Trips To the Museum

.An Art Appreciation Blog.
Sabra and Shatila Massacre, Dia Al-Azzawi, 1982-83 Four panels.Tate Modern. “Sprawling as it is towering and engulfing, the artist began the massive work after news surfaced that between two and three thousand Palestinian and Lebanese civilians were strategically murdered in and around the refugee camps of southern Beirut in 1982. While creating “Sabra and Shatila Massacre,” al-Azzawi was also moved by Jean Genet’s “Four Hours in Shatila,” a written dispatch of the hell on earth that was the site of this civil-war era carnage, the violent details of which are impossible to take in without periodically searching for respite by turning away from the page.” More at: http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/8056/dia-al-azzawis-sabra-and-shatila-massacre-

Sabra and Shatila Massacre, Dia Al-Azzawi, 1982-83

Four panels.
Tate Modern.

“Sprawling as it is towering and engulfing, the artist began the massive work after news surfaced that between two and three thousand Palestinian and Lebanese civilians were strategically murdered in and around the refugee camps of southern Beirut in 1982. While creating “Sabra and Shatila Massacre,” al-Azzawi was also moved by Jean Genet’s “Four Hours in Shatila,” a written dispatch of the hell on earth that was the site of this civil-war era carnage, the violent details of which are impossible to take in without periodically searching for respite by turning away from the page.”

More at: http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/8056/dia-al-azzawis-sabra-and-shatila-massacre-

Yacht Approaching the Coast, Joseph Mallord William Turner, c.1840-5 Oil paint on canvasTate Modern. “In this painting the light in the sky and on the sea dazzles the viewer, obscuring the scene. This visual effect echoes the progress of Turner’s own work on the painting as he returned to areas of the canvas over a period of several years, covering the original subject. Dark shapes that appear through the layers suggest boats, while the buildings on the left have not been definitively identified but may represent Venice. By reworking the canvas, Turner has created less tangible subjects – those of light and colour themselves.”

Yacht Approaching the Coast, Joseph Mallord William Turner, c.1840-5

Oil paint on canvas
Tate Modern.

“In this painting the light in the sky and on the sea dazzles the viewer, obscuring the scene. This visual effect echoes the progress of Turner’s own work on the painting as he returned to areas of the canvas over a period of several years, covering the original subject. Dark shapes that appear through the layers suggest boats, while the buildings on the left have not been definitively identified but may represent Venice. By reworking the canvas, Turner has created less tangible subjects – those of light and colour themselves.”

Hour of the Traces, Alberto Giacometti, 1930 Plaster, wood and steelTate Modern. “In 1933 Giacometti said that when making his sculptures he reproduced images that were ‘complete in my mind’s eye… without stopping to ask myself what they might mean’. This fragile construction suggests the mysteries of the unconscious, combining space and time, eroticism and death. The cage-like structure supports delicate organic forms. The upper shapes have been seen as skeletal or phallic, while the lower suspended form has been interpreted as a beating heart or a clock’s pendulum.”

Hour of the Traces, Alberto Giacometti, 1930

Plaster, wood and steel
Tate Modern.

“In 1933 Giacometti said that when making his sculptures he reproduced images that were ‘complete in my mind’s eye… without stopping to ask myself what they might mean’. This fragile construction suggests the mysteries of the unconscious, combining space and time, eroticism and death. The cage-like structure supports delicate organic forms. The upper shapes have been seen as skeletal or phallic, while the lower suspended form has been interpreted as a beating heart or a clock’s pendulum.”

Seated Man, Alberto Giacometti, 1949 Oil paint on canvasTate Modern. “Like his sculptures, Giacometti’s portraits emerged from an intense scrutiny of his subjects, and a process of continually reworking the image in order to record his shifting visual impressions. Seated Mandepicts his brother Diego, one of Giacometti’s most frequent models, but even this familiar face became an object of investigation and discovery for the artist, who commented ‘When he poses for me I don’t recognise him’.”

Seated Man, Alberto Giacometti, 1949

Oil paint on canvas
Tate Modern.

“Like his sculptures, Giacometti’s portraits emerged from an intense scrutiny of his subjects, and a process of continually reworking the image in order to record his shifting visual impressions. Seated Mandepicts his brother Diego, one of Giacometti’s most frequent models, but even this familiar face became an object of investigation and discovery for the artist, who commented ‘When he poses for me I don’t recognise him’.”

The Corridor, Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, 1950 Oil paint on canvas. Tate Modern “Vieira da Silva was a key figure within the field of expressive abstraction in post-war Paris. However her work always retained a strong basis of reference to the visible world. Many of her paintings depict labyrinthine interior spaces, with complex or multiple lines of perspective. The elaborate mosaic and tiled surfaces recall the domestic architecture of her native Portugal. This picture was first exhibited in 1950 asThe Corridor, but later became known as The Grey Room.”

The Corridor, Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, 1950

Oil paint on canvas.

Tate Modern

“Vieira da Silva was a key figure within the field of expressive abstraction in post-war Paris. However her work always retained a strong basis of reference to the visible world. Many of her paintings depict labyrinthine interior spaces, with complex or multiple lines of perspective. The elaborate mosaic and tiled surfaces recall the domestic architecture of her native Portugal. This picture was first exhibited in 1950 asThe Corridor, but later became known as The Grey Room.”

Active Poetry, Ewa Partum, 1971-3

Film, 8 mm, show as video, black and white

Tate Modern

 

“The poetic work of Ewa Partum consisted in scattering single alphabet letters into a non-artistic space: be it the open air, sea, or an underpass. This gesture led to the deconstruction of a language whereupon grammatical, syntactic and semantic structures were used to determine certain patterns of an artistic statement. Her poems were shaped by coincidence, which made their language more open and process-orientated. The confrontation with the elements associated with femininity (water, wind) made it possible to face the patriarchal patterns rooted in the language.”

Burn Hole, Henk Peeters, 1961 Plastic and Wood Tate Modern. “Burn Hole 1961 is an example of Peeters’s series of ‘pyrographies’, works in which he burned holes in a layer of monochrome, often white, plastic stretched tightly over a stretcher frame. (…) The scorching process has left behind traces of black soot from the smoke produced. For this work the artist has burned the white plastic in a vertical line extending from the top to the bottom in the centre of the composition. The process has created an uneven series of scorchmarks and burn holes in a line that bisects the work. The pyrographies are related to the Zero and Nul movements with which Peeters was associated in the 1960s, and have affinities with the concerns and practices of the nouveau réalisme group in France, particularly the work of Yves Klein.” More at: http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/peeters-burn-hole-t13407/text-summary

Burn Hole, Henk Peeters, 1961

Plastic and Wood

Tate Modern.

“Burn Hole 1961 is an example of Peeters’s series of ‘pyrographies’, works in which he burned holes in a layer of monochrome, often white, plastic stretched tightly over a stretcher frame. (…) The scorching process has left behind traces of black soot from the smoke produced. For this work the artist has burned the white plastic in a vertical line extending from the top to the bottom in the centre of the composition. The process has created an uneven series of scorchmarks and burn holes in a line that bisects the work. The pyrographies are related to the Zero and Nul movements with which Peeters was associated in the 1960s, and have affinities with the concerns and practices of the nouveau réalisme group in France, particularly the work of Yves Klein.”

More at: http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/peeters-burn-hole-t13407/text-summary