A review of Frank Auberch at Tate Britain

The latest in the frankly embarrassingly large crop of current exhibitions.   If you are going to see this particular exhibition then I suggest two things. 
1)      Get to know Mr Auberch’s work before you go;
2)      Don’t get too close to the paintings.
I had not done 1) although I knew of Auberch by reputation I knew little of what he had done, so I went it cold.  I’m afraid to say I didn’t like it.

The work was arrange in decade from the 50’s onwards.  My main problem with the work is frankly there is too much paint.  I find it forms a barrier rendering the paintings nonsensical and difficult to engage with.   In the first room this was particularly so where the dark brown theme that predominated and the shiny glaze on, for example, the painting of the Earls Court construction site was viscerally repulsive.  It looks like poo. Much better and more interesting, in my view are his charcoal drawings.

The next room was the 60’s. The colours have moved on and there is a little less paint but it still bulges out from the canvas.  The landscapes I found more interesting than the portraits and the first one of Mornington Crescent grew on me a little after a while.  It is an example of what I mean by 2) above in that if you get too close to the paintings it dissolves into a meaningless jumble that in fact I found very off putting.

The 70s was more interesting. Better use of colour and slightly less paint.  Again the landscapes are the more engaging and for example I found the reclining head of JYM baffling and lacking emotion.  My favourite in this room was Primrose Hill in Summer.  It was in this room that I also discovered an odd effect.  Caught out of the corner of my eye the paintings really popped out at me.  They looked really good.  Turn to look them full on though and this effect ebbs away.
On into the 80’s and again there is less paint and it ceasing to be an obstacles and a couple of pieces such as From the Studio had a nice metallic sheen.  OF much more interest to me where again, his charcoal portraits and in one, called Head of JYM he managed to achieved an interesting 3d effect.

On into the 90’s and more portraits of Mornington Crescent.  The work features large violent lines which are both integral but to me, off putting.  By the next room, the 2000s I was beginning to find this irritating. You have to work very hard with Auberch’s paintings, they are very dense and take a long time to get to know.  The effort is not often rewarded and I find them lacking something.  I became resentful.

The last room was curated by someone else (the others being done by the artist himself) and was the best.  In this I made a discovery. I greatly preferred his smaller works, and found them to be better, for example To the Studio 1993 and Hampstead High Road High Summer, I found them to be more intimate and more intelligible.  Interestingly when I brought the postcards, the paintings in this reduced form looked a look better than they did in real life.

There are some interesting things going on hid but they are hidden to often by overworking and a sort of bombast.  His best work, like the charcoal drawings are where this does not happen.  Come out from behind the paint Frank! Let us see you.

This is a review of this year's Handmade in Britain at Chelsea which is unhelpful as it finished today.  So if this inspires you to go, tough - you'll have to wait until next year.  Crafts fairs, as this essentially is, can be patchy.  Sometimes you have to put on your "craft face" and try to look enthusiastic about the weird handmade hat that is inspired by Alice in Wonderland and proffered to you by a willowy young woman who will almost certainly be called Emily.

Happily not this event, which was rather good. Jewellery, textiles, glass, wood and ceramics dominated.  The fashion at the moment in ceramics is Japenese-inspired which is much to my taste.  Kerry Hastings, of whom I a big fan and whose work appears in a number of my pictures, was present. I like seeing the work of talented people and getting to speak to those who produce them.  The list below contains some of my favourites.  I have a weakness for glass so it features prominantly.

Adam Aaronson Glass Studio
A selection of highly lustred bowls (like the one top left), coloured, shaped vases, glasses, paperweights and similar.  I came away with two tumblers.

Assenden Glass, the studio of Anne Arlidge, had two very eye-catching lines.  One was plain glass cast into the shapes of vegetables and fruit, each one individually cast from a different subject.  It was a nice idea and witty, and I especially liked the asparagus.  Entirely different to this and contemplatively excellent is her Meltwater series (2nd image). Had budget and space at home allowed I would have walked away with some.

