A tribute to the work of one of the fundamental figures of French Modernist painting
After three years in the making, the Amar Gallery is bringing to London Hélène de Beauvoir: The Woman Destroyed, a unique exhibition featuring paintings and works on paper from the 1950s to 1980s by this French artist, crucial to the feminist movement.
Often overshadowed in the past by her older sister, Simone – the groundbreaking feminist writer and partner of Nobel Prize-winning Jean-Paul Sartre – de Beauvoir is now a highly regarded figure in her own right.
At the painter’s first solo exhibition in Paris in 1936 at the Galerie Jacques Bonjean, her work acquired a very distinguished admirer indeed: Pablo Picasso. He was drawn to the exquisite use of colour and shape in Hélène’s compelling paintings. Picasso instantly saw that her swirling brushstrokes possessed an undeniably mesmeric quality.
From the left, Hélène de Beauvoir, Castle in Alsace (oil on canvas, circa 1960s); Nude with Horse (acrylic on canvas, 1965); and Visage dans un Miroir Brisé (oil on canvas, 1969).
Now we can see for ourselves what so appealed to Picasso at The Woman Destroyed, de Beauvoir’s first solo exhibition in London, at the Amar…
Despite being separated in time by nearly 200 years, Sigmar Polke felt a deep admiration for Francisco de Goya. The show at Museo del Prado, Sigmar Polke. Affinities Revealed, explores how the Spanish master influenced the work of the German painter, after he saw for the first time Goya’s Time and the Old Women in […]
It has been six years since we last had the chance to admire Murakami’s work in London. Japanese Art History à la Takashi Murakami presents an exceptional opportunity to explore the artist’s interpretation of Japanese historical paintings. Murakami’s work plays with blending commercial imagery, manga and of traditional art. In fact, he himself has several […]
The first exhibition of the American artist in the U.K.
Newport Street Gallery brings us the first exhibition of Wes Lang in the U.K. Wes Lang: The Black Paintings is a deeply moving, emotional show that lets the viewer take a glimpse into the world of the celebrated American artist.
Lang’s creativity draws from a wide range of sources, from childhood memories and ephemera he gathered and treasured as his “talismans” to icons and symbols from ancient philosophies and cultures. He is influenced by artists as diverse as Vuillard, Munnings, Bacon and Basquiat.
All these elements fuse in Lang’s art creating a dramatic universe full of playful steganography. At the centre of it all, is the wish of the artist to motivate audiences to lead fulfilling lives and to believe in themselves. The Black Paintings series in fact was created in reaction to what Lang calls “The prevailing narrative of negativity” in the world.
Left, Wes Lang, Ballad, 2023. Acrylic on linen. Right, Cloud, 2023. Acrylic on canvas.
Wes Lang: The Black Paintings features an extensive collection of works, all of them produced between 2022 and 2024. Like in a storybook, we found in this show a narrative thread that takes the viewer from one canvas to the next. The protagonists are often his signature skeletons, who he considers the heroes of the story, and who “are forced into scenarios where evil keeps popping up but never looks the same.” Through his work, Lang rejects the “Divisive Faces of Evil” in our society: money, political affiliation, commerce…
The Black Paintings show is organised so the viewers can let themselves be taken by Wes Lang onto a memorable journey of positive affirmation.
Room by room, the viewer feels increasingly hypnotised by Lang’s narrative and provocative style. Dark, sinister backgrounds alternate with lush landscapes in which the characters get increasingly together to identify and repudiate evil, regardless of the face it chooses to present.
It is here that we see the influence in Lang’s art of eastern spiritual philosophies to which his mother introduced him, mainly Tao Te Ching, the central Taoist text, and the lectures of the American spiritual guru, Ram Dass. At the end of viewing The Black Paintings, Lang says his intention is that we realise “that all this noise and all these divisive faces of evil that we’re told matter, don’t have to consume your mind and the way you feel about the world.”
The positive message in the series is underpinned by Lang’s deep belief that “we are born as vessels of love, and we are all just one gigantic soul that’s all interconnected. And so I set out to make this body of work show this belief.”
Author: Julia Pasarón
Wes Lang: The Black Paintings Newport Street Gallery 1 Newport St. London SE11 6AJ. More details, HERE.
