Turner vs Turner - worth the ticket?

At Tate Britain there are two exhibitions currently running, "Turner & The Masters" and "The Turner Prize 09". In the first Turner's work hangs next to that of the Masters with whom he compared himself; Rubens, Canaletto, Rembrandt and Titian, amongst others. And in the second, four of the most promising of Turner's artistic heirs of today lay out their stall as they compete for the eponymous Prize, whose stated aim is to "celebrate younger talent and focus attention on new developments in art". The winner is due to be announced on 7th December 2009.

The other week I had the opportunity to see both exhibitions back-to-back. I started with the first and it was fascinating to see how JMW Turner attempted to pitch his skills and talent against his idols, matching their achievements in scale, ambition, composition. Does he stand up by comparison? For me, he loses out in terms of his figurative work in comparison with the likes of Rembrandt and Titian. But when it comes to the exterior world of landscapes and seascapes he is a master every bit equal to Constable, Pousssin, and Canaletto. That he could compete is not for me in question. I just think that it must have been a dilution of his considerable energy and talent as a painter. Why not just concentrate on being JMW Turner?

By comparison the efforts of the Turner Prize contenders looked slight. Watching the videos of all artists talking about their work, one couldn't deny the sincerity or commitment of the four short-listed artists to their artistic endeavours. When the short-list was announced earlier in the year, Andrea Scheikler the curator, promised us "strongly material, seductive art ..... which the public will relate to easily". The reality, I suggest, falls way short. I think the public will be as bemused by the Turner Prize as ever.

So, by all means buy the double ticket and see both exhibitions for £15 but I'll be surprised if you'll need much more than 30 minutes for the "Turner Prize 09". Just make sure you've got at least a couple of hours to see and enjoy "Turner & The Masters". Now that is indeed strongly seductive art which the public certainly can relate to if the number of people in the exhibition when I was there is any sort of yardstick. I, like them I suspect, value craft, technical skill and ambition. Turner & The Masters had all that in spades.

For further information about both exhibitions see the Tate Britain web-site.

A Marriage of Form and Dance

I've just added a set of new images of my bronze sculpture, "Twisting Form", to my flickr site. These images show the work from different angles. In doing so they reveal the inspiration for the work. As a visitor to my flickr site has commented, they are "a real marriage of female and organic forms and dance" (sic).

I thought it was a most apt description of this piece which started off as an organic abstraction from the maquette for my figurative sculpture, "Primavera". "Twisting Form"then picked up some Latin American rythms as I worked, listening to CD's of Cuban Jazz.

See all seven in the set for yourself on flickr by clicking here .

La Bella Milanese - A Question of Attribution

The discovery of a major work, the first in over 100 years, by Leonardo da Vinci was presented last week at the Woodstock Literary Festival near Oxford. I had the good fortune to be one of the few lucky enough to have a ticket to hear Martin Kemp, the Oxford art historian and world's leading authority on Leonardo talk about this remarkable discovery.

Leonardo da Vinci has long been one of my heroes but his work really came alive for me when I stood just inches away from his drawings at an exhibition of his work at The Hayward Gallery in London, 20 years ago, in 1989. Martin Kemp recalled in that catalogue the many different techniques and media that Leonardo adopted during his long and fruitful career. But that did not include coloured chalk on vellum, the medium for this new, previously unknown work.

Thought until now to be a 19th century German work in the renaissance style, Martin Kemp presented the basis of his historical and scientific analysis to support his view that this portrait of a young Milanese woman is, in fact, a work of Leonardo. His findings are shortly to be published in a book, "La Bella Milanese", which I look forward to reading. The exhaustive researches which lead him to question and revise its attribution, should make for a fascinating read.

I have paid my own homage to Leonardo in my chalk pastel painting, "One Summer's Day", in which I attempted to capture the transient beauty of my own Bella Milanese as if on a worn and fading fresco. I don't make any claim to Leonardo's mastery of technique, composition or imagination but I continue to be inspired, 500 years after his death, by his vision and ambition.

JP at the Jazz

Back in June I promised to publish some more sketches done on my Apple iPod Touch using the Jackson Pollock App.

