Art of the Week: Death of Marat

Jacques-Louis David, "The Death of Marat" (1793). Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium.
Click here for image URL

"The Death of Marat" is possibly one of the most influential paintings of the 18th Century, if not, History. Jacques-Louis David, a court painter for Napoleon, was influenced by the Classical art of the Romans and Greeks. This painting portrays the death of the Revolutionary Jean-Paul Marat, a member of the Committee of General Safety, who was assassinated by Charlotte Corday. Marat suffered from eczema, a skin condition that demanded he should bathe in oatmeal as a treatment - a place he sometimes worked from. The woman did not flee after his death; instead, she stayed by his side, waiting for someone to find them both. Two day later she was executed.

Though depicting a scene of murder, with a cut on Marat's torso, the painting has a contradictory calming mood through the use of cool earthy colours. David used elements of historically known figures, like Michelangelo's "Pietá". By comparing Marat to Jesus, the artist gives an aural quality to both the man and the painting, creating an environment of holy. Though a recent happening at the time of its making, this painting could be considered to have a historical connotation through its Neoclassical style. By using a sculptural positioning of the subject, he enhances the political views of the revolution in a whole: the repetition of grandiosity of the Roman Empire through its classical elements.

Edvard Munch, "The Death of Marat I" (1907).
Click here for image URL.

TJ Clark considered this painting to be the first modernist artwork, for "the way it took the stuff of politics as its material, and did not transmute it". Though a contradictory statement, this painting has influenced several artists to recreate this scene, and discuss its details. Edvard Munch, for example, has created a series of paintings depicting the subject of the revolutionary's death, though using his own understanding of the happening. He believed that even though Marat and Corday were enemies, the man surrendered to the desires of the female figure, who then stuck him. This painting in the other hand, is much more chaotic and intense than the one produced by David. 

Artagram: cintascotch

Instagrams of artists and people engaged in the arts that are worth checking out!

Javier Pérez, also known as cintascotch, is an amazing graphic designer and artist who creates images and movies out of random household objects and food recreating the function out of random objects. Check it out, and follow him!

Instagram: cintascotch

Website: javierperez.ws/

"Grape Balloon"

"Mini Violin"

"Pulmones de mandarina"

"Mosquito"

"La navaja suiza de MacGyver es un clip"

"Tanclip"

"Perfil de gancho"

On Tonight!

BBC Four at 22:00

Tracey Emin on Louise Bourgeois: Women without Secrets

This follows up on my last text: how women use their own history and experiences to understand their identity through art. Both Louise Bourgeois and Tracey Emin are women who defy their own internal conflicts through a visual expression.

Cassat, Schendel and Emin: Life and Art

Until the mid nineteenth century, the art world constituted mainly of men. Very few women are known to have gained recognition before then. In the end of the 1800's Mary Cassatt left the United States to go to France in search of artistic education.

Mary Cassatt, "Breakfast in Bed" (1897). Click here for image URL

Cassatt worked alongside with Degas, Manet and other Impressionist artists of the time. Though happily received in the group, she was still an outsider, given the fact she was a foreigner and a woman. The intense relationship she had with her Mother was also a factor in her difficult transition. She was mostly famous for painting portraits of Mother and Child.

"By developing her talent, she communicated her wish to be a mother, and expressed the need to find, if only on canvas, a more truly empathic mother."* Mary Cassatt expressed her personal feelings through the arts. Painting became a form of communicating her past and her desire for the present and future.

Mira Schendel was a Brazilian artist born in Zurich, who was raised a Catholic in Italy. Given her Jewish background, she fled from Nazis, moving from Italy, to Bulgaria, Austria and Sarajevo. It was not until 1949 where she decided to create a new life in São Paulo. She started her practice as an artist, becoming a distinguished figure in the Brazilian modernist movement.

Mira Schendel, "Graphic Object" (1967).
Mira Schendel Estate
Click here for image URL

Throughout her developing work, there is always a sense that she never found her identity. "With Mira, it was never a simple story".** She dwelled on the ideals of religion and language. Her conflicting cultural background is ever present in her works. The choice of materials, such as the partially see-through rice paper, reflect on the idea of a mid point of every aspect of her life. 

