Now You See Us: Women Artists in Britain 1520-1920 at Tate Britain, Millbank, London SW1P 4RG (exhibition is on the Lower Ground floor, so easiest access from the Atterbury Street entrance, rather than the main entrance on Millbank)
At long last (and once the Singer Sargent and Fashion had finished earlier in July!) I have been to see this very impressive exhibition featuring all the best-known female artists – including Artemisia Gentileschi, Angelica Kauffman, Mary Beale, Mary Moser, Gwen John – and a host of lesser-known, but no less talented, artists over a period of 400 years. It is arranged chronologically, which is very convenient, and I think there are about ten or eleven rooms in all. Each work has plenty of space (apart from the section on Photography and, for obvious reasons, the miniatures) and the ‘flow’ is easy to follow.
To say that art, in the sense of painting (particularly in oils) and sculpture, was a male-dominated field over the 400 years covered is an understatement: women were not allowed to attend art courses or life classes, let alone earn a living by their creations! Watercolours were just about permissible – but more as a ‘seemly’ diversion rather than in the hope of profiting from their use! For a married woman to want to sell any of her works apparently cast a slur on her husband and family’s ability to provide for her. (Besides, let’s not forget that wealthy, property-owning women over 30 only got the right to vote in 1918, with ‘universal suffrage’ only being enacted in 1928, so after the period covered by this exhibition!)
And then there is the continued refusal of institutions such as the Royal Academy to elect women (beyond the two founding members Kauffman and Moser) to its ranks, despite public acclaim of works such as ‘The Roll Call’ (by Elizabeth Butler, which is now in the Royal Collection and on loan to this exhibition). In the 1850s there were Watercolour Societies which notionally included women artists; however, those women were excluded from the usual ‘privileges of membership’ such as sharing in any profits or having any input into the running of the Society, and the actual proportion of women to men members was severely restricted. And don’t get me started on the patronising comments frequently made by (male) reviewers of works by women of the “It’s surprisingly good, for a young woman” kind! (Steam coming from the ears of your reviewer!!)
But back to the art itself: the exhibition covers the work of foreign and British women artists working in Britain, which cleverly manages to include Gentileschi and Kauffman, as well as several American-born women who came here in the Nineteenth Century (often to bring their money and marry British men!). The exhibition contains around 150 works, largely watercolours, but with many oils; a few sculptures (one of a pair of sleeping dogs in terracotta by Anne Seymour Damer, and another very skilful marble sculpture of Princess Helena as ‘Peace’ by Mary Thornycroft, commissioned by Prince Albert for Victoria and still in the Royal Collection); some miniatures (including four beautiful ‘cabinet miniatures’ by Anne Mee); one or two tapestries: and some photographs (which I have to confess I did not spend much time on, having already overrun my allocated visit time!).
I have now visited this large exhibition twice, each time spending over 90 minutes to see around half of it – I am definitely slowing down in terms of the time it takes me to look at each work, read the (large print guide!) caption and then look again before passing on to the next work. For this reason, it is particularly useful that I am a Member (+1), so can return whenever I like to have another look.
Update (19 August): I have now paid another visit to this exhibition, with a more targeted approach, and also took a proper look at those photographs, which are interesting in themselves, but did not really thrill me as much as many of the paintings.
It is well worth a visit – and I am only sorry I hadn’t been sooner (again, blame the irresistible presence of the Sargent exhibition at the same venue, which I visited five times in all, despite my initial plan to bypass it for this one!).
On until Sunday 13 October 2024 – Gallery is open daily from 10.00am to 6.00pm. Tickets cost £20 for adults, but Members go free. Website www.tate.org.uk.
Fragile Beauty: Photographs from the Sir Elton John and David Furnish Collection at Victoria & Albert Museum, Cromwell Road, South Kensington, London SW7 2RL (exhibition is downstairs inthe Sainsbury Wing, so easiest access is through the Exhibition Road Courtyard Entrance – formerly the Sackler Courtyard!)
Yet another enormous exhibition at the V&A, this time presenting around 350 photographs/images covering approximately 75 years, and an amazing range of photographers (most of which were unknown to me, I have to confess). Once again I have had to cover it in two visits, each lasting nearly two hours. Some of the works are wonderful, if sometimes familiar – Richard Avedon’s of Marilyn Monroe, the Beatles, Nastassja Kinski (with a large boa constrictor on her naked body), Andy Warhol and members of The Factory; Robert Mapplethorpe (including one of the final self-portraits before his death from AIDS in 1989); Sid Avery (whose name I did not know previously) is represented by three photographs, stunning images of James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor and Marlon Brando (with Bongo Drums!); and Terry O’Neill’s photograph of Frank Sinatra and his bodyguards and film ‘double’ appears to have been a lucky snap! Norman Parkinson’s photograph of Miss Piggy(!) is perhaps a little out of general context, although EJ/DF are of course well known for being compulsive collectors (?hoarders!), so I suppose “anything goes”!
There are various sections, including Reportage, which includes the horrifying picture by Richard Drew of ‘The Falling’ (showing one of the more than 200 poor souls who leapt from the Twin Towers on 11 September 2001); also Boris Yaro’s ‘The Shooting of Robert F. Kennedy, Los Angeles 1968’, when he helped disarm the assailant then managed to take a defining image of the assassination before all the crowds gathered around the fallen man. The race riots and much of black history in the 20th/21st Centuries in the US are widely covered, and many Afro-American photographers’ work is also included.