During the Marlborough Jazz Festival in July I did dozens of sketches in more traditional media; pencil and brush pen, trying to capture the energy of the musicians and the excitement of their performances. Based on these sketches I have now created a series of images drawn with my forefinger on the touch sensitive screen of my iPod using the JP App.

The Jackson Pollock App simulates the drip painting technique of the eponymous abstract expressionist painter. There is no "undo" function so you can't correct any mistakes. You have to respond to marks already made just as Jackson Pollock did in real life. This makes for quick, gestural drawings, which encourage you to work quickly to capture the moment.

The colour options I opted for, echo I think, the spirit of jazz and the buzz of live performance. You can see a selection of these iPod sketches by clicking on my flickr image library site and judge for yourselves.

Moleskine - Van Gogh, Picasso and me

So I am in legendary company, as the leaflet inside each Moleskine sketchbook reminds me.

Over the years I have used many sketch books, in all sizes and shapes. Given a choice, I have a preference for paper with a bit of "tooth" but in truth will draw in whatever comes to hand, just to get an idea or observation down. I have a collection of half-filled and empty sketchbooks in various formats which I choose from, like trying on different shirts before going out.

On a recent trip to Lyon in France, I opted, for the very first time to go for one of the Moleskines, in the format a bit narrower than A5, and slipped it into my bags with a couple of drawing pens and 4B pencils in my plastic Muji pencil case. On my way down the A6 autoroute I stopped for lunch in an "aire de repos", motorway services which are really just picnic areas with toilets. They can be quite picturesque settings with tables scattered in the shade of woodland trees, sometimes with stunning views and very tranquil - a welcome respite on the long drive down from Le Havre.

The one at Parc Thiery didn't disappoint. And it was there that I pulled out the Moleskine and start sketching. The paper is thick, very smooth and creamy coloured, almost yellowish. But best of all, I found that, because of the way the paper is sewn in, you can open the double page up and it will lie flat. So you can draw on a page 10 by 8 in. (260 by 205 in mm.). It was a busy stay in Lyon and I didn't get a chance to do as much drawing as I would have liked but I did get the chance to take advantage of the Moleskine's double-page spread while sketching a puppeteer in the Place du Change with an audience of bystanders watching on.

Whilst in Lyon I also came across Lyra Aquabrush pens which have two ends. One is a very fine drawing pen and the other behaves like a brush allowing you to vary the weight of the line and create very gestural marks. And they work great on the Moleskine sketch-book paper. On my return to the UK I found that they were readily available here too on the internet but I had never seen them before.

So when I decided to do some sketches of the performers at the Marlborough Jazz Festival in early July I took a couple of the Lyra brush pens with me alongside the 4B's. The jazz festival was very lively at most venues and it wasn't always the easiest environment to draw in but I found the Moleskine's hard cover allowed me to draw using the two page format even when standing jammed in a corner. I am particularly pleased with the use of the Lyra pens which I feel helped to capture the movement of the performers and the energy of the music. For me, the ones of the Dutch College Swing Band were particularly successful in capturing the enthusiasm of the musicians which belied their age and appearance. They wore grey pin-stripe suits, like bank managers, but with bright red ties!

I have posted some of the sketches from Moleskine Sketchbook 2009/1 and the ones of the Jazz Festival up on Flickr if you want to take a look. My Moleskine has definitely become my sketch book of choice when out and about and I plan to continue to add to my Flickr library from time to time. You can bookmark my photostream or sign up for the RSS feed on Flickr if you want to keep up with what I've been up to.

RA Summer Exhibition - an artist's view

The Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition runs until 16th August 2009. It's a bit like the FA Cup for the art world where the work of the "journeymen" of the art world can rub shoulders with that of UK and international stars like Damien Hirst, Sir Anthony Caro, Frank Stella and Cy Twombly.

And to pursue my footballing analogy a little further, the minnows are often blown away by the scale, ambition and sheer class of the Premiership players. But sometimes there are bravura performances by the lesser known participants whose work stands up well in this august company. So, here are my own personal selection of pieces which caught my eye, and I hope might catch yours on your own visit.