"The contradictory nature of her character (loving but argumentative); of her work (delicate but profound); and of her identity (European but Brazilian; Jewish but also Catholic, or atheist, or maybe all of the above)."***

Tracey Emin, "Sleep" (1996).
Click here for image URL

In present day, I believe Tracey Emin would be a comparable artist to both Schendel and Cassat. Her own life most clearly remain the biggest motif in her works. Her neon signs, her drawings, her installations are all records of her personal memories. She explores universal emotions through her own experiences, and blurs the partition between art and life.

"Using experiences from her own life, Tracey Emin often reveals painful situations with brutal honesty and poetic humour. The personal expands to the universal in the way Emin takes a feeling about her life and forms it into a genuine expression of a human emotion."****

Women subjected their own history to produce art. In many ways, they establish their views of society and the world by understanding themselves. Cassat, Schendel and Emin, use their works as a way to find an identity for themselves. 

*Zerbe KJ. "Mother and child. A psychobiographical portrait of Mary Cassatt". 1987. Abstract.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3112829

**Barson, Tania. Curator for the Tate Modern Exhibition, "Mira Schendel" (2013).

***Barnett, Laura. "Mira Schendel: the refugee from Nazi Europe who settled in São Paulo". 2013. The Guardian.

http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/sep/13/mira-schendel-tate-modern-profile

**** Saatchi Gallery. "Tracey Emin - Tracey Emin Exhibited at the Saatchi Gallery"
http://www.saatchigallery.com/artists/tracey_emin.htm

Art of the Week: Empire of Light

René Magritte, "Empire of Light (L'Empire des lumières)" (1953-54). Peggy Guggenheim Museum, Venice.
Click here for image URL

There is nothing visually spectacular about this painting, apart from the combination of night and day. The candy clouds give an unsettling aura, contrasting, yet enhancing the incomprehensible darkness below it. The surrealist setting of this "peacefully idyllic" scene in the other hand seems so natural that it is believed to be possible. Magritte plays with paradoxical combinations over and over in his paintings, from the pipe which isn't a pipe ("The Treachery of Images"), to the impossibility of a floating apple in front of a man's face ("Son of a Man").

I chose this image for two reasons, its been three years I have been confronted with it at the Peggy Guggenheim Museum in Venice. Every time I tried to look away, it called me back to it. Though a surrealist artist, there is timeless quality to his work which makes it enchanting until present time. Today, the 21st of November, Magritte would be celebrating his 115th birthday.

Happy Birthday, René Magritte.

Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster), by Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol, "Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster)" (1963)

$105.4 million. £65 million.

The record-breaking work was sold at the Sotheby's auction on the 13th of November, in New York City to an unidentified buyer.

Warhol has beaten his own record that night. A fantastic, yet scary happening to the art market. With that price going up, the values of the secondary market will inevitably rise, and auction house bidders should expect an increase in estimates too. But what makes this piece so special? After all, Warhol's highest sale until then was of $30 million.

Andy Warhol is a world wide known artist. In terms of fame, he could be put side by side with names like Picasso, Van Gogh, Michelangelo, and even Da Vinci. He revolutionised the arts by creating a range of visually accessible images - popular, everyday-life objects which turned into art. Then, he multiplied them, as if it were a religious act. He commercialised the arts, like nobody has ever done before. Warhol, of course, is a label in itself.

Tobias Meyer, Sotheby's Worldwide Head of Contemporary Art, mentions how "Silver Car Crash (Double Disaster)" is compared to a filmriss, a german expression meaning a tear on a film strip. When a film tears, the projector stops reading the images and the screen goes black. The same thing may happen in a traumatic event: images move around your head until everything goes blank. Blank.

The 2.43-metre tall and 4m (over 8x13ft) wide work has two panels: to the left a series of 15 images of a car crash, and to the right, a large silvery rectangle. It is an imposing work experts describe as trailblazing and a cinematic allusion to death on a silver screen. - Irish Examiner

This work has only been seen by the public once in the past 26 years, and is considered the most important from the "Disaster Series". Its size, year, series and uniqueness are additive factors to its value. There is still no identity to the buyer, but most certainly it will become the highlight of his collection. 

