> ART TSUNAMI IN LONDON

London Town
3rd November 2017

Pre Venice Biennale, we hit the Mega-Galleries of London Town. Tate Modern and the Royal Academy get our full attention... Art overload, here we come!

First up, The Royal Academy. This is one of our favourite UK Galleries. The curation is always amazing. Slick and professional - every show tells a great story, and the team always manage to get their hands on the most unique pieces of work. Today we enjoy three shows in this wonderful venue.

> Dali / Duchamp An opportunity to take another look at two artistic giants: father of conceptual art Marcel Duchamp, and larger-than-life Surrealist Salvador Dalí. This is the first exhibition to throw light on their surprising relationship and its influence on the work of both artists.

A great show with amazing work from both artists. Really enjoyed standing in front of a few Dalí’s that we had never seen in the flesh before. On the surface, these two great 20th-century artists could hardly be more dissimilar, but Dalí and Duchamp maintained a lasting bond of friendship and mutual admiration throughout their careers. This theme shone brightly!

The exhibition brought together around 80 works, including some of Dalí’s most inspired and technically accomplished paintings and sculptures (including Aphrodisiac Telephone) , and Duchamp’s groundbreaking assemblages and readymades. It also showcasde the less familiar: photographs by Dalí, paintings by Duchamp, correspondence and collaborations between the two artists.


Marcel Duchamp with Gala and Salvador Dali in 1958

> Jasper Johns: ‘Something Resembling Truth’- This is the first comprehensive survey of the artist’s work to be held in the UK in 40 years. Comprising over 150 paintings, sculptures, drawings and prints, this show revealed the continuities and changes that have occurred over the past six decades and the curiosity and experimentation that Johns continues to apply to his current practise.

Widely known for his iconic images of flags, targets, numbers, maps and light bulbs, Jasper Johns has occupied a central position in American art since his first solo exhibition in New York in 1958. His treatment of iconography and appropriation of objects, symbols and words makes the familiar unfamiliar, achieving this through the distinctive, complex textures of his works. Through his ground-breaking paintings and sculptures, Johns established a decisive new direction in an art world that had previously been dominated by Abstract Expressionism.

This show was a complete education for us, a fascinating insight into the life work of a highly creative artist. Great show, every room was jam packed with a different pahse of creative output... epic!


 Jasper Johns, Target, 1961

Jasper Johns, Racing Thoughts, 1983


> Matisse in the studio - A sumptuous exhibition that offered a rare glimpse into the artist’s personal collection, as well as the paintings, sculptures and drawings it inspired. Seen together, they reveal how Matisse’s masterful vision of rich and masterful energy first stemmed from the collage of patterns and rhythms which he found in the world of objects. 

Really interesting to see how the studio space and its carefully curated collection of objects inspired this artists most vivid and enjoyable work... Matise drew his collection from the far corners of the world: Buddhist statuary from Thailand, Bamana figures from Mali, furniture and textiles from North Africa. Rarely of material value, these objects were nonetheless precious. Offering points of departure to which he could return again and again, they appear in his work in different guises and across spans of decades, reinvented afresh in each new setting.


Henri Matisse, Yellow Odalisque, 1937

Small painted table (guéridon), Algeria, 19th-early 20th century


Phew! As if that wasn't enough!... It's now time to move south of the river. Tate modern never disappoints. We re-energise with a quick snack break before experiencing more wonderful art.

> Ilya and Emilia Kabakov - Not everyone will be taken into the future - We enter the fantastical world of the Kabakovs in the first major UK museum exhibition dedicated to these pioneers of installation art. We LOVED this deep dive into the wonderful world of these two highly creative artists. Funny, tragic and very moving in places, this show kept us talking way beyond leaving the Tate.

The Kabakovs are amongst the most celebrated artists of their generation, widely known for their large-scale installations and use of fictional personas. Critiquing the conventions of art history and drawing upon the visual culture of the former Soviet Union – from dreary communal apartments to propaganda art and its highly optimistic depictions of Soviet life – their work addresses universal ideas of utopia and fantasy; hope and fear. Three major and rarely exhibited ‘total’ installations are presented together for the first time: The Man Who Flew into Space from His Apartment 1985, Labyrinth (My Mother’s Album) 1990 and Not Everyone Will Be Taken Into the Future 2001. Appearing as if they have been recently vacated, these uncanny environments draw spectators into the absurd and moving stories of these often fictional characters.

Coinciding with the centenary of the 1917 Russian Revolution, the exhibition Not Everyone Will Be Taken Into the Future explores the role of the artist in society in uncertain times.


Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, The Man Who Flew Into Space From His Apartment

Ilya and Emilia Kabakov: Not Everyone Will be Taken Into the Future






10 out of 10