On Friday I met up with my friend Sue ( who I haven't seen for months) in Bermondsey. It's not an area I've visited for a very long time, the focus for the visit was the exhibition at the
White Cube of Anselm Kiefer, but there's lots of interest in the area including this delightful community sculpture
'The Shared' that Sue spotted down an alley!
'Walhalla' was the theme and the title of much of the work in this
Anselm Kiefer exhibition and so much lead was used that you had to read a health and safety notice about it's toxicity before you entered! I'd thought the work in the
exhibition at the RA in 2014 was monumental but this was of an even larger magnitude.
Although thought-provoking I didn't particularly like the lead beds (and walls!) and other installations but loved the paintings: the scale, the colours, most of all the incredible textures and surfaces achieved with variety of unusual media used.
The huge 'books' of photographs with clay were wonderful .
The close up (below) of this painting give an idea of how layers are curled back from the surface.
Interesting unusual composition with the darkest areas at the top.
The use of luminous colours (especially the blue) and the sheen of shellac gave a lift to these paintings ( which are huge!)
Sue and I had a discussion about how on earth he made such huge pieces and how large his studio could be - the
answer is apparently 200 acres!
After a delicious long lunch at the
Fashion and Textile Museum, we visited the
London Glassblowing gallery. This spectacular, sculptural piece ( with its' shadows) by
Jochen Ott was my favourite but difficult to choose amongst so much gorgeous work!
Finished up at the Eames gallery where I'd noticed on my way past there was an exhibition on
'Discovering Samuel Palmer' whose work I've long admired ( the
exhibition at the British Museum was
exceptional) It turned out to be even more interesting as his prints formed the basis of varied interpretations by a range of contemporary printmakers, rather a contrast in scale to the Anselm Kiefer up the road!
2 comments:
Lucky you, I love his work, saw the Royal Academy exhibition twice and his last one at White Cube.
I also love Samuel Palmer but didn't enjoy the one at the British Museum it was hung to high, I had to stand on tip toe and my Mum who is 4' 11" couldn't see them at all especially as his work is quite small and dark.
What a day out! Envious - how I'd love to view Kiefer's work that I've only seen & read about in books. And I love that amber glass piece.
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