London, Day #12

Today we had two lectures that were very different from our usual discourse.

The first lecture was on the importance of Curators in the art world. We learned about some very famous curators (who I had not heard of and I really regret to say this), and their sort of diverse workings in the art world. I found it all very interesting, but also extremely challenging to take in. I have sort of moved away from the idea of curation in my own mind, I mean I would like to own a space for art and "curate" the shows there, someday, but maybe not on this high of a level. Regardless of that we learned about some really cool stuff. And I'd just like to share with you all the "advertising" art/cover of the catalogue for Documenta 10, an art exhibit that takes place every five years or so in Kassel, Germany (next year it will be Documenta 13).

The reason why I am sharing this with you is because it is typography based, and I really love typography based works of art.

The second lecture was given by the director of the MA program in Art Business at Sotheby's (Which is the program I am mostly interested in). The lecturer was very interesting and extremely knowledgable about art and the art market, which is something I aim for in my studies as well. I really enjoyed the lecture, but it was a lot of numbers which I am sure many people did not like.

Afterwards we met up at the White Cube in Hoxton (East End) which was very different from the White Cube in St. James's where we were last week. I really loved the show. It was works by a South African artist named Robin Rhodes, and I swear if I had money I would have bought every photograph in the exhibit. I really truly honestly loved his work. I took photos of the photographs and will post them in my facebook album later this week (when I have more photos to post). His work deals a lot with issues of black and white, and the photographs were also dealing with the Fibonacci sequence, which I find fascinating, yet I can't say I fully understand it. He also had some film works and they were really incredible as well. Sort of stop motion pieces that used a wall like a blank canvas for ideas. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take photos in the room of films, so I could not film my favorite piece, but if ever you get a chance to see a Robin Rhodes exhibition (he is an up and coming artist for sure) please go and see it so we can gush together.

We then traveled about 15 minutes on foot to another set of galleries and looked at a few works by Yayoi Kusama and Alice Neel. The Kusama work was her more recent works which I do not think are as conceptual as her pre-mental institution works, but they were sort of enjoyable and happy. I was really impressed, however, with the Alice Neel works. I am a bit unfamiliar with her work, but her painting style is quite incredible and beautiful. The work was a collection of portraits that she painted of men in her life and men she met, and it was so interesting to see an exhibition of works painted by a woman, that was only portraits of men. The style made me think of the way that female nudes were painted at a certain time in art history, and so I was very pleased to soak in the pieces.

We also looked at the work of another artist who was completely disgusting that I didn't even write down his name, so that is unrelated.

Sore throat still in existence, but tomorrow in addition to going to the Camden Arts Centre and the Freud Museum, we are going on a day trip to Oxford! The school is providing us with an open ended ticket (on the return end) so I think we will stay a bit later and look around Oxford. I don't know if you can tell how excited I really am, but it is late here and I should get to bed as tomorrow is another long day, but let me prep you for the grand finale of my week: I am going to Bath on Friday! So if you have any recommendations in Bath beyond the usual, go see the Roman Baths, I am there for several hours and need more things to do! Please e-mail me.

xoxooxxoxoxoox

London, Day #11

Sorry for the delay, I've developed a bit of a sore throat and have been trying to take care of it. Meanwhile on Monday we endured two lectures in the morning and a visit to the famed Saatchi Gallery.

Our first lecture was on Globalism and global art. I was very excited for this lecture because a lot of the art I have been studying in school has been from other countries and cultures, so it was nice to round that out in the contemporary world. Some of the artists mentioned that I really admire (now) or already really admire are....

Zhang Huan

He's a performance artist and he documents many of his performances with still photography, that stand alone in some cases.

Here are three of his pieces which you have probably seen if you live in either Los Angeles (at the Getty Center) or San Francisco (SFMOMA).

"Family Tree," 2000

"To Raise The Water Level in a Fish Pond" 1997

Another artist whose work I really liked, but I have never heard of before, was Kim Sooja, from Korea. The work we were shown was in the 1999 Venice Biennale. I am considering going to the Biennale when I am in Venice in a few weeks... we shall see if it's worth the cash.

"Bottari Truck in Exile," 1999

Our second lecture was entitled "The Moving Image" which we had with our frequent guest Lecturer, Maxa, who is from Germany. I really like her a lot, and she has some great references in art and film, although I do not agree with her entirely on certain aesthetics in art.

In this lecture we watched two films/videos that very much contrasted with one another in terms of their theme. One was by Jean-Luc Godard (the famed French filmmaker). It was a five minute film that compiled clips from other films (some of his) and ideas about how the art of fim and video is lost in the digital age. One of the quotes in the film (entitled "In the Darkness of Times") was something that I found to be rather beautiful. I think it went something like this:

"When I talk about time it is because it does not exist, when I talk about a place it is because it has vanished."

The film we watched in comparison was by artist Oliver Laric (who also does sculptural work). I strongly consider all of you to watch the film as it is online and you can watch it for free. You may get a bit distracted by the images and what you are looking at (and this film totally qualifies my utter disgust for Disney) so you should watch it a second time to listen to the text. It is also about the image but I think it is quite different than the Godard piece. The piece talks about the appropriation of images which is something that is discussed a ton in contemporary art. It is called "Versions" and it is the 2010 piece, not the 2009!

http://oliverlaric.com/vvversions.htm

As far as Saatchi goes, I had extremely high expectations and I was completely unimpressed. The space was beautiful, but the majority of the works in the show and in the collection were extremely poor choices. Some of the work was utter crap, and I have no idea why the gallery is so praised. Maybe if I had seen another show, or if I had other expectations I wouldn't have been so disappointed. Nothing more to say about that.

