isolated poses looking in different directions for the purpose of understandingthe ornithology room at the museum was quiet on the afternoon i visited. with the current trend for the quasi-museological in the art world, the artfully 'animated' array of bird species started to take on the uncanny presence of a contemporary art installation. naturally, i could not resist relating the experience of many preserved, dead animals in a room in a museum to the current retrospective of damien hirst's work at tate modern, london......
the physical (im)possibility of life in the mind of a taxidermista prime example of taxidermy is exhibited in this 'lively' looking tiger - simultaneously both frightening and quite frightful, a curious inversion of the hunter and the hunted…the castle museum's natural history collections, as seen in the old mahogany wood cabinets (above) to the meticulously staged landscape dioramas (some with sound effects), altogether display an exhaustive if slightly eccentric fascination with all things natural and wild. many of the specimens on display are acquisitions from the collections of local edwardian or victorian naturalists - expertly catalogued, neatly labelled & now tamely presented. it reminded me of a time when i visited tring natural history museum many years ago, and 'seeing' (unbelievably, absurdly, curiously) two fleas dressed as mexican dancers…however dear reader, i digress... this museum visit was really an opportunity to see Titian's painting, Diana and Actaeon, in the flesh (the painting is currently on a national tour, cost a staggering £50 million and it was 'bought' for the nation by a consortium of funders). i sat quietly in its great presence for many minutes, but it failed to animate my interest beyond the myth of the young hunter (Actaeon) who stumbles upon the chaste goddess of the hunt (Diana). deep thoughts about Titian the great painter and the great skill of this painting were slightly distracted by two toddlers who found the pattern of the air-conditioning grid on the floor more fascinating. it was perhaps not the admiring, attentive audience that the great Titian would have wanted.Diana and Actaeon is one of six large mythological paintings by Titian (inspired by Ovid’s series of stories, the 'Metamorphoses'), as part of an ambitious commission for King Philip II of Spain - and it would seem that Titian relished the challenge.
Diana and Actaeon, 1556–9, oil on canvas, 184.5 x 202.2 cm, © National Gallery, Londoneven with the protective barrier of 'glass' Diana and Actaeon the painting pulsated with epic drama and spectacle - in sheer scale, in the dynamics of composition, in the lushness of colours and with every florid brushstroke. i sat on the bench, i looked and i observed, and then i began to wonder; Titian may have been a great painter of full-bodied flesh but he was no painter of women.it bothered me that diana had a very small head (for a goddess) and that her legs were out of proportion with her torso (and with each other too, it seems - and, as if my eyes wanted to deceive me even further into finding more faults, i started seeing a third leg?! i take it art historians forego these small anatomical inaccuracies (as we might do when watching a sci-fi movie, the special effects versus continuity, etc)however, when viewed in the context of a museum exhibit (this is a painting that comes with its own personal security guard) i felt compelled to admire Titian's 'Diana and Actaeon' for its art historical significance. by all accounts Titian was at the top of the art hierarchy when he created this magnificent series of paintings, a showman in command of his medium (and his audience) and a wealth of rich patrons, and the art 'critics' of venice praised him (is that an oxymoron?) - does this ring any bells with anyone?however, when removing the lavish 'history' of Diana and Actaeon (expertly provided by the museum to enrich the visual experience) i later began to ponder how an outsider might 'interpret' the dramatic scene.idle thoughts led me to make a comparison of Diana and Actaeon with this quite well-known advertisement from the 1970s (badedas), as a number of visual features are superficially similar - outside/inside retreat, the swathe of the curtain, the private pleasure of bathing, a moment of alarm or surprise, the intrusion - and what might happen next. in fact, a number of the badedas adverts played on a kind of faux-historical tableaux.
however, unlike the hunter goddess diana, who is clearly enraged and will later seek her revenge (in the next episode of the story), the badedas bathing lady does not appear to be in any hurry to reach for her shotgun to do away with the red-shirted voyeur. it's all in the semiotics (reminded of my MA thesis, which was on beauty, women & advertising).when i first saw Diana and Actaeon i was put in the position (or mind) of the King who commissioned it, and from that perspective the painting becomes an object of status, wealth, and with that the delight and desire of looking & owning. the badedas advertisement's original message was [good] 'things happen after a badedas bath' and it has resonances with many other 'luxury' lifestyle advertisements of this bygone era, such as 'imperial leather' and 'milk tray' (the milk tray man). how times (and contexts) change as this advertisement now seems very sinister.when we look at an object or image (as art), into that context of looking comes prior knowledge or cultural experience and this influences interpretation and understanding. what is discussed or written about the art beforehand (and afterwards) is often more persuasive and conveys more meaning than by the simple act of just looking. the viewpoint changes, the viewer changes, the context changes, the meaning changes....In the end, the art of the past is being mystified because a privileged minority is striving to invent a history which can retrospectively justify the role of the ruling classes, and such a justification can no longer make sense in modern terms.John Berger, Ways of Seeing...
