Floats Like A Butterfly, Stings Like A Bee...

Muhammad Ali (1942-2016) - The Greatest

George Shaw: My Back To Nature

A return to the National Gallery for another show which looks at the darker side of man's interaction with the natural environment as inspiration. George Shaw's My Back To Nature paintings are the fruits of his residency as the National's associate artist. Shaw took as his inspiration works by Coreggio, Poussin and Titian from the National's collection and fused these together with his own teenage experiences of walking through the forests on the outskirts of his home town of Coventry, and the furtive human behaviours which occur there, and the evidence of the activities which are left behind. The works of Titian and Poussin use the forest as a backdrop to depict figures engaged in Bacchanalian excesses, whereas Shaw captures the moment after the excesses, when the revellers have departed and all that is left is the quiet of the forest, and modern traces of their indulgences. 

There is a calm to the paintings, and in marked contrast to those of Poussin and Titian, all but one of Shaw's (of a man relieving himself against a tree), are devoid of human prescence. Humanity is implied in abandoned mattresses and tarpaulins, crude grafitti scarring trees, and beer cans and well-thumbed top-shelf magazines. I like that he reined in these paintings as, given the subject matter, these paintings could have been much more graphic/explicit.

The humble Humbrol enamel paints that Shaw uses create a glossy surface and I was surprised at how versatile they are as medium in a high art context, as well as the varied, subtle colour palette he manages to coax out of them. Also on show are observational ink sketches, and surprisingly, some charcoal life drawings of himself adopting poses from historical paintings in the National's collection. I say surprisingly, as the figure is largely absent from his landscape works. I will most certainly return to this show before it ends in the autumn.

George Shaw: My Back To Nature
until the 30th October
National Gallery
Trafalgar Square
London
www.nationalgallery.org.uk 

Imran Qureshi: Where The Shadows Are So Deep

To the Barbican's Curve gallery to see a dark, dramatic exhibition - Where The Shadows Are So Deep, by Pakistani artist Imran Qureshi. This exhibition is very theatrically staged, and there is real sense of menace with the dark lighting punctuated by the small, spotlit, irregularly hung miniature paintings, and the traces of what appears to be blood spatters on the floor and dripping down the walls. The paintings are exquisite renderings of trees and nature-inspired imagery which take on a darker tone the further you progress into the curved gallery space. The work is a reflection of Qureshi's preoccupation with violence in the world. The very earth itself seems to be bleeding in the later miniatures, as the trees are torn apart and the painting surfaces are spattered with feathery stylised blood. In certain areas the 'blood' is so stylised it takes on the appearance of feathery petals. I liked the introduction of gold leaf into some of the paintings and the way it was reflected by the low level lighting in the gallery.

Imran Qureshi: Where The Shadows Are So Deep
until 10th July
The Curve
Barbican
London
www.barbican.org.uk

Clangers, Bagpuss & Co.

To the Museum of Childhood for a real childhood nostalgia fest in the shape of the exhibition - Clangers, Bagpuss and Co. Lots of happy memories came flooding back and it was wonderful to see the original puppets, animation cells and drawings for these charming animated classics created by Peter Firmin and Oliver Postgate for their company Smallfilms. How cute are the mice and their mouse-organ, and those knitted Clangers?!

Bagpuss - (above), "a saggy, old cloth cat, baggy, and a little bit loose at the seams, but Emily loved him".

Madeleine

Gabriel

Professor Yaffle

The Mice

Drawings for Noggin The Nog, (below).

Ivor The Engine, (below).

The Clangers, (below).

Pogle's Wood, (below).

Mr & Mrs Pogle

Pippin and Tog

 
Clangers, Bagpuss & Co
until 9th October
V&A Museum of Childhood
Cambridge Heath Road
E2