More challenges from Tate Modern London and (42)

More from the CityLit 'Intro to Modern Art ' course.

I broke off a little early from what I saw earlier in the week in my recent post - the pause was as a result of it becoming long and also because I thought that some questions and thoughts needed a little more consideration.


Last summer I visited at the time of opening the Switch extension (June)  and was at the time thrown by some of the work which looked like builders materials/unfinished.

On the fourth floor of the Switch are a number of works  it seems to me that could fall into an 'Emperors new clothes' description - but of course such a critique does not reveal too much and might be characterised as rather lazy.

Here are some of the works we looked at.

Equivalent VIII (1966) by Carl Andre 

 

Stack by (Sir) Tony Cragg

A skip observed nearby 'rubbish'

Equivalent actually generated a lot of controversy when purchased by The Tate in the 1970s  - it's part of a series of arrangements of the same number of bricks hence the 'equivalence'.

The artist Carl Andre spent some time working for Pennsylvania railroad and it could be that the order in his work is partly informed by this work - the artist though has had an eventful and perhaps less ordered life involving the violent death of his wife the Cuban born feminist artist Ana Mendieta in 1985.

Stack by the artsit described as a Sculptor (Sir) Tony Cragg has some interesting features but is not overly (to me) attractive to look at - here's a little review of it from Ashchads blog.

A work made from Perspex and Aluminium
by Donald Judd

Another work in this area is by Donald Judd and perhaps unsurprisingly it's 'Untitled' - spacing between the elements is consistent - reviewers comment on the significance of the materials used.

Here you can find out more about the American Judd's 'minimalist' foundations.

8 Levels (2012) by Jac Leirner

This work by the Brazilian women  Artist Jac Leirner - is again minimalist and connects to that of Donald Judd (above) in the materials and repetition.

Pink Tons by Roni Hart 

This work is startling when considered in contrast to other works in the area - Roni Hart an American artist works across a variety of disciplines and she seems to draw inspiration from language and identity.

Called 'One of The Possibilities' (1973)  it's by Daniel Buren

This work I am puzzled by it's from a French artist called Daniel Buren labelled both as a conceptual artist and a sculptor.

Daniel talks about work that is affected by it's place and how this means the work is itself not fixed.

[Another comment I will make before moving on is how many of these 'challenging works are often over 40 years old - so modern art it may be but it is often some distance from we might consider as contemporary art.]

Now £56 52

Doors

So this door 42 is one that reminds me of time leafleting - blimey some people are inconsiderate, how would you like posting through here? - no junk mail seems pretty academic  - I think there should be some rules in where letter boxes are sited. [What a shame this petition got less than 100 signatures].

Albany comes from Latin and is about 'White' 

Nice door but please Think about the poor postman