Irish Museum of Modern Art Exhibitions

Last Friday I went to Dublin for a morning catching up with the shows at IMMA. I specifically wanted to see the Patrick Scott exhibition before it closed. It has happily been extended to June 22! In the main museum building there were a couple of other exhibitions which were interesting and thought provoking. 

Haroon Mirza's "Are Jee Bee?" filled a series of rooms with sound, video and sound-proofing sponges. The installation recalled club dance scene with it's thumping electronic rythm reverberating through the rooms and re-edited videos. The whole installation overlaid the previous Eileen Gray exhibition didactics which provided a historical layering.

In the other West Wing galleries, the large hallway and adjoining rooms provided lots of space for Sheela Gowda's "Open Eye Policy" retrospective exhibition. A lot of her installations use found objects, such as tarpaulins, oil drums, and dried cow patties.

The exhibition was extensive and also included smaller, intimate drawings and paintings, as well as manipulated photographs.

The Garden Galleries, the IMMA name for the coach house beside the main building, was the last stop before going home, but the main reason for making the trip into Dublin. Patrick Scott's "Image Space Light" exhibition is a major survey of his work from the 1940s to 1970s. The exhibition is set up so that the little hallways between the gallery rooms have display cases of archival ephemera, which are great to see in conjunction with the work.

Scott worked a lot on unprimed canvas, using thin tempera layers. He was adept at reconciling hard lines with soft ephemeral colouring.

His work was always elgant. Sadly, he passed away this past Feb, the day before this exhibition opened. He was a Saoi in Aosdana, the highest honour for an artist in Ireland, and has left an amazing legacy of work.

Fever Afterimages - Monoprints

Over the past few weeks in the studio (when I wasn't in the south of France) I have been experimenting with monoprints, working out some compositions for Fever Afterimages. Using Speedball water-soluble ink (black to keep it simple!) I started out using the smallest glass plate, 7.5 cm x 12.5 cm, and plastic tool to scrape away the lines from the ink.

Here is another sample:

I decided I didn't have enough space to play around, so moved on to the largest plate I have to hand, a piece of plexi-glass 13.5 cm x 21.5 cm.

Still using a plastic modelling tool to create the lines.

I decided to use a small eraser to create various lines:

I worked with the eraser to see what textures I could get:

Using an eraser to get some of the main lines, then I used a plastic modelling tool to draw lines on the back of the print as I was rubbing it with the wooden spoon:

A few nights ago I had an idea to use cut out bits of paper placed on the inked plate to create my compositions. I decided to use my medium sized plate for the following pieces, a glass piece 10 cm x 15 cm. I decided to use the more textured watercolour paper for these

 I have located 2 small pieces of prepped wood and acquired 3 small canvases so will soon start painting using colour!

Picasso Museum Antibes - Nicolas de Stael

While in Antibes recently, I returned again to the Picasso Museum in the Chateau Grimaldi. I think this is one of my favourite art galleries in the world: it is neither too big or too small; it is a beautiful building housing beautiful work; it has a sculpture terrace overlooking the Mediterranean; it is in the heart of old Antibes. I would say it is the heart of old Antibes!

This year there was an exhibition of recent acquisitions and an exhibition to complement the large Nicolas de Stael painting "Le Concert" which permanently occupies a wall in the gallery. I know I posted this picture a year ago, but I love it, so here it is again:

This gallery view gives an idea of the scale:

Nicolas de Stael was born in St. Petersburg in 1914 and died in Paris, a French citizen, in 1955. I like this photograph of him in his studio.

I remember seeing this painting at the exhibition in Antibes and like it for it's abstract simplicity.

I enjoy the simplified forms and colour of de Stael paintings, the two below as other examples.

Just Kids

Yesterday I finished reading Patti Smith's "Just Kids", her story (mostly) of the relationship between her and artist Robert Mapplethorpe and their early time together in New York. Smith's writing is beautiful and the love with which it is written is so pure. Of course, I was bawling my eyes out at the end, knowing the inevitable devastation at the death of Mapplethorpe.

