I was off to the U.K. It seemed an age since I had been there. It was. Over a year. Before going down to Meldreth, I would see a couple of exhibitions in London on the Sunday, a few days in the country and then back to London for a few more exhibitions and a show. It would be a full five days.
Nearing the end of the Rugby season there were New Zealanders and Ozzies on board the train. Even if I didn’t know who was to play in the final, by the time I got to London I hoped that the merriment would slow down. However, I was really taken aback by the crowds. To this day I have never seen Saint Pancras and Kings Cross Station so jammed packed with children, families and rugby fans. There was no way that I would waste an hour queuing up to leave my small case. A taxi it would be.
The exhibition I wanted to see was of Barbara Hepworth's sculptures. It was the last day. Usually this means that the crowds had thinned. No luck on that score so I strolled from gallery to gallery avoiding the crowd as I could.
Barbara Hepworth (1903-1975) was a British sculptor, born in Wakefield, Yorkshire in 1903. She was a leading figure in the international art scene throughout a career spanning five decades.
Hepworth studied alongside fellow Yorkshire-born artist Henry Moore. I find her work very similar to Moore and for that reason didn’t get over excited about it as there was so much like his.
After her first marriage she lived with the painter Ben Nicholson and, for a number of years, the two artists made work in close proximity to each other. They spent periods of time travelling throughout Europe, and it was here that Hepworth met Georges Braque and Piet Mondrian, and visited the studios of Picasso, Constantin Brancusi, and Jean Arp and Sophie Taueber-Arp.
Paris had a lasting effect on both Hepworth and Nicholson as they became key figures in an international network of abstract artists.
By now married and with triplets, would you believe, as well as a son from her first marriage. When war broke out in 1939, Hepworth and Nicholson moved to St Ives. Though she didn’t know it, the seaside town would remain her home for the rest of her life, and after the war she and Nicholson became a hub for a generation of younger emerging British artists such as Peter Lanyon…whose work I would see later in the week.
What I liked most about her work was the last period where she was experimenting with cord and sculpture. That - if it had been on a smaller scale - I would have been more than happy to have in my apartment.
Here are some of her sculptures which differ from Moore and for that reason alone, I liked them - very much.
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| Three forms 1935 |
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Figure of woman 1929-30
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| Two forms 1923 |
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| Two size in forms 1930 |
Although my intention had been to go across to the Tate Modern and see Pop Art, the idea of pulling my suitcase, even small, did not appeal. The Frank Auerbach was something that Pierrette and I had planned to see at the end of the week - but could I take just a peep?
A quick lunch and off to the Auerbach. Virtually not a soul in there so it would be more than just a little peep.
Frank Auerbach (1931-) is a British artist who has made some of the most vibrant, alive and inventive paintings of recent times. Often compared to Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud (and that for me was obvious from the start) in terms of the revolutionary and powerful nature of his work, his depictions of people and the urban landscapes near his London studio show him to be one of the greatest painters alive today. In actual fact he hardly moves out of his studio and paints the same theme time and time again. But it changes all the time.
I was interested in his paintings of Catherine Lambert who is the curator for the exhibition. It’s only over time that we become aware that it is the same subject.
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| C.L Profile, 1977 |
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| C.L. 2004 |
This is also the case with his companion.
Sometimes it’s a little difficult to see the body or face but once I had seen it, that was all I saw. I’m sorry though that his painting technique with such thick strokes of paint does not show up in a photo. The early years his technique has been to lavishly use oil paint and it looks as if it could be peeled off with a knife.
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| Head of J.Y.M ll - 1984-85 |
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| E.O.W Half Length Nude 1958 see the thick brush work?) |
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| Self Portrait 1958 |
On the second viewing with Pierrette, the profiles, portraits, "Mornington Crescent" were there even before I began to look at the painting. His work is quite fascinating and no titles are needed. In fact I think most of the paintings would have been better without titles….my imagination was working overtime.
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| E.O.W. and J.J.W. in the garden ll, 1964 |
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| E.O.W. and J.J.W. in the garden ll,- 1963 | | : |
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| Head of E.O.W ll, 1961 |
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| Hampstead Road, High Summer 2010 |
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| Hampstead Road, Summer Haze 2010 |
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| Head of Catherine Lambert - 2004 |
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| Head of Julia - Profile, 1989-90 |
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| Julia Sleeping 1978 |
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| Portrait of Catherine Lambert, 1981-2 |
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| Head of Julia ll, 1985 |
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| Reclining Head |
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| Reclining head of Julia 1994 |
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| Studio with figure on bed ll 1966 |
This is a short video on YouTube which probably gives an even better idea of his techniques that my photos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctO0XC31O9A
A little more about him though. (Taken from the Tate Home page)
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| Taken by Lord Snowden in 1963 |
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| Much later |
Auerbach was born in Berlin of Jewish parents; his father was a lawyer and his mother a former art student. In 1939 he was sent to England to escape Nazism. His parents, who remained behind, died in concentration camps. He spent his childhood at a progressive boarding school, Bunce Court, at Lenham near Faversham, Kent, a school for Jewish refugee children. During the war years the school was evacuated to Shropshire. He attended St Martin's School of Art, London, from 1948 to 1952, and studied with David Bomberg in night classes at Borough Polytechnic. It was during this period that he developed a friendship with fellow student Leon Kossoff. Auerbach studied at the Royal College of Art from 1952 to 1955. He has used three principal models throughout his career: his wife Julia, who first posed for him in 1959; Juliet Yardley Mills ('J.Y.M.'), a professional model whom he met in 1957; and his close friend Estella (Stella) West ('E.O.W.'), the model for most of his nudes and female heads prior to 1973. Rarely leaving Britain, he lives and works in London and has had the same studio since the 1950s.
You will probably think like I do. Those two exhibitions were like chalk and cheese.
Back to King's Cross now and off to Meldreth.
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