Hanging in our office – Breaking Boundaries by Frances Bildner

May 23, 2012 //
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Described by Impressions Magazine as a passionate and seductive painter, Bildner’s riotous use of colour affirms this view. The paintings are in definite, almost aggressively joyous, dialogue with the viewer and their presence is hard to ignore.  New York’s Village Voice declared Bildner’s work to be, “Varied and vital enough to renew a jaded spirit”. Frances Bildner is represented in collections throughout Europe and America.

Westbury Accountants & Business Advisors, Accountants specialising in ‘The Arts’.  For more news, views and opinion, visit http://www.westbury.co.uk/.

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Damien Hirst – Revisited

May 14, 2012 //
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Against my better judgement, I went to see the Damien Hirst Exhibition at Tate Modern.

I have never been a fan of Hirst’s work.  Whether it was because of his perceived ‘commercialism’ and the fact that many think he is almost a creation of Charles Saatchi, or whether I just didn’t get some of his work, I don’t know.  To be honest, for some of the work on display at Tate, my sentiments have not changed.  However, overall I have to say that I came away much less anti-Hirst than I expected.

There are some beautiful works, for example the butterfly paintings such as Sympathy in White Major – Absolution II 2006 and Doorway to the Kingdom of Heaven 2007 (Tripytch) and the incredibly opulent Judgement Day (2009).

Whatever you think of Hirst, there is no doubt a spark of genius in his creativity and in his ability to challenge what we think of as art.  And if he needs to shock us by cutting cows in half, in order to achieve that aim, so what?  But however much my perceptions were changed, it was not enough to persuade me to part with £37,000 in the Tate shop to acquire a limited edition Skull.  Definitely the most expensive souvenir shop I have ever visited!

Like him or not, you should go along.  The exhibition is on until September but it is advisable to book.

 

Westbury Accountants & Business Advisors, Accountants specialising in ‘The Arts’.  For more news, views and opinion, visit http://www.westbury.co.uk/.

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Anita Klein exhibition at Menier Gallery

May 9, 2012 //
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The Menier Gallery in London SE1 is home to a new exhibition of linocuts by Anita Klein (a Westbury client), one of the most celebrated artist-printmakers working today.  The linocuts and paintings are featured alongside works by Picasso and Matisse who have also explored the potential of linocut, and inspired Anita’s work.
The exhibition ends at 4.00 on Saturday 12 May. Well worth a visit.

Westbury Accountants & Business Advisors, Accountants specialising in ‘The Arts’.  For more news, views and opinion, visit http://www.westbury.co.uk/.

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RIP Art London

April 30, 2012 //
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Those who follow this blog will recall my comments (27th October A Hectic Exhibition Season) about my visit to Art London. I stated that I had found much of the art on display “frankly disappointing” and that one or two exhibitors I spoke to confirmed that they are “unlikely to return”.

Well, they need not worry about having to make that decision because Art London announced last week that the fair was closing. The press release blamed long-standing issues with the local Council and a decision not to renew its tenancy agreement but one could not help feeling that perhaps Art London had been unable to compete with some of the other fairs in an increasingly competitive market.

Westbury Accountants & Business Advisors, Accountants specialising in ‘The Arts’.  For more news, views and opinion, visit http://www.westbury.co.uk/.

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Disconcerting Lucian Freud

April 24, 2012 //
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To ‘astonish, disturb, seduce, convince’.  These are the words that Lucian Freud used to describe the purpose of his art.  Jackie Wullschlager, art correspondent of the FT, used the word ‘disconcerting’ to describe aspects of this ‘must-see’ exhibition taking place at the National Portrait Gallery until 27th May.

I agree that you should not miss it.  Freud had a way of ‘landscaping the faces’ of his subjects.  Instead of a flat image, one could feel the furrowed brows, the hollowed cheeks and, in particular, the sagging skin of the elderly.  By stripping many of his subjects of the trappings of clothing, he laid bare (in the total sense of the word) an individual’s personality and ’animal characteristics’.

