Cezanne – Tate Modern

Entrance to the exhibition

I had a midweek day off work last week and decided to visit several exhibitions. The first one I chose was Cezanne at the Tate Modern, which is coming to the end of its run.

Paul Cezanne (1839-1906) is one of the most respected artists of the late nineteenth century. He revolutionised painting, seeing it as a process of investigation. The exhibition contains several works which have rarely been seen outside of France. The first half looks at Cezanne in the context of his time, while the second half focuses on particular themes.

As a young adult, Cezanne’s father wanted him to pursue a career in law, but his school friend, the novelist Émile Zola, encouraged him to move to Paris and pursue art. He was befriended and mentored by fellow artist Camille Pissarro, whose influence is present in his early work. Cezanne lived through times of social and political upheaval: this can be seen in paintings such as The Conversation, which hint at his political views, and Scipio, which was possibly influenced by abolitionism.

Painting showing skulls and flowers

Cezanne preferred to paint models he knew well, such as his partner  Marie-Hortense Fiquet and their son Paul. However, he also painted many works of bathers, which influenced painters such as Matisse and Picasso. He worked on several landscapes, particularly during his stay on the south coast of France, and is also famous for his still lives, mostly featuring apples.

I must admit I struggled to engage with many of the paintings. I don’t find still lives particularly interesting and I wasn’t enamoured with the pictures of bathers. I could see the appeal in the landscapes, but my favourite works included the skulls that Cezanne painted towards the end of his life. There was also one particular work that seemed to show a murder, which had a strong compelling energy.

Cezanne painting showing two figures attacking another

I feel a bit guilty saying all of this as Cezanne is an acclaimed artist and I really don’t have the knowledge to be able to criticise his works properly. All I can do is comment from my own uneducated perspective, and I guess these works just aren’t really my thing.

Dora Maar – Tate Modern

Dora Maar exhibition poster

When I visited Tate Modern‘s Dora Maar exhibition I didn’t know it would be my last exhibition for a while, but with hindsight it was a good one to go out on. I confess I had never previously heard of Maar, but I ended up loving her work.

While Maar (1907-1997) had a long and illustrious career, she is barely remembered today, forgotten mainly thanks to her gender and also perhaps her relationship with Pablo Picasso, which overshadowed her. She helped to document his Guernica of 1937, in the period which most defined her – her works of Surrealism were celebrated at the time and these are the most remembered today. Her images from this period are striking and unique.

What I liked even more, however, were Maar’s realism-influenced photographs taken on the streets of Barcelona, Paris and London during the Great Depression of the 1930s. These really stood out to me, revealing the characters behind the faces, and making me want to know more about them. It doesn’t surprise me that Maar signed her name to many left-wing manifestos – an unusual guesture for a woman in that period, but one which seems natural in her obvious appreciation and admiration for ordinary people.

I’m so glad I got the chance to visit this unique exhibition before everything closed down – it’s one which will stick in my mind for many years.

Tate Modern

Tate Modern

I love visiting art galleries in the summer. They’re lovely and cool when it’s hot outside. I popped into the Tate Modern one Sunday afternoon before going to the Globe. I’ve been before, but these days I don’t normally visit except to see the odd special exhibition. I decided to take another look at the permanent collection.

Welcome to Tate Modern

Tate Britain had been running for several years when the Tate Trustees announced their intention to create a new gallery for international modern art in London. The former Bankside Power Station was chosen as the site and the gallery opened in 2000. Recently, an extension to the gallery was unveiled, the Blavatnik Building at the rear (the original building is known as the Boiler House).

Turbine Hall

I entered the gallery via the River Entrance and came upon the Turbine Hall. This is one of the most impressive and iconic parts of the museum, its vast space playing host to a variety of installations. It’s also a lovely place to be during hot weather, as it’s nice and cool.

Thames

I worked my way through the various rooms in the Boiler House. Frankly many of them reminded me of how much I tend to dislike modern art, but there were a few gems, such as Salvador Dali’s lobster phone, pictures by Henri Matisse and Walter Sickert and sculptures by Edgar Degas. Rooms focus on themes such as ‘Artist and Society’, ‘Materials and Objects’, and ‘New Acquisitions’.

