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Posts Tagged ‘Energy and Process’

Final Part of Pistoletto

Friday, October 16th, 2009

So our London walks around the south side of the River Thames and in to Tate Modern have brought us into the Energy and Process wing of the Museum.

We have been looking at a work entitled Venus of the Rags, which was created in 1967 and then recreated in 1974 by the Italian artist Michaelangelo Pistoletto.

Our previous London walks of art blog explained what it was made with and where the materials came from.

Today we look at what it means.

Ostensibly the work shows a figure of Venus, the Roman goddess of love, facing, confronting or even embracing a huge pile of rags.

It effectively brings together an icon of classical culture, Venus, and the detritus of contemporary culture, in this case the rags.

The solid and unchangeable brought together with the fleeting.

In this case Venus is solid, she has been around for a long time, she doesn’t and will not change.

Yes, she may be created and recreated out of different materials - and Pistoletto himself has created several different versions of the work in different materials, on one occassion even staging a live version of it - but her form, her memory, her iconic status does not change.

Clothes, which is what the rags are, do change. They can be discarded, torn up, shredded. They are indicitive, indeed symbolic of all things that pass, such as fads and fashions, both of which are driving forces of the modern age.

But there is also a certain irony about Venus of the Rags, in that you have a simple nude figure amidst a huge mountain of discarded and unwanted clothing.

Finally, there is perhaps a metaphor for our modern age in the work. For are we, like Venus here, not confronted  by a huge omnipresent mountain of waste and garbage that our modern throwaway age has created.

So there we have our look inside the Energy and Process wing of Tate Modern.

You can of course join us on the wide variety of London walks that we offer, where you can see so much more of the ciy that has spent 2,000 years preparing for your visit.

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London walks - Arte Povero

Thursday, October 15th, 2009

So back to our London walks Art wander in the Energy and Process wing of Tate Modern.

Arte Povero literally translates as Poor Art.

This doesn’t relate in anyway to the quality of the art that these Italian artists created but rather echoes their core belief that any object or material, no matter how ordinary, how mundane, how everyday, how poor, could and should be used in the creation of an art work.

With Pistoletto’s Venus of the Rags we have a perfect example of this.

Ostensibly it shows a figure of Venus, the Roman goddess of love, facing a pile of rags.

It contrasts and combines classical sculpture, as represented by the white statue of Venus, with the modern consumer driven throwaway age.

Interestingly, the statue that Pistoletto used in the original work was very much an emblem of the modern age of mass production for he purchased her from the ornament department of a roadside garden centre!

The rags used in the original 1967 work actually came from Pistoletto’s own studio.

Michaelangelo Pistoletto was known for his Mirror Paintings which, as the name suggests, consisted of paintings painted onto the shiny surfaces of mirrors.

The rags that he used in the original Venus of the Rags were in fact left over rags that were lying around after he had used them to polish the surfaces of the mirrors before painting them.

So having established how the work came to be created and with what, let us now turn our attention to what exactly it is about, what does it mean?

We will begin our analysis of the work in our next blog. In the meantime you can see Tate Modern in all its soaring glory on several of our London walks that wend their way along the banks of the River Thames.

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Venus and rags - Walks of London

Tuesday, October 13th, 2009

Our London walks of Art, or as we like to say London is a walk of art, are going great guns.

We have nearly completed are London Walking Tour around Tate Modern and today have decided to make a return visit to the Energy and Process wing of Tate Modern.

Having nimbly dodged Richard Serra’s massive work Trip Hammer, which consists of two pieces of steel balanced precariously one on top of the other.

Having ducked as you pass Nikki de Saint Phalle’s Shooting Paintings. Having averted your gaze as you pass through a room in which a film showing nudity is constantly playing, you arrive at a statue of Venus that confronts a huge mound of coloured, and colourful rags.

Now we cover a lot of statues on our various London walks, but this particular one is, to say the least, somewhat bizarre.

Venus of the Rags was created in 1967 and then recreated in 1974.

It is a work by the Italian Artist Michaelangelo Pistoletto, a central figure in the Arte Povero movement.

Arte Povero was an Italian art movement of the late 1960’s and early 1970’s.

This was a time of great social upheaval, not only in Italy but also across the reat of Europe and in North America.

This was the era of Vietnam, and age marked by mass protests, riots and strikes.

In Italy a group of artists began attacking the vlaues of the established institutions of government, industry and even of popular culture.

They wanted to create art that was free of the demands of the market place.

Thus the Arte Povera movement was born.

In our next blog we will look at the work of Pistoletto, who was a central figure in this movement.

For now why not take a look at the various and varied London walks we offer.? You can join to explore Shakespeare’s London, Dickens London, or even the London of Jack the Ripper.

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Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only the Artist

Saturday, October 3rd, 2009

London is a a City of Art and our Walks include numerous wonderful places where works of art can be seen. Indeed, we have been known to refer to our London walks as Walks of Art!

