An NPG visit

After Moral Philosophy 2 (more about this later) and visit to the National Portrait Gallery (the NPG) am beginning to get myself (a little) familiar with the layout and facilities there ahead of course in February.

Henry Cole by Sir Joseph Boehm

Like many Galleries the NPG is hung largely, chronologically but there are rooms set aside within for say a broad chronology - like 'Politicians' for example there are of course other 'Temporary' (meaning ticketed/paid) exhibitions - I'm not sure about the overall feel of the gallery or how well it all works, still getting the 'hang' of it.

(Thomas) Ruff pictures

I was interested to see a bust of Henry Cole who was one of many important figures around Prince Albert pressing for better British Design in the 19th century.




There are some things in the NPG which I like but not sure that they should be there - for example Photographs (it was good to see that Thomas Ruff work is on show) or Sculpture.

Seeing some examples of Stained glass though reminded me of what I saw in what Gilbert & George were doing with their 'Beard Portraits.

I was though much taken with Dame Laura Knight's self portrait (with model) - really like the informal nature of the picture and the use of red in it.

A nicely composed self portrait by Dame Laura Knight.

At the National Portrait Gallery (88)

As I was in 'Town' yesterday and taking a class around Photography Exhibiting (more about this soon) seemed a good time to look at some - with this in mind made my way down to The National Gallery.

A well thought out Exhibition

Two lots of photo's took quite a bit of digestion one was in the general show and was called 'Before We were Men' by Photographer David Gwinnutt who was active as part of the London  'Blitz' scene of the 1980s.


The pictures, un-staged portraits of some of the key figures (Like Derek Jarman for example)  on show were exhibited in a simple grid of 2 rows with 5 per row.



After looking at these pictures I went to the 'temporary'/ticketed  exhibition Gillian Wearing & Claude Cahun Behind the mask, another mask.

Spring - Trees bare but budding 

This was a complex exhibition showing work by 2 artists who were not alive during each others lifetime but have some common themes.

The two artists  were presented in a fairly even way

If we consider the time that Claude Cahun was active with her  androgynous dress and behaviour she was something of a pioneer with her female partner Suzanne Malherbe aka Marcel Moore .

A lot of the pictures that she features in showed her with extremely short hair and it is easy to picture  her as part of the lively European surrealist scene between the wars.

Claude Cahun and her use of masks has inspired former YBA Gillian Wearing (she's also a Turner Prize winner), Gillian plays with ageing and reflects on her genes and inheritance  in the exhibition.

Weraring's work here  is largely photographic but includes  some 3 dimensional work along with painting - there's also something like 200 Polaroid selfies of Wearing dating mainly from the 1980s.

The exhibition as a whole was a challenging way of re-visiting Cahun's work - she sadly died at the age of 60 having faced  a difficult period in the Channel Islands during WW II.

£114.81

Doors

Back on the home turf and surprised I've not used this road before..

Definitely not Scotland 

I like the colour but not too sure that we need three keyholes!