Edvard Munch at the Tate Modern

On Monday I mentioned that I had been to see Edvard Munch at the Tate Modern the day after it opened. And so I did. As that was already two weeks ago, it's about time I shared my thoughts, right? 

Edvard Munch: The Modern Eye

What I liked most about this exhibition was... there were no references to The Scream. We all know Munch primarily because of that one painting and there is so much more to him than that. I really loved this exhibition, although I knew I would as I am a fan of his generally. But, as with all exhibitions at the Tate, I found myself learning more about Munch as an artist and discovering aspects of his work that I hadn't known about before. In this instance, it's Munch's photography and videography work. He was really interested in the ideas of something beyond the tangible world and his photos really capture this; they play with exposures, focus and light creating a sense of 'other worldliness' that was quite magical. In some of his photos, you get the impression that there really is something else there, and, while you know that it's because he has double-exposed it, you still wonder what that blur in the background really is. 

The exhibition covers 12 rooms and each room shows a different aspect of his work. I hadn't realised how often Munch had revisited the same paintings, sometimes changing the background, sometimes the expression on the faces, sometimes the clarity with which the painting was focused. It was fascinating seeing how Munch's work changed over the decades but came back to similar themes. In the room 'Optical Space' I was struck with how the figures in his paintings seem to be attempting to escape, how they come out towards you and how the perspectives are changed to create movement within the piece. I absolutely loved his wood carvings - especially the self-portrait one at the start of the exhibition. 

Munch is well-known for his images of alienation, but this exhibition showed a more personal side to the artist; we saw the difficulty of trying to cope with his anxieties, the recurring theme of the fight he had with a young artist who accused him of a lack of patriotism, his attempt to reconcile himself with his sister's death and the emotional turmoil he clearly went through. I was really impressed with how Munch had kept up with the latest scientific discoveries and how he had depicted them in his own work (often through photographs), how well he knew himself (as seen in the copious self-portraits) and how he used his choice of medium to show his emotional state. I really enjoyed this and came out wondering why people tend to think of Munch only for 'The Scream'  - I really like Vampire, Starry Night, his self-portraits and love his woodcarvings. Another brilliant exhibition that is definitely worth a visit. 

Edvard Munch: The Modern Eye

Tate Modern, London

28th June - 14th October

Tickets: £14 (free for members)

Damien Hirst at the Tate Modern

Last week I shared some of my thoughts on the Picasso exhibition that is currently still running at the Tate Britain. As I have fairly recently become a (long overdue) member of the Tate, I have been taking advantage of the fact that members don't need to pay to get into the exhibitions. In just over a week I had made my membership pay for itself and now I have a year to look forward to free exhibitions, discounts and lots of fabulous art! Yay! 

Anyway, back to the actual subject... 

The week before last (on the 29th June to be precise) we went for a late evening at the Tate Modern. It's open until 10pm on Fridays and Saturdays so we decided to go and see Damien Hirst. Once we had been round his exhibition, we decided to have some dinner and go on to see Edvard Munch which had only just opened the day before. As I have a fair amount to say about both exhibitions, I've broken it down... today you get my thoughts about Damien Hirst.

Damien Hirst at the Tate Modern

I've always been a bit dubious about Damien Hirst... I think it probably started when I first heard about his work. I must have been about 15 and it was around the time when he won the Turner Prize and all the controversy that came with it. The idea of animals being preserved in formaldehyde and being presented as 'art' has always been a little bit of a stickler for me as it just isn't my cup of tea really. So, while I did really want to see the Damien Hirst exhibition because I felt there was probably more to his work than what I had presumed, I also went with a slight sense of trepidation as to whether I would actually like what I saw. I have to say, there is a lot more to his art than just pickling a few dead animals. In fact that would be reducing his work to something inane and worthless. Whereas now, having seen his work, what I actually interpret from those particular pieces is the attempt to bridge the gap between art and science, showing that one can be both at the same time. I would not have come to that thought if it hadn't been for seeing some of his other works. I think Hirst is someone who you need to see as a 'whole' as opposed to selected pieces. Seeing his room of pharmaceuticals juxtaposed with pots of honey made me consider the merging between man-made, synthetic cures with those provided by nature. The vitrines (glass fronted display cases - I learnt a new word) full of tablets and pills set at regular intervals along mirrored shelves with a mirrored backdrop were so precise and amazingly well put together that I stood transfixed, searching for a pattern that I couldn't find but mesmerised with the details and how they worked as a whole. 

