Fresh eyes. It’s rare that you get to see the work of an artist, or group of artists, that seem so familiar, with fresh eyes. Turner. Monet Twombly at Tate Liverpool http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-liverpool/exhibition/turner-monet-twombly-later-paintings,  manages this majestically. Bringing together the work of artists who are so well known, whose work is mass produced endlessly on mugs, tote bags, umbrellas etc etc and more etc, with an artists whose work is a little less well know is a bold move and this exhibition pulls it off successfully.   

 

I felt that I knew the work of Turner and Monet quite well but I was wrong: I just thought I knew their work, but it was more an idea of what they were like, y’ know Turner does the skies and Monet does the lilies, Twombly, does he do sort of abstract work? This exhibition not only made me an avowed Twombly fan but it also gave me a real appreciation of the work of Turner and Monet as progressive artists in their own time. The things I found that tied the work of all three artists together was colour and movement: Turner with his brooding skies full of motion and danger, Monet with the almost luminous yellows and oranges on a ever shifting surface of water and Twombly with rages of colour exploding all over the place. Absolutely loved it all. And this is rare for me. Without wanting to sound too (or more pretentious, your choice) I found the combination of the works of these three artists together incredibly inspiring and well thought out. To my eye you could see clear lines running through the work of them all that tied the exhibition together. Separating the work out into loose themes (Atmosphere, the vital space) was a great way to hang it but the thing that was refreshing was that it gave you space to enjoy the work and come up with your own interpretation. It’s something at Bury which we have championed for a long time: Gone is the restriction imposed by the A5 interpretation panel instead there are booklets to access if you wish and simple guidebook that does just that, guides rather than dictates. Wonderful.

 I was secretly pleased to see so many people fly by the Twombly’s to get to the next Monet and Turner, to ignore the power and dynamism of his work as it left them free for me to enjoy even more. I loved the little additions of a word here and there or an allusion in a title to a wider theme. Vibrant, alive, thought provoking: I’m now a total Twombly fan boy. 

 

 

As an added bonus i was there as part of the Creative Tourist www.creativetourist.com #blognorth event I was given a press pass which meant I could take pictures. I still think everyone should be able to take pictures of everything in exhibitions but I’m guessing the old trouble “copyright” still rears its ugly head. Question: If I can find a picture of every work in your exhibition with a simple Google image search, is it still necessary or productive is disallow photography for the normal punter? Discuss. Marks will be awarded for all essays handed in on time.

I think I’ll save the wonderful sculpture exhibitions on the other floors at Tate for another post as they were so stunning they deserve their own little corner.
If you get chance I would highly recommend a visit to this exhibition, at £12 its pretty steep but well worth every penny