London, Days 9 & 10

Saturday

Today I did some adventuring again. I started out at a group exhibit called "The Minimal Gesture." The gallery was in Mayfair near the east side of Hyde park. The show was interesting, it featured one work each by ten different artists who work in sort of an abstract-expressionist/minimalist style. I found the exhibit to be well put together. My favorite work was by the artist Hans Hartung, the work is below.

Hans Hartung, "T1980-K5", 1980

After visiting the gallery I took a very long stroll through Hyde park. I started at the east end and walked alongside the Serpentine "lake" to Notting Hill. It was a lovely walk filled with geese and swans and lawn chairs that sway in the wind.

Once I arrived in Notting Hill, I walked to Portobello Road. Big mistake. It was so crowded with people that I was practically unhappy to be there. I bought a vintage spoon, a couple of pastries at The Hummingbird Bakery (slice of blueberry bread and a chocolate chocolate cupcake) and quickly exited. I ended up in the "clothing area" of Notting Hill and ate lunch with my would-be platonic sugar daddy (if I had caught his name) at Daylesford Organic. I also bought my dinner there, and my breakfast for the next morning.

I then took the train to a very different part of town, Lisson Grove. Once I arrived at the Edgware Road station I proceeded to become completely lost by walking in the incorrect direction.... three times. Finally I found the Lisson Gallery (which has two locations one block from one another) which is featuring works by Ai Weiwei! Both spaces had very interesting works, I want to share with you a few of them here.

Ai Weiwei, "Colored Vases", 2010

Ai Weiwei, "Divina Proportione (the open one)/Untitled (the two smaller ones)", 2010

Then I went back to Somerset house to see the interior attachments to the Ai Weiwei Zodiac Heads. There was a video that sort of talked about the work, and a few photographs. I'm not sure if it was worthwhile, but I guess I learned something more about the heads.

After that I was supremely exhausted and in dire need of a shower, so I returned home, only to get dressed and go out again to see The 39 Steps (a comedy), a play based on the Hitchcock film of the same name. The play was utterly hilarious and I had a wonderful time.

Sunday

Today I spent most of the days in the house or the backyard. I figured I had a pretty crazy first week and needed to do some unwinding activities before starting up again tomorrow.

I did three loads of laundry, and it all dried outside in the sun.

I went to two grocery stores and stocked up for the week.

I made beef and potato stew, a batch of meatballs and milk and honey pudding (a new dessert invention/experiment).

And now I am just waiting for the sun to mostly set so I can go to sleep and be ready for whatever tomorrow may bring!

London, Day #8

I didn't have class today, so instead I decided to be as adventurous as humanly possible.
I will write an exhibition review of the Miró exhibit at the Tate Modern in a following post, but I will just leave you with this list of places I visited, walked by, etc.


St. Paul's Cathedral
Millennium Bridge
Tate Modern
Globe Theatre
The Clink Prison Museum
Burroughs Market
The Remains of Winchester Palace
The Golden Hinde Galleon Ship
Southwark Cathedral
London Dungeon
Tower Bridge
British War Museum
Big Ben and the Houses of Parliment
Parliment Square
The Supreme Court Building
Westminster Abbey
New Scotland Yard
St. James's Park
Buckingham Palace
Trafalgar Square
The National Gallery/Portrait Gallery
Covent Garden
The Royal Opera House
Chinatown

Photos:

Here

and/or

Here

London, Day #7

Today was a bit more laid back. On Thursdays the class is split into two groups, so that it is easier to talk about writing about art. One group meets in the morning (10-11) and the other group meets in the afternoon (2:30-3:30). I am in the second group. In the middle of all of the seminar shindigs, we had two lectures by a professor from Goldsmith's College in London. She is from Germany originally, and she is extremely passionate about art.

Our lectures were on British art, which means either art that was made by people who were born in Britain, or art that was made by people who came to Britain (especially artists).

Some of the highlights included...

Stephen Willats who does some really cool chart/map-based pieces.


Julien Opie, who is most famous for doing the album art for the band Blur. Here is an earlier work by him.


Grayson Perry, quite the character, and also maker of these incredibly deep vases. The content deals a lot with feminism, domesticism, and also themes dealing with childhood trauma and rape.


Ian Davenport


Anya Gallacio

and Damien Hirst (of course)

After that we had our seminar. The seminar consisted of reading art exhibit reviews in magazines and then breaking them apart in a way in which we understood how they were written, and what are some things to consider when writing an exhibition review. We were then given a list of four galleries, one of which we should attend, and I think our next seminar will be about putting those writing tips into practice (Whether or not, I will most likely still write reviews for exhibitions I go to on the Mills Art History Society Blog).

In the evening I met up with an acquaintance of my parents. She is very kind and we had a wonderful time just sitting and talking. I had a couple of drinks and then went home! C'est fin!

If you want to see some of my own personal photos, you can check them out on facebook here. I think you can see the album even if we are not facebook friends. Also, I am doing an art project while I am here (or the start of one) in which I take photographs of my teddy bear (that I've had since I was born) in front of famous buildings, works of art, etc. and posting them online (but they will also be turned into another form of art). You can see those photos (later tomorrow as we are starting tomorrow) at her blog which is here.

Thanks for reading!