Form Through Colour: Josef Albers, Anni Albers and Gary Hume

Another interesting textile exhibition at Somerset House featuring the work of Josef Albers, (who's work I featured recently), alongside that of his wife Anni, and also contemporary artist Gary Hume. It is good to see their work translated into the different media of textiles, (for rug and textile design company Christopher Farr), although textile design and print is primarily what Anni Albers is well known for from her time with the Bauhaus.

The exhibition consists of the artists' most well known works interpreted as rugs, tapestries and textiles. One thing that struck me about the exhibition was the intensity, and in turn subtleties of colour used in the final textile works. You get a real sense of the skills required by those dyeing the fibres, as well as those weaving them to produce faithful replications of the original artworks. The resultant rugs were highly tactile and covetable.

Anni Albers' textile designs are based on geometry and are still fresh and contemporary. They fit right in with current faceted and geometric design trends for a variety of products in textiles for fashion and interiors. They were so forward thinking at the Bauhaus. Anni originally wanted to be a painter, but only males were allowed to paint at the Bauhaus school and she was persuaded to study textiles under Gunta Stolzl. Paintings' loss however, was textiles gain. I love the movement in her work, and the way her designs make the eyes move across the surface of the textiles.

The maze-like Meander rug above, was one of my favourites in the exhibition and clearly left an impression on me. Travelling home I was reminded of it later, when passing through Warren Street tube station and seeing the decorative London Underground tile design below.

I love Christopher Farr's tapestry interpretations of Josef Albers "Homage To The Square" series. It is good to see the colours more muted, and subtle compared to the vibrancy of his original prints and paintings.

It is also interesting to see the work of Gary Hume who is known for his use of colour and household gloss paints, exhibited alongside the work of the Albers. Here his Door paintings series are sumptuously recreated in cut and layered wool, which gives them a different dimension visually as they are more texturally interesting than the glossy sheen of the original paintings.

Form through Colour: Josef Albers, Anni Albers and Gary Hume
until 31st August
East Wing Galleries
Somerset House

Valentino Autumn/Winter 2014: Butterfly Couture

 

 

It's strange to be thinking of the autumnal drizzle, and cold of winter in light of the summer heat that we are currently experiencing, but here are more beautiful butterfly fashion creations courtesy of Valentino's A/W Animalia collection. The embroidered dress trimmed with feathers, as well as featuring embroidered butterflies above, is just stunning. Valentino had already flirted with the butterfly theme in their Spring Summer 2014 Collection (below), creating this very sexy dress, but really went to town with it for this current Autumn collection. The designers are Maria Grazia Chiuri and Pierpaolo Piccioli.

Most fashion designers usually reserve butterflies as a theme for their summer collections, so it is unusual to see them being used to adorn garments during a period of the year when they are less active. These garments will provide a nice splash of colour throughout the forthcoming grey, cold, days which are the Autumn/Winter season.

 

 

 

 

 

I like equally the stark contrast of the tailored pieces below, which are simpler, more tailored and less fussy than the embroidered pieces above.

 

 

Details of the embroidery and print

 

 

Some accompanying Valentino butterfly accessories. The ad campaign for the accessories below, was devised and shot by controversial photographer Terry Richardson. It is also his tattooed arm that features in the ads. Great use of pattern (print and tattoo), against a plain background.

 

 

 

 

Still with the Valentino butterfly theme but not part of the A/W 2014  collection is this interesting fashion drawing for a Butterfly themed dress created specifically for singer Katy Perry by the design team at Valentino.

Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs

 

It was with a sense of anticipation and much excitement that I went to Tate Modern to see this exhibition of the paper-cut works by the master, and original 'Scissorhands' - Monsieur Henri Matisse. It didn't disappoint either.

It was a really uplifting, joyous blast of colour and shape created from paper, and for all the innovations that he brought to the medium of paint through his rivalry with Picasso, I got the impression that he was somehow "freed" through his work with these cut-out pieces.

 

Much has been said about the exhibition and also Matisse's deteriorating health, which saw him confined to his bed for long periods, and having to employ a bevvy of pretty young girls to paint and arrange the paper shapes that he cut to his specifications. One of the elements that impressed me was the sheer scale of some of the pieces, especially those towards the end of the exhibition, which indicated that his artistic vision and ambition weren't hampered as a result of his bad health.

 

It was good to see the original collages from his book Jazz, and the pin holes in the paper indicating how he would pin the cut shapes to a background, rearranging them many times before he felt content enough to glue them down. Some of the collages still had the pins in which gave the pieces another element of interest for me. It was also interesting to see the short films of Matisse at work cutting, and to see the huge scissors that he used in his work compared to the small ones that I use.

 

It was also interesting to see the pictorial evidence that he lived with these works surrounding him in bed, in his studio, letting them grow organically across his studio/bedroom walls adding and subtracting various elements until he was happy enough to have them glued down. In this it could be argued that he was creating the prototype of what has come to be known as "installation art".  

 

I was impressed by Matisse's cut-out designs for stained glass, and thought the collages translated well to that medium with the light giving them another dimension. Seeing the collages translating to textile designs for the chasubles of the priests for the chapel in Vence was also interesting, and it would be good to have seen some footage of the priests wearing them and the designs of the chasubles animated by human movement. From memory favourite pieces that stood out were Zulma and Creole Dancer, for the scale, colour and movement. 

The shapes of the birds in the Oceania pieces on display made me want to get to work cutting more of my own series of bird pieces.

 

Despite it being titled Blue Nude IV, this piece was the first in the series attempted by Matisse and I like the fact that his struggles with it are clearly visible in the charcoal outline drawing, and also the multi-layering of paper to complete the silhouette of the figure. This gives it more interest to me than the other three Blue Nudes of that series.

 

 

I loved the vibrancy of the colours, the torn edges and placement of some of the papers in The Snail, which takes the piece close to abstraction.

A very short piece of footage of Matisse drawing with scissors can be seen by clicking on the link.

 

 

Henri Matisse: The Cut-Outs 

until 7th September

Tate Modern

Bankside

SE1