Similarly I loved his 'Spot Paintings' which use colour and form in such a bright, but yet controlled manner. And then there are the butterflies... I loved the exhibition 'In and Out of Love' - two rooms, one with huge canvases painted in a single colour with dead butterflies stuck onto the surface (I loved the canvases and the colours, not the dead butterflies), the second a humid atmosphere with live butterflies flying around the room. They were amazing! The idea behind them show Damien Hirst's continual revisiting to the themes of life and death and, while I'm not sure that a room of live butterflies is really art, I was held for quite a while and did spend a lot of time going 'oooh, look at that one!' Towards the end of the exhibition, the butterflies reappear - this time arranged into patterns that are again precise and complex. Butterfly wings are arranged in different patterns on a huge scale. Some remind the viewer of buddhist mandalas while on the opposite wall there is a triptych reminding us of traditional church stained glass windows. Again, Hirst has returned to the themes of life and death in such an innovative and unusual manner that you can't help but look and look. I have to say, I have totally changed my mind about Damien Hirst. I dislike the vitrines of animals, but there is so much more to his work than that which hits the papers. I am seriously impressed with his dedication to detail, structure and form (not to mention the number of cigarette butts he has collected over the years) and will be looking out for his work in the future. I can't say I 'enjoyed' the exhibition - there were a lot of parts that I actively disliked, but I have a new-found respect for Hirst and I loved other parts of the exhibition. Again, totally worth a visit and I'm very glad that I finally did go and learn more about him. 

Damien Hirst

Tate Modern

4th April - 9th September 2012

Tickets: £14 (free for members) 

Picasso at the Tate Britain

What I love about living in London is the galleries and museums. There are so many different places of interest to visit that we are literally spoiled for choice. Less than 5 minutes walk from my flat is the V&A Museum of Childhood, while just up the road there is the Geffrye Museum. Brick Lane always has some artsy exhibitions going on and the Whitechapel Gallery is one of my favourite spaces (although I do get lost EVERY time I go in there!!) Over the past few months I seem to have been going to a lot of exhibitions at art galleries and museums. Some of them have been with work (Natural History Museum, Portrait Gallery) but more of them have been because I'm actually doing something with myself at the weekends as opposed to just sitting around doing not very much. 

It's probably about time I started sharing some of my thoughts and ideas about some of the exhibitions I've been to with you... So over the next few weeks, I think there'll be some posts about exhibitions that I've visited and what I've thought of them. I should warn you: I've recently joined the Tate - very overdue as it's always my first choice of gallery to show visitors, and in the past week I've seen three of their major exhibitions, so the first few posts will invariably be centred around the Tate Galleries...

