Painted Bacon

Art Gallery of NSW

I was in the zone. That magic moment when you are deep within the work in front of you. I hadn’t expected that of Bacon.  The Art Gallery of New South Wales luckily could fit the letters of his name nicely between the columns and I like that drama of a new exhibition. I love the crossing directly in front of the gallery and when I stepped out alone, no cars, no crowds and mounted the stairs I had that inkling it was to be wonderful.

Study from the Human Body after Muybridge 1988 Francis Bacon

I had done my homework: read a little, been to an Anthony Bond (director of International art  AGNSW) talk weeks before, downloaded an app and was ready to take what Francis Bacon could dish up.  Like Bacon when I first saw Muybridge’s work I felt compelled to work from his studies of the human form so going in, I wanted to see  that connection.

I had just been to the APT7 in Brisbane and coming down from that artphoria and I wasn’t prepared to be scooped up once more. This time it was good old-fashioned use of paint and there was something Fred Williams-like in large flat expanses of pure thin colour and small slashes of sculptured coloured marks, in Bacon’s case fleshy pinks and whitish greys. His influence on Whiteley was blindingly obvious and I too became absorbed. I felt his fascination with Muybridge and Russian film the The Battleship Potemkin. But it was in Triptych 1987 where his intense brilliant orange ground captured the intensity of Frederico Lorca’s words in “Lament for Ignazio Sanchez Mejias” a matador’s death that gave a clue to depth and passion of his work.

When the bull ring was covered with iodine at five in the afternoon

Death laid eggs in the wound at five in the afternoon

Untitled (dog) c1967 Francis Bacon

A great exhibition and one that I have definitely learnt from.  I feel the need to re-visit some of my earlier works on Muybridge and perhaps begin to introduce colour and scale and move on from the smaller studies of individual plates.

Plate 13 from Muybridge Studies

Spanish Poets, Bacon, Whisson and Me

I still can’t make up my mind if it’s the hippy mentality of “It all has to mean somethin’ man” or there is a quantifiable reason behind it.

Today Anthony Bond, curator of International Art talked about the upcoming Francis Bacon exhibition. Once again a link pops up – this time by the way of Frederica Lorca poetry.

Less than a week ago I was flicking through a book of Lorca’s poetry laid on a table in the Ken Whisson AS IF show.

 

 

 

So here it is, an elegy for a Spanish Bullfighter.

At Five in the Afternoon

At five in the afternoon.
It was exactly five in the afternoon.
A boy brought the white sheet
at five in the afternoon.
A frail of lime ready prepared
at five in the afternoon.
The rest was death, and death alone
at five in the afternoon.

And so the path continues, it was Whiteley led me to Bacon, Bacon led me to Muybridge and no doubt that path will cross others and meander back to the start.

Biennale Sydney Photos

Here are some shots from the Biennale. I visited 3 locations – Cockatoo Island, Art Gallery of New South Wales and Museum of Contemporary Art.

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Biennale Sydney: All Our Relations..at least you can pick your friends

Li Hongbo on Cockatoo Island

I was excited at the presentation of the new Sydney Biennale: All Our Relations. I blogged it. This last weekend I visited.

I think the verdict is still out for me. It’s a bit like Christmas, you get a hint of a present but when it’s unwrapped it was far better in your imagination.  Maybe I need to play with it a bit.

But that really isn’t fair, some works were amazing and exceptional and I love the hype and the discussion over works.

After a whirlwind of Cockatoo Island, Art Gallery of NSW and Museum Contemporary Art it was more like Christmas dinner, a lot to digest. Perhaps a post-visit nap is in order.

Later all our relations will go home and we’ll have fond memories of them.

Kevin Connor, a charcoal crush.

Kevin Connor’s work in the Wynne Prize at the Art Gallery of NSW reminded me of charcoal. Glimpses underneath his paint.

These charcoal sketches show the hullaballoo that is the Archibald Prize -the delivery of artwork, the parade of work in front of trustees, the hang.

On the train home, reading an article of his commission by Art & Australia to document the process of  the Archibald Prize, I was feeling the pangs of that first love affair with an artist. When you get that spark of connection.

It was however, his portrait of  sculptor Robert Klippel that I refer to as my “lightning bolt moment”. The realisation that space within a painting was paint itself, that drawing and paint were one and that drawing didn’t end when painting began.

From that moment in art school I read more on his work and found that the spark did not dull and his figurative works that had initially drawn me now led to his city-scapes in oil.

He has been an unending influence on my work. I noticed how in this early clumsy figurative study. I was already exploring space as a direct result from looking at his work (as per notes on the back).

His landscapes are just as fresh, they are quintessentially Australian in their use of light and space and his current work in the Wynne (as pictured in my blog I Am Not an Island)

His city scenes of Haymarket in ink are legendary but I love this oily early work,   Morning Near Taylor Square 1983. (from Paintings & Drawings AGNSW Catalogue 1947-1988)

Musicians Love Dogs & Writers Love Cats

Well that seems to be the inference in this article by Emily Temple that recently linked from one of my blogs about David Hockney. I’m a dog person so I think that means I can’t write (or perhaps shouldn’t).