Read our full interview with Wes Lang in our winter issue, available in our online store and quality newsagents in the UK. A shorter version is available HERE.
Alongside the shot at Newport Street Gallery, 96 works on paper by Wes Lang are on show at HENI Gallery (6-10 Lexington St. London W1F 0LE) until 22nd November 2024. More details, HERE.
Opening image: from Wes Lang, Global Resurrection, 2022. Acrylic on canvas. Image cropped from the original.
Textiles from sea to plate at the fish counter at London Design Festival
Brighton-based textile artist, Kate Jenkins – well known for her witty forays into knitting and crocheting depictions of food – brings her one-of-a-kind fish counter show, Fishy Business, to the London Design Festival at Soho’s Air Contemporary Gallery.
The artist spent months tirelessly knitting, crocheting, and stitching her knitted fish counter and oyster cart which was first presented in May as part of “The Vintage Supermarket” at Merchant & Found’s pop-up as part of London Craft Week. If you missed it then, this is your chance to grab a unique fishy treat.
Kate developed her love of knitting, embroidery and crochet from her mother and grandmother. Inspiration for her works comes from her travels around the world and the way food is presented, consumed and loved.
Artist Kate Jenkins at her studio in Brighton.
With a fashion background, a love of knitting, food and fun, and having studied fashion at the University of Brighton, Kate decided to start her own business 20 years ago. Her first solo show took place in London in 2008. She created an exhibition entitled Kate’s Cafe where she crocheted an entire greasy spoon, filled with fried breakfasts and plates of bangers and mash. Other solo exhibitions in places like Barcelona, Hong Kong, New York, Dublin and a highly acclaimed three-month show in Rijswijk Museum, Netherlands, brought her worldwide success and recognition. After the London Design Festival, her work will next be shown in December in New York, at Eerdman’s Gallery NYC. Visitors can expect a whole range of New York-inspired goods, including knitted bagels.
Clients include Chaos 69 x Chanel, Viking Cruises, Harper’s Bazaar, Prudential Insurance, Anthropologie and many private individuals – Jamie Oliver is a fan as are many global art collectors, who keep her book of commissions healthily fat. Kate already has another solo show scheduled at Air Contemporary Gallery in September 2025 and Yorkshire Sculpture Park has commissioned her for an installation in 2027.
At Kate Jenkins’s Fishy Business, visitors will find not only a full seafood counter but also small plates and delicate canapes.
At the opening of Fishy Business, the artist commented, “I was overwhelmed by the response to the Vintage Fish Counter during London Craft Week. Since then, we have been inundated with clients looking for bespoke artwork for their homes or commercial clients looking to make a statement. We have some very exciting launches in the pipeline. Each artwork is made with love, crafted by hand using cutting edge techniques and with sustainable yarn.”
At Fishy Business during London Design Festival, you can order directly from the counter either a range or individual pieces of hand-sequinned and knitted seafoods such as sea bream, anchovies, prawns squid in ink, embroidered oysters and mussels and much more…. and have it mounted on a choice of predesigned plate or platter cards – choose from a range including bone china and Le Creuset; each one signed and numbered, priced from £100. Customers can also buy new seafood-themed artworks at the exhibition which are framed and signed, starting at £5,000.
Grab yourself a fishy morsel!
Author: Linda Hunting
Kate Jenkins Fishy Business Air Contemporary Gallery, 4 Ham Yard Soho, W1D 7DT Open to the public from 20th September – 5th October @kjcardigan @aircontemporarygallery
Images courtesy of Byrne Communications @byrnecomms Opening image: Kate Jenkins, Vintage Fish Counter. “The Vintage Supermarket” at Merchant & Found’s pop up, London Craft week 2024.
The Female Perspective II exhibition at El Prado Museum follows on the success of the edition from 2022-23. With this original initiative, El Prado pays homage to the women who played a key role in building the museum’s stunning collection of art through an innovative approach: an itinerary around the museum that allowed visitors to discover the importance of these women as collectors and patrons within the context of other great artworks of the same time. The first edition covered the period between the end of the Middle Ages to the early 17th century. The Female Perspective II focus only on this century and in three key figures: Elizabeth of Bourbon, Mariana de Austria and Christina of Sweden.