What's On: London Galleries

A monthly update of a selection of exhibitions in London galleries and museums.

Novermber | 2013

Commercial Galleries

"Model for a Mahogany Plug, Scale B" (1969), Claes Oldenburg. Re-view : Onnasch Collection.
Hauser & Wirth. Click here for image URL

- Peter Burke : Shadow Factory (20/11 to 21/12)
Andipa Gallery
162 Walton Street, SW3 2JL

- Felix Gonzalez-Torres | Damien Hirst : Candy (to 30/11)
Blain|Southern
4 Hannover Square, W1S 1BP

- Daido Moriyama : Silkscreens (07/11 - 20/12)
Hamiltons Gallery
13 Carlos Place, W1K 2EU

- Re-View : Onnasch Collection (to 14/12)
Hauser & Wirth
196a Piccadilly and 23 Saville Row

- Nostalgic for the Future (15/11 - 11/01/2014)
Lisson Gallery
29 Bell Street, NW1 5BY 1BP

- Power and Pleasure (05/11 - 05/01/2014)
London Gallery West
The Forum, School of Media, Arts & Design, University of Westminister, HA1 3TP

- Not So Original (to 11/01/2014)
Maddox Arts
52 Brook's Mews, W1K 4ED

- Bioptic (15/11 - 21/12)
Maria Senfors
Unit 10, 21 Wren Street, WC1X 0HF

- Sarah Raphael : Paintings and Works on Paper from the 1980's-2000 (06/11 to 30/11)
Marlborough Fine Art
6 Albemarie Street, W1S 4BY

- Mingei : Are You Here? (to 14/12)
Pace London, Soho
First Floor, 6-10 Lexington Street, W1F 0LB

- Wolfgang Tillmans (to 24/11)
Maureen Paley
21 Herald Street, E2 6JT

- Danh Vo (to 07/12)
Peer
97/99 Hoxton Street, N1 6QL

- Reflections from Damaged Life : An Exhibition on Psychedelia (to 15/12)
Raven Row
56 Artillery Lane, E1 7LS

- Richard Prince: Protest Paintings (to 20/12)
Skanderst Gallery

23 Old Bond Street, W1S 4PZ

Museums and Institutional Galleries

Pop Art Design, Barbican Art Gallery.
Click here for Image URL

Barbican Art Gallery & The Curve:
- Ayse Erkmen : Intervals (to 05/01/2014)
- Pop Art Design (to 09/02/2014)
Barbican Centre, EC2Y 8DS

Saatchi Gallery:

- Body Language (20/11 to 16/03/2014)

- Richard Wilson : 20:50 (Permanent)

Duke of York's HQ, King's Road, SW3 4RY

Serpentine Galleries:

- Jake and Dinos Chapman : Come and See (29/11 to 09/02/2014)
Serpentine Sackler Gallery, Kensington Gardens, W2 3XA
- Wael Shawky (29/11 to 09/02/2014)
Serpentine Gallery, Kensington Gardens, W2 3XA
- Fischli/Weiss : Rock on Top of Another Rock (to 06/03/2014) 
Outdoor, Kensington Gardens, W2 3XA

Tate Britain:

- Meet Tate Britain (from 19/11)
- Art Under Attack : Histories of British Iconoclasm (to 05/01/2014)
- Painting Now : Five Contemporary Artists (12/11 to 09/02/2014)
Millbank, SW1P 4RG

Tate Modern:

- Mira Schendel (to 19/01/2014)
- Paul Klee : Making Visible (to 09/03/2014
- Project Space : Tina Gverovic & Siniša Ilić (22/11 to 09/03/14)
Bankside, SE1 9TG

Victoria & Albert Museum:

- Club to Catwalk : London Fashion in the 1980's (to 16/02/2014)
- Pearls (to 19/01/2014)
- Tomorrow : Elmgreen & Dragset (to 02/01/2014)
- Masterpieces of Chinese Painting 700-1900 (to 19/01/2014)
Cromwell Road, SW7 2RL