life class
a short while back i heard on radio 4's front row a review of life class, a short series of lunchtime life drawing sessions on channel 4, with artists maggi hambling, gary hume, humphrey ocean, john berger and judy purbeck... i didn't watch the original broadcasts but the subject came up again today and i found that the programmes (made by artangel) were still on channel 4's 'watch again' 4OD... so i watched, i listened, and i drew for about two and a half hours... and this is what resulted (all done in a small sketchbook with fineliner pen)..i chose to watch maggi hambling's drawing class first, as she's a voracious drawer...
first up was a few warm-up exercises of 2-3 minutes each; the model had a very chunky physique...
these two life sketches are about 2 minutes each... i couldn't get into the sitting pose, but the model had an intriguing s-shaped standing posture... maggi hambling made a good point about the correct easel position, to have it positioned slightly to the right if you are right-handed (and vice-versa), so that you don't draw awkwardly across your body... i have always told students students this in life classes, as it minimises distortion, your field of vision and arm movements are unrestricted, but do they always listen..?
then, for the long pose, although at about 15 minutes it was short...i smudged the pen marks with a damp finger, ink pen is perhaps not so good as charcoal for conveying muscle tones... next up, a 25 minute class with the artist gary hume..
i was looking forward to gary hume's life class, as it seemed refreshing to have a contemporary artist take a class, rather than some dusty old school type... i was disappointed, and so was he... the life model struggled to maintain a clearly difficult pose and gary started off by saying let's use any old paper as it's the first drawing (there were no warm-up exercises this time)... strangely, in these programmes, although you hear the tutor talking as they are drawing (half the time i wasn't listening, i was concentrating), you don't actually see them draw or see the work as it develops... gary hume made all the right noises with the charocoal, looked for the pattern, the negative spaces, but in the end he actually said 'there is so much wrong with this that i might as well start another one...' clearly, channel 4 didn't do a second take.. i think that he was attempting a very minimalist clean line in his work (as in his paintings), but a stylistic approach ended in disaster (you really do have to draw what you see)....
sorry gary, your drawing really was a bit rubbish...next up, a half-hour masterclass with john berger...
the first pose was for about 12 minutes, and although i found the dark background helpful, the shadows merged so much that some edges were indistinct...... the model was a dancer and had a very androgynous physique, with curious stomach creases... john said let yourself go into the confusion, explore the bodyscape, by making analogies with the landscape, trees, branches...
i really enjoyed the drawing the second pose, again about 12 minutes, although i think the right thigh is a little too long... he said to think in terms of bridges, hinges of the body (it all about forgetting it's a person, it's volume, contours.. analogies really do help)... john berger finished by saying next time go out and draw, clearly, he's a nature lover...next up, a life class with humphrey ocean... one long pose of about 20 minutes...
i always find these sorts of poses uninspiring, the body is slumped, it sinks into the mattress... i found her feet difficult as they were in shadow, and the picture quality on the playback was quite fuzzy (you have to remember that you are not looking at a life-size figure in these classes, it's just a small picture on a screen)... i really liked humphey's relaxed style of teaching and what he said all made perfect sense.. such as really look and take your time (but humphrey, i only have twenty minutes!!), look as if seeing for the first time, it is better to pretend that you have not seen it before, and if it goes wrong don't be afraid to change it, don't stick with the first version.. drawing in ink pen makes it more difficult to change things but thats why i quite like it, you take risks, you trust your judgement, there is no turning back, every mark is deliberated...and lastly, a short class with judy purbeck, an artist with nine years experience of teaching life classes in london...
i really wasn't that happy with this drawing (about six minutes) as i felt i couldn't work it properly out on a small scale (i was using an eight inch square sketchbook)... and i didnt feel the languid style of pose worked with a male body...
this was a better pose, again about five minutes.. i found the left hand difficult to change as i had gone in too early with the dark shadows, any new lines i added just made it even more clunky...
judy purbeck gave us a tough pose to finish, a twist in the hips and lots of foreshortening in the left leg...and only about fifteen minutes to work it all out..! again, i felt that drawing in a small sketchbook didn't give me enough space to define the subtle contours and tones... i noticed that our shot (the camera's view) had much more foreshortening than from judy's drawing position... her drawing was like a rolling landscape...in fact, she talked about looking for landmarks, key points on the body to help with seeing and mapping out proportion, such as the line from an elbow, the knee, a toe..would i recommend this programme if you were learning to draw the human figure? probably not, as all sense of volume and space is lost on a monitor... it's good in that it provides a preview of what life drawing classes and life drawing are like as an activity... sure, there are those who snigger, it's a nude, but if you can suspend your belief, relax and just see the body as an interesting form like any other object, it becomes quite easy over time... yes, it's a challenge, every viewpoint and posture makes for a brand new image, lots of intensive lookingat creases, shadows, undulations, spaces, sketching out and then re-working (even in michelangelo's drawings you can see corrections), looking for errors and changing (but not totally erasing) them, all those wayward fine lines and minor adjustments add life and spirit to the drawing... as maggi hambling said in the first programme, photography is inevitably a dead thing...