I love looking at galleries to keep me inspired. Usually it is non-photographic work, but yesterday I wanted to see Lisa Tomasetti’s Burnt Memory exhibition at Hoopers Gallery before it closed on Friday. The main reason for wanting to see it was because she had collaborated with Oscar-nominated cinematographer Seamus McGarvey. The lighting in the large square photographs was very strong and rich and featured women and children of various cultures in carefully composed spaces. I liked the photographs – quite different from traditionally captured portraits where one of the main features is to see the sitter’s likeness. In these, strong shadows often hid either all or most of the faces.
Later in the afternoon, I went to the Courtauld Gallery for its regular collection including Gauguin, Cezanne, Gainsborough, Van Gogh, Seurat, Eric Gill, Kandinsky and Manet. Each has such a strong style, it’s a reminder to photographers that we constantly need to be developing our own as well, evolving through our lifetime.
The gallery collection includes a number of wedding chests and currently there is an exhibition until May 17 on just this niche item. Exhibition curator Dr Caroline Campbell gave a talk about the items yesterday, explaining how the main two wedding chests on display were commissioned in 1472 in Florence and were the work of a carpenter and two painters.
What makes the wedding chests especially rare is that the sides would feature painted scenes. In the 19th century, there was a school of thought that fine art and decorative arts should be separate, so many of the panoramic paintings were removed from their chests and framed. The exhibition featured a number of these, appearing on the walls as ‘regular’ framed paintings.
The chests apparently would be carried through the streets of Florence when a bride made her way from her father’s house to her husband’s for the first time, as part of the wedding ceremonies. Dr Campbell wondered how this was possible when six or seven experienced art technicians had struggled to get the empty chests to the Courtauld’s top gallery and when originally used, they would have been full of precious items.
It seems quite daft that the workmanship of beautifully carved chests and their painted decoration should be separated. Artists are affected by everything them – from other artists (the Courtauld has a Van Gogh self-portrait with a mutilated ear after he’d had an argument with Gauguin), the social graces of the time (Gainsborough’s portraits of 18th century ladies are shown with their faces demurely away from the artist’s gaze as would have been appropriate at the time) and Lisa Tomasetti’s work on film sets has led her to work with a cinematographer.
It was a brilliant day away from work, finished with beautiful dusk over London. 
by admin
no comments