Whitechapel Gallery:

- Sarah Lucas : SITUATION Absolute Beach Man Rumble (to 15/12)
- Supporting Artists : Acme's First Decade 1972-1982 (to 22/02/2014)
- Contemporary Art Society : Nothing Beautiful Unless Useful (to 01/12)
- Artists in Residence : Annette Krauss : Hidden Curriculum/In Search of the Missing Lesson (to 01/12)

77-82 Whitechapel High Street, E1 7QX

Art of the Week: Christ in the House of His Parents

Sir John Everett Millais, "Christ in the House of His Parents" (1849-50). Tate Britain.

"Christ in the House of His Parents" was painted in the mid 18th Century, by one of the most influential artists of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Based in the biblical story, Millais consciously tries to recreate a scene in a rather scandalous manner: a poor young red-headed Jesus, showing a cut on his left hand to his Mother, Mary. John the Baptist, enters the room through the right carrying a bowl of water to clean the cut on his cousin's hand. Joseph, the young boy's Father, stops his work to give attention to his son. The cut drips on the boy's foot, a way of foretelling his fate. This painting was a shock to the Victorian Society: Jesus and Mary with read hair? At that time, the choice of that hair colour would indicate the person was impure, and most likely related to prostitution. Apart from that, critics said Mary looked drunk, and claimed she was "...so hideous in her ugliness that ... she would stand out from the rest of the company as a Monster, in the vilest cabaret in France, or the lowest gin-shop in England." The painting was too realistic to be portraying the sacred family. Never in the history of art has Jesus been portrayed in a poor, human-like manner, despite the fact that he was born to a family of carpenters.

Charles Dickens described the child in this painting as a "wry-necked boy in a nightgown who seems to have received a poke playing in an adjacent gutter."

Millais' methods were also quite unusual. Everything is focussed: from the faces to the sawdust laying on the floor. This makes it seem that there is something not quite right, because of the way the human eye functions. Millais studied each form with extreme precision. He visited carpentries to understand not only the shape of the leftovers but to create the setting, appart from studying every model. With this, an image beyond perfection is produced.

"Christ in the House of His Parents" (Cristo na Casa de Seus Pais) é um quadro pintado por um dos mais influentes membros do movimento Pré-Rafaelita. Baseado na história bíblica, Millais re-cria com consciencia, um cenário de forma indignante: um pobre menino Jesus, com seus longos cabelos ruivos, mostrando à sua mãe, Maria, o corte que levou na mão. João Batista, seu primo, chega pela direita com um pote d'água para lavar-lhe o corte, e por tanto purificar algo que possa se infectar. Seu pai, um carpinteiro, tira a atenção do trabalho para da atenção ao filho. O corte na mão do menino, que por sua vez pinga no seu pé, tem como função prever seu futuro. Esse quadro, no entanto, foi um choque para a sociedade Vitoriana: Jesus e Maria, ambos de cabelos vermelhos? Na vida e principalmente no mundo das artes do século XIX ao escolher a o tom ruivo indicava que a pessoa era impura, em geral, símbolo para a prostituição. Além disso, foi-se dito que Maria aparentava ser uma bêbada debruçando sobre seu filho, e "era tão feia que mesmo no cabaret mais sujo e vulgar da França, ou em uma loja barata de gin na Inglaterra, seria considerada uma Monstra". O quadro era realista demais para estar se tratando de um assunto divino. Mesmo Jesus sendo filho de um carpinteiro, nunca na história da arte houve um quadro que desse tanta importância as origens da Família Sagrada.

"Um menino usando uma camisola, com um aspecto irônico, que parece ter levado uma cutucada em um beco estreito", criticou Charles Dickens.

Em termos técnicos, Millais criou uma cena improvável. Tudo está em foco: dos rostos à serragem no chão. Isso dá a impressão de que há algo de errado no quadro, pois simplesmente não é a maneira em que o olho humano funciona. Millais estudou as formas de cada aspecto com extrema precisão. Visitou carpintarias, e estudou precisamente as poses de cada modelo, criando uma imagem além da perfeição.

