- Venue
- Nottingham Contemporary
- Location
- East Midlands
David Hockney
1960-1968: A Marrage of Styles
Frances Stark
But what of Frances Stark, standing by herself, a naked name, bare as a ghost to whom one would like to lend a sheet?
“But what of Frances Stark…?” says the text on the wall as we enter the building. Well, what of her? Not left alone to make up our own minds we are bombarded straight off by this huge, overpowering text on the wall seeming to instruct us of this glorified Frances Stark and how we should view her as an artist and be in awe before we even enter the gallery space. Amazingly the first piece of work we see is a canvassed work of hers for sale displayed outside the main gallery spaces in the shop. Can she not speak for herself? Are they afraid we don’t know her well enough and we might make the mistake of misinterpreting her artwork? Will she not seem good enough to us if we do end up misinterpreting her work?
Miss Stark’s work seems to have been chosen based on her seeming similarity to David Hockney from his showcased period (1960-68) and her “references” to him in a couple of her pieces and their mutual use of text in their work make her an obvious choice as an accompanying dish. Was this a good reason to include her? Why was it necessary to choose an artist who appears to have been chosen because she seems not quite impressive enough to ever over-shadow some of Hockney’s somewhat more simplistic pieces?
But what of the odd and somewhat out-of-place £20m green and gold corrugated building? Nottingham’s arty people have been waiting too long for Nottingham Contemporary to open. Moving long passed its first opening date of last year, there has been a lot of anticipation and hype surrounding it. And hype only ever means one thing—something is going to fail at speaking for itself as being worth it.
Going back to the front entrance again—as you walk inside you are faced with a huge shop area—bigger than most shops I have seen in large-scale galleries in London—lots and lots to buy including the aforementioned Frances Stark for sale. After wading through this space there are two galleries worth of Frances Stark, both rooms medium in size. After viewing her work you have to cleverly walk through the shop yet again to see the main David Hockney show in galleries 3 and 4. These galleries are roughly the same size as 1 and 2 if not slightly smaller. So, you view the David Hockney and what else is there to do but have to walk through the shop yet again and go down two levels to the café. Walking down a very a large stairway space you see as you descend a huge room that takes up about 2 floor levels. This is the theatre. OK, I’m quite confused now as to what is the intent of this building and, indeed, of Nottingham Contemporary. It seems to be a grand theatre space of some kind. Would it not have made more sense to have made a smaller theatre space and perhaps put another gallery in? There seems to have been room for it. The café is quite a good size for the scale of the building as well. Enough space in there for everyone to have a drink! At this point I thought it was time to go home. And since they had the exit from the Café locked, it was back up the stairs again and through the shop to get out of the building.
There are those who are trying their hardest to turn Nottingham into an artistic city of culture but will art really ever be as important to most Nottingham people as the flood of bars or the Football games that take place very near to the city centre? The theme for the first major exhibition seems to be more America-focused for a gallery that has been almost aggressively advertising itself as a place for the “locals”. Perhaps they should have done a show based around football?
Maybe I’m slightly disappointed because of my high hopes and maybe high hopes combined with hype is often a bad combination. But, seriously things just seem to be strangely out of place and out of balance here.
But what of David Hockney? Hidden within the impressiveness of the whole glittering building situation, large-scale shop and theatre is the Hockney exhibit, showing views from an era in his life still as a student, impoverished and low on funds, unable to buy materials yet still managing to create what I think is some of his most inspiring, raw, honest, beautiful and quite incisive work. It’s amazing what the creative heart can come up with when given only the bare essentials at hand. Against all the shiny gold and high ceilings of Nottingham Contemporary, Hockney’s fledgling work might seem dwarfed in comparison with the whole event of the coming-out of the débutante gallery, but it holds its own, emerging as a powerful peep-hole into a young artist’s life. How great would it have been if Nottingham Contemporary had decided to showcase emerging local artists in galleries 1 and 2 just this once—along side Hockney’s world of uncertainties and brash confidence? I think that would have said more about Nottingham as a place for art and as a place for artists and future artists still to emerge from here.
