Well a lot's happened since the last post, so much so that it's been hard finding time to put the past into blog-form, but here I go. This post recaps our journey with Peter to the Tate Britain, a beautiful art museum in London. We focused on a few specific works of art that spanned a pretty wide range of time period. Peter, as always, added his own commentary to each work. The pieces are both traditional, as well as extremely bizarre, so keep reading! Here they are!
Unknown
Portrait of Mary Kytson, Lady Darcy of Chiche, Lady Rivers c. 1590.
Peter initially pointed out to two things. How enormous the dress was, and how tiny her hands were. At the time, this sort of portrait was commissioned by the husband to show off his most prized possession, his wife. However, don't expect this painting to look anything like the actual woman. The painter didn't painted to reflect what she really looked like, but rather what her husband wanted her to look like.
The crest in the top left of the portrait is another way for the man to establish his ownership over his wife. It's his crest, not hers. Peter says: "No one holds their hands like that." I agree.
Portait of Six Servants
William Hogarth Mid-18th Century
In contrast to the prior piece, this was the beginning of painting how people actually looked like, rather than a completely fabricated and inaccurate ideal. The faint line visible of above his right eye (stage right) is a scar that he included in the portrait.
What else is interesting about this piece, is the portrait within a portrait that he paints, as well as the way his coat seems to merge with the curtain behind the dog, as Peter pointed out to us just there.
Giovanna Baccelli
Thomas Gainsborough, 1782
This painting uses the a contrast between blurred strokes and fine detail to create an impression of the background, while at the same time drawing your eye to the clearness of the woman's face. From the background we would usually be led to believe this was an impressionist painting, though it would be another century before the Impressionist movement surfaced.
Ophelia
Edward Millais, 1850
For those of you familiar with Shakespeare, this comes from the play Hamlet. Ophelia drowns at sea. This is supposed to be here dead body, though her face seems more life-like than normal. Frankly this picture kind of gave me the heebie-jeebies.
King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid
Edward Burne Jones, 1884
The scene below shows the king bringing back his beggar maid (as the title suggests). Notice the big sword and massive pike drawn into the painting. The modern equivalent would be a guy driving around a hummer and walking a great dane to try and prove himself a man. The beggar is a symbol of the king's sexual conquest. She's scantily drawn and, unlike blue-dress from two pictures above, here the maid's face is blurred while her body is defined.
An Athlete Wrestling with a Python
Frederick, Lord Leighton, 1877
This is one of my favorite works of art in the Tate Britain. The time period makes it a Victorian, post-freudian sculpture that is designed to be one thing, while meaning something else entirely. Just try and guess what that something else might be?
Peter pointed something funny out. If this were a greek athlete, and he really were wrestling a snake, why on earth would he be completely naked? Just one of those things you have to accept, haha.Abstract
Ben Nicholson, 1932
This is one of those works of art that leave me completely dumbfounded. In 1930, one of the movement in art was not to create something that represented something else (like naked snake-man above) but to create something that simply IS what it IS. Some questions Peter pointed out that the creator probably wanted his audience to ask when they saw it: What is it? Where does it begin? Where does it end? Is the frame part of he work? Are the holes cut at equal depths?
We're supposed to be encouraged to spend time actually looking at the art work here, instead of glancing at it and moving on.
Three Forms
Barbara Hepworth, 1932
Barbara was fascinated by three things linked together. In this case those things were a ball, a plane, and a hole. But then we asked ourselves, which piece is the plan? Is the base part of the three pieces? I'm not saying I understand this piece... but I guess I respect it for it's confusing powers.
Herro Mike. Notice his strategic placement of the peace sign. Sublime.
Three figures at the Base of Crucifixion
Francis Bacon, 1944
Horizontal Stripe Painting: November 1957-January 1958
Patrick Heron, 1957-8
There's not much to be said about this painting. If you can call it that. I mean I'm sure there is. I just don't think I'm the right person to say it. It hurt my eyes. It was weird.
Top Gun 1994
Fiona Banner
While it DOES push the boundary between what may be traditionally (I don't even know what traditional art is anymore after the Tate) considered art, I thought this was really really cool. It's the entire script of Top Gun written out in pencil on one single, massive piece of paper.
Here are some memorable quotes:
"Goose is dead."
"Eject! eject! eject!"
"Bingo Maverick's dead."
So that's the Tate Britain. Well, a very abbreviated and shortened version of the Tate, but hopefully you got a decent picture of the place. This was only the 1st half of that day, so keep your eyes peeled for the 2nd! Until then!
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