Bacon and the Masters, Norwich (UEA)

Afraid this exhibition is now finished – I got to see it in its last week – so its a bit redundant now to review it.  However, I’m rather redundant myself, so here’s a few words.  First, I have to take issue with Jonathan Jones’ assessment in the Guardian; he thought the “Masters” (Matisse, Rembrandt, Velasquez, Van Gogh, Bernini et al), whose works Bacon used as  templates or providers of inspiration, actually made Bacon’s efforts look rather “silly”. His previous admiration for the British painter evaporated in the presence of the Masters.

There is no doubt that the Rembrandts are striking and the terracotta Bernini torsos staggeringly powerful, even though small; my feeling is, however, that Bacon’s work stands up well and does justice to those whose works he used – or rather, the photographs of them, since he famously avoided seeing the originals.

GALLERY

ARTISTS INCLUDE
Gillian Ayres, Robyn Denny, Barbara Hepworth, Howard Hodgkin, Peter Lanyon, Ben Nicholson, Victor Pasmore, Bridget Riley, William Scott

“In Britn, Abstraẋn wz nvr a sngl muvmnt, bt a dazlñ vrayti v stîlz bî ātists hu yzd nonfiğṛtv rpṛzentešn fr vri dfṛnt rīznz”

Picasso Posies by Mykel

Picasso Posies by Nitra

Picasso Posies by Dylan

Picasso Posies by Lila

Picasso Posies by André

The children started by looking at Pablo Picasso’s “Hands of Peace”. We talked about the bouquet and how the hands were holding the bunch at the bottom. Using a pencil they drew three circles with petals around two. They then painted in the flowers and stamped petals on one of them. Using the tray in the watercolor set, they mixed several different greens and painted the stems, leaves, and other greens in the bouquet.

On another day they were read “The Colors of Us” by Karen Katz. We compared all the beautiful shades of our skin, and then chose a piece of construction paper that came close to matching. They traced their hand two times, carefully cut them out, and glued them to their paper to show they are holding the…

Photography: Amy Elyse Stringer, London

A floating ascent, a drifting, a lifting and a releasing of the emotional ethers; something of this occurs within us perpetually. The inflation and deflation of mood balloons is a necessary concomitant to sensory contacts. Such balloons may be breathed into life by a trace of some abstracted thought, by a triggered memory, by a bodily sensation of pleasure or pain, by a taste, a scent, a sound. Or they can be inspired by the cyclical rhythms of our bodies, by lunar phases, or by a poignant anniversary perhaps. Many are the ways for a ballooning of our moods.

artwork: http://www.donegallizdoyle.com

And yet we identify some as ‘being moody’, or others perhaps as ‘coolly self-possessed’. This is to misunderstand the ubiquitous nature of moods and mental states generally, both of which engage ceaselessly in the conditioned and conditioning interplay of human sentience. The confusion comes…