Thanks to these women, El Prado Museum is home to outstanding paintings by masters like Dürer, Rubens, Titian and Velázquez, and sculptures of the relevance of The Muses. The show comprises 34 works of art, each located in its usual place within the permanent collection of the museum. There are four parts to this exhibition.
Patrons of the museum (1602-1700) present portraits of these women, revealing how much thought went into building these paintings to reflect, state and impose their power. It is here that we meet face-to-face with queens, regents and empresses, who controlled most of Europe.
The other sections bring us closer to Mariana de Austria, Elizabeth of Bourbon and Christina of Sweden, who, together with Elizabeth Claire Eugenia (daughter of King Philip II of Spain), were leading patrons of the arts and had a close relationship with El Prado Museum.
After the death of her husband, King Philip IV, Mariana de Austria reigned from 1665 to 1675 on behalf of her son, Charles II. Foreign, female and without political experience, she had to fight with tooth and nail to legitimise her position. Cleverly, she used art to forge the image she wanted to project to her opponents, to the people of Spain and to other European courts.
In the third section, we find Elizabeth of Bourbon, queen consort to King Philip IV of Spain, who commissioned the largest group of paintings of the time for the Tower of the Queen at the Alcázar of Madrid, which brought together some of the most respected masters of the time, such as Rubens, Brueghel the Elder and Snyders among others. It is also in this section where we can explore the artistic exchanges between three of the most fascinating women of the 17th century: Marie de’ Medici, Elizabeth Claire Eugenia and Elizabeth of Bourbon.
Last, the itinerary takes us to Queen Christina of Sweden, considered one of the most erudite women of the century and one of the greatest art collectors. She was also a bit of a rebel. She refused to marry, often dressed in men’s attire and converted to Catholicism. Eventually, she abdicated and moved to Rome. She sought support from Philip IV of Spain and lavished him with gifts, such as Dürer’s panels, Adam and Eve.
The Female Perspective II exhibition at El Prado Museum is an invitation to discover a group of fascinating and powerful women who not only played a fundamental role as international art patrons but also contributed significantly to the political stage of the 17th century.
Author: Julia Pasarón
The Female Perspective II El Prado Museum, Madrid 8th May – 8th September, 2024 Book your tickets HERE.
The British master’s perspective on climate change
The exhibition A World of Care: Turner and the Environment illustrates the environmental and social developments of the 19th century that changed Britain and the world’s climate forever through the art of J.M.W. Turner. It is the first time that his work has been displayed with such a theme in mind, where it becomes noticeable that his paintings are representations of the changes in the landscape and atmosphere, depicted in plumes of smoke, burning furnaces, urban sprawl, deforested landscapes, overfishing and extreme weather.
If you journey out of central London on one of the tributary railway lines that structured the south-west environs of the city in the later part of the 19th century, you will come across the relatively unknown station of St. Margrets. The area was – until the arrival of the locomotive – a rural backwater of the rapidly growing metropolis. The exhibition at Sandycombe Lodge, the artist’s former home near St. Margret’s station, is a study of Turner capturing the industrialisation of the world around him, and in the mix and myriads of colours of his creations, how countryside and meadows were consumed into the fire and smoke of machine-made progress.
Sandycombe Lodge, originally called Solus Lodge, was intended as a country retreat, and as a home for his father. Designed by the artist, with influence from his friend Sir John Soane, and built-in 1813, the artist lived there from 1814 until 1826 as a rural idyll. It is the only surviving building designed by Turner. The house is small and modest, beautifully restored, and a fitting reminder of what life was like for the artist during his rise to fame. The art that is on display is on loan from the Tate and various private collections.
It is telling that Sandycombe Lodge is now part of Greater London. What was once a scenic view from the back windows to the river Thames, is now a swathe of housing and offices, with the ability to watch planes on approach to Heathrow. Cleverly, superimposed on the back window of the house is an artist’s impression of what Turner would have seen, against what exists now.