This week my library pick up was wonderful Dogs in Australian Art by Steven Miller. Does it get any better – art and puppies in one book, and it’s not heavy! But wait it gets better. My favourite artist Noel McKenna has my breed of dog -SNAP! (here’s a work he did based on lost dog posters)

Tim Storrier brought his dog Smudge to share in his glory of the win at the  Archibald Prize at the Art Gallery NSW so I have decided to share the love and do another quiz – I know about time! This time it centres around doggies and artists.

Take a stab: How Much is that Doggie in the Window?

Roadtrip between the Old and New

Last weekend it was the new MCA on Sydney Harbour, all white and glittering, smick and slick.

This weekend was the National Gallery Canberra, all orange and autumnal, crackling underfoot, old and gold.

They are about  280 kms in difference but as they say, a world away, a pack of Jelly Belly Jellybeans, mandarins and a couple of Freakonomics podcasts.

I enjoyed the Renaissance, I was desperate to see Titian and Raphael but was more impressed with the early gothic painters and some of the lesser known. Of course Titians’ composition was important – Aida Tomescu had shared her passion of his structure that influences her work- the old meets the new. There was one small Titian painting and there would have to be more to make any sort of lasting impact on me.Fortunately composition can be studied in books and on-line but in the flesh it is so much more important about the quality of the paint.

This is why I felt drawn more towards the Gothic art, small tightly fascinating work, textural and smoothed, glistening and flat.  It’s the sort of art that has always held a fascination for me, perhaps it may be the flattened areas compositionally that has proven intriguing. I did reference this art in a previous work of mine for the Meroogal Womens Art Prize but I am also fascinated by the small Persian paintings that have the same appeal.

Once again the NGA had the drama of deep dark colours but that’s whole other freakonomic blog!

By the way thanks Artshub for the tickets that I won – almost as good as the years supply of Tim Tams I won a while back.

The Tuckson’s River Queen

Mudman of New Guinea

A houseboat, somewhat between Bogeys’ River Queen and a box-like punt was the home of Margaret and Tony Tuckson in the 60′s on an art gathering adventure up the Sepik River in New Guinea.

(Mudman of New Guinea Wikipedia)

Natalie Wilson began with a black and white photo taken circa 1965 of artist Tony Tuckson sketching natives in New Guinea. It gave me chills.  The one quality that I envy in artists is bravery. Not only huge bold sweeping gestural marks but bravery of spirit too. I was recently asked who was my mentor or hero. The one person who keeps creeping into my blog tags is Elisabeth Cummings. I’ve spoken before of her bravery in mark making but it is also that adventurous spirit I saw in the Tucksons on their journey into one of the least developed areas of the pacific.

Flicking through the works that have inspired me, it seemed obvious in his paintings that the influence of art on that trip had impacted on his own work.

No62 Four Uprights Red and Black 1965? from Collection Frank Watters (Catalogue Liverpool Street Gallery TUCKSON|TOMESCU 2009

Margaret Tuckson who was present, Bogey’s River Queen felt she had to say that Tony Tuckson had bought what he could for the gallery with the funds he was given despite the Rockafellers bidding at the same time.  Tony Tuckson not only purchased wonderful important pieces, he left us with his adventurous spirit in his artwork.

Tony Tuckson 1921-1973 From Reversals Philip Guston Tony Tuckson Catalogue Museum of Modern Art Heide 1994

Pricasso, Death & Taxes

A couple of weeks ago I went to the Picasso exhibition at AGNSW. I also witnessed the abilities of another artist – Pricasso who paints not with a brush but another tool.  I’ve blogged previously on Brush Envy but I’m afraid Pricasso despite his adaptability and bright pink cowboy hat wasn’t particularly a good artist and an embarrassment to the general artistic population of Australia.

Picasso however was truly amazing. I was impressed with how the exhibition came about from the Musee de Picasso and it was the direct result of death and taxes.   I guess Pricasso may leave us a collection of penis-painted portraits- we can only hope that he has never reproduced to leave an heir.  Thankfully Picasso died in France and we are able to see some of the best of his works. I will leave a collection of stiffened brushes, copious art books and ephemera and my humongous roll of bubble wrap.

Goodbye Mr Twombly

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were 2 artists when I went to New York that smacked me in the face.

They were Phillip Guston and Cy Twombly. Cy Twombly’s piece in the Art Gallery of New South Wales was controversial. Some hated it but I loved it and when I saw more of his work it only reinforced what I went there to look for.

Goodbye Mr Twombly. Thank you.

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/05/cy-twombly-idiosyncratic-painter-dies-at-83/

Image: From article NY Times

Cy Twombly’s “Bacchanalia: Fall (5 Days in November),” from 1977, was part of a show at the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London that placed Twombly paintings with works by Nicolas Poussin.