Second week of Intro to Tate Modern and at home to (39)

What I like about the Tuesday morning Intro to Tate Course (CityLit) is how absolutely packed it is with 'stuff'  - and at the end of it you've got things to think about and follow up - 17 of us this week and I think too many more would be a challenge in such a busy exhibition space.

Untitled by Rudolf Stingle (1993)

We started at the same point as we had the previous week on the fourth floor but what I and (and I think others) had not observed is that this itself was a 'work'.

In fact this work has already challenged my distaste for the 'Untitled' label - what would/could you call it? It's this or the minimal Orange Carpet I suppose.

The work allows the viewer to engage and make a mark  - reminding me of those early cave paintings but I suppose it's a touch of subversion too in what many of use take as a sombre viewing experience.

Seems the artist Rudolf Stingle has a bit of history of these works - CarpetRight anyone?

We took a look at Mondrian's works too and it generally on closer observation felt more complex than a quick look would suggest -I remain amused about his falling out with a colleague who started doing some non linear work (although he started in a representational style) .

Sparse even by Mondrian's standard

And with added Blue and Yellow

And nearby building reminded me of the 'De Stijle' style too 

We took a look at works by important America 'pop Artists' Andy Warhol and Ed Ruscha too

A variety of prints of an Electric Chair 

Another  famous work by Andy 

Andy gave good quote too and Ed used (and uses) text .

An example of the man's words

Ed Ruscha  uses words in his works

As well as  Pop we had a look at some interventionist works as well as (perhaps) conceptual (isn't it all?).

Parthenon of books by Marta Minujin - it's about Argentina and made from books  that were banned during the junta time there

And nearby two works about Coca-Cola their appropriation of  a font (Antony Caro)  and printing slogans on mass produced cultural symbols (Cido Miereles) .

A bit out of character for Caro?

Look at the words added 

How are photographs of intervention viewed as Art - does a photograph stand in effectively?

Salt Flat (1968) And a  Directed Harvest (1966)  both  by Dennis Oppenheim 

These two I find aesthetically pleasing and interesting as (perhaps) a reference to some of the Walking Art of this period.

After this we spent some time in the Switch looking at work which I again would characterise as being about materials (more about this later).

Clocking in at £52 21

At this weeks visit we also asked ourselves about the White Cube gallery concept - walls that do not intrude or comment on the work - seems a white floor too would be excessive and they're generally neutral and in case of Tate Modern Wood.

Front Doors (all roads lead home)

As they say and here it does..

Said to have been used by Steptoe & Son

The Old Front Door looks the same 

Van Gogh, Reading and Red 90

A couple of  radio programmes you might like to catch up with - on BBC Radio 4

The first reminded me of the horror of some of the worst parts of modern office life (The curse of Open Plan) - the subject that this majors on in noise and it really did make me think of what we do to  battery chickens -


The other  was  the reading of Van Gogh's Ear - The True Story, Rebecca Front who read has got a lovely voice and it works so well in this context.

Vincent Van Gogh -He pretty much had this for his 'logo'

I know many people decry the 'legend' around the story of the tortured artist personified by Vincent and point out how he was far from starving and was for some time bankrolled by his brother Theo - but listening to this what comes over is that there's something incredibly sad about the man and his life (which he ended himself at the age of only 37) .

Reading

So sometime to spare  yesterday and I actually read/re-read  bits of two books that were on my mind.

First giving me a chance to reflect on what Noah Scalin documents in his 365 Creativity Journal - how it makes your memory work so well and the second .

Some of us love manifestos

The other book which I'm musing on is about creating a book - and it's called Self Publish Be Happy - it's a sort of manifesto. I had not realised until I looked properly at the book what a seminal figure in the self publishing' roll of honour'Ed Ruscha (a favourite of mine)  is his 'disputed' book on Gasoline Stations  Twentysix Gasoline Stations by Ruscha.

This book was at first rejected by the US library  of Congress  as not being a 'book'  but is now considered  effectively the bullet from the  stating pistol for the phenomenon of   the self publishing books by artists.

Red 90

The 'god of red things' was smiling on me for sure - on the way home from the Bond Street Pop Up and what  should I see, abandoned?  - Dunno if it was 'nicked' but sitting on nearby bus shelter seat this little melange..

It looks like it means something but I'm not sure what that 'something'  is.

Finding the US artist Ed Ruscha and Idea #116 is Conservatism

Standard Station by Ed Ruscha

Ed Ruscha
I was browsing a magazine yesterday and noted a work by Ed Ruscha, I wrote his name down and lost the bit of paper. The exercise in finding it again was instructive, I tried to recall what I remembered of the work:

I got in my mind that the name wasn't Rothko but was like Rothko
I recall that he was Californian (he was in fact born in Oklahoma but moved to California)
I remember that the picture was of a gas station.
I thought that the sign said Shell (it was Standard).
I looked in Google images and found it.
The work that had intrigued me was Standard Station (painted in 1966) it is also worthy of note that President Obama presented a signed Ruscha print  (Column With Speed Lines) to UK Prime minster Cameron in 2010.
You can read the fascinating chronology of Ed a pop art pioneer who continues to produce work at the age of 75 here.
(I was pleased to see that a link to Hopper's works is acknowledged by critics)

Idea 116 is Conservatism

As we saw politics is described often as a line from left to right, somewhere on the right the parties labelled as Conservative live.
The Conservative parties include many of the European Christian Democrat parties, the US Republicans and (of course) the UK Conservatives.

Conservative parties are considered to be the parties that embody beliefs in traditional authority but it was worth noting that there are (at least) 2 brands of conservatism manifested in mainstream politics which can but don't have to co-exist:
1) Social Conservatism - this tends to favour family values and may reject alternative lifestyles (like same sex marriages).
2) Economic Conservatism - this is where Conservatism rejects overt state encroachment into industry and the market (although it is worth noting that Conservatism often favours a large military and is comfortable the spend of public finance this requires).