The first is 26 Enchanteresse by Allen Jones RA, the sculptor and painter. A half-life size bronze female figure standing on a stainless steel plinth, her body is painted to look as if she were wearing a green skin tight body suit. Very much in the style of his sensual mannekin figures, this sculpture greets you in Room I as you enter the exhibition.

There are two large woodcut prints by Katsutoshi Yuasa, 79 28 and 85 Echoes, which stood out for me in the Large Weston Room. Both are large in scale but have a delicate quality about them which give them the air of a faded photographic image, or memory. On the adjacent wall hang the etchings of academician, Norman Ackroyd; 112 Sybil Head - Co Kerry, 113 The Cliffs of Moher and 114 From Sutton Bank - Vale of York. His etchings always have a wonderfully moody quality about them.

The Small Weston Room defeated me as usual. Every square inch is covered virtually from floor to ceiling and my eyesight just isn't up to working out what is going on in these small paintings as I crane my neck heavenwards. Terribly popular with the public, looking for affordable purchases and able to put up the cramped viewing space, I lasted only a few minutes on a hot and humid June day. But during that time I did hover, perhaps predictably being a sculptor myself, over James Butler RA 's relief bronze 438 Portrait of a Girl Sitting in a Chair.

Very different to this traditional form and medium are two sculptures by Yoshimi Kihara, intriguingly made of folded newspaper; 680 Transmission .F in Room IV and 982 T. Circle in Room VII.

Room V offered a big, bold, dramatic, conte drawing by Jeanette Barnes, 753 Sheikh Zayed Road, Dubai, which buzzed with the energy and activity of the construction activity captured in the drawing. This room also contains my own choice for "best in show", the sculpture, 766 Deep Red Line by Jay Battle. A pure white, simple egg-like organic form in alabaster it is incised with geometric lines of red pigment, capturing my attention with it's originality and simplicity.

That leads into the Will Alsop curated Room VI, for the architecture exhibits. Will Alsop has had the room painted black to show the architectural models, amongst which he has also included some small sculptures, to best effect. A great innovation, my only complaint might be that some of the exhibits were exhibited too high to be seen properly and that there were perhaps just too many exhibits for the space. Highlights for me were: 780 L'Ex Monastero by Lidia Palumbi, 811 Embodied Contours by Ben Cowd and Tobias Klein, Renzo Piano's study model for the roof of California Academy of Sciences 842, Sir Nicholas Grimshaw's models for the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Centre in Troy New York 839 and 928 Remodulated Environment by Alexander Mills. All in all, I found this room to be the most stimulating and refreshing in the whole exhibition and well worth visiting for this alone.

Julian Opie had an interesting computer animation, 1073 View from my Kitchen Window in Room IX, which perhaps signals some possibilities in digital art but for my last two recommendations I return to more traditional media. The Lecture Room contains the well over life-size, disturbing sculpture in carved limewood by Michael Sandle RA, 1200 Iraq, The Sound of your Silence and an oil painting in the classical tradition of some engimatic monkish heads in white hoods all facing an unseen focus off, 1119 Silent Reflection, by George Underwood.

The Summer Exhibition offers something for everyone amongst its 1200+ exhibits and I am sure I missed some great work but I content myself with having having the opportunity to have seen the gems above. I hope you will be intrigued enough to seek them out on your own visit and I am sure you will find others.

Turner Prize 09 - one step forwards or...?

The most reported aspect regarding the shortlist for this year’s Turner Prize, was that not one of the four artists involved are video artists.

Curator and one of the judges, Andrea Scheikler, was reported in the Guardian last week as saying that he believed that there was a common thread this year amongst the artists on the shortlist in "an attention to the handmade and to craft; and a preoccupation with drawing."

Now I applaud the apparent recognition by the judges of the importance of drawing and craft skills of this year’s artists. I set great store by an artist’s ability to conceive an idea, develop that idea through drawing and be able to fully realise it solely by dint of their own efforts, whatever their chosen medium. Such work has, I believe, an integrity and purity, from intent to realisation, which the public can connect with.