Picasso and Modern British Art at the Tate Britain

The largest of the three exhibitions I have been to recently (we must have spent at least an hour and a half going around it before even thinking about the rest of the Tate), was the Picasso and Modern British Art exhibition at the Tate Britain. Spread over 12 large rooms this exhibition documents not only Picasso's work, showing how he was influenced by the world around him, how his work matured, changed, returned to the same themes... but also included rooms with artists influenced by Picasso. There was a room with paintings by Picasso alongside sculptures by Henry Moore, whose work has such a sensual and smooth finish, I would never have considered a connection. I was seriously amazed to see quite how clearly Moore was influenced by Picasso's work - some of his sculptures have almost identical lines to Picasso's 2D interpretations of his subjects. It was absolutely fascinating. I would never have realised Francis Bacon was so influenced by Picasso, but again, seeing them together it suddenly becomes so apparent, as well as works by David Hockney, Wyndham Lewis and Ben Nicholson. Actually Ben Nicholson came as no surprise; he's an artist who seems to have jumped on every art-movement bandwagon there was and, having seen the Mondrian-Nicholson exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery a few weeks ago, I'm beginning to wonder if he actually had his own personal style. I really loved seeing how Picasso's work changed over the decades, how he matured, changed and carved his own niche in art. I also learnt about a whole side of Picasso's art that I simply had never heard of before visiting the exhibition: in the early 20th Century (around 1917), he became very much involved with the Ballet Russes and Diaghilev (which I knew), and designed not just the scenery backdrops for the stage but also the costumes as well for some of the productions. There were some reproductions of the costumes on display (dating from the 1940s as the originals have been lost/destroyed) and sketches of the characters' costumes. I think that may have been the point where my estimation of Picasso just went through the roof - I've always loved all the cubism works and the portraits with the double profiles are so clever and interesting, but that he was so diverse in his work was something I hadn't really considered before. There were even some of his sculptures on display which you very rarely get a chance to see. I know everyone raves about Picasso (well, apart from the people who hate his work) but they really are worth listening to. This exhibition has definitely made me realise just how much he has influenced British Art over the past century and how he is continuing to do so. I thought it was fantastic, well put together and really really interesting. I love Picasso's style (especially the cubism work from the 1910s and 1920s) and have become far more aware of how important he has been for modern art. The exhibition is in it's final weeks so if you haven't seen it yet (and are in/around London) you really should go - it's definitely worth the entrance fee. 

Picasso and Modern British Art

Tate Modern

15th February - 15th July 2012

Tickets: £14 (or free if you are a member)

Artist's Feature: Chanelled Creations

This month's Artist is Ana Gonçalves, the face behind Chanelled Creations. She has been following Creating Trouble and writing lovely comments for a while now so it seems right to be meeting the person behind the name! Ana can be found on both Etsy and Folksy, where she sells some of her work. You can also find her on twitter and facebook too. I like the use of colour and theme in her work. Anyway, she's better at talking about herself than I could possibly be - so here you are: Ana Gonçalves of Chanelled Creations.

Who are you and what do you make? 

My name is Ana Gonçalves, and I am an intuitive and visionary Artist. My work represents the different cycles and experiences in my life, and it is this that I freely express on paper. I am inspired by existence, the universe and nature. My artwork is used in a mixture of sustainable paper crafts, such as eco greeting cards, bookmarks and postcards. I also sell original works.

What got you interested and what inspires you further?

My passion for creativity started since I could put crayon to paper. I have been crafting since a very young age, and have always believed that expression is a channel that mediates how one feels on the inside. My love for crafting starting in writing stories, drawing and painting and it grew with each experience encountered. I am inspired to continue to share my art in hope that it inspires others to connect with who they are and their feelings, and that it brings healing and nurture to the soul.

Are there any other artists who have inspired or helped you with your work?

Chrissy Foreman Cranitch, a very special friend and Artist whom I met via blogging continues to inspire and motivate me on my creative path. We have very similar ethics and interests in our love for nature, art and life, and the desire to go deeper in bringing awareness forward through our work.

Please feel free to browse her work: http://www.chrissyforemanc.com/

I would also like to say a big Thank you to all the individuals at Etsy and Folksy who are helping in the set up and continuous promotion of artisan seller shops. I think it's great all that you do, and I love the way in which everyone forms a community around it. Thank you to you also creative trouble for providing us with the platform to share who we are, and what we make.

Where do you work, and if you had an unlimited budget, how would you improve your workspace?

I work in a separate small room in the house, which is a multi-purposeful space suiting as a reading, creative and printing area. I've just re-organized my creative space and so am feeling much better about the location of where I store my art and create. Its a lot lighter and meaningful.

Where can we find you and your work? 

Etsy Shop: www.chanelledcreations.etsy.com

Folksy Shop: www.chanelledcreations.folksy.com

Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/ChanelledCreations/100348970052349

My Twitter profile: www.twitter.com/TruAnaGoncalves

My Crafts link Profile: http://craftslink.org/artist/174115

Thank you Ana for letting us know about your work and about yourself. Make sure you go and look at some of Ana's other work - her work is very reasonably priced on both Etsy and Folksy, so you could become an owner of some of her work!