U3A Art Appreciation Network
No prizes for guessing who this is!
On page 2, Catherine Stevenson
(Newcastle U3A)
refers to him as Leo, but she adds:
Subject Adviser: Margaret Tomlinson
15 Clifton Court, Old Street, Ludlow SY8 1TZ
What a star!
email [email protected] tel 01584 873260
Summer 2016
Newsletter no 28
I hope you’ll enjoy reading the contributions from U3A members in this edition. If your summer
travels take you to a far flung gallery, let’s hear about it! Enjoy yourselves wherever you go.
Margaret
By contrast, we’d probably like to avoid
this situation:
Berthe Morisot
Summer’s Day 1879
This delightful painting of two fashionable
young women floating placidly on a lake is a
visual impression that has been quickly
captured and is probably somewhere that we
would like to be on a hot sunny day.
Peder Balke
The Tempest 1862
Both these paintings are in the National Gallery
in London.
Did you see Andrew Graham Dixon’s recent
BBC4 series Exploring Scandinavia through its
Art? He describes Peder Balke’s paintings thus:
Storms rage and seas churn under skies without
memory of morning or hope of night.
If you can’t travel there, why not enjoy
exploring their website?
Spring – March
Summer – June
Unfortunately it’s not on iPlayer, but a DVD is
available via the BBC website.
Autumn – September
Winter - December
‘Prep for Leo’ Study Days at the Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne
Catherine Stevenson
From the Royal Collection, ten Da Vinci drawings came to our own Laing Art Gallery, February to April 2016.
Two study groups: Talking About Art and General History had their interesting tour of the exhibition and members
had some good points to make about each drawing. In addition, at the Laing, Newcastle U3A organized, on behalf of
Northumbria Region U3A, a study day based on the drawings and I was the presenter. Due to popular demand to see
the drawings, one day became three! U3A members really wanted to learn!
The Study Day
There was a powerpoint presentation beginning with the historical background of Leo’s life, his works, his views of
the world and the age in which he lived. This was followed by explanations of the drawings outlining details of Leo’s
artistic techniques, influences and problems he may have encountered, such as in casting the Sforza monument
which required about 80 tons of bronze!
Aspects of Leo as a multitalented polymath were addressed, showing how his interests spanned from botany such as
his vibrant drawing of blackberries to cartographer and hydraulics engineer as in the survey of the River Arno and
from the comparative anatomy of animals to meteorology as seen in The Deluge. The Heart Compared to a Seed led
him into pathology and geriatrics.
Leo’s human side was recognized in all of the works on exhibition as they conveyed a sense of love for drawing,
evident in the drawings of infant limbs and cats and there were even hints of a sense of humour!
He could leave the viewer asking him/herself questions. The Deluge left members wondering if it was apocalyptic,
poetic or just an obsession Leo had for the vortex which appeared in nearly every drawing.
As he progressed, it could be seen how he moved away from the technical skills of the medieval guilds
to using his imagination and ideas, both of which were examples of humanism. In addition, he moved from
metaphysical and theoretical to empirical and observational art. Leo had planned to include his drawings in various
treatises but none was completed or published. Many of his drawings of statues or machines were not built, possibly
because the projects would have been too expensive, too advanced or just not understood by others.
However, his legacies have remained through time. These drawings illustrated how he led the way for other artists,
for example his techniques of sfumato in The Head of St. Anne and foreshortening as seen in a male nude. He raised
the study of human anatomy to a science, often marrying art to science as he pushed the boundaries of each.
Renaissance artists borrowed his concept of the human being as a means of showing expression.
What did he leave for us, today? He bequeathed the drawings for us to admire, love and use, such as in teaching
human anatomy. He has inspired artists and scientists and although his plans for a weir on the Arno never came to
fruition, two weirs can now be seen there. I felt honoured to be able to talk about the drawings to our members who
had so many interesting comments to make about what they saw. We shared an interest in Leo who reflected the
times in which he lived and yet after nearly 500 years, he continues to inspire and reach the imagination of the world
– especially members of the U3A!