The exhibition A World of Care: Turner and the Environment, is on the upper floor of the house, ordered around themes designed to illustrate how the artist depicted the early visible signs of environmental change. The first is “Pollution”, where the pictures are of the “murky veil” over the cities in England. The exhibition points out that in the 19th century, pollution was not necessarily seen as a negative, as it indicated prosperity. For Turner’s exhibition of London in 1809, he composed a poem that described how the landscape of the city had changed, the final line of which gives the current show its title: “Save where thy spires pierce the doubtful air, As gleams of hope amidst a world of care.”
Next comes “Industrialisation”. During the early 19th century, the cities grew at an accelerated rate, with people migrating to work at the newly established factories. Coupled with industrialisation are other themes, such as fossil fuels, deforestation, species loss, and global warming. The final theme, “Transport”, finds a constant depiction in Turner’s most famous paintings, from the arrival of the railway locomotive in Rain, Steam, Speed, where a train chases a hare out of the mist, to his most admired piece, The Fighting Temeraire in which the pride of the Royal Navy’s sailing fleet, essentially an environmentally friendly form of travel, was being hauled away for scrap by a small engine-driven tug boat, the very embodiment of the industrialisation around him.
As the world currently searches for conservation and carbon neutrality, A World of Care: Turner and the Environment, is a timely reminder of how two centuries after Turner observed the effects of man-made changes on the lives of people and the environment around him, the consequences affect us all to this day.
Author: Dr Andrew Hildreth
A World of Care: Turner and the Environment Sandycombe Lodge 40 Sandycoombe Road, Twickenham TW1 2LR
Opening times: From July 6th until October 27th, 2024. Wednesday to Sunday 12 pm to 4 pm (guided tours at 12:30 pm, 1:30 pm, and 2:30 pm only when a guide is available). Buy your tickets HERE.
Lift the profile of your home with this selection of exceptional books
Books enhance a house as much as they enhance our intellect. Whether they are stacked up on a coffee table, or tucked in perfect order on shelves, books are aesthetically beautiful, act as reminders of special memories and add a cultural sophistication vibe to any room. This selection of coffee table books range from wildlife to architectural projects that never materialised. I hope you’ll enjoy them.
Wild Horses by Alfie Bowen
Fascinated by wildlife from an early age, Alfie Bowen developed his love for photography in 2015, when he was given his first DSLR camera as a Christmas gift. It was a seminal moment in his life, as he realised that the camera could be the method of expressing himself that he had been yearning for all his childhood.
Bowen’s gift lies in his unique ability to capture the spirit of wildlife with mesmerising depth and maturity. Some say this “power” comes from his autism, which gives him a perception of the world very different to most of us. And although that may very well be one of the contributing factors, to me, he is simply very talented.
Wild Horses took Bowen two years of shooting. Looking for places in the British countryside where he could find free-roaming horses, he travelled across the country, from the rolling hills of Northern Wales all the way to the New Forest and Norfolk to mention but a few. In Bowen’s compelling images, one can feel the connection between subject and the photographer, and take a glimpse at the artist’s wonderful mind.
Wild Horses is published by ACC Art Books available from Awsome Books and Hive Books among other retailers. From £23.87
Ford Mustang – 60 Years by Donald Farr
From flesh horses to mechanical ones. Launched on 15th April 1964, the Ford Mustang was an immediate hit, selling a staggering 400,000 units in its first year.
Mustang is a symbol of young America, of the time in life when everything is possible and the world is an infinite expanse of wonder. Its iconic status has been reinforced by its appearances in cult films such as Bullitt and Diamonds are Forever among many others.
In Ford Mustang – 60 Years, author Donald Parr puts to excellent service his 40 years of knowledge and expertise about Mustangs. He brings us 60 stories that chronicle milestones in the history of this car, from the 1962 initial designs all the way to the creation of the 2005 Mustang and much more.
Ford Mustang – 60 Years is published by Motorbooks and available from retailers such as Awsome Books and WHSmith. From £28.38.
Passolini in Chiaroscuroby Guillaume de Sardes and Bartolomeo Pietromarchi
Created by Flammarion to accompany the exhibition running at the Nouveau Musée National de Monaco until 29th September, Passolini in Chiaroscuro explores the influences of classical painting that influenced the work of Pier Paolo Passolini, possibly one of the most enigmatic and charismatic film directors of the 20th century
Passolini was a very controversial figure. His predilection for “bad boys” and his unapologetic attitude towards the establishment and the social constraints prevalent in Italy in the 1950s and 1960s probably contributed to his brutal murder in 1975. His work was equally controversial, culminating in Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom, a hugely radical and political film that puts in evidence the consumerist society of his time.