Last night, before we were called away to do a little bit of scary art of our own on the London Ghost Walks, we started telling you a little bit about a painting by Nikki de Saint Phalle, which can be seen in the Energy and Process wing of Tate Modern.

We explained how, at first, the picture, one of her Shooting Paintings, seems like a series of coloured streaks running down a plaster.

But we ended by telling you how Nikki de Saint Phalle actually made chance itself the main creator of the painting. Here’s how.

She would begin with a wooden base board which she would lay down flat on a surface.  This done she would fill plastic bags with different colours of liquid paint.

Having done this she would then cover everything with plaster so that she had a pristine white, rough mound of plaster piled against the background of the board.

She would wait for it to dry and then would be ready to “create” the painting.

The board would be raised upright and Nikki would then take a .22 rifle and shoot at the plaster.

The bullets would penetrate the plaster and would then rupture the plastic bags beneath causing the paint to run down the surface of the plaster in streaks of colour that mixed, mingled and pooled together.

Thus the element of chance effectively became the means by which the painting was created.

It was a revolutionary way to create a painting since it brought a new realism into art and, as a result, Nikki de Saint Phalle became famous and travelled all over the world to stage her Shooting Paintings.

The one you’re looking at in Energy and Process was created on the stage of the American Embassy in Paris on the evening of June 20th 1961.

Two American artists, Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns, fired the bullets at the plaster and created what you see before you. So this could be said to be a collaboration between de Saint Phalle and these two other artists.

Shortly after this was created Nikki de Saint Phalle was introduced by Marcel Duchamp to Salvador Dali, both of whose works we will cover in a later post.

However, Nikki de Saint Phalle stopped creating her Shooting Pictures in 1963 saying that she had become addicted to shooting “like one becomes addicted to a drug.”

We will continue our tour of the art inside Tate Modern later today with a look at the central hub of Energy and Process as we look at Arte Povera itself.

You can, if you wish,take a look at our various London walks or tonight you can join us on one of our Old City of London Ghost Walks.

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London - it’s a Walk of Art

Friday, October 2nd, 2009

Yesterday we left you cowering beneath the two huge slabs of metal that combine to make Richard Serra’s Trip Hammer, having earlier discussed where else you can see examples of his work on our London walks.

Today we’ll have a closer look at this precariously balanced piece and ponder exactly what is the meaning behind it.

Of course the main point that we like to make time and again on our Walks of London is that, no matter where you are standing in this great city look around you.

London is a city of surprises and on our London walking tours we make a point of creating wonder out of the ordinary.

But for now, let’s return to Trip Hammer.

Richard Serra was born in San Francisco  in 1939. Whilst at university he helped support himself by working in steel mills, and this would later have an enormous impact on his art and an influence on the materials he chose to use in his art.

Although he has worked in lead and other materials, examples of which can be seen in the main hub of the Energy and Process wing, steel has become his preferred material for his art.

With Trip Hammer you can actually see how he likes to use the very steeliness of the steel to create an abstract that doesn’t represent anything, but which most certainly makes you ponder it, perhaps even fear it.

It is, in effect, taking the concept of Marcel Duchamp’s “ready mades” and using an ordinary, everyday object, that is not really meant to be seen, and displaying it in such away as to make the spectator not just look at it but to also wonder about it.  Both to stand in awe before it and be apprehensive about the potential for disaster that emanates from the work - it is, if you like, the ultimate in chance in art.

But there is also  the natural art in the steel itself.

Steel, of course, degrades and rusts - you can see this on the two pieces of steel he uses for Trip Hammer, both of which show signs of rust.

So this element adds another dimension to the work, ensuring that it will keep changing and developing as a piece.

Amazingly in Spain  in 2005, the Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid announced that they had somehow managed to “mislay” a 38-tonne sculpture that Serra had created!

Our next posting will look at another intriguing work in Tate Modern where chance really does play a part in the very creation of the painting itself.

Be sure to check out the various London walks we offer and don’t forget that we also do a nightly Jack the Ripper Tour that you might like to join us on.

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Trip Hammer - Art Walks London

Friday, October 2nd, 2009

Moving on in our quest to take a closer look at London on our Walks we move across the dialogue room in Energy and Process at Tate Modern and take a look at two huge slabs of steel that are balanced precariously, one on top of the other.

This is in fact an art work by Richard Serra and it is entitled Trip Hammer.

We do actually encounter another piece of Richard Serra’s work on our London walks around Liverpool Street Station.

He was responsible for one of the art works that grace (if that is the correct term) the Broadgate Development. This work is called Fulcrum and it consists of three huge sheets of metal that stand 55 feet high and lean against each other.

Fulcrum is what is known as “site specific art,” that is it is meant to exist at a specific location. As Richard Serra himself once said - when in the early 1980’s the New York authorities wanted to remove another of his site specific works. Titled Arc on the grounds that it restricted there passage through Federal Plaza in New York City -  “to remove the work is to destroy it.”

