Upon entering the Poetry and Dream exhibition at the Tate Modern,
Bankside, I was instantly overwhelmed with a large room packed with works and
big crowds. My eyes were drawn everywhere all at once trying to take in the
fantasy and dream seeping through each piece. They all deal with surrealism in
different ways whether that is through sculpture or painting. The exhibition
featured an array of practitioners both contemporary and succeeded from Jannis
Kounellis, a Greek artist and Alberto Giacometti, a Swiss artist best known for
his sculptures. The paintings are placed in the in the middle section of the
room, around eye level, all the way round so there’s need to strain your neck
looking.
The overall purpose of the exhibition was to the showcase
the different way artists had dealt with the same subject, surrealism, throughout
the years. Even though the subject matter has stayed the same, the outcomes
have all been different and the thought behind each has been different as
obviously no two people are the same.
My two favourite two pieces from the exhibition were
Germaine Richier’s Water, 1953-4 and
Man Ray’s Cadeau, 1921. Although both
dealt with the same subject matter and are both sculptures they evoke differing
emotions and thoughts.
Water depicts a female
figure sitting down with her hands by her side. We conclude through the information
available that the head of the women is a Roman or Greek terracotta amphora found
on a beach (No Author, 2007,
www.tate.org.uk,).
Richier incorporating found objects in her work was a common occurrence as she
lived in the countryside (No Author, 2007,
www.tate.org.uk).
Water looks as if it had been
distressed and manipulated whilst drying resulting in a rough and prickly
surface that resembles a rocky mountain. These textures arouse curiosity like
what was Richier trying to convey about the women through the textures. There
was only one more piece of important information available in terms of context
and history. It is metaphorical or symbolic of both a female and water being
sources of life (No Author, 2007,
www.tate.org.uk,).
But the fact that it is located in the Poetry and Dreams room we can only
assume that it represents something bigger that a women sitting. It
demonstrates her thought process and how she highly viewed women.
Man Ray’s
Cadeau
features an iron and fourteen gold coloured nails as part of a twentieth
century art movement joining juxtaposing everyday objects. In turn rendering
them useless in their original forms and transforming them into art pieces. The
nails glued to the most important part of the iron eradicate its primary
function making it purely visual. The one on show at the Tate Modern is a
replica made in 1972 (No Author, 2007,
www.tate.org.uk,).
I find that it does challenge the boundaries of art and everyday life. It is a
controversial piece that is visual as well as cerebral if you don’t accept it
at face value.
Bibliography
Website
Exhibition
Tate Modern, Poetry
and Dream, 02.09.13
