Gallery Shows

John Lavery - The Tennis Party

Last week gave me an opportunity to have a couple of days in London and catch a couple of gallery shows before they ended later in January.

The first show was another chance to spend some time with one of my favourite groups of painters, the Glasgow Boys. Many of the paintings in the show are ones that I've seen in various gallery visits but not before all in the same place, so a real treat.

The Glasgow Boys were a group who challenged the conventional Academy wisdom of the day by taking up ideas deriving from French painters of the Barbizon School and Impressionists. In particular the method of painting en plein air became an important element in their approach. Linking this to an interest in more natural subject matter was the key to their methodology.

Some of these works are among my favourite pictures and I thoroughly enjoy the technique and subject material of some of their members, particularly James Guthrie.

James Guthrie - Hard at It

James Guthrie - A Hind's Daughter

James Guthrie - To Pastures New

James Guthrie - A Funeral Service in the Highlands

The second show that I chose to visit was the Tate Modern presentation of Paul Gauguin, Maker of Myth. A different set of paintings as Gauguin shifts away from naturalist interpretations and pushes our understanding of colour, form and perspective and marks a shift towards more modernist image making. There is no doubt that this has been an impressive exhibition but as I write it has just closed and sad to say opportunities like this do not occur very often.

Paul Gauguin - The Ancestors of Tehamana

Paul Gauguin - Nevermore O Tahiti

Paul Gauguin - Self Portrait

The curation of the Gauguin show was interesting in way that the rooms were laid out thematically. Titles such as Identity and Self Mythology, Fictions of Femininity and Making the Familiar Strange give a flavour of the thinking behind the organisation.

Exciting though these fabulous shows are do think that there needs to be some thought given by galleries as to how they organise access, in particular in terms of numbers of people. It's a real challenge to reconcile the need to balance the different considerations of allowing access to the maximum number of people, financial returns and comfortable viewing. One thought that came to mind whilst wandering the Gauguin was that there are different reasons for attending exhibitions from casual interest to serious study and that may be worth thinking about in terms of how one caters for those different needs. The reason I mention this is the fact that I came away from Tate Modern feeling that I'd not had the best of it having had to negotiate the huge crowd and finding it impossible to spend sufficient time in front of the works that caught my attention. However, it's better to have had the chance to see the show rather than not having been allowed to experience them at all.

More galleries

The last month or so has provided a little time to take advantage of Senior discounts on the rail system. First to Kelvingrove in Glasgow to view the Scottish Impressionism exhibition. Wonderful, instructive and best of all the time to browse the other exhibits and it is of them that I want to speak. On the ground floor as we wandered to the stairs to the feature exhibition I glanced through a door and was immediately drawn in. The two paintings below, along with a wealth of other wonders were displayed. I had my first introduction to the Glasgow Boys. Painters who bucked the trend in the UK who were early in embracing the revolution that was taking place across the Channel. The Scots were aware and appreciative of the shift that became known as Impressionism largely because they had gallery owners and collectors with the foresight to see the quality of the work being produced in France. Scottish painters were exposed to works from abroad, some of them travelled and many of them absorbed the ideas of composition, paint application, subject matter and technique. It was impossible to leave without spending a small fortune on books that cover the works of these masters.



Hard at It - James Guthrie


Old Willie - James Guthrie

Having travelled to Glasgow it seemed insulting not to grace Edinburgh with our custom and the following week we set out for the Scottish capital with the intention of visiting the National Gallery of Scotland. Another peach of a gallery but my focus rapidly narrowed to one room. There on the wall, 10ft x 8ft, was one of the most stunning pieces that you could see. Worth the trip on its own. Church, a member of the group of painters known as the Hudson Valley artists and whose only work exhibited in Europe is the picture below. It is almost as breathtaking as the sight of the Falls in the flesh. I was nothing short of mesmerised by it. Frantic searching for posters left me frustrated until I discovered a book that depicted many of the works of Church. There was no other move but buy it. Another search initiated, for the American Sublime.

Niagara from the American side - Edwin Church

Not to be outdone, we do have our own masters in the UK and it was a wonderful juxtaposition of images to have the Constable below on a wall alongside the Church. Another worth the journey by itself.

Dedham Vale - John Constable


Not so far afield, we have interesting galleries the North East and one of them, the Laing, has regular travelling exhibitions. The images below are from the recent touring exhibition of paintings by Stanley Spencer, an artist with a very distinctive vision of the world. All of these paintings include the artist himself and show very different views and times in his life. The outstanding brushwork and use of canvas in this exhibition is a real treat as is his rendition of the human face and form.

The Artist and his Wife - Stanley Spencer

Self Portrait - Stanley Spencer

Self Portrait - Stanley Spencer

Back to my own painting next time and a report on my latest session of tuition.