- Venue
- Tate Britain and Annely Juda Gallery
- Location
- London
Late Turner. Packed on a Monday morning this exhibition is obviously a hit. At best shimmering light, mist, haze, reflections are heavenly, at worst splish, splosh and splat. Subject matter largely irrelevant or an unwelcome element. People, he can’t paint them, wish he wouldn’t try. Must be a cheap show, all come from the Tate collection. Well worth a look but probably best to go on a Monday morning, even then too crowded.
And so to Anthony Caro, The Last Sculptures, I was the only one there, apart from a couple of bored gallerinas doing Facebook on their laptops. Hoping to find some kind of conclusion, resolution, revelation, I was, as usual, mystified. Here we have the usual compositions of steel in its various manifestations: rusty, polished, bent, intersected by sheets of pristine 2″ thick perspex. The beautiful perspex has the odd effect of making the steel look special, a bit like ancient relics in a museum. As to the meaning of these pieces, I have no idea, the titles aren’t very helpful ‘Blue Moon’ for a piece with a blue perspex circle under a clear convex sheet with stainless steel pipes and slabs. They look like piles of junk with perfect bits in, like aliens in a rubbish dump. The catalogue isn’t very helpful simply listing the trials and tribulations of ordering sheets of perspex, nothing about what he is actually trying to communicate. The CV is probably the most interesting thing, endless list of achievements, awards, exhibitions and honorary doctorates and gongs, but nowhere do I see what he actually did.
