Edvard Munch: The Modern Eye - Tate Modern, London

19^th July 2012

This exhibition is on show in Tate Modern until 14 October 2012. 

Munch ‘The Scream’ has often been in the news. Munch made several copies of this work and one came up for auction recently.  One of the Oslo paintings has been stolen more than once and this has only increased the Munch name to a much larger audience. 

Several years ago I was at a private view of a major Munch exhibition in the National Gallery.  The Scream was on show with much of Munch other works.  I still have the catalogue somewhere.  I was sighted at the time. 

I had visited Oslo in midsummer and in December when sighted and the contrast between the two seasons reminded me of the north of Scotland during the same periods.  Since I lost my sight, I had visited Oslo for a long weekend in the early summer, when the days were getting longer, though it was still rather cold on the Oslo fjord. 

Munch had a standard Scandinavian outlook if one believes in stereotypes.  Studying plays by Ibsen and Strindberg makes one dismiss some dark detective stories popular on TV just now as lightweight.  Munch had many problems over health, family and his failing eyesight.  I was particularly interested in this aspect.  Marcus Dickey Horley from Tate sent me the room guides and picture labels in advance and I could work out rooms of interest.  These centred on his reworking of paintings, self portraits, theatre work with Max Reinhardt for the Berlin Kammerspiele over Ibsen’s Ghosts and the eye drawings.

Room 1

This room had many small artworks, including self-portraits and photographs.  The photographic work is too small to make out much.  There is an old clip of a black & white film and a longer reel in a darker area.  Some works which I enjoyed and discussed were:

X42024  self-portrait

X42025  self- portrait

X41983  self-portrait

Room 2

This room is laid out with reworkings of paintings as if they were placed opposite.  Initially we zigzagged across the room to compare and contrast.  Eventually we followed the perimeter of the room. 

X41712  The Girls on a Bridge

X40573  The Girls on a Bridge

The Girls on a Bridge is a famous theme of Munch, with the colours of the dresses being almost discernable to me against the bridge and the background trees and shrubs.

X40572  The Sick Child

N05035  The Sick Child

The Sick Child is another theme of Munch, considering some of his close family died from tuberculosis.

X40571  Kiss on the Shore by Moonlight

X40566  Kiss on the Shore by Moonlight

X41982  Ashes

X41984  Ashes

X40585  Two Human Beings, the lonely ones

X41839  as above, cordoned off

Room 3

Very small pictures

Room 4

Munch had been experimenting with cameras and distortions of perspectives and as this section is called Optical Space, it was interesting to note how my peripheral vision picked up some of the lines.  One sensed the horses coming at one; the workers leaving en masse put one in the frame; and the The Yellow Log provoked a remark: “Ah, Hockney!” from both of us, much in the same manner as one would say: “Ah, Larkin!” whenever Hull University is mentioned.  (Ref. Alan Bennett and The History Boys)

X40626  Galloping Horse

X40623  Thorvald Lochen – angular

X40630  Red Virginia Creeper

X40945  Street in Asgardstrand – girl bottom centre

X40631  Murder on the Road – face at bottom

X40627  The Yellow Log

X40629  New Snow in the Avenue

X40624  Workers on Their Way Home

X40628  On the Operating Table

Room 5

This is a section on Stage.  I had been looking forward to this but found some of the background on the set design rather off putting and nothing like as pleasing as Picasso or even Hockney for that matter.  These are the paintings depicting the setting of Ibsen’s play Ghosts (which I haven’t seen performed on the stage itself). 

The rooms have odd angles making distorted cubes and a really unsettling wallpaper, which is a recurring theme showing some deterioration in Munch’s vision.  I sometimes get strange patterns when faced with old-fashioned anaglypta wall coverings, where the seams of the paper had been badly laid out producing strange lines.

