All posts by Norma Smith

Therese Oulton. Surfaces not Underneaths. 2009.

Practice, The Arts, Uncategorized, , ,

 

Surfaces, not Underneaths. 2009.

 

I came across the work of Therese Oulton recently when looking for a post WW2 British female painter, she was born in 1953 in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, studied at St. Martin’s School of Art and the Royal College of Art having begun her studies as a student of anthropology. Oulton lives in London, she did spend a year in Vienna, in 1987 she was nominated for the Turner Prize. Oulton was not keen to join any group and I do not think she would want to be categorised as one of the YBAs, the young British painters, to quote her she wrote ‘I lead an extremely isolated existence.’ It is said that not many women choose to paint landscapes, perhaps not, although I like to paint landscapes, Oulton has been described as a ‘Neo-Expressionist’  known for her abstract work, also landscapes – in a fairly abstract way.

On discussing Surfaces, not Underneaths Germaine Greer writes, ‘Not many women use landscapes as subjects but for Oulton they are an inspiration and rescue painting from male domination’  she added   ‘Oulton makes us believe her reverence has extended to every single, irreplaceable pebble on the beach, she shows a familiar landscape, yet strange, the opposite of conceptual, as though she is shaking out the map of memory til it becomes a dynamic interweaving of sacred grass such as spinifex (an Australian grass) on rocks’ – an extract from an article in the Guardian in 2009, the method echoes the way Australian aborigine women paint.

This painting is painted with oils on aluminium I think, this means that the oil remains on the surface and is not absorbed as with canvas, colours are applied smoothly and can be blended, once the paint dries another coat can be laid on top. The final work will be lightly varnished to prevent scratching. We see the view from above, not directly above but as though we are gliding at an angle to the ground, as if ‘we hang in space’. It is easy to imagine the scene going beyond the frame as if into the far distance. I prefer large spaces, empty skies broken up with  white clouds and distant horizons, more than mountainous scenes although I also find them awe inspiring.  Standing on the shore line looking out to sea is one of my favourite occupations. Often I watch people on the beach, they seem to choose to walk along the edge of the solid ground within inches of the lapping waves.  I have stood at the foot of mountains near Delphi, in valleys in the beautiful Lake District and the highlands of Scotland but big skies that we can see in areas like Norfolk give me the most enjoyment. Flying along the shore line of north Devon with one of my sons in his microlite (winged  motor bike) was a thrill, looking down at the sea which looked like liquid mercury, rather similar to Therese Oulton’s depiction in this painting,

I wish I could see the work as an original because prints do not convey the depth of paint, the texture and the correct colouring, it is said that she uses a ‘delicate and virtuoso technique that amounts to contemplative practice’ her paintings are small in size but are crammed with detail. Much of her most recent work uses repeated motifs, rather like film strips, her work is widely collected, galleries in London exhibit her work, I would like to see them one day.

Information provided by wikipedia.

 

 

 

Ford Madox Brown 1821 – 1893.The Pretty Baa Lambs 1851.

Practice, The Arts, Uncategorized,

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Ford Madox Brown was born in Calais, he and his wife did not move to live in England until 1844, his wife died two years later. The painter became closely linked to The  Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood founded in London in 1848 by James Collinson, William Holman  Hunt, John Everett Millais and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, these artists were a well organised team who promoted their work in a journal they published named The Germ. Five years later the group disbanded and each artist went his own way, by then the group had expanded. Again we see how artists have found news means of expression, they rebelled against the art establishments like the Royal Academy and the public was shocked by their work when they depicted religious figures in every day occupations, Jesus in a carpenter’s workroom for example. They were described as the ‘first British avant garde’  in their case they looked back to earlier art, paintings executed before Raphael, their defiance was a catalyst for change, Ruskin, the art critic gave their work critical acclaim, they courted the nouveau riche who bought their work.