I had the great fortune to see an exhibition of Mapplethorpe's flowers on my second trip to New York in 1981. I was obsessed with yellow tulips at the time myself and he photographed them beautifully. I love his photos of flowers. Here is Calla Lily from 1984:

And Poppy from 1988:

And a portrait of Patti Smith from 1986:

I am always interested in finding new things by Patti Smith -- she is a very generous artist (poet, painter, musician). Here she shares some advice for writers given to her by William Burroughs. And here she is performing a wonderful tribute to Virginia Woolf.

Before xmas I came across a review of and link to the film Patti Smith: Dream of Life by Steven Sebring in Brainpickings and finally had time to see the film which was ten years in the making. The review and film can be accessed here. It is a wonderful and insightful 2007 documentary which also includes older footage. A joy to watch.

Monoprints!

I have been working on some watercolour pencil sketches for the new work, Fever Afterimages, but have found it taking too long. I want a sense of immediacy! I did some test monoprints in three different sizes with acrylic paint, but again I felt dissatisfied. So over the past couple of days have been searching, both locally and over the internet for some water-soluble ink to do my monoprints with. Happily I found one jar of Speedball water soluble block printer's ink in the local school supply shop (the local art supply shop was mystified by my description of the product!). Out came my roller, wooden spoon, various papers, and plastic utensils for drawing into the ink once it is rolled on a glass plate. If I am happy with the results I will have a look for my linoblocks, get out the lino tools and do an edition. But first things first!

Classic Abstraction

As I am preparing new abstract work, my thoughts are revisiting classic abstract artists whose work had a great effect on the way I like to paint. I love this picture of Helen Frankenthaler in her studio. I have never had a large work space but have always made good use of the space I have!

A gorgeous, ethereal Frankenthaler painting.

Mark Rothko's paintings have always appealed to me. About 1980 I read Lee Seldes' 1979 book, The Legacy of Mark Rothko, and was convinced that Rothko's suicide was a set-up. Bad dealings of galleries and corporate greed made interesting reading but unfortunately it was a well-researched factual book, not a novel.

I have only gotten to experience the Rothko Room once, when it was still at Tate Britain (it was moved to Tate Modern but must be in storage as the paintings are never on display when I visit London!). I was lucky to have no one else around in the room and was seated on my own. The paintings seemed to hum and open a door into thoughtfulness.

I think it was in 1981 when, with several of art school graduates, I visited the Albright-Knox Gallery in Buffalo. There is a large collection of Clyfford Still paintings there which are huge. I remember being hugely impressed by their colour and size!

Abstraction was also happening in Canada in the same time frame as the New York school of classic abstract expressionism (1950s) and being in art school in Toronto I became familiar with Canadian content! I liked the work of Paul Emile Borduas.

There was a huge show in the Art Gallery of Ontario of Gershon Iskowitz in the early 1980s. Again I could not fail to be impressed by the size and colour of his paintings.

Jack Bush is probably the best known of the Canadian abstract artists.

Another American abstract artist whose work appeals to me is Robert Motherwell.

I love seeing work from Motherwell's Elegy series. I can imagine myself painting the paintings with large brushes, plenty of space, etc. A painting fantasy!

I probably saw the work of Richard Diebenkorn on visits to museums in New York in the early 80s.

It is the application of paint and working out of composition in his work that really appeals to me.

It is Diebenkorn's work which is echoing in my mind when I am thinking of my next paintings Fever Afterimages.

Fever Afterimages

Though I haven't quite finished with my "Moments" series (there is at least one more related painting that I want to do) -- I have had ideas for another group of monoprints and a painting percolating for the past year! With this in mind, I started preparing canvas. The painting will be a free-hanging piece, unstretched. I am making use of end pieces of canvas, I have sewn 5 pieces together and made hanging loops. I wanted to pre-soak the canvas, so here it is hanging outside to dry. I plan to apply texture in the form of newsprint glued on, though it will be completely covered by paint not as per Maritime Alps and Tree Kids where the paint was translucent. 

As is my usual practice, ideas for new work generally show up on my greeting cards first. These were all created in 2013 for various occasions. I haven't yet decided on the composition or colouration for the painting, but I expect to have it worked out with the help of the monoprints and drawings, which I am starting this week.

 I am titling this body of work "Fever Afterimages". For once I am not tentative about the title!