Standing in front of Albert Giacometti’s portrait of his mother I can’t believe I totally missed this painting the first time I walked through the gallery. I look around at the surrounding paintings to see what it was that must have completely captured my attention, but nothing jumps out.
The painting is a busy crossroads of vertical lines depicting the elderly Annetta Giacometti-Stampa sitting in the middle of a kitchen, or more it’s an outline of her – she’s not quite there but we get the idea of her presence. It’s as much a painting about the kitchen as it is about the woman.
The busy nature of the painting makes it magical, like every line represents a trip the elderly lady may have made through her kitchen.
This is my second trip to the exhibition, rather than have a quick once over of the works at an opening night or media preview I set myself the goal of visiting the exhibition multiple times, to see what I notice on subsequent trips and how my interest in the works changes after multiple viewings.
The presentation focuses on still life, landscapes and portraits. Three common topics approached by 96 different artists, through the artistic movements of impressionism, cubism, surrealism and beyond. All the paintings are from the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
I revisit some of my favourites from my first trip, Vanm Gogh’s ‘Olive Trees’, I spend an even greater amount of time looking at the leaves in the trees in Klimt’s ‘The Park’ and pause to listen to some more of Laurie Anderson’s self playing violin. I realise I’m still drawn to the paintings of people more than the still lives, next trip I will have force myself to focus on them.
Balthus’s portrait of the artist Joan Miro and his daughter Dolores is a painting you can spend a great deal of time looking at. Dolores stands uncomfortably, as if she’d rather be off doing something else than posing for this painting. I wonder if Miro every returned the favour and painted a portrait of Balthus in return?
‘Modjesko, Soprano Singer’ is a bold a colourful work from Dutch born painter Kees van Dongen. It’s harsh, a profile image of the singer, which make me think that the character portrayed too is a brash or demanding person. It’s an eye capturing picture but emotionally I just feel that I wouldn’t like the singer it’s captures if we were to meet. She appears brash and loud. I later read that van Dongren said the secret to painting society women was to elongate them to make them slim and make their jewels much bigger than they really were. It’s the Photoshopping of the early 20th century.
Gerhard Richter’s self portrait is intriguing. It’s like an out of focus photograph, as if he really didn’t want us to see the real person. I wonder how something out of focus here is something of complete beauty – but whenever I post a photograph to OUTinPerth’s website that has an element out of focus or moving inevitably someone will send me an email highlighting it. I wonder if many people wrote to Mr Richter pointing out his portrait was blurry.
I’ve got to admit I knew nothing of Richter’s work before seeing this painting, further investigation reveals he’s the highest selling artist currently alive. His work though is incredibly diverse, just Google his name and see what comes up, everything from abstract colour works with the paint squashed over the canvas, to photo realism and thousands of colour block pictures.
Next time I will look at the still life….
‘Van Gogh, Dali and Beyond: The World Reimagined’ is at the Art Gallery of Western Australia until December 2, 2013. Read about the first trip to the exhibition.
Graeme Watson
