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 

At Tate Modern with CityLit and Feb 1st- First draft (32)

There's a mixture of comfort and irritation around surrounding yourself with similar characters to yourself.



I suppose 3 or 4 years ago when I started such courses as the one that started on Tuesday (Intro to The Tate Modern) I felt like a 'young' rebel and that I now realise is not the case but having said that it's not all bad news and I know we can talk about shared experiences and even 'offers'.


James the course leader started somewhere that is recognisable and iconic (Duchamp) and raises questions about what art is.

Barry Flanagan's  June 2 '69

James Mansfield the Course Leader -
Feels that we''re obliged to start at Fountain

After looking at Flanagan's example of Pauvre Art  we went to see the Hair and bumper work by Indian artist Sheela Gowda - this connects with material and religion/belief. 

We then went and looked at a three dimensional collage work by Kurt Schwitters and introductions from the group followed about what we were hoping to get from the course.

Behold - A work of Art or culture?

After that we looked at some of US artist Louise Nevelson's work ahead of a break and some form filling.

A work made of other 'found' items

Leger - Still life with a beer Mug (1921)

After this we split into 4 groups of 4 to look at work increasingly abstracted.

Carnival
A figurative work from Max Beckman (1920)

Picasso was playing with perspective (1913)

and Ukrainian artist  Sonia Delauney really was very abstract in 1963 (below).

Triptych (1963)

 After the discussions from what we got on these  we had an introduction to the Video  Art of Korean US artist Nam June Paik - I felt that was about mediation - particularly the egg in this one .

Three Eggs -a new type of Art?

I've got £44.22

Doors

The doors are now in another month but here's a draft of a January view on the first 31.

This is Mountfield Road

January -How we could look at it

32 - So the long journey really  begins now