His love of art permeated his entire body of work. Frames, lighting, shooting angles, composition, even backgrounds reference the masters, from Andrea Mantegna to Fernand Léger. Passolini’s use of “chiaroscuro” in films like Accattone, clearly recalls paintings by Caravaggio. Whether you are attending the exhibition in Monaco or not, this book is a unique opportunity to understand the mind of Pier Paolo Passolini and his legacy, which still infiltrates the work of many of the most charismatic artists of our day.
Passolini in Chiaroscuro is published by Flammarion and available to pre-order from Waterstones and Amazon among other retailers. From £24.45.
Atlas of Never Built Architecture by Sam Lubell and Greg Goldin
Any architect you may talk to will tell you – if they are honest – that their biggest frustration is the amazing projects they never got to realise. Atlas of Never BuiltArchitecture is an unusual opportunity to discover extraordinary architectural conceptions that for one reason or another, never came to be.
Organized geographically and spanning nearly 80 countries, this monumental homage to architectural ambition includes buildings of all kinds and purposes. In the pages of this book you’ll find museums, cemeteries, churches, bridges, skyscrapers, theme parks, casinos, government buildings, and even a floating theatre boat that resembles a UFO.
This unusual atlas though is not just about the buildings, but about the cities and societies where for which they were conceived. Its pages take the readers to the student protests of the 1960S in America and Western Europe to the crisis of 2008, which killed in the bud some amazing architectural projects such as the Copenhagen Gate, Gate L and Gate M, two intelligent structures at the entrance of the harbour, that used sun, wind and seawater to provide all the energy necessary for their full operability.
The book also includes unpublished prints, paintings, and etchings, preparatory sketches, and images that bring these alternate histories to life.
The Atlas of Never Built Architecture is published by Phaidon and available from Awsome Books and Amazon among other retailers. From £74.03.
Graphic Classics by Phaidon Editors
Dive into the world of graphic design from Buddhist texts printed in 1377 and Guttenberg’s Bible to the Black Lives Matter logo, The Times Roman typeface or the covers of Joy Division’s albums. Explore the work of designers across six continents and 600 years in a book that serves as a visual survey of this often undervalue form of art.
The book is organised by categories (advertising, logos, books, etc) and colour-coded, which makes very easy to find any specific entries.
Something about this book that I particularly like is the fact that the Phaidon editors have gone well beyond the line of duty to reflect as many voices and disciplines as possible. Unfortunately, the world of graphic design, like many others, has been traditionally dominated by white men. Graphic Classics breaks the mould by bringing 40 per cent of the entries from female or mixed male/female design teams, and 30 per cent from non-white artists.
Graphic Classics is available to pre-order from WHSmith and Amazon. It retails at £69.95.
Beautifully narrated by jewellery journalist Richa Goya Sikri, this collection of short stories is a truthful and emotional account of coloured gemstone mining in Africa since the 1960s. The stories have been compiled through personal interviews with the adventurous men and women who have shaped an industry that is now worth US$ 32.38 billion*.
Richa is a great storyteller and in this, her first book, she has devised a very clever plot. Although each story is independent from each other in No Stone Unturned, you’ll realise soon enough that many of them are connected by the people, the gemstones, the places and events surrounding this industry at the time.
Gemfields commissioned this book in 2020 for that very reason. Its CEO, Sean Gilbertson, explained to me, “The industry certainly has a rich past and it’s fair to say that it’s the people that make it so. We didn’t want to see these stories lost in the sands of time.”
Some stories will get you biting your nails, others will make you laugh and on occasion, your eyes may feel watery with emotion… or with contained laughter. For Gilbertson, the intention is clear, “I hope that the book goes some way to impart the sense of adventure, the thrill of the find and the raw passion that gemstone explorers have in order to do what they do. It makes each gemstone so special.”
I was particularly touched by the story of Campbell Bridges (“Grossular Green”), considered the father of tsavorite mining in Kenya and Tanzania, who was brutally murdered in August 2009. “Scorpions and Raiders” introduced me to Naushad, and “For a Good Life” to Joseph Mbiri, a Kenyan, who, through sheer determination and grit, made a name for himself in the mining business against all odds.