X40670  Man and Woman by the Window with Potted Plants

X40583  Puberty

X40669  Man and Woman – cramped

X40672  The Artist and his Model

X40668  The Murdered

X40635  To the Sweet Young Girl

X40630  Jealousy

X42258  Death Room

Room 6

Weeping Woman -  5 of them!

X40678 is one of them

Also a sculpture

Room 10

X40705  The House is Burning

X40706  The Splitting of Faust

X40708  The Fight

X40707  The Fight

X40709  Uninvited Guests

X41966  Street Workers in the Snow – wire around

X40710  Sailors in the Snow

Room 7

Very small photos

Room 8

Starry Night is a well-known painting and I could make out the stars.  There is also a head in the lower part of the painting, though the body has a shadow projecting into the centre.  This is a very nice composition.

X40695  Man with a Sledge

X40696  The Sun

X40701  Kristian Schreiner Standing

X40699   Starry Night – head and shadow showing

X40693  Children in the Street

Room 12

X40733  Portrait in Bergen

X40734  The Night Wanderer

X40735  Self-portrait with Bottles

X40737  Self-portrait

X40738  Self-portrait between the Clock and the Bed

X40565  Self-portrait with the Spanish Flu

X42324  Man with Bronchitis

Room 11

This room has many ‘disturbing’ pictures of Munch ‘reflecting’ on his deteriorating vision after suffering a haemorrhage in his right eye in 1930.  The haemorrhage was in his good eye and thus increased the distortion, as he painted both himself and his eye in quite close detail. 

My friend found it rather disturbing watching me take a close interest in the paintings of Munch’s eyes.  This friend of mine has known me as a sighted person and probably thought my ‘seeing’ these pictures would be disturbing.   Munch has painted many extraneous lines which people with impaired vision sometimes get on good vision days and bad vision days.  These are distortions caused by the brain trying to interpret different information in good eye / worse eye conflict.

It would be interesting if Tate Modern, the RNIB and perhaps The Royal College of Ophthalmologists could organise a short workshop based on perceptions of vision.  Several ophthalmologists have voiced their own opinions on sight loss to me over the last 11 years and one sometimes gets the impression in some blind charities that they do not always appreciate the broad spectrums of sight loss and how it affects cognitive function.  Such a symposium may put art, medicine and the visually impaired on a better balance.  If you agree with this, lobby your eye clinic, art gallery and blind charity. 

X41989  Self-portrait with Wounded Eye

X40740  Disturbed Vision

X40747  Artist’s Injured Eye

X42276  Disturbed Vision

X40749  Artist’s Injured Eye

X40756  Artist’s Injured Eye

X40754  Artist’s Injured Eye

Conclusion

This is a very interesting, though disturbing, exhibition as it reflects many dark themes.  There is a lot to appreciate in this exhibition which has been “organised by the Centre Pompidou, Musee national d’art moderne, Paris in cooperation with the Munch Museum in Oslo and in association with Tate Modern, London.”

Postcards that I bought include:

The Girls on the Bridge 1927

Oil on canvas

New Snow in the Avenue 1906

Oil on canvas

Street in Asgardstrand 1901

Oil on canvas

The Yellow Log 1912

Oil on canvas

Starry Night 1922-4

Oil on canvas

Self-portrait 1895

Lithographic crayon, tusche and scraper

The original paintings are in the Munch-museet in Oslo.

Travel tip:

The Bank side exit from Blackfriars has lifts operating from both north and south tracks down to the ticket hall.  Though there is still construction work on the doubling of the Thameslink, access to the Embankment is straightforward and the Tate Bank side turbine hall can be reached after a short walk downstream, keeping the river on your left hand side. 

Damien Hirst - Tate Modern

19^th July 2012

I navigated this show on my own after the Munch exhibition.  Declining any audio and turning my friend’s offer of reading any captions, I wandered around and only got a bit lost in the Butterfly Section. 