Delacroix and the Rise of Modern Art at the National Gallery
John Busbridge
In spite of an excellent introductory film - this was a peculiar show. Some of the intended links between Delacroix
and his successors seemed tentative and less than convincing, on stylistic grounds at least. One of the problems was
the lack of any of the master’s greatest, vast canvases; his much reduced version of the Death of Sardanapalus and
copies of other well known works, such as Manet’s little one of the Barque of Dante were poor substitutes for the
originals. But there were some fine smaller works: the NG’s own Ovid among the Scythians and The Lion Hunt, the
Barber Institute’s Stephen Borne away by his Disciples, and the Bathers from Connecticut. Whatever Cezanne may
have said about influence, it was hard to see anything but a general similarity of subject matter between the last of
these and his own late Bathers, and his hilarious Apotheosis of Delacroix is surely little more than a joke! Works by
Gauguin, Kandinsky, Van Gogh and others seem much more closely related to one another than to the early C19
master. In a room of flower paintings, a stunning but untypical Courbet and Van Gogh’s charming early Vase with
Poppies, Cornflowers, Peonies and Chrysanthemums made Delacroix’s sombre contribution seem irrelevant. There
was a disappointingly rushed video showing details of some of Delacroix’s massive ceiling and wall paintings, only
the murals from Saint Sulpice giving a reasonable, if brief, idea of the originals.
The curators’ aims seem to have been only partially fulfilled, but I found plenty of pictures to enjoy.
Thank you Catherine & John, for your interesting and erudite contributions.
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Exhibitions
Museums and Galleries
National Gallery
Dutch Flowers 6th April to 29th Aug
Freud to VanDyck 23 Jun to 4th Sept
Beyond Caravaggio 12th Oct to 15th Jan
Tate Britain
Hockney’s Double Portraits – to Autumn
Courtauld Gallery, London
Rodin & Dance 20th Oct to 22nd Jan
National Galleries of Scotland
Bridget Riley - 15th April 2016 to 16th April 2017
Scots in Italy - 5th Mar 2016 to 3rd Mar 2019
After what has been called the biggest bricklaying
exercise since the Lego Movie, the extension to Tate
Modern is finally nearing completion.
The warped ziggurat will add 60% more gallery
space to the venue, with particular emphasis on
video, photography, performance art and works
based on new technologies. The additional space
will also help to spread the load of visitors. Tate
Modern now attracts around 5 million people a
year, although it was designed for only 2 million.
The £260m extension is the work of Herzog & de
Meuron, the architects behind the original
conversion of Bankside Power Station into Tate
Modern, which opened in 2000. The main feature is
a twisted concrete tower faced with dark brown
bricks. Like it or loathe it, the newcomer will make a
difference to the skyline.
National Gallery of Wales, Cardiff
Augustus John in Focus – to Oct 16th
Royal Academy
Abstract Expressionism - from24th Sept
Tate Liverpool
Francis Bacon – to 18th Sept
Tate Britain
Painting with Light – to 26th September
A conversation between early photography and
British Art
Laing, Newcastle-on-Tyne
Alice in Wonderland – to 2nd Oct
A British Library exhibition with loans from V & A
Perhaps this is more to your taste?
V&A
Botticelli Reimagined - to 3rd July
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
Breughel and his Time – to4th September
Have you explored artuk.org ?
It’s a joint initiative between 3000 museums,
other art collections and the BBC.
Find out what’s going on, where and when.
Plus a whole host of other things!
You can even become an art detective.
Jimson Weed/White Flower No 1
Georgia O’Keefe 1932
This is the most expensive painting by a woman
ever to be sold at auction and from 6th July to 30th
Oct can be seen in an exhibition at – where else?
Tate Modern!
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Artists on Art
ART IS NOT MADE TO BE UNDERSTOOD
Everyone wants to understand art. Why not try to
understand the song of a bird?
Why does one love the night, flowers, everything
around one, without trying to understand them?
But in the case of a painting, people have to
understand. If only they would realise above all that
an artist works of necessity, that he himself is only a
trifling bit of the world, and that no more
importance should be attached to him than to
plenty of other things which please us in the
world, though we can’t explain them.
People who try to explain pictures are usually
barking up the wrong tree.
Pablo Picasso 1881 – 1973
If you’d like to read more of John Farman’s gems on
art, his book - ART, a Complete and Utter History
(without the boring bits) - is published by MacMillan
ISBN 0-330-33046-2.
Perhaps that’s why Picasso was fond of featuring
a dog in his paintings.
I’ve recently had a query about copyright in the use
of pictures etc in study groups.
If you’d like a copy of the Resource Centre’s advice,
please contact Susan Radford at the Resource
Centre – see below.
Looking for ideas for your group studies?
Susan Radford in the U3A Resource Centre – open
Monday to Thursday – has a very extensive list of
artists, schools, sculpture and workshops, hard to
match and free to borrow. Only return postage is
involved.
Lump was a dog owned by David Douglas Duncan,
who lived with Picasso for six years and featured in
several of his works. Born in Stuttgart, Lump was
named after the German word for “rascal” and is
reputed to have eaten a Picasso drawing.
[email protected] or 020 8315 0199
Thinking of starting an Art Appreciation Study
Group, or do you need a few extra ideas?
I’ve prepared a document which might help you.
Contact me if you’d like a copy.
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