But it has to be said that beyond the brilliant art lies an impression that none of his subjects would be happy with the results of his work.  He has a knack of making all of his subjects appear depressed or bitter.

So whilst you should not miss this show, and would be uplifted by the quality of the art, it is quite likely you will come away a little depressed and certainly ‘disconcerted’.

Westbury Accountants & Business Advisors, Accountants specialising in ‘The Arts’.  For more news, views and opinion, visit http://www.westbury.co.uk/. 

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Damien Hirst Hits the Spot

April 16, 2012 //
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The spot in question is Newport Street in Vauxhall, the site, according to the Observer, where he will be opening his own public gallery some time in 2014.

Of course, like him or not, we can expect to see plenty of his ‘spots’ works as well as works by Banksy, Jeff Koons and Francis Bacon.

Meanwhile, Tate Modern will be having a Hirst Retrospective from 4 April to 9 September which will include the £50m diamond-encrusted skull ‘for the love of God’.  Followers of our news will be aware that the diamonds for this were supplied by a Westbury client, Bentley & Skinner.

Westbury Accountants & Business Advisors, Accountants specialising in ‘The Arts’.  For more news, views and opinion, visit http://www.westbury.co.uk/. 

 

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Misunderstood. Curated by Yasmine Datnow and Maïa Morgensztern

April 10, 2012 //
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The continuous growth of the technology of information and communication has changed people’s knowledge and understanding of each other; what were once commonly held stereotypes have been fractured by globalised experiences. A proliferation of information creates a reordering of beliefs and this shift leads to misrepresentation and misunderstandings.
Misrepresentations of normality lead to the uncanny and the displaced references that occur also blur any sense of self. This brings the potential for a new world order. As a shift takes place, identity issues arise. Communication between individuals becomes skewed, which emerge as duplicitous and enable artists to play with their audience through whimsical interactions. All these events encourage self-proclaimed taste-makers to constantly challenge notions of taste.
As a result people’s learned behaviours are contested by Illusory Correlations, (the perception of a relationship between two variables when only a minor or absolutely no relationship actually exists). The various ways in which misinterpretation is visually manifested and where a sense of order can be rebuilt beyond this issue are explored through the work of Rina Banerjee, Talia Keinan, Wolfe von Lenkiewicz and Hennessy Youngman calling into question taste and its connotations. The audience’s dialogue with the work evokes a reassignment of value by an ever-changing, self-elected class able to diffuse and shuffle information at speed.
Curators: At the beginning of 2012 Yasmine Datnow and Maïa Morgensztern started the company Reply All, having collaborated on projects for the previous 2 years.  Reply All is an agency specialising in curating, teaching, broadcasting and consulting for contemporary art, design and culture.

Westbury Accountants & Business Advisors, Accountants specialising in ‘The Arts’.  For more news, views and opinion, visit http://www.westbury.co.uk/. 

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Lucy McKenzie – ‘the most significant artist to emerge since Damien Hirst’

April 2, 2012 //
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Artist Lucy McKenzie, a Westbury client, is described in the April 2012 edition of Frieze magazine as possibly ‘the most significant artist to emerge since Damien Hirst’. We are not at all surprised by that description. Lucy is a most switched on individual with real technical and creative talent. And of course, it’s an absolute delight to be connected with her.

image from The Inventors of Tradition Collection Look Book 2011 / Atelier

Westbury Accountants & Business Advisors, Accountants specialising in ‘The Arts’.  For more news, views and opinion, visit http://www.westbury.co.uk/. 

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Damien Hirst gallery to open in 2014

March 26, 2012 //
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Damien Hirst’s public gallery in south London, which is being developed to display his personal art collection, will open in 2014, the artist has said.

The project, which has been years in the planning, would include six galleries and a cafe.  “It’s my Saatchi gallery, basically,” he said. Works by Hirst and others, including Banksy andUSartist Jeff Koons, will be exhibited.

From 4 April, the Tate Modern will exhibit a Hirst retrospective.  Hirst told the Observer his gallery, in Newport Street, Vauxhall, would be “a place to show my collection of contemporary art”, which reportedly includes more than 2,000 pieces. “It feels bad having it all in crates. It’s basically Bacon and beyond.”  Hirst, who owns five paintings by the late Francis Bacon, added: “He didn’t make many and he’s not making any more.”