Other individuals that impressed me in the book include Julius Petsch, arguably the man responsible for the value of tourmalines today and Shiv Shankar Gupta, without whom the emerald business in Zambia wouldn’t be where it is now. Gupta appears again in “The Panidars of Kagem”, a story that narrates how Gemfields came to be. In his candid interview with Sikri, Gilberston shares how difficult it was to get the company off the ground and build it into the successful business it is today.
In fact, his first gems auction as CEO of Gemfields in 2008 was a bit of a disaster and so he describes it. When I asked him about it, he admitted he had felt utterly frustrated that “it hadn’t run smoothly – kicking myself for not having seen the hurdles that would need to be overcome in order to do so.” He brought in Ian Harebottle as CEO. His skill and expertise were critical to the company’s development.
Today, things are very different. Gilbertson tells me that “Gemfields auctions are attended by some 50-60 of the most highly regarded gemstone professionals in the world. The gems are sold in a fully transparent manner, and taxes are paid in full on the sale price, not on a value assigned at the point of export. This means that auctions held by Gemfields have returned millions of dollars to the gemstone’s place of origin, and for the first time, these countries are seeing the true value of their mineral resource.”
Gemfields leads the way when it comes to environmental and social responsibility, even if that means higher costs and continuous lobbying for full transparency in the industry. “We are keen to instil in the industry a “mine-of-origin” model rather than the prevailing “country-of-origin” model. I would also like to see more companies publishing their “G- Factor for Natural Resources” – a measure of the percentage of a company’s revenue that is paid to the host country – and demonstrating their commitment to responsible business practices.”
After reading No Stone Unturned, not only you’ll learn a lot about gems but next time you are admiring a piece of jewellery adorned with colourful stones on a window display, you are likely to feel a connection – I did.
No Stone Unturned is available on Amazon and Waterstones among other retailers
The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao presents possibly the most complete retrospective exhibition to date about Yoshitomo Nara, one of the most significant artists of his generation. His signature style depicting children with large faces and big eyes celebrates freedom and individualism, arousing empathy and affinity through art.
From the very beginning of his career, Yoshitomo Nara felt inspired by popular culture, especially music. This passion for rock and are palpable in his work, as it is his belief of infusing art with emotion. His drawings, paintings, sculptures, and installations, appeal to the viewer’s feelings so that in a certain way they will make the images they see their own. Beneath an appearance of spontaneity, his works are often the result of careful elaboration, often blending thematic and visual references from the artistic traditions of both East and West.
The artist’s singular universe is populated by recurrent figures, animals and motifs, which speak of his relationship with concepts that are a constant throughout his career: childhood, home, nature, community, music… By sharing with the viewer, Yoshitomo Nara is inviting us to reflect as adults on the challenges of life and society today, from the perspective of our own experience.
This exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao includes a broad selection of paintings, drawings, sculptures, and installations made over the course of the last four decades—1984 to 2024—reflecting Yoshimoto Nara’s empathetic response to the people and places he has encountered over the years.
From his childhood memories to his favourite music growing up, his early trip to Europe as a student in 1980 where he discovered western art – from medieval iconography to the masters of Expressionism – and his move to Germany in 1987 to study at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, the show explores all the influences that have shaped Nara’s stylistic development. Of his travels, Nara said, “After leaving Japan, I realized that seeing things from Mount Fuji is completely different from seeing things from Mount Everest.”
The show also helps visitors understand how deeply-rooted music is in Nara’s work. As a child, he’d listen to folk songs by American singer-songwriters such as Bob Dylan, with their dissenting, anti-war message and support for the civil rights movement; the introspective, melancholic sounds of the blues; and grassroots folk music coming out of England and Ireland. With no understanding of the foreign-language lyrics, Nara absorbed the sounds on a sensory level. Combined with what he intuited from the album cover images, he understood the music on his own term, through emotion. Later, punk and new wave became a source of inspiration for the artist. Through music, Nara connected with a respect for humanity, community, and a sense of freedom.
