Art From London Markets, a-n feature

I went to see Abstract Expressionism at the Royal Academy, and while a little disappointed by the minimal showing of work by women, which is in fact discussed in their own catalogue…… so they knew, they knew.(D Anfam*) I spent a fantastic time in the Rothko room, which contains several of his vibrantly colourful works: Really luminous, beautiful and absorbing, and not over crowded on the day I went.

I find the relationship of these works with the Mural projects when America was launching itself as the centre of the art world by public funding fascinating, something not so heralded here but, remembering form A level and according to Gombrich central to the scale of works achieved. Many of the artists were able to move into the scale of work they worked with because of this early funding. And these works contain especially in the later stages such melancholy and turmoil, a post war phenomenon strong on New York culture of the time. The later works perhaps, express above all impotence in the face of death. It would have been interesting to have had more of the women’s work, as their process in a generalised way appears to age differently. And perhaps this does reflect the times, older women freer of domestic demands reaching out into the world. Older men world weary reaching in?? The trajectory of the men’s work (at east those who did age) seems to be external to internal, and the women’s the reverse. I will certainly be back..This is a really big show in every sense and needs a number of visits. Getting to see it when it wasn’t too busy made me feel like spending that money on membership was worth it. I sound like a hair care ad….
So I am meant to be doing admin for the rest of this week . I need to do some publicity for my work at Parallax and tidy up the front page of my website, in particular I need to arrange the early works from the Art from London Markets Project into a separate page. But after a really tough domestic day, yesterday finished off with a good night out with the fantastic Dani Tagen going to Yinka Shonabare’s PV and the pub. I guess prompted by the religious iconography in Shonabare’s 2D work here, we ended up discovering and discussing our shared heritage of Catholic school which was remarkably similar despite growing up in different continents. I sit at the keyboard now with indigo stained fingers. So here is the start of a new indigo work…

Now back to that admin…

Abstract Expressionism, edited D Anfam, Royal Academy of Art 2016 London
The Story of Art E Gombrich Phaidon Uk