Elin Isakson Glass
A charming Scottish woman who told me about how she makes her excellent Oval rock pools, which l covet.  In addition to these she produces elegant, tall, single-coloured vases.

Judy McKenzie Ceramics and Glass
It was her ceramics I liked best.  Imposing pieces with a drip effect down the outside.  My particular favourite was a larger beige number with a mottled finish.

Young Ran Lee Ceramics
After a while the endless saki sets and Japanese-inspired vases did begin to wear on one so Young Ran Lee's work provided a nice change.  I liked the substantial, rugged, industrial feel of her pieces. They remind me of some kind of enormous tool head.

Camila Perez Gonzalez Ceramics
Sadly her website seems not to be working, but she does a fine range of lustred vases,  about eight inches high and in a variety of shapes and colours.  I particularly liked the deep blue, and came away with one (left, apologies for the picture: I took it myself with a poor camera).  She is perhaps not the most artistically daring of these exhibitors but she has a marketable style that she produces well. 

Moth and Mirror Wood
My goodness, but these are good.  Expensive though.  Finely turned, very interesting pieces of wood, some lacquered, some not, and then inlaid or gilded in gold.  These are very pretty things.  Technically the bowls are functional but it would be a travesty to molest these objects by doing something so crass as using them.  My wife's favourite was the gold inlaid chestnut burr bowl pictured below.  Mine was a set of three lacquered cups with different coloured oxidised silver on the inside.  Something to aspire to.

Blott Works describes itself as hand-engineered, functional sculptures. An example can be seen at the very bottom. They are fascinating pieces. There are clocks and lamps all in various forms,  many reminiscent of animals, with intriguing levers, pulleys and mechanisms.  There was a fine lamp that looked like a stork or wading bird.  If you have a grand to put into desk lighting then I suggest you go here.

There were others I liked but the above are my favourites.  A complete list of the exhibitors can be found here.

Incidentally this and many other posts were edited by my wife whoses excellent book is available on Amazon.

 On Friday I attend Goya:The Portraits at the National Gallery.  The latest in a the line of heavy hitting exhibitions at the National Gallery it is, in my view well worth attending.

There is a strong historical as well as artistic interest to this particular exhibition as it moves from the 1780s and the reign of Charles III of Spain (who if the portrait Goya has done of him, and hangs in the first room is to be believed, had a striking likeness to the BFG) through to after the end of the Napolenic wars.  Epic figures of the time such as Wellington (left, second from top) are encountered.  All rendered with a brutal honesty.

The fashions change too, from colourful bright clothing to somber black coats.  Of course this may reflect the painter's deeper melancholy which is reflected in his later self portrait (bottom left).

It is well worth going.  Luminos paintings are these and the dull tepid postcards that can be purchased afterwards are a disappointing reminder.

The peices are full of personality.  One of the works that strikes you when you arrive is the one left and 2nd from bottom. What this version does not show you is the fixed stare that main subject holds you with, or that on the wall behind him is a picture of the king (the BFG again).

There is much humour in the early works.  Odd dogs peer out from behind people.  As in the peice top left enraged cats stare at a magpie on a string.  Strange injured figures leer out at you from the sides of group pictures and children gawp at jaunty angles.  It looks like a well taken photo in that there is the appearance of people suddenly frozen.

I enjoyed it very much.  I have said this before but great art conjours in me a profound sense of calm.  Possibly it is also the setting (the shrowded darkness of the National Gallery's basement exhibition space enhances this I am sure) but it was a most meditative experience.  I spent much longer in there than I realised. 

There is much iconic here to be seen.  Much that can be learnt if you paint.  Afterwards I found myself comparing it to other portrait exhibitions I have seen. Seargent or Goya? 

It is of course a silly question.  Both if preferable.  Both give different things.  The interesting thing though about the Goya exhibition was it seemed to show, by the end, a man broken by life, ground down by war and dissapointment.

Go. You'll like it.