This unprecedented retrospective exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao reveals and explores the intriguing world of Yoshitomo Nara. It takes visitors on a journey through his evolving creativity from the origins of his ideas as well as providing a window into his social commitment.
Yoshitomo Nara Guggenheim Museum Bilbao 28th June – 3rd November 2024 Sponsored by the BBVA Foundation More information and tickets HERE.
Lovers of all things related to modernism will be delighted with Tropical Modernism: Architecture and Independence, the new exhibition at the V&A showcasing the history and development of this architectural style symbolic of the independence and progressiveness of countries such as India and Ghana. The show looks at the colonial origins of Tropical Modernism in British West Africa, and the evolution of the style in the post-colonial period, when it represented both surviving and becoming something new in the process.
This radical, progressive movement symbolised the utopian possibility of the transitional moment in which a break with the past colonial styles was articulated through architecture. Concrete, steel and large expanses of glass were used in creating buildings distinguished by clean lines, unornamented facades and flat roofs. Tropical Modernism created new freedoms from earlier disciplines of building and design, rethinking and using revolutionary architecture that placed functionality at the heart of its design.
Mostly applied to large public and social projects such as universities, schools and assembly halls, the architectural style sought to cynically offset the cause for independence, showcasing a new modern colonialism that stimulated trade with Britian, and created a new modern colonial subject, better able to produce goods for market and to buy them from Europe.
Film still of Scott House, Accra, by Kenneth Scott for Tropical Modernism: Architecture and Independence.
Despite Modernism and minimalism styles being unpopular and said to be too severe for British tastes, it was a couple of British architects – Jane Drew and Maxwell Fry – who are considered the founders of Tropical Modernism in the 1940s. Fry had collaborated with the founder of Bauhaus, Walter Gropius, during his two-year stay in Britain and would work with Le Corbusier in designing the new city of Chandigarh, in India, in 1950.
It was in Africa that Drew and Fry spent most of their careers. Fry had remained in West Africa as town planner to the British colonies after the war which gave the couple the perfect opportunity for developing the tools of Tropical Modernism, adapting a modernist aesthetic that valued function over ornament to the hot, humid conditions of the region, providing a playground for British architects that offered opportunities and commissions not available back home.
From the left: Boy and concrete screen at University College Ibadan, 1962; and library veranda at University College, Ibadan. Both courtesy of RIBA.
Britain’s unique contribution to International Modernism was a colonial architecture developed against the background of anti-colonial struggle. In 1954, Fry and Drew helped to establish the Department of Tropical Modernism at the Architectural Association in London. Here they taught European architects to work in the colonies and later, a generation of post-colonial architects. Their philosophy was that by applying environmental and building science grounded in research from field officers both in Britain and West Africa, as well as modern technology, Tropical Modernism was superior to vernacular buildings from which there was little to learn.
Following independence in 1947, Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and later in 1957 Ghanaian prime minister Kwame Nkrumah (known as the freedom fighters and the first Prime Ministers of India and Ghana) commissioned major projects in this style, using Tropical Modernism as a tool for nation-building and as a symbol of their internationalism and progressiveness to the rest of the world. A new generation of national architects deploying the tropical modern style and more sensitive to local context gave birth to distinctive alternative forms of modernism.
The essential language of Tropical Modernism was that of climate control; the use of screens to mitigate the harsh sunlight and allow the breeze in, adjustable louvers, wide eaves and the distinctive breeze soleil, often with references to distinctive West African motifs on the facades. Schools, universities and conference centres were designed to create a modernist impression of what these buildings should be in a tropical environment.
Installation shot featuring Jane Drew and Maxwell Fry as well as archival ephemera documenting the period.
The show insightfully includes models, drawings, letters, photographs, and archival ephemera documenting the key figures and moments of the Tropical Modernist movement, as well as a wonderful half hour film installation displayed on three screens. Visitors have the opportunity to not only discover architectural history but also the wider role of modernism in narratives about decolonisation and the construction of a national identity.
Christopher Turner, the V&A’s Keeper of Art, Architecture, Photography & Design and Curator of the exhibition, said: “The story of Tropical Modernism is one of colonialism and decolonization, politics and power, defiance and independence; it is not just about the past, but also about the present and the future.”