Of course, this being an exhibition of items from Elton John’s and David Furnish’s collection, there are lots (and lots!) of naked men, of many shapes, sizes and colours, some well known, some anonymous, some ‘arty’, some erotic, and some distinctly weird. For one installation ‘Thanksgiving’ by Nan Goldin, a whole room is devoted to 149 prints of the photographer’s friends, lovers and acquaintances in the LGBT subcultures, people with HIV/AIDS, transvestites and drug addicts (this room comes with a ‘health warning’ to move along if you might be offended by any of the contents).
There are so many different aspects to this vast exhibition (which represents less than 5 per cent of the collection!). As items of beauty – fragile or not – many would certainly fall into that category, and I found nearly all of them to be skilfully composed; however, there are several that cause a visceral reaction which would not really fall into my definition of beauty! Nevertheless, the exhibition is well worth a visit, and has certainly increased my interest in (looking at) photography, if not my skill in carrying it out!
On until Sunday 5 January 2025 – Museum is open daily from 10.00am to 5.45pm (and on Fridays until 10.00pm – last entry 8.30pm). Tickets cost £22 (includes donation of £2) but Members go free.
Madwomen of the West atRiverside Studios, 101 Queen Caroline Street, Hammersmith, London W6 9BN
I went to an early performance in the run for this transfer of Sandra Tsing Loh’s latest play from ‘smash hit runs’ in New York and LA. Four ladies of a certain age – Marilyn (‘hangry’, as she’s sugar-cleansing), Claudia (previously a successful photographer, but now … well, having a bit of a break, and who doesn’t like surprises), Jules (‘happily married to a man with a stunning Brentwood mansion’) and Zoey (hugely famous TV celebrity and author) – come together at Jules’s aforementioned ‘stunning Brentwood mansion’ to celebrate Claudia’s birthday. Thing is, nothing is quite as it seems: it turns out that Marilyn has just done something to her long-time husband; Claudia’s offspring is causing problems; Jules is (probably) an alcoholic: and Zoey and her husband are apparently not quite as ‘flush with funds’ as expected. All this comes out as the first three (Zoey arrives as a last minute ‘surprise’) try to make an exciting event out of a birthday brunch party.
The set is simple/spare (“no money for expenses, including drinks/snacks, furnishings, mobile devices” as we are told several times), so we have to imagine what it might actually be like: the dialogue tries to race along, with all sorts of ‘in-jokes’ about being in London and waiting for an Uber to get to Hammersmith(!): it all seems to be trying too hard to be funny, and up-to-date with the latest topical situations, but sadly without the genuine spontaneity that one would expect of a group of characters who have apparently known each other since school/college.
I’m not really au fait with current/recent American actresses, but the cast is Caroline Aaron (from ‘Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’), Brooke Adams (from ‘Days of Heaven’), Marilu Henner (from ‘Taxi’) and Melanie Mayron (from ‘Thirtysomething’). It is great that ‘ladies of a certain age’ are starring in any play, but it would have been even better had the script been rather less forced.
I never like to condemn any production of a play (as I feel nothing but awe for people who actually want to go on stage and perform in front of others!), but I do rather feel that ‘damning with faint praise’ is about all I can come up with on this occasion – so sorry.
The run finishes on Saturday (when there are two performances, including a ‘meet the cast’ matinee, providing an opportunity to take part in a ‘post-show talkback’).
On until Saturday 24 August – performances start 7.30pm or 3.00pm (for Matinees on Wednesday or Saturday) and last 120 minutes including one 20-minute interval. Tickets cost £10-40.
Concert by the Band of the Mercian Regiment atHyde Park Bandstand, off Serpentine Road, near Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Rose Garden, and Gates, at Hyde Park Corner, London W1J 7NT
What could be nicer than spending a summer Sunday afternoon sitting in the park with a band playing music on the beautiful Hyde Park Bandstand? The Band of the Mercian Regiment (with some additional guest players) had travelled from Wolverhampton to play for a small but enthusiastic audience – people were encouraged to stop by and listen, sit awhile and then move on as/when needed. We had an interesting selection of military marches, showtunes, a medley of Elton John’s music and even a waltz.
For the past few years the Friends of Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens (website www.friendshpkg.org.uk) have arranged a short series of concerts in late summer (from the second half of August to the early part of September) and this year, in addition, there will be the first concert at the newly restored Kensington Gardens Bandstand (off Broadwalk, next to the Round Pond, south side – near Yayoi Kusama’s enormous yellow and black ‘Pumpkin’) – on Sunday 15 September, featuring the Epsom & Ewell Silver Band from 2.30pm to 4.30pm.
All the concerts are free to attend and the other dates for this season are:
- Sunday 1 September – 2.30pm to 4.30pm at Hyde Park Bandstand
Orquesta Mambarito & Victor Marchangioli
- Sunday 8 September – 2.00pm to 4.30pm at Hyde Park Bandstand
South London Jazz Orchestra with Simon Selman / Swingdance UK
Note the earlier start as swing teacher Simon Selman will help us learn a few moves. Swing dance attire most welcome!!
For anyone wanting to take advantage of the BBC iPlayer, with its wonderful Arts catalogue, there are a number of programmes you might find of interest:
- BBC Proms 2024 – beginning on 19 July and ending on Saturday 14 September, there are concerts every day – they are (I believe) all available either live and/or on the iPlayer – website: www.bbc.co.uk/proms/events/by/date/2024
- The Impressionists: Painting and Revolution – Waldemar Januszczak’s idiosyncratic series on the world’s most famous art group. Website: www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer and search for ‘Impressionists’
- Rebuilding Notre-Dame: The Next Chapter – Lucy Worsley’s update following the calamitous fire of April 2019 shows how the restoration work gathered pace in an effort to ensure that Notre-Dame would indeed be open in time for the Paris 2024 Olympics… Website: www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer and search for ‘Notre-Dame’
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