Royal Academy course
London was hot but I kept cool in the heart of the Royal Academy of Arts, enjoying a course on The Theory and Practices of the Bauhaus, led by Fritz Horstman from the Albers Foundation in Connecticut USA. The course exercises were both demanding and fun. It was interesting to learn something of not only the teaching of the Bauhaus but the famous teachers’ personalities and philosophies. They thought they could change the world for the better. I came away fizzing with ideas but with more modest aspirations, to spend more time being creative.
Tate Modern exhibitions
I visited three exhibitions at Tate Modern. The first was the Goncharova. I encountered her work in Moscow years ago in an exhibition about the Russian avant-garde group, the Jack of Diamonds. I love her coulour and vitality, and the works inspired by her Russian roots in the countryside. At times, however, I felt she was losing her way, and some canvases were dully derivative. I shall go back.
The Olafur Eliasson was a must. His art and related activities reach out to people, raise awareness about our surroundings, not least climate change. He is using his art to try to change things for the better. But the exhbition is a crowd puller and there were too many people to experience much of his work properly, such as Beauty with the rainbow dancing in the soft rain and the yellow fog in the long corridor where we were not allowed to linger.
The third exhibition was the Takis, in contrast undeservedly quiet. I did not know his work, but Fritz had spoken about his use of magnets and so I went to see what he was about. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that his early work was inspired by Greek Cycladic and archaic art. His later sculptures and installations many from found metal and using magnets making them kinetic, are special.
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