ARTnotes: August 2014

PORTRAITS AT CHATSWORTH HOUSE

Portraits of Cavendish family by Lucian Freud

Chatsworth Douse, Derbyshire, England

This palatial country home, Chatsworth House, begun by Bess of Hardwick in 1588, is still the seat of the Dukes of Devonshire and houses their art collection, including four family portraits by Lucian Freud, which form a powerful grouping. The eleventh Duke of Devonshire is an interesting combination of power and isolation. His massive bulk, his tie and suit contrast with his downward gaze and rumpled appearance.

A Portrait of Lady Burlington-Laura, by Michael Craig- Martin 2009

A portrait of another family member by Michael Craig-Martin, " Portrait of Lady Burlington-Laura", hangs in a dark alcove above an exquisite second-century Roman bathtub . An elegant contour line delineates the frontal view of the sitter's lovely features.

BBC interview with Lady Burlington

The colours are generated digitally, changing constantly and randomly. From three primary and three secondary colours, it generates 44 million colour combinations. "Although the linear portrait is fixed, the colours are controlled by computer software that makes constantly randomised choices. The work slowly changes over time in infinite combinations." www.npg.org.uk/whatson/display/2008/recent-commission-zaha-hadid.php

Thus the image is both permanent and fleeting becuase the line endures, while her colours change. After viewing it for some moments, the effect is something like a Vanitas but without the horror of death.

I thought it a very fine portrait.

A note about the construction :"The portrait consists of custom made hardware using a 52" monitor mounted vertically to hang on the wall like a framed painting. The software for the work uses a black line portrait of the sitter by Michael Craig-Martin which is divided into nine different areas of colour: skin, hair, lips, teeth, eyebrows, shirt, etc. Each colour appears for between five and 15 seconds. As there is no loop in this work, there is no repetition. The computer portrait is 'live' and programmed to randomly make all decisions concerning colour choice and duration. As there are millions of combinations possible, there is virtually no possibility that anyone will ever see again the exact combination visible at any given moment."http://www.chatsworth.org/attractions-and-events/art-archives/art-and-archives-collections/collection/paintings/digital-portrait-of-lady-burlington

Jeff Wall at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam

In Amsterdam last month, we came upon Canadian art star Jeff Wall's exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum. Jeff Wall:Tableaux Pictures Photographs 1996-2013 filled several rooms of the august, but light and airy museum.

Curator Hripsimé Visser said: “Jeff Wall is first and foremost an ‘artist’s artist,’ he is well- known and much loved by other artists, as well as critics."

There's an emotional aloofness about Wall's work which makes it hard to engage with immediately

This is the partly the result of the format; large scale light boxes more commonly used in advertising. In fact, Jeff Wall pioneered their use as a personal art medium. Also many elements of Wall's works are staged even though the results look like realism. The emotional remoteness of these images is partly what enables them to forcefully convey the idea of being an outsider, alienated and without power.The large scale and the authority of the format confront us with social realities that I think people generally prefer to keep out of sight and out of mind.

However," Fieldwork" (photo) is not staged, but involves a real professor and his First Nations assistant, a kind of documentary reference. The figure in the earlier Morning Cleaning, (second photo), though, is someone the artist hired to enact the role of cleaner, much as one might hire an actor for a role.

Jeff Wall Fieldwork. Excavation of the floor of a dwelling in a former Sto:lo nation village, Greenwood Island, Hope, B. C., August, 2003

Women's Work at the Stedelijk

Works in various media from the permanent collection of the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam: mural-sized tapestry by Pae White; porcelain trophies by Vika Mitrichenka; a bronze by Germaine Richier and two powerful portraits in oil by the great Charley Toorop.

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