However, it doesn’t in itself make for great art or indeed make that art more accessible by a public, which has come to regard the Turner Prize each year with a kind of weary bemusement. I hope Andrea Scheikler is right when he says "I think this is work that the public will be able to relate to very easily – this is strongly material, seductive art."

But I strongly suspect that the general public will regard some of the work by the four short-listed artists; Enrico David, Roger Hiorns, Lucy Skaer and Richard Wright, still as problematic and in places ‘difficult’. Whether they have something to say, and whether the public will relate, remains to be seen.

So for now, it is one step forward but the jury of public opinion is still out. The public must wait until 7th October, when the exhibition of short-listed work opens at Tate Britain.

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Image of Roger Hiorns's installation "Seizure" by Sacha Pohflepp under Creative Commons 2.0

"Primavera" - Spring is in the air

The first of this series of four sculptures, each representing a season of the year as a female torso morphing into a plant form, is also now available for 2009 in more affordable stone-composite as well as a limited edition bronze.

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Spring or "Primavera" is represented by a slim female torso emerging like a snowdrop from the depths of winter. The petals around her head open to reveal her face mask slowly taking form as do the protective arms around her upper torso.

The original for this sculpture was carved in dark grey Kilkenny Limestone from which the limited edition of only 6 bronzes was cast. This new version is cast solid in Jesmonite composite mixed with a blend of stone aggregates to give the look and feel of polished, buff-coloured limestone. Because all the work is done by myself in the studio I am able to ensure that the accuracy and finish of each cast is true to the carved stone original.

The contrast of textures, very much a signature aspect of my work, accentuates the sensuality of the smooth forms which are dramatised by the light.

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The sculpture, which stands 73 cm. tall, is available direct from my studio as one of a limited edition of 100, mounted on a round base of Jesmonite with a dark grey granite finish.

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The Prezzo restaurant chain has now installed one of this edition of Primavera, which they comissioned last year for one of their newest outlets in Camberley, Surrey.

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Both images © Gordon Aitcheson 2009

Jackson Pollock lives....

... again, at least on the Apple iPhone/iPod Touch. I've just downloaded the "Jackson Pollock" program or App as it is known in Apple land onto my iPod Touch and I am already very taken by its creative possibilities.

The program allows use to create your own drip paintings in true Jackson Pollock style using your finger(s) as brushes on the screen. If you dwell too long the paints pools and runs and you can create very gestural marks depending on the speed and weight of your touch as evidenced by this early attempt on your left. You can save your efforts as you go and continue to work over your work using a random palette or a selection of colour-keyed palettes.

It has been well received by the Apple iPhone/Ipod Touch community although some commments by users on the iStore web-site have requested an 'undo' facility. I think that runs rather counter to the whole philosophy behind Jackson Pollock's drip painting process. He couldn't lift the drips and splodges off his own canvases. He had to accept the marks he made and respond to them with more layers on top. So I hope that this is a suggestion which the program's creator, Milton Manetas, decides to reject.

I am still messing about with this brilliant program on my Ipod and hope to post some of my creations in the coming weeks.

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Image © Gordon Aitcheson 2009

At the Feet of the Master

When in London I often visit the top floor of the Royal Academy just to see the Taddei Tondo, a four feet diameter circular marble relief by Michelangelo, the only piece of his sculpture in the UK. Missed by many visitors to the temporary exhibitions at the RA it is beautifully lit in a recess at the end of the Sackler Wing, furthest from the lift. I feel so privileged to be able to study the sculpture at such close quarters and generally quite uninterrupted, save for the lost souls looking for somewhere where they can furtively use their mobile phones.

Like many of Michelangelo's works the Taddei Tondo is unfinished and the tool marks reveal much about how he was approaching the piece, a bit like being able to see the underdrawing of a great painting. You can see where he is still roughing out with the point, modelling the forms with the claw and then refining the forms of the finished passages as was his working method. I always come away reinvigorated, inspired by Michelangelo’s energy, ambition and craftmanship and return to my studio the next day, eager to pick up my tools and address the block of stone on the carving stand.

Image is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 License.