Reality Unseen

Well, I’ve seen the sun for 2 hours, that’s it for today. It was so foggy you could hardly see then the sun came shining through and it looked like this.  But now it’s gone and the fog has rolled back in.  Glad I saw it.

I saw the latest exhibits at the Walker Gallery and Tate Liverpool, both were very good.  The Tate’s new exhibit is called Afro Modern: Journeys Through the Black Atlantic and features art by Picasso, Man Ray, Kara Walker, Jean Michel Basquiat, David Hammons and Ellen Gallagher, who had two of my favorite pieces one called Deluxe and the other called Bird in Hand.  Both pieces are collages that are interesting, and layered.  The detail work done in Bird in hand was amazing I must have stood at that piece, which is massive for 15 minutes.

Bird in Hand collage by Ellen Gallagher

Deluxe is a piece done with much humor, it’s a commentary on the struggle black people have had with self image and presentation specifically with hair.  Gallagher uses hair product and wig adds from the 1930s through the 1970s.  Here is a well written review of her work that may help convey gallagher’s work: http://www.recirca.com/reviews/2007/texts/eg.shtml And there is the piece by Glen Ligon called Nobody knew me, which is a Richard Pryor joke painted on a gold background.  I laughed out loud when I got to it because I remember hearing Richard Pryor tell that joke years ago, it’s funny.  Needless to say I enjoyed the exhibit.

At the Walker Art Gallery the new exhibit is Aubrey Williams: Atlantic Fire.  Williams was a Guyanese artist influenced by abstract painter Jackson Pollock, Mayan culture and Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich.  The paintings are very moving, particularly when you listen to Shostakovich while viewing the pieces Williams painted to that music.   I like this quote:

“The act of painting, the act of daring to make art, the Arawak had a word for it and they called it Timehri… Now, Timehri to the Arawak means the mark of the hand of man…That is the word for art for me.” Aubrey Williams

And of course the This is Sculpture exhibit and the Rothko Seagram Murals still on display.  Some of the things I am looking forward to this summer and fall are the Dali exhibit , the allure of the automobile exhibit and the Radcliffe Bailey exhibit, all will be at the High.  Dali is my favorite painter.  I continue to be awed by his work and to see a couple of pieces here at Tate Liverpool has been a treat.

Cheers.