Blavatnik Building

I made my way over to the other side in order to explore the new extension, known as the Blavatnik Building. This was impressive but best thing about it is the roof terrace which offers great views over London (and also, infamously, into neighbouring flats).

View from the Tate Modern extension

Truthfully, modern art isn’t really my thing, but if you are a fan then the Tate Modern is a great place to go. For everyone else, it’s still worth visiting for the views.

FACTS

Address: Bankside, London, SE1 9TG

Website: tate.org.uk/visit/tate-modern

Opening Hours: 10am-6pm Sun-Thurs, 10am-10pm Fri and Sat

Prices: Free (there is a charge for special exhibitions)

Malevich: Revolutionary of Russian Art – Tate Modern

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View of the Thames from the Tate Modern

On Saturday I attended a performance of Muse of Fire at the Globe. Afterwards I decided that, as I was right next to the Tate Modern, I would go in and see their new exhibition, Malevich: Revolutionary of Russian Art.

Kazimir Malevich (1879–1935) was an influential and radical artist whose work spanned one of the most eventful periods of Russian, and world, history. This retrospective examines his life’s work, which culminated in his most famous example of suprematism, the Black Square. I must admit I might not have seen the significance of this work, if I hadn’t discovered that it had been banned by the Soviet authorities. Anything deemed worthy of banning surely has some merit. In fact, when I actually saw the picture, I found it strangely compelling and unsettling, like a black tunnel, or a void. I could never have anticipated reacting like this to such a painting.

Suprematist work was, however, only one facet of Malevich’s work as an artist. Over the course of his life he explored landscape, religious painting and images of Russian workers, in both figurative and abstract styles. His range and versatility is clearly on show in this rich exhibition.

The exhibition runs until 26 October.

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View of the Thames from the Tate Modern

Matisse: The Cut-Outs – Tate Modern

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I got up early on Sunday to visit the Matisse: The Cut-Outs exhibition at Tate Modern. I’d booked my ticket in advance for the earliest possible time, hoping for a less crowded experience, but unfortunately it was still pretty busy. A worthwhile experience, though.

As the title suggests, the exhibition covers Matisse’s cut-outs, which he began to create towards the end of his life as ill health meant that he became unable to work and paint in his usual way. I think there’s something really inspiring about an artist driven to create by any means possible, overcoming obstacles to continue making work, and the cut-outs aren’t the childish simple pictures I’d wondered they might be. The images are deceptively simple and show how Matisse used colour and shapes in a creative and original way. My favourite pictures were the famous snail and the carnival images, especially the horse.

Paul Klee: Making Visible – Tate Modern

The EY exhibition at the Tate Modern is Paul Klee: Making Visible, until the 9th of March. I didn’t know a great deal about the artist, so took a chance and headed down to Bankside to check the exhibition out.

Klee is an important figure of 20th century art. His breakthrough came during the First World War, following which he taught at the Bauhaus before moving to Düsseldorf and subsequently being dismissed from his teaching position by the Nazis, who labelled his works ‘degenerate’. Though I’m not a particular fan of twentieth-century art, anything labelled negatively by the Nazis gains merit in my eyes!

Paul Klee, They
Paul Klee, They’re Biting, 1920 (Tate Modern)

Most of Klee’s works are very small; this came as a surprise to me as for some reason I always imagine modern works of art to be huge. I saw a lot of them as ‘cute’ – this might sound like an odd thing to say about art, but many of the works were warm, attractive, with a sense of humour – something drew me into them and made me interested. I particularly liked the fish pictures, and the related ‘They’re Biting’. I loved the way his later works seemed to comment on Nazism and contemporary culture, and his late works – such as ‘Walpurgis Night’ and images of witches – had a distinctly darker tone. Despite my initial misgivings, I really enjoyed the exhibition and admired the variety in Klee’s work.