The gallery – designed by architects Caruso St John – will take up the whole of Newport Street and incorporates the conversion of a terrace of three listed buildings flanked by two new buildings.  Hirst’s gallery follows in the footsteps of London’s Saatchi Gallery, opened in 1985 by art collector Charles Saatchi to display his own collection to the public.

Hirst’s The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living was commissioned by Charles Saatchi.  Saatchi also sponsored Hirst, who first came to the public’s attention with his 1988 Freeze exhibition of his own works and those of his fellow Goldsmiths College students.  BBC Arts editor Will Gompertz said Hirst’s work as a curator and champion of new art that started with Freeze – from behind-the-scenes support of unknown artists through to collecting and exhibiting – was often overlooked.  “Charles Saatchi didn’t make Damien Hirst, Damien Hirst made Charles Saatchi,” he said.

Hirst has previously said that collecting “is the way the world works, as a human being.  “As you go through life, you just collect… I always think collections are like a map of a man’s life.”

Tate Modern’s Hirst retrospective will run from 4 April to 9 September and one of Hirst’s most famous pieces -the £50m diamond-encrusted skull entitled For the Love of God, will be on display in the gallery’s Turbine Hall from 4 April to 24 June.

Westbury Accountants & Business Advisors, Accountants specialising in ‘The Arts’.  For more news, views and opinion, visit http://www.westbury.co.uk/. 

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Diary of an (Exhausted) Art Lover

March 22, 2012 //
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Wednesday 29th February

Arrive in Madrid.  Straight to the ReinaSofiaGallery, an outstanding museum of 20th Century art – why not, it’s free every evening.  Too much to see but wife and I were impressed by the visual impact of Picasso’s Guernica in the flesh. Which they are currently photographing in high-resolution digital format so that they can study the creation of this iconic masterpiece.  That reminded me of the GoogleArt project which we covered in an earlier blog. Other highlights include Picasso’s ‘Woman in Blue’ and works by Miro, all housed in an impressive mix of old and new buildings.

Thursday 1st March

A day in Toledo where it’s hard to avoid works by or references to El Greco on every street.  Then back to the Reina Sofia in the evening. 

Friday 2nd March

The Prado. One of the world’s great galleries. Goya and Velasquez everywhere, plus a special exhibition from The Hermitage. Exhausting. It feels like we have seen every one of the Prado’s 8,000 works. 

Saturday 3rd March

Timed-ticket at the Thyssen-Bornemisza to see a special Chagall exhibition.  Chagall was a prolific early Modernist and the exhibition covered his early years, his period in Paris and an examination of his important role within the history of art.  Shame they didn’t tell us that it was held in two separate venues and that the other venue was closed by the time we completed our tour of the Thyssen part. 

Thursday 15th March

Back to London and to Affordable Art Fair in Battersea.  Interesting selection of galleries and work.  A different selection to AAF Hampstead.  Recognised a lot of the art that I had seen in Hampstead.  So clearly not selling that well!  Visited members of the Association of Women Art Dealers (AWAD), and others, including Linda Blackstone, Cynthia Corbett and The Contemporary London.

Saturday 17th March

Delighted that London does some things right.  Arrived at the Royal Academy at 10pm for our timed-ticket entrance to Hockney’s ‘A Bigger Picture’.  A stunning array of bright colour and incredible use of light.  While many of us struggle to keep up with new technology Hockney, now 74, has managed to produce the most stunning pieces of work using an i-Pad which he found particularly useful for matching light colours in an ever-changing landscape.  Watercolours, he said, were more difficult, had to dry, and only then could one see that perhaps the colour shade was not correct.  A unique artist and greatly enjoyed by the huge numbers at the RoyalAcademy.  Midnight and the place was buzzing!!

Westbury Accountants & Business Advisors, Accountants specialising in ‘The Arts’.  For more news, views and opinion, visit http://www.westbury.co.uk/. 

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