When Fashion Wants Art

"Fashion is the bastard child of capitalism and female vanity"
Valerie Steele (2003)

Fashion as a market came to its starting point with the change of the 19th to the 20th Century. Through the creation of arcades and especially department stores, the Parisian flâneurs* of the time had a place to observe and be observed, and mainly to inspire the airs of a modern city: a place where trends were constantly being set at every given opportunity.

At a time where only men and prostitutes could walk in the streets alone, the department stores took the role of being a safe environment for women of its time. A place where working class women could have a respectable job, and higher-class ladies could not only shop but mingle around and socialize. This made an even greater leap in the fashion market. Wives couldn't work as it indicated their husbands didn't earn as much to support them. To confirm this, men wanted their better halves to show off their power and wealth with the latest fashion.

Fashion was the only way women could communicate their ideals and make a statement. It is to this day, a way in which people can show their status, and include themselves in a category, yet it was still a mean to build up their own identities and authenticate their individualism.

"Fashion is a tension between individualism and conformity"
Georg Simmel (1820-1903)

Soon, London came up to speed with Paris, by building Selfridges with the same concept as the Au Bon Marché in Paris. There was always space for women in fashion but not so much for men: as men's clothing stayed the same, women's became more edgy and stylish as ever. With the arrival of the mid 20th Century, gay men found their spot in the luxurious and hip markets of fashion. Carnaby Street was set as the alternative, most in vogue shopping spot, opening its doors for lads and blokes who too wanted to innovate their styles.

The Fashion world, more than any other is entirely based on innovations, and recreating the new. For some time now, Fashion reaches out into the art world as means of promotions of their own products. Yayoi Kusama's shop window design for Louis Vuitton in 2012 is one of the several example to illustrate this point - it brings prestige to the brand as it reaches out for the people who study and admire art, making them identify themselves in a part of the fashion world. A prestigious artist like her
sells for millions, and it only adds up to the brand's name. In Kusama's case, it has even worked both ways - people who had little knowledge of her role in the arts became interested in her activities.

Louis Vuitton Store promoting their fashion line: "Infinitely Kusama". 5th Avenue Store, New York.
Click here for Image URL.

Artists use their productions to explore their personal views of life. Independent of subject matter, they will communicate a feeling, a way of seeing. Art enthusiasts, in the other hand, feel the need of exploring the artist's intentions. Whether placing art in its historical and social context or to the pure extent of appreciation of its visible sense, it has a way to permeate our minds. This too is a determining factor in the way a people perceive themselves.

To summarise the difference between the two, "fashion speaks to the body, the way art speaks the mind"**. Art is often seen as an intellectual material, where not necessarily one has to purchase to show their understanding, but rather study it in greater depth. To manifest fashion, it is implied that one must be seen in that certain standard - in other terms, you are bound to consume it. Both disciplines vary in the way its spectators approach it, nevertheless, they aim to fulfil a psychological need, and to demonstrate understanding of a topic that determines one's identity.

* Flâneurs is a term which describe wanderers of the streets. People who wanted to be seen in certain places but at the same time being a trendy outcast. Possibly the best known flâneurs are Charles Baudelaire and Walter Benjamin.

** Nathalie Khan, restating the idea posed by O. Knight.

This article was based on the lecture given by Nathalie Khan, at Central Saint Martins, on Fashion and Consummerism, and its discussions in class.

Art of the Week: The Girl with the Pearl Earring

Johannes Vermeer, "The Girl with the Pearl Earring" (1665).

Vermeer produced no more than 35 paintings (some say 28) during his whole life. For him, being an artist was much more of a pleasure than a job. Dutch painter knew the importance of light, and they clearly indicated where the light came from with the use of shadows and highlights. His work, especially this one, has a mysterious and curious aura which pulls the viewer in without complete understanding of what is actually happening. The painter keeps us out of the world he has created making us question: Who is this girl? What is she thinking? These are answers people are looking for since the creation of this masterpiece.