Whatever your views on Conceptual Art or installations in general, the Damien Hirst show is an experience for visually impaired people with a cane.  The beginning reminded me of shapes and boxes much in the style of Boetti.  There was an early work which illustrated some aspect of a physics lesson: a hairdryer turned up with its draught supporting a ping pong ball, a precursor to the physics demonstration of the hovercraft and “frictionless” travel.  I liked a corner piece with what appeared to be colour boxes and which reminded me of some 3D Frank Stella work. 

There were a lot of polka dot pieces which have long been fashionable from repetitions elsewhere such as Kusama and Richter (squares) . Some of the polka dots were quite large and on closer inspection they were saucepans laid out in a line, resembling an upmarket kitchen fitted with Le Creuset ovenware.

There were also a lot of fish specimens which were mounted in showcases.  In the centre piece was a shark in a glass case.  At this point an American Guide asked me what I thought.  I had been recognised! (Thank you Dr J) The good Dr J has been exchanging emails with me over portraits and has made a special study of an Edinburgh born (Stockbridge) artist.  

I then got slightly lost but passed large sections of wall covered in reflective squares which gave a kinetic effect on movement.  I found the cows and calf in a pickled state and moved into an upgrade of the hairdryer demonstration.  This was a large beach ball being supported by variable wind currents.  I was sorely tempted to use my cane to ‘shift an equilibrium’ of the installation.  Near this was a large revolving wheel and what appeared to be a more static wheel. 

I then entered what appeared to be a High Street pharmacy chain: drawers and large flasks of coloured liquids, a service counter and pay point.  My cane detected some footstools on the floor arranged in a square.  I asked a guard what they were and he replied “honeycombs”.  He was standing next to an airlock which led into a tropical room with butterflies.  In the centre were bowls of a sugary substance (I assume) for attracting the creatures.  Several butterflies passed by and I could feel them beat their wings and move into my field of vision. 

It was time to rendezvous with my friend, who had arranged to meet me at the exit.  Several installations were revisited and I found many areas of wall cordoned off with some reflective patches on them.  The last room had 3 Gothic arched windows with tiny stained glass window effect.  There was a white statue of a naked woman who had sprouted wings.  Is this religious symbolism at the end of the retrospective of this enfant terrible (and rich) artist?

At this point my friend spotted me and I indicated to ask he wait a minute in order to buy postcards.  I approached one of the staff in the gift shop inside the show and asked for help in getting postcards of what I could remember.  She was very helpful and I managed to get 4 postcards from my descriptions and I bought 2 more (there is a 6 for 5 offer!).   

I have no idea of what I saw regarding some of the items I described.  This is my own impression and I have asked a friend to type up the details of the postcards.

In the case of the Munch exhibition I had gone with a friend and had obtained the room guides and picture labels in advance.  Marcus from access had arranged this.  This exhibition, however, was pure self indulgence on my part and though my friend thought I had finally flipped, I enjoyed it.  It also goes to show that one should never be snobbish about what is or is not art.

The postcards are as follows:

Arg-Glu 1994

Household gloss on canvas

58.4 x 53.3 cm

Mayfair Oeuvres d’Art Ltd

Beautiful, amore, gasp, eyes going into the top of the head and fluttering painting 1997

Household gloss on canvas

213.4 cm diameter

Astrup Fearnley Collection, Oslo, Norway

Boxes 1988

Household gloss on cardboard boxes

Dimensions variable (the piece is intended always to be fabricated new each time it is exhibited; it is a fixed number of boxes that may take any form)

Collection of the artist

Loving in a World of Desire 1996

Painted MDF, steel, air blower and beach ball

74.5 x  249.5 x 249.5 cm

Prada collection, Milan

Tate Modern:Boetti and Kusama Exhibitions

In January I had been encouraged to go to the Yayoi Kusama exhibition at Tate Modern by Linda Bolton, who wrote a guest post for the blog and has a good understanding of how much a visually impaired person can enjoy some modern art.  Without being specific, Linda said I would enjoy it. (We have since exchanged views on the exhibition.)

