I considered a number of venues when dealing with this question.  All these considerations where swept away when two things happened, the first was that I was that I got a new job and available time was drastically reduced.  Fortuitously shortly prior to this I joined the Law Society Art Group. This meant I can and indeed will be exhibiting in their annual exhibition.

So the answer to the questions where will I be exhibiting is the Law Society on Chancery Lane.  It is a fabulous building.  All neo-clasical oppulance and on the inside woodpanneling and stone floors.  It is quite a venue. 

The exhibition is on Weekdays 12th – 21st January, 9 am - 5.30 pm, & 22nd 9am – 2pm, at the Law society.  Please do pop by and have a look. There is also a private viewing on 15th January 2016 at 6:00- 8:00pm at which Edward Lucie-Smith will be judging our work and awarding prizes.  If you interested in coming to the private viewing either send me a message on the contact page or details are on the bottom picture.

The art group are a kind, friendly and talented group of people.  I am far from sure I will come  away with any accolades but it is I think, a good taster of exhibiting work and an easy way in for my first exhibition in public.  I shall be showing, in the order they are displayed on the left; Orphans, Time and Tide, Day out at the Beach and Migration Patterns.  I hope you like them, I hope you come and see them.

Last week I reviewed The World Goes Pop.  If you are considering going to a paid exhibition at Tate Modern, then my suggestion would be to go to this one.  It is much better, much more interesting and at 11 rooms, greater value for money.

Before I went I was only really familiar with Alexander Calder as producing large modernist mobiles (like the one top left).  There are plenty of those on display so it does not disappoint.  The exhibition also takes you on a largely chronological journey showing Calder’s changing styles and interests.  It is a well laid out exhibition so credit to the curator. 

You start with wire frame sculpture, such as Medusa.  I like these.  Calder’s idea of only providing an outline rather than a solid sculpture is a good one and encourages your brain to fill in the gaps itself.  Couple with this the shadow (and this goes for almost all his works) forms a separate piece of art on the wall behind. 

The next room contained what he called Cirque Calder. Various works on the theme of the circus and circus acts.  The Brass family greets you just as you go in and a striking group they are.  Other figures such as the Torrero and the very sweet dog (made with a clothes peg) grab your eye. As you leave you pass the acrobats made of wire and rod, with the smaller, female acrobat made of gold wire.  

Room 4 and we start to see more abstract works.  I really like these and my favourite was the spider.  The air currents in the room move them around and it is quite a thrill to see them expose different aspects to you.  Some of them are like auspicious planetary alinements. 

Room 5 were sweet little works, once powered by motors, now sadly consigned to stillness.  Videos are provided to show you how they once moved.

Room 6 Calder provided colour backgrounds for these works.  My initial reaction was that I preferred the blank wall then the enforced colour.  I found they grew on me.  This may well be that this room was one of only two with a bench in it, allowing you to sit and peruse the works at more leisure.  There is no doubt a worthy and tedious thesis that could be written on the effect of gallery furniture on the experience of art.

It was quite meditative thought to watch the mobiles slowly spin. Small children should be encouraged to run around to stir the air up more.  A small corridor is too cramped to see the display about Calder seeing a fountain and the crush of people propels you into the next room.  Here you find mainly tripod, planetary style constructions, as well as static wall mounted pieces. 

The exhibition continues and we start seeing the classic mobiles that are the bedrock of Calders fame. Room 9 is the largest room and has a number of these hanging from the ceiling and other pieces such as Red Twigs protruding from the floor, like some minimalist, futurist idea of a limestone cave.  The one that capture me the most was Snow Flurry,  a series of white shapes in a tree like, or indeed snow flake configuration, again slowly turning.  I spent quite some time in the room. 

Finally you see sculptures that incorporate cymbals and no doubt sound, if vigorously provoked enough and the exhibition says goodbye to you with a large piece usually hanging in a building in Brazil.  It approaches monumental in size. 

It is a great time.  It is great art.  Even if you don’t like it as art, you will enjoy it.  There is a joy in these pieces that is infectious. 

A review of the World Goes Pop at the Tate. 

One of the most baffling things about this exhibition is that the Tate has some of the prime examples of Pop art, such as Warhol’s Marilyn Diptique and Lichtenstein’s Bamm! but neither of them made it into the exhibition. Why not?

The answer I suspect is that they would have overshadowed the work in there.  I have a problem with Pop art, and I have a problem with derivative exhibitions.  This exhibition then started several points down.

The main issue I have with Pop art is that it is vapid.  It makes an initial impact (sometimes) but then fails to follow up with anything deeper.  There is often an overt political agenda but the impression that one always gets is that of the artist desperately seeking attention for themselves.  This exhibition had this issue in spades such as for example Nuclear Bomb No.2 which was the model of a bomb covered in Leopard skin.  I forget the name of the artist but they are not as cleaver as they think they are. 

This was an issue through the exhibition.  I had a trope that a find particularly tiresome of naked (or semi naked) women with their heads removed/ obscured.  An irritating trend that continues to this day.  The zenith of this was room of headless female forms on a pillar with the genitals replaced with mirrors by Jana Zelisb.  I find this simply exploitive.  Likewise the placing of violent images in a domestic setting.  What a clever point you are making.  Maybe I am being unfair. Maybe these clichés were not clichés at the time.  Frankly though I don’t care.

The other problem is that after the initial impact, and absent any deep idea of intimate engagement few of the works have a technical quality worthy of inspection.  It was like a poor quality student graduation fair. There were parties of school children wandering round, laughing derisively at the work.  They were right to do so.

This is a little harsh, there were a few works I quite liked.  So honourable mention goes to Bernard Rucillis, and Isabel Olive (an example of her work is the picture left, above the robot).  The later has a particularly good picture of a terrifying toddler. Best thing in the whole show.  Parviz Tonawali would be excellent if he wasn’t so sex obsessed and Chryssl Varder’s light sculpture came, literally, as light relief.

I was relieved to leave though. Usually I spend ages in art exhibitions but this one occupied me for only 30 minutes.  I didn’t even buy the post cards (none of the honourable mentions are in there).

If you like Pop art then you might like it, but even if you do go and see the above mentioned Warhol and Liechtenstein in the free exhibition.  If you are in your Tate then in my view your time is much better spent going up a floor and seeing Nam Jun Paik’s exhibition.  It is free, and really quite good.  The Bakelite robot is very cool (left).