhibition highlights the fascinating photo series by Eadweard Muybridge who focused on movement in people and animals. Despite being done in 1887, the photographs do not feel dated and still exude sensuality and fascination. It’s a joy to linger over these relatively small scale photographic series seeing how movement is captured sequentially. We then move on to the work of Etienne-Jules Marey who achieves a magical and dreamlike effect of motion through overlapping images. The blurring of movement works to excellent effect. A good showing by modern artists, include some quite wonderful photos by Idris Khan. But the spectacular work of Thomas Eakins takes the crown with his athlete series that achieve a stunning visual effect and look like x-rays of human movement.

Overall a great show that is well complemented by the excellent permanent collection on display. The Estorick Collection is definitely one of the more charming venues for art lovers in London.

Top Art Shows of 2009

1. Walking In My Mind, Hayward Gallery
2. Garden & Cosmos - The Royal Paintings of Jodhpur, British Museum
3. The Revolution Continues: New Chinese Art, Saatchi Gallery
4. Unveiled: New Art From The Middle East, Saatchi Gallery
5. Annette Messager: The Messengers, Hayward Gallery

A special mention goes out to the Museum of Everything which temporarily graced London with its amazing work. What a revalation and inspiration

Check out some other opinions on the top shows in London during 2009 at http://www.timeout.com/london/art/features/9336/Best_art_exhibitions_of_the_year_2009.html