In Pretty Baa Lambs we have another work about motherhood but as the title suggests young animals are also part of the subject matter, Brown’s wife and daughter were his models, we can imagine the mother saying, ‘daughter, look at the pretty baa lambs’ as they gaze down, nearby a young woman gathers something from the grass, he may have dressed the figures in 18th.century clothes in order to hark back to a time before Industrialisation was in full swing, he must have known that Clapham Common, where the scene was mostly painted, would change beyond recognition. He worked in the open air before the Impressionists decided to do so, he also worked in his garden in nearby Stockwell. Using a restricted palette of mainly blue, white and green with an important flash of red, he records for us a memory of a scene reaching into the far distance stretching across fields, I like the big sky, the openness and space created. There is a wistfullness too I think, both his wives had babies who died young. His work often carried a moral message, with William Morris he founded the Hogarth club, he died in 1893 and was given a secular funeral, his second wife had died two years before.

Berthe Morisot 1841 – 1895. The Cradle 1872. French Impressionism.

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The Impressionist movement in art had its origins in Paris, it developed as a reaction against the growing popularity of photography, also artists were no longer content with the restricitions imposed on them by the Ecole des Beaux Arts, who rejected their work and refused to exhibit it, at first the title Impressionism was used to decry these impressionistic paintings, later becoming accepted as these paintings did in fact express impressions of the subject matter rather than exact representations. Painters wished to portray light and its changing qualities and movement with its unusual visual angles, their work was filled with light, shadows were created by the use of complementary colours, yellow laid against violet, red against green, blue against orange and so on. Working outdoors was recommended to capture the play of light, it was an art of immediacy and reflections, small brush strokes achieved this using unmixed colours easy by then to buy in tubes.

Berthe Morisot was the first lady of Impressionism, she first exhibited in the Salon de Refuse in 1864 set up by Napoleon 3 to show work rejected by the Academy. Painters in the movement like Cezanne, Degas and Monet used the studio of the photographer Nadar to show their work in the early days. Berthe and her sister Edma trained together, they visited the Louvre to study, for three years they studied with their tutor Guichard. The young women wore pracical clothes when working, skirts with no hoops and a blouse and jacket. Berthe was to marry Eduard Monet’s brother Eugene, they had a daughter Julia, it was a  happy marriage, her husband supported her wish to paint until his early death in 1892, I think that she was able to combine her work and being a wife and mother in a balanced middle way, managing her time well. Morisot became a popular artist selling three hundred and fifty paintings, she had a famous grandfather, the painter Jean Honore Fragonard who must have been an inspiration.

The Cradle is a portrait of Berthe’s sister Edma with her baby daughter, Blanch,  oils on canvas are used – Edma had given up painting when she married. We see a tender portrayal of motherhood which evokes for me that wonderful time when my children were babies, here the mother gazes at the child with tenderness, her bent arm is echoed by one of the baby’s arms, whose eyes are closed in sleep, the atmosphere is one of calm and quiet, for me this painting is full of meaning, it portrays the close link between mother and baby, we see fewer paintings with father and child, which has failed to note the changed role of male partners in their children’s lives. The basket is draped by a white curtain with golden yellow light flitting across it, being attached from a bracket above, producing a beautiful sweeping wave, no bright colour disturbs the peace, the light diffusing the white cradle is balanced by the mother’s dark dress and the black band around her neck and the background wall, covering a window a curtain is depicted as though it moves gently in a breeze with hints of blue sky. I remember the basket my daughters slept in, lined with pretty material, twin sons needed more space!

Berthe Morisot led a priviledged life, she knew many other artists, Corot was a good friend, she had no desire to be unconventional, her main  restrictions were her class and gender, a problem I did not have to consider when I studied, she painted the world around her avoiding urban scenes, her subjects were mostly the bourgoise, the clothes they wore and their surroundings, her friends and relatives. I particularly like a painting Morisot did of the area on her propertry where washing was hung out to dry, a down to earth image of everyday life. In addition to working with oils she used water colours and made many drawings, her first solo show was in 1892. This painting did not sell and remained in the family until the Louvre purchased it in 1930. Morisot died in 1895 soon after nursing her sick daughter Julia, who had pneumonia which she also contracted. Morisot is a popular painter still and her work is highly prized, luckily for most who wish to own one there are gclee prints to buy.

Pop Art Movement. David Hockney. A Bigger Splash 1967.

