More at the RA

The other week I went to the RA and had quick looks at 'Dali & Duchamp' as well as 'The Jasper Johns - Something Resembling Truth' - it was suggested to me that Matisse in the studio was worth a visit and I wanted to spend some more time looking at Jasper John's work.

I had seen Matisse's Cut-outs  at Tate Modern over 3 years ago and to see another way into Matisse's prodigious output was fantastic, the space that the exhibition was occupying was rather small and such is the attraction of the show that there are a lot of people visiting.


What was great about how this exhibition was curated is the way we were invited to share  the objects and people around Henri that were integrated into his work.

See the Black Marble

I would have like to know about the model Henriette Dariccarriére who modelled for many of Matisse's paintings that featured Odalisque - many of the materials within these paintings that conjured up Morocco were shown including tables and other ephemera.



'Still life with Seashell on Black Marble' and the study that led to the work were informative, it reminded me of how Nick Pearson had described placing objects and their influence as a sort of 'tension'  between them.
Also like Matisse's   Large Woodcut (he worked in many media and perhaps is now overly eclipsed by Picasso) reminded me of Keith Haring's works.

It was also informative to see the example of Chinese Calligraphy that Matisse's wife bought him - clearly there was a link as there was to the fashion at the time of Matisse's creative peak of African masks.

3 big exhibitions at the RA

Dali, Duchamp and Hope at the RA

Two giants who were friends

The other smashing exhibition at the RA was one that centred on the friendship between Dali and Duchamp.

The Double 'D's'

Dali is the more famed public figure but it can be argued that Duchamp is the more significant in terms of the Art world.







There were some amazing things to see like Hamilton's  restoration of  Marcel Duchamps 'The Bride Stripped Bare..'
I was also interested to see a work by Dali (Sistine Madonna)  which used dots in much the same way as Robert Lichenstein did later on.


There was quite a bit of work by Duchamp including (of course) another copy of the 'Fountain', the other readymade 'bottle rack' was there too .

Useful RA notes

For me the elephant in the room was the lack of 'etant donnes' which is in Philadelphia and doesn't travel.


The exhibition sort of ties into the Jasper Johns exhibition which is also currently hosted by the RA.

Bob Hope and Dali

It's quite easy to assume that the artist as a celebrity is a new phenomena but Dali was prominent in Hollywood and  worked  with Alfred Hitchcock  on a dream sequence for Hitchcock's  Spellbound film - here's a clip of Bob Hope as guest at one of Dalis' Surreal Bashes.

Real Fun with Flags (at the RA)

RA the place to see Jasper

There's a TV 'internet feature' within TV's Big Bang called 'Fun with Flags' - well yesterday I visited London's RA and was tremendously excited to see Iconic paintings from Jasper Johns famed for his 'Flags' (and other things).


It feels odd in some ways but there was real excitement for me in seeing the pictures on show - I'm going to have to make a second visit after doing some research into Johns.

[The first part which was looking at this from Andy Warhol on YouTube]


Johns was from an Art family, was raised mainly by his Grandparents.  The lack of family influence in his artistic development did not seem to limit him in his later work (and perhaps even had the

opposite effect).

Jasper Johns -He's still alive

Johns was perhaps more of an expert in Collage than a straightforward painter.

Well known amongst the Pop artists a friend of Robert Rauschenberg - his work is hugely influential and part of the antidote to the abstractions of artists like Jack the Dripper, Mark Rothko and Barnet Newman  that 'Pop' swept away

Johns experiments are brave and often work - his 'Painting with Two Balls' remains surprising and humorous.

The artist is famed for the way his paintings are both about things and the things they are about (like his flags, numbers and maps)
.
Nice intro for the exhibition here.


My personal favourites were work about Seasons which include several of the same items and silhouettes through Summer, Spring  Fall and Winter also intrigued by the more recent 'Nothing at all Richard Dadd (1992)' - Dadd was a British artist who spent much of his life incarcerated having killed his own father.

For me there's a strong presence of George Braque in much of John's work.

More on my RA  visit soon, I saw another exhibition there which featured an artist who was of one of Jasper John's big inspirations -Marcel Duchamp.

Bye Fats

As for  Jasper Johns (above) - I was under the mistaken impression that Fats Domino was no longer with us - well that's the case now he died recently at the age of 89, a private man with a sense of humour and family, lauded by Elvis Presley, a star of the Best Sound-tracked Rock & Roll Film (The Girl Can't Help It) and his cover of the Beatles Domino inspired Rocker  Lady Madonna that rare thing a Beatles cover that exceeds the original  - here it is ..