German Art in London

Pretentious Crap - Zhivago Duncan

Just been to London to see the German Art invasion of London - much more interesting than Christmas shopping. I started at the Saatchi Gallery with the Gesamtkunstwerk exhibition. Junk predominates as both material and metaphor. Many of these artists, especially those born in the 1970s, belong to what's been described as the post-po-mo generation.
 

Duncan’s work 9-foot-by-9-foot cubic vitrine containing a jagged mountain landscape of encircling train tracks, industrial cranes, and vintage airplanes flying overhead. Coming from a series of post-apocalyptic works shown last spring at Berlin’s Contemporary Fine Arts, the sculpture stemmed from the artist’s childhood dream of building a train set. “Being a child is being at the most perceptive and sincere stage in your life,” explains Duncan. “I am a child inside and will always be a child.” It is exactly that element of play that Williams sought to bring forth in the exhibition.

 I also liked the works from the Tobias twins, Gert and Uwe, who create bimorphs in bright colours (which are a cross between work by Klee or Miró) made from woodcuts on very large canvas. The show continues until 30th April so plenty of time to catch it.

Seascape (Sea-Sea) 1970 - Richter

After lunch it was off to the Tate for Gerhard Richter - Panorama. With work spanning 5 decades the exhibition was set to coincide with the artist's 80th birthday. Although I love his early squeegee abstracts in bright colours my favourite work was Seascape (Sea-Sea) 1970 (oil on canvas) based on a collage of two photographs of the sea, one inverted to appear as the sky. This is a super exhibition so get away from the sales in January and see it before it closes on the 8th January. Jackie Mackay

Weekend Gallery Visits

Rig: untitled; blocks - Polystyrene, fabric, timber, cement
Overall installed dimensions: 720 x 1190 x 1040 cm / 283 1/2 x 468 1/2 x 409 1/2 in

Another visit to London this time to see the work of Phyllida Barlow, at Hauser & Wirth.  Barlow is inspired by everyday objects of the city and in this exhibition she has created a group of works that brings the cacophony of the gallery’s external surroundings inside.

Off then to visit the Saatchi gallery and have lunch before going to Shoreditch, quite a contrast to Sloane Square, but buzzing with lots of small gallery’s and quirky shops. Well worth a visit to speak to artists there and get to know more about the art scene in London. Its great visiting well known gallery’s but equally inspiring to visit the lesser known spaces.

Rugby Art Gallery and Museum, have a very inspiring group show The 43 Uses of Drawing. From a doodle on the phone pad to a hastily drawing of a map and directions, the contemporary drawing practice looks at the work not only of fine artists but of those with no drawing experience.  I was impressed by a selection of drawings by a surgeon detailing the procedures of various operations he had performed. The exhibition on until 29 October and is well worth a visit, followed by coffee and cake at a quirky vegetarian coffee house  Summersault . Avril Elward

Jammers do the Saatchi

Folkert de Jong - The Dance

Today the jammers went to London and back for £2 on Chiltern Railways. We began our art jaunt at the Whitechapel Gallery where Cornelia Parker had made a selection of over 70 works from the Government Art Collection. The place is laid out like a rabbit warren and we had to ask twice in order to find the café.  It was an eclectic mix, grouped in colour ways, with my personal favourite being the very funny Print for a Politician by Grayson Perry – it showed civil servants being hung.

We were mesmerised on the tube journey over to the Saatchi Gallery by a man on his laptop concentrating so hard his tongue had taken on a life of its own. The exhibition here was The Shape of Things to Come – a selection of work from 20 international artists. It is playful, witty and colourful with the emphasis on the traditional sculptural concerns of form, expression and how we interpret the human body - great to see this as a move away from the piousness of some latter-day conceptual work. Coffee and critique (with much people watching) followed in the Duke of York Square, Kensington. Jackie Mackay