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The Pop art movement began in England in the 1950s, it spread to the USA in the 1960s, the era fizzled out in the early 1970s. The work produced was popular with the general public due to its strong visual impact and vibrant colour, the images gave instant meaning as the compositions were simple, the subject matter was more down to earth than the abstract expressionism of the 1950s which the public in general did not appreciate or understand, Abstract expressionism in post WW11 America – which also had been in Germany as early as 1946 – did not have wide public appreciation with its anti-figurative aesthetic found in schools like the Bauhaus and in Futurism, a sense of self denial pervaded the work so unlike Pop art. Pop art was seen as ‘a post war expression of a world totally occupied with the pursuit of materialism.’ The austerity of the war years was coming to an end, artists were making a commentary on contemporary society and culture, it attracted dozens of artists who joined the movement.
Pop artists believed that everything is inter-dependent and therefore sought to make those connections in their art work, did they succeeded in integrating society and its culture in the ‘swinging’ sixties? In addition it was a reaction against the status quo, in many ways its aims were similar to the earlier Dada movement which arose from Surrealism with artists like Magritte and Duchamp. Among British pop artists were Eduado Paolozzi, Patrick Caulfield, Peter Blake and David Hockney, their work was less kitschy, more romantic and nostalgic than that of the American artists, they formed the Independent Group. Some artists were making anti-art statements but most had a positive attitude and wished to create new forms of expression, which they did very successfully by taking images from Westerns, science fiction and comic books which the public enjoyed. Art critics were apt to scorn Pop art as having a ‘low brow focus’, it did shatter the divide between commercial arts and the fine arts, it had returned to representational visual communicaton, mass media printing techniques were employed to great effect in particular by Andy Warhol.

As an example of the work produced at this time I have chosen David Hockney’s ‘A Bigger Splash’ so named because it is a larger canvas than an earlier Splash painting, he used the newly invented acrylic paint having painted previously with oils such as in the painting with oils on board of ‘We 2 Boys Clinging Together’ inspired by a Walt Whitman poem. Hockney was living in California at the time where he was teaching and where he was to spend nearly thirty years on and off, it is one of a series of swimming pool paintings and is probably one of his best known works of the 1960s, painted in 1967. We see a flat realistic style, I think the inspiration for the pool was taken from a photograph, the geometric shapes are vertical and horizontal with the exception of the diagonals of the diving board, does it jar the balance, it would have been on purpose? I am reminded a little of Edward Hopper’s ‘Nighthawks’ with the building largely consisting of large plate glass windows. Hockney said in an interview I listened to, recorded at the Royal Academy, that the splash alone had taken him a week to paint with a fine brush, the sky is blue, the pool cool and shimmering, we cannot see the body of the swimmer who has dived deep into the water. The work gives the impression that there is not a thing worrying the painter, not a cloud is on the metaphorical horizon! In fact all was not well for part of the time, one of Hockney’s assistants died of a drug overdose in his studio and Hockney was upset when the relationship with the American artist Peter Schlesinger came to an end although they remained friends, Schlesinger was also one of Hockney’s favourite models. His painting keeps a calm outlook in spite of these setbacks, no extreme of emotion is presented, a middle way found?

David Hockney was born in Bradford, Yorkshire in 1937, he is still painting in 2014 with the same energy. He is a skilled draughtsman, print maker and stage designer, like his father Kenneth he is a conscientious objector, during his time spent doing National Service he was a medical orderly. He trained at the Bradford School of Art and the Royal Academy, he was somewhat of a rebel, he would not write an essay for his graduation on the grounds that his paintings alone should qualify him sufficiently to obtain a degree, the degree was refused at first but later the RCA relented and awarded him a diploma. He exhibited work alongside Peter Blake at the Young Contemporaries. As well as living in California he lived in Paris between 1973 and 1975, he returned to England then moved back to California where he rented a house in Nichol’s Canyon which he later purchased, he still owns property in the USA, also in London and in Yorkshire where he has lived recently, his work is inspired by the Yorkshire landscape. While in America he met other Pop artists such a Andy Warhol, from 1968 onwards he painted friends, relatives, his parents and lovers, he is openly gay, he continues to be constantly interested in the way human vision works. Hockney said ‘the power is with the images’ he is said to regret that conceptual art is now preferred over images and that photography is used more often, saying ‘a camera cannot see what a human can see.’ His views may have been adapted because recent work has been aided by Ipad technology.

