25th July 2015
Tate Modern -
The Cathedral of modern art. One of the places that we miss the most
since our relocation to the Isle... Time to go take a dip in the ocean of art!
Tate Modern is one of those places that always feels so familiar... months can pass, but on every new visit it feels like we've only been away for a moment. Today we enjoyed a double whammy... Two female artists who understood colour, who understood pattern and who certainly understood their art!
Sonia Delaunay was a key figure in the Parisian avant-garde and became the European doyenne of abstract art. Throughout the first half of the twentieth century, she celebrated the modern world of movement, technology and urban life, exploring new ideas about colour theory together with her husband Robert Delaunay. This is the first UK retrospective to assess the breadth of her vibrant artistic practice across a wide range of media. It features the groundbreaking paintings, textiles and clothes she made across a sixty-year career, as well as the results of her innovative collaborations with poets, choreographers and manufacturers, from Diaghilev to Liberty.
Agnes Martin is perhaps most recognised for her evocative paintings marked out in subtle pencil lines and pale colour washes. Although restrained, her style was underpinned by her deep conviction in the emotive and expressive power of art. She believed that spiritual inspiration and not intellect created great work. ‘Without awareness of beauty, innocence and happiness’ Martin wrote ‘one cannot make works of art’. Martin lived and worked in New York, becoming a key figure in the male-dominated fields of 1950s and 1960s abstraction. Then in 1967, just as her art was gaining acclaim, Martin abandoned the city and went in search of solitude and silence. For almost two years she travelled across the US and Canada before finally settling in New Mexico as Georgia O’Keeffe, Mark Rothko, DH Lawrence and Edward Hopper had done before her. Working within tightly prescribed limits she imposed on her own practice Martin was able to continue to make extraordinary, visionary paintings, for over three decades until her death in 2004.
Two great shows and very inspiring. These two certainly understood the power of good surface design and all the benifits that this practise can bring.
Tate Modern is one of those places that always feels so familiar... months can pass, but on every new visit it feels like we've only been away for a moment. Today we enjoyed a double whammy... Two female artists who understood colour, who understood pattern and who certainly understood their art!
Sonia Delaunay was a key figure in the Parisian avant-garde and became the European doyenne of abstract art. Throughout the first half of the twentieth century, she celebrated the modern world of movement, technology and urban life, exploring new ideas about colour theory together with her husband Robert Delaunay. This is the first UK retrospective to assess the breadth of her vibrant artistic practice across a wide range of media. It features the groundbreaking paintings, textiles and clothes she made across a sixty-year career, as well as the results of her innovative collaborations with poets, choreographers and manufacturers, from Diaghilev to Liberty.
Two great shows and very inspiring. These two certainly understood the power of good surface design and all the benifits that this practise can bring.
10 out of 10!
