Work for Idle Hands

« Later in Edinburgh | Main | Inklings »

Sunday May 11, 2008

Seriously... I do have etchings...

It's been a fabulous warm and sunny weekend. Yesterday I did some more work in the garden, and today I met up with my sister in London and we went to the British Museum to see the American Scene - "prints from Hopper to Pollock". Most impressively, this exhibition comes from their own collection of American art - it's nice to see them make use of their wealth of buried treasures for special exhibitions.

This is Night on El Train, (Hopper etching from 1918), which my sister admired:

And this is the signature piece used on the posters - and it is very pleasing - there were others of similar style but this had an appealing sense of dynamism. It's Louis Lozowick view of Manhattan from around 1925.

I was most fascinated by the work of Louise Bourgeois. At Stanley Hayter’s workshop Atelier 17 in the late 30s and 40s, she produced "He disappeared into complete silence", an enigmatic series of prints which are a collection of little parables. The first one struck a chord - it was the first of about 9 plates:

Plate 1    Once there was a girl and she loved a man.    They had a date next to the eighth street station of the sixth avenue subway.    She had put on her good clothes and a new hat. Somehow he could not come. So the purpose of this picture is to show how beautiful she was. I really mean that she was beautiful.

I like the flat understatement "somehow he could not come".
You can see why she moved into sculpture, given the forms that interested her.

Posted by Christina at 6:43 PM. Category: Days Out

Comments