Trip Hammer, on display in the Energy and Process wing of Tate Modern, is about the sense of unease and anxiety that it instills in the spectator.

Luckily there is a protective bar around it to protect the work. But it’s also there to protect us from the work, because Trip Hammer consists of two delicately balanced pieces of industrial steel that are kept upright by their sheer weight and by minimal contact with the wall behind.

Both pieces of steel are 2.6 meters by 1.3 meters and the top one balances precariously on an edge that is just 5cm across.

It has minimal contact with the wall behind, in fact it just touches it ever so lightly. The two pieces aren’t fixed together in any way, it is their sheer weight, coupled with the force of gravity, that keeps them upright.

In other words it wouldn’t take much to topple them and the fact that they could fall at any moment makes us aware of the space we’re standing  in relation them.

So with Trip Hammer we have an artwork that combines classical simplicity with a sense of  nervous energy, some of which may well be coming from us as we contemplate the possibility that it could, in theory, fall on us at any moment!

Our next Walk of Art posting will look a little closer at this Richard Serra piece and will tell you a little bit about the artist who created it.

Of course you are very welcome to join us on one of our City of London walks or even on one of our Shakespeare London walking tours that takes in the area of Bankside where Tate Modern stands.

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Art and Walks in London - More Tate Modern

Thursday, October 1st, 2009

So, to continue where we left off when we introduced you to the Energy and Process wing at Tate Modern, and told you a bit about which of our London walks end close to Tate Modern so that you can pay it a visit

We were in the Energy and Process wing trying to make sense of Dynamic Suprematism by the Russian Artist Kasimir Malevich and got as far as explaining that what, at first glance, seems like a meaningless jumble of different shapes is, in fact, a very spiritual and mystical work.

In a later post we will look at a painting by a leading member of the Futurist art movement that came out of Italy in 1909.

Like the Futurists Malevich was very excited by the brave new technological world that the dawning of the 20th century had ushered in.

Scientific advancements such as motor cars and airplanes had given people a radically different perception of speed and movement.

Mankind could travel faster than ever before. He could look down on landscapes from high above and, in so doing, gain a totally new perspective on the world and his surroundings.

But for Russia in 1915, at the time when Malevich painted Dynamic Suprematism, the new technological age was about something more than a mere altering of peoples perspectives and perceptions about their surroundings - it was a catalyst for cataclysmic, huge social upheaval that would culminate in the Russian Revolution of 1918 and the overthrow of the Czar.

Malevich and his fellow, left wing artists were eagerly awaiting the coming of this new Russia and the resultant government by the people and for the people.

So this should be looked at as the art of a coming new world. An art that would replace religious icons with a simplicity that would enable people to look into and ponder a painting.

Indeed, just as the religious icons of old were intended to make you stop and ponder the world beyond, so to does Dynamic Suprematism make you forget about the materialism of art and look instead at the meaning behind the art.

So there we end our look at the work of Kasimir Malevich in Tate Modern’s Energy and Process wing.

Tomorrow we’ll pick up on the work that stares across at it in the dialogue room, Richard Serra’s Trip Hammer.

In the meantime, why not join us on a London walk to explore the places that surround Tate Modern and to enjoy a stroll over the Millennium Bridge following in the foosteps of Shakespeare and Dickens.?

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London Art Walks - Inside Tate Modern

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009

Is that Art?

We thought that we’d take a look at creating a series of London walks that feature the various art works that are to be seen inside Tate Modern.

When you step inside Tate Modern you might at first feel overwhelmed by the sheer vastness of the place and might struggle to make sense of some of the works that are displayed in its galleries. Don’t despair it really does make sense if you know something of the history behind the works.

On our London walks we are always asking our clients to look. Look up at the upper storeys of buildings, look around at old courtyards and passageways.

Well, looking is very much what our visits to Tate Modern over the next few days will be about. We will take one work per blog and tell you a little bit about it, as well as about the artist who painted it.

But first a little background about the galleries at Tate Modern.

Tate Modern’s permanent exhibitions are housed on levels three and five of the gallery.

When Tate Modern opened in the year 2000 the curators decided to break with tradition and not to display the art chronologically as happens in most Art Galleries. Instead they loosley based their collection around four things. Landscape, the body, history and still life.

In 2006 there was a major rehang and Tate Modern is now divided into four new themes. States of Flux, Material Gestures, Poetry and Dream, and Energy and Process.

At the centre of each wing there is a hub room that displays the works of major artists involved in a particular artistic movement. Around the hub room are a series of smaller rooms, also called satellite rooms, displaying works that have either inspired the main movement or else been inspired by the main movement.

The first room that you enter when you enter is called a dialogue room and these rooms contain to works of art by artists who may or may not have known each other, who may have been from different periods in art history, but who are in some way connected.

So with the lay out of Tate Modern now established we will, in future blogs, start looking at these rooms and telling you something about the works displayed in them.

Just keep in mind the mantra of our London walks that they are all about looking and seeing.

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