Image from wikipedia.

Judith Leyster. 1609 – 1660. Self Portrait 1633.

Practice, The Arts,

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Judith Leyster was one of two women to be a member of the Haarlem Guild of St.Luke and the only women who became a Master Painter in the period known as the Dutch Golden Age, she was brought to my attention by Amanda Vickery in a television series called Women in Art. Women painters are far fewer in number than male painters and there are several reasons for this, often the question is posed ‘Why are there no great female painters’ I would like to put forward one or two theories of why this is so and ask if you have others. Firstly in the past young men joined art studios and art schools as apprentices, it was not considered fitting for  women to do so, students learnt the necessary skills over many years, while  most young women were expected to marry and raise a family, needlework such as making samplers or doing embroidery was acceptable and  being skilled at drawing botanical illustrations was a popular pursuit also amateur artists and young people from wealthy backgrounds were able to undertake lessons from a tutor at home. There were a few voices who commented on the place of women such as John Stuart Mill who wrote ‘ The subjection of women to me, being a universal custom, any departure from it quite naturally appears unnatural.’  And so we see artists traditionally trained in the studio system and it was male dominated,  gallery owners also denied women a space to exhibit.

Secondly, a popular view was that a ‘divine creator’ provided the creativity and imagination required in a literal way, I think many considered such inspiration to be a male phenomena, although there are exceptions such as reclusive nuns who often reached heights of the sublime. The artist who was a misfit or social outcast was also seen as special, these reasons may well have been a factor driving the person onward, if we study a Van Gough painting for example, we find an intensity, an energy. Thirdly, without doubt it is very difficult to combine being a mother who provides her children with emotional and physical security with being a dedicated painter or any art form, compromises will need to be made, a middle way sought. Women cannot be equal in all ways, physically is an example, we are not as strong and we bear the offspring, but what women would like is the freedom to make informed choices and we are fortunate to live in a society that is on the whole equal.  I do not know why Judith Leyster painted very little after the birth of their five children, she will have grieved for those who did not survive, perhaps it was a conscious decision or ill health may have been the cause, she died in her fifties.

Lastly there is this idea of the artist as being a  ‘genius’ but few men or women are born geniuses, I know I have been heard to say he/she is a genius when I mean someone extra talented, and there are child prodigies of course.  A certain kind of intelligent curiousity  is required,  it is usually an incremental process,  encouragement from the artist’s family may have an influence also there is a saying ‘it’s in the genes’referring to shared family traits, I do not know what truth there is in the statement, if artistic creativity surrounds the young person it may well leave an impression, some succeed in spite of opposition.

Judith Leyster was the eighth child in the family, her father was a brewer and cloth maker until he ventured into a coffee house business which made him bankrupt, Judith may have sold paintings to help the family finances, The family moved to Utrecht where Judith Leyster set up a studio in 1633 where she employed three male apprentices, unusual for the time, that is when this self portrait was painted, she married a painter, Jan Miense Molenier in 1636. Judith gave up painting after her children were born except for two known works, an illustration for a book about tulips, published in 1643 and a portrait in 1652. The painting above painted in 1633 ensured her reputation, she may have been a student of Hals, her work has certain qualities that he had but she was not an imitator of his work.  A self portrait is revealing, it gives identity as an artist, here we see her holding the paint brush, it is not set aside on a table, we see she is working, she paints in the Dutch tradition, she had no wish to be controversial, her head is turned away from the easle, her subjects were often musicians, she meets our gaze, it is a proud look, not provocative though, she is dressed in the fine clothes of the Dutch middle class to symbolically show us her social and economic status, – a painter would usually wear a smock,  her pose is informal, she is at ease, the arm holding the paint brush rests on the arm of the chair, she seems relaxed, confident.

The use of paint among professional artists is on the decline, that may change, many women and men with time on their hands paint for pleasure, it is not hard to find art classes  in many locations around the country for them to join.

 

The image is from Wikipedia Commons.