O Vermeer pintou nada mais que 35 (alguns dizem 28 ao todo) quadros durante a vida dele inteira, pois era mais uma atividade do que um trabalho para ele. Os pintores holandeses sabiam a importância da luz, e transmitiam no quadro da onde ela vinha. O trabalho dele, principalmente nesse quadro é misterioso e curioso nos atrai para dentro do quadro sem compreendermos o que está acontecendo - nos fechando fora do mundo criado pelo pintor. Quem é essa garota? O que ela está pensando? Em que mundo ela está que nós não conseguimos penetrar? É o que todos querem saber desde a conclusão da obra.

Art of the Week will be a short mention (though it's analysis might vary in length) of any artwork I have seen before. There will be a small complementary text to it and it may or may not include a Portuguese translation. Both texts are written by myself.

Tate Modern: My favourite London building

A picture of the Tate Modern from the Millenium Bridge, September 2013. by Gabriela Davies

Designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, built between 1947 and 1963, as an oil-fired power station, the building at the margin of the river Thames on Bankside has now become home to one of the most incredible museums of all history: Tate Modern.

                  In 1994, after an architecture competition, Herzog and De Meuron were announced the winners to reform the building which would become home for innumerable modern and contemporary masterpieces from all over the world. The company was announced winners after claiming “their respect for the original architecture, with subtle alterations rather than grand gestures, and the introduction of more light via the enormous roof light box, combined to create an interior both functional and modern” (“Archive Journeys: Tate History | Tate” 2013).

The building, after its opening in 2000 has most definitely gained attention of the public, having contradictory effects on its viewers. “The effect is ugly and intimidating, and one thinks of Auschwitz.” (Sewell) and “The hanging of the Tate Modern’s augmented collections is a nightmare of over-curating and is all the more oppressive for being exceedingly tasteful, intelligent, and inventive.” (Schjeldahl) both state critical views of the building.

Yet, in contradiction to these statements, the building makes a statement of “we were here” (Parker 2000) because it impacts for the passer-by and the admirers of the Southbank skyline. Since the 19^th Century, “London was too large to be dominated by any one style or standard” (Ackroyd 2000). I believe this city is one of the few in the world that can take in any style of personality. This is clearly translated through its design clearly emphasizing how Tate was planned: a combination of styles, which recycles a space to fit a different purpose.

A view from the 14th floor of a building in King's Cross - London Syline, October 2012. by Gabriela Davies

My first assignment at the Criticism, Communication and Curation course at Central Saint Martins.

Concluded on the 21st of October, 2013.

Bibliography:

JONES, Rennie. "AD Classics: The Tate Modern / Herzog & de Meuron | ArchDaily.” 2013. Newspaper Webpage. Arch Daily. September 17. http://www.archdaily.com/429700/ad-classics-the-tate-modern-herzog-and-de-meuron/.

SCHOENBERG, Lisa P. “Æ - The Tate Modern and the Future of the Art Museum.” 2013. Accessed October 15. http://www.uqtr.uquebec.ca/AE/Vol_9/nihil/shoen.htm.

“Archive Journeys: Tate History | The Buildings, Tate Modern, Building | Tate.” 2013. Accessed October 18. http://www2.tate.org.uk/archivejourneys/historyhtml/bld_mod_building.htm.

Herzog & De Meuron. 2013. “Archive Showcase | Herzog & De Meuron Proposal for Tate Modern.” Accessed October 15. http://www3.tate.org.uk/research/researchservices/archive/showcase/item.jsp?theme=1&subject=409&view=detail&parent=2137&item=2155.

“History of Tate | Tate.” 2013. Accessed October 15. http://www.tate.org.uk/about/who-we-are/history-of-tate#modern.

ACKROYD, Peter. 2000. “London: The Biography.” Book. 2013. Accessed October 19. http://moodle.arts.ac.uk/pluginfile.php?forcedownload=1&file=%2F%2F84593%2Fblock_quickmail%2Fattachment_log%2F3297%2FLondon.pdf.

PARKER, Alan Michael. 2000. “A Trip to the Tate Modern.” Internet Article, July 11. http://www.salon.com/2000/07/11/tate_modern/.