No Lost Love, Blue Paintings by Damien Hirst, Wallace Collection

The Wallace Collection hosts an exbition of paintings by Damien Hirst. As announced, they are blue. The word is here taken in its both senses, as a colour and as a mood. The palette is fading from deep navy blues to creamy pastels. The recurring skullhead evokes a dark state of mind, death and despair. These still lives show a beautiful melancholy. The space is defined by geometric lines : a table, walls, it reminds me of Francis Bacon’s cage composition. But in this case, the spatiality is almost abstract. Damien Hirst’s famous dots appear sometimes, to create depth. They act like a word that the artist declines according to his subject. Untill january 24th.

http://www.wallacecollection.org/collections/exhibition/77

Miroslaw Barka, How It Is, Tate Modern

Miroslaw Balka has installed his work in the Turbine Hall. You enter in a huge black container. You’re in the dark, with strangers, and you can hardly see anything. The artist invites the viewer in a slow motion dimension. Out of time and space, the waiting begins. Using the title of one of Samuel Beckett’s book, How It Is, the polish artist explores the same themes as the writer. Fear, wait, loneliness, are felt by the viewers during his journey on this particular stage. Drowned in this black void, you stand between the unknown, the darkness and the familiar, yourself. It’s impressive and unexpected. Until April 5th.

http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/unilevermiroslawbalka/default.shtm

Glenn Brown, Gagosian

The english artist shows paintings and sculptures at Gagosian. He has a very specific touch, layering the brushstrokes to reveal a flux in the paint. The medium is like liquefied on the panel, as a result, the figures seem to remain in constant movement. The artist tries to show what’s beyond flesh. The dematerialized figures live their own life trough these distorsions. Wooden Heart could be the sculpture of Pinocchio’s skullhead. It is made of very thick strokes of paint, which unveil the artist’s creative process : the layering of strokes creates a flow within the material. With Nausea, the artists challenges Velasquez’s Portrait of Innoncent X, and Bacon’s version as well. Glenn Brown turns the body upside down and removes the head. The figure is floating in the air, like in Christ Returns to the Womb and Song to the Siren. These melting bodies become a new kind of icons. The artist explores myths whilst testing the properties of his medium. Untill November 26th.

http://www.gagosian.com/exhibitions/2009-10-15_glenn-brown/

Anselm Kiefer, White Cube

German artist Anselm Kiefer is shown at White Cube. The Hoxton Square space hosts The Fertile Crescent. These are large scale paintings inspired by a trip to India. Doomed buildings are depicted in heavy landscapes of blueish greys, dusty browns and creamy whites attacked by sand. The paint is so thick it seemed to be cast. Pieces of broken jars are tied on the canvas, the rest is scatered on the floor. They enhance the feeling of ruin and desolation. The Mason’s Yard space displays Karfunkelfee. Dipthycs and triptycs show a background of dark woods. Dense thorns are enclosed in the glass vitrines. Upper, a torn shirt, a book, or a little plane is like floating inside the frame. This serie evokes a spiritual ceremony, a mysterious pagan rite, or even witchcraft. It is both attractive and threatening. In his work, Anselm Kiefer writes a beautiful poetry of darkness, both serious and mysterious.

http://www.whitecube.com/exhibitions/kiefer/

John Baldessari, Pure Beauty, Tate Modern

John Baldessari is a major conceptual artist living in Los Angeles. The show is a retrospective, including works from the 1960s to 2009. John Baldessari’s practice takes a new turn in 1970 with the Cremation Project, in which the artist burns his former works. He makes tabula rasa. The display pays tribute to the artist’s formal simplicity. Years after years, all his experiments seem to gather on his latest works, the mix of photographs and painting, the use of color, the mutiple frames. It is a very coherent whole. The exibition contrast with Pop Life, next door. John Baldessari’s practice differs from Warhol’s. The Californian artist intend to remove himself from the act of painting, by hiring a sign painter. He hides his face behind a hat for selfportraits, whereas the Newyorker spreads his signature as much as he can. In two opposite ways, both artists challenge the power of images. Tate plays contrast, and displays two radically different sides of today’s art.

http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/johnbaldessari/default.shtm

Pop Life: Art In a Material World, Tate Modern

Is it a fair ? An auction ? The best selling artists are gathered at Tate Modern : Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst, Maurizio Cattelan,… Their works are worth millions. But the price is not the concept. In their practice, they play with the bounds between life categories. Is the artist’s life part of his work ? What’s the difference between art and design ? These are the kind of questions asked by the works on display. If modernity was keen on separating art/high from the masses/low, postmodernity flattens them. Art becomes accessible to everyone. If you couldn’t afford Takashi Murakami’s $100,000 Flower painting at Gagosian, you can always buy the stickers in the museum gift shop. Since it becomes more approachable, art is a part of everyday life and vice versa. As the TV screen on wich is shown Macy’s Thanksgiving parade, the material world is getting thinner. The rooms are sorted by artists. We start with Andy Warhol, again and again, then the followers. Keith Haring’s Pop Shop is open, you can buy badges and tee shirts. Martin Kippenberger’s 1993 exhibition in Centre Pompidou first room is reconstitued as well, Candidature à une Retrospective. The artists explore radically different ways and materials, however, selfportraits are numerous : Gavin Tuck, Ashley Bickerton, Jeff Koons, Andrea Fraser… Regarding artist’s role in the reign of pop, selfrepresentation is always a good way to say « I create, therefore I am ». I really liked the exibition. The atmosphere is exhilarating, the works are appealing : Takeshi Murakami’s Kanye Bear is absolutely kawaï, Hirts’s use of diamonds in Memories of/ Moments with you is amazing, Pruitt & Early’s room is gold painted and speakers play their music… It gives you really good vibes. Just like Alice, follow the Rabbit (the one on the poster).

http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/poplife/default.shtm

Robert Mapplethorpe, A Season In Hell, Alison Jacques Gallery

Packed like sardines in a crushed tin box, an arty crowd gathered inside (and outside) the Alison Jacques gallery. This was the opening of the Mapplethorpe exhibition. Patti Smith, poet and singer, was there to pay tribute to her friend. Her performance was beautiful. A few words, poems and song, it was simple and honest, just like the artist. You can feel the love she has for Mapplethorpe in her voice. The latter’s photographs here focus on sacred and profane. The controversial artist represents himself as a demon, among crucifix, pentagones, guns, skulls or frogs. These images depict a photographer fascinated by religion and its evoking power. In the side space are displayed rare collages from 1968-69, both simple and poetic.

http://www.alisonjacquesgallery.com/robert-mapplethorpe-season-hell-opening-performance-patti-smith-october-e-45.html