As we look to a new future in an era of climate change, Tropical Modernism, which used the latest building and environmental science available at the time to passively cool buildings, a climate responsive science, may serve as a useful guide for the future.
Tropical Modernism: Architecture and Independence Until 22 September 2024 Porter Gallery, V&A South Kensington Cromwell Road. London, SW7 2RL Further information and tickets, HERE.
The show is accompanied by the book, Tropical Modernism: Architecture and Independence by Christopher Turner, V&A Publishing available in July. RRP £30.
Although best known for her romantic relationship with Picasso and for being the subject of several of his paintings, Dora Maar was an artist in her own right, particularly gifted at photography. This summer, The Amar Gallery Fitzrovia presents Dora Maar: Behind the Lens, an exhibition celebrating her life, in conjunction with the release of Louisa Treger’s book, The Paris Muse, and the theatrical production Maar, Dora which is performing at Camden Fringe in August.
Dora Maar (1907-1997) was a poet, a painter and a photographer. Masters of the medium, such as Henri Cartier-Bresson and Man Ray, had a deep respect for her work and felt she was greatly overshadowed by the global fame of her lover.
The show at The Amar Gallery celebrates Maar’s life and gives visitors the chance to discover exclusive surreal works from the Dora Maar Estate, as well as photographs of Picasso and Guernica, where she was the only official photographer.
From the left, Dora Maar’s La Sagrada Familia – Barcelona (c. 1933), gelatin silver print (edition of 5); Abstract Compositions (c. 1980), unique photogram; and Abstract Compositions Virgin and Crucifix, (c. 1980), unique photogram. Images courtesy of the Dora Maar Estate.
Dora arrived in Paris at the age of 19 and studied at the progressive École des Beaux-Arts, Academy Julian, and École de Photographie. Her distinctive style in black and white helped her establish herself as a prominent photographer. During the 1930s, her provocative photomontages became icons of the surrealist. At the 1936 International Surrealist Exhibition in London, her work was displayed alongside Salvador Dali, Man Ray, Eileen Agar, and Paul Eluard.
In Europe’s increasingly fraught political climate, Maar signed her name to numerous left-wing manifestos, a radical gesture for a woman at that time and one that identified her clearly as a detractor of fascism.
Picasso’s Guernica (1937) is considered by many as the most moving and powerful anti-war painting in history. The artist painted it in response to the bombing of Guernica, a town in the Spanish Basque Country in northern Spain, by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. The painting soon became globally famous, helping to bring attention to the Spanish Civil War.
During her time with Picasso, she documented the creation of his most political work, Guernica (1937). Together, they made a series of portraits combining experimental photographic and printmaking techniques.
In middle and later life Maar withdrew from photography. She concentrated on painting and found stimulation and solace in poetry, religion, and philosophy, returning to her darkroom only in her seventies.
“Amar Gallery and my novel, The Paris Muse, put Dora Maar at the heart of the story and give her the recognition she deserves.”
– Louisa Treger
Amar Singh, owner of The Amar Gallery Fitzrovia commented, “I’ve always been interested in Dora Maar’s story, and feel she was greatly overlooked as an artist. Her photographs are truly remarkable and show a great deal of skill. But because she was with Picasso, her talent was somehow suppressed.” Louisa Tregger added, “She is mostly known for being Picasso’s ‘Weeping Woman’ as though tears are the only interesting thing about her.”
Singh launched his gallery to champion overlooked female, minority, and LGBT+ artists. His indefatigable work was instrumental in the suppression of the LGBQT+ conversion therapy in India; he has campaigned for the legislation of same-sex relationships in the subcontinent.; and regularly donates to charitable organisations supporting the rights and protection of women and children being subjected to violence, exploitation, and trafficking in India.
Part of the proceeds from Dora Maar: Behind the Lens will go towards supporting Shakti Vahini and We Power, two notable anti-trafficking organisations in India.
Dora Maar: Behind the Lens 16th June – 18th August The Amar Gallery Fitzrovia 12-14 Kirkman House, Whitfield Street, London W1T 2RF More details and information HERE.
Author: Julia Pasarón
Opening image: Dora Maar, Self Portrait (c. 1935). Gelatin silver print (edition of 5). Courtesy of the Dora Maar Estate.
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