I contacted Marcus Dickey Horley at Tate Modern saying that I would try to visit and that having found out how to get there on my own, my hip problem meant that I would have to go nevertheless with a friend.  Marcus came back suggesting that I ought to also take in the Alighiero Boetti exhibition which had just opened and that if I needed any assistance to let them know.   Luckily Stephen (who had taken me to the Gerhard Richter Exhibition) offered to take me. He had seen the Kusama show and had not been too impressed. Another friend said the reviews did not make him want to take me though nevertheless offered to take me to the Zoffany Exhibition at the Royal Academy instead. 

The Boetti and Kusama exhibitions are on Level 4.  This can be reached by escalator or by lift (elevator)  We spent about 4 hours at Tate Modern:  viewed the Boetti exhibition, had lunch, viewed the Kusama, had coffee (cappuccino is an art form on level 6) and went to the shops and viewed the level 2 area which is outside and reached from the embankment.  I am hoping to go again to the exhibitions but these are my first thoughts and memories to which I have added some notes taken from a recording which we made of our conversations.

Visiting exhibitions or shows has, I am told, had an influence on my painting.  Some friends claim to detect Richter/Hockney influences in some of my work.  I am showing a painting I did over 2 weeks.  Val was showing me the application of some pigment with a palette knife.  I thought one of my paintings could do with an off centre ocean so I worked some “blue” giving a tactile effect to it in the process!

Azure - Bay

 © Prof Whitestick

Alighiero Boetti: Game Plan

Boetti was born in Turin, which is famous for cars, high technology and a movie (The Italian Job) with Michael Caine. Boetti employs many materials and designs objects and collages and what could be described as framed art work.  Some items are very large and I could make them out from a distance. His ideas are worth a “second look” and I was glad that Stephen noticed a few repeating themes which I could later identify.  Indeed, Boetti decided to form his own group after rejecting Arte Povera and there is a chart which has all the members of his group with identifying marks which were shared but had a unique combination.  This was laid out in a grid with simple geometry which I could detect. Boetti’s meticulous drawings are on display and the clear angles were discernible as were the final sculpture. 

In a scene reminiscent of the Gerhard Richter “Tote”, there is a body laid out.  It is, however, Boetti sunbathing in Turin and framed by panes of glass in the back. This body is made from ceramics.

1000 Rivers

Boetti illustrates the futility of measuring everything and seeking to classify the length of rivers and order them.  Issues such as where is the source, is the left bank different from the right bank and what happens in a delta are raised with running the names of the rivers together.   Boetti collaborated in this with his wife Annemarie Sauzeau.

Maps of the World

In one of the rooms there is a series of world maps which were made in Afghanistan.  Boetti had travelled extensively during the pre Soviet invasion in 1979 and gave work to men who embroidered large tapestry maps and weaved rugs.  Boetti designed and others carried out the work.  In one of the world maps the oceans were coloured in pink and not blue.  The story was that the Afghans had no idea of the concept of oceans, being landlocked and they had a lot of pink to use.

From school I can remember that for a map there has to be a minimum of 4 colours. This allows borders to be clearly marked.  The maps had flags of the nation states and Boetti had noted changes of state names and politics. In a map of the UK there was a Union Flag (Union Jack) over England + Wales, Scotland was a blue grey while Northern Ireland was orange with the Republic coloured with the tricolour. This was in 1969!

28^th March

The above was written down a few days after my visit and these notes are from a recording which I made with Stephen. This won’t win any prizes as we were not sure when the recorder was running and my mobile phone, also in my shirt pocket, picked up some interference.  

The title of the “Show” is Gameplan and this refers to the play Boetti makes on many techniques. After the 2^nd room there is no chronology and the show can be enjoyed by wandering around. We nevertheless followed the route for the most part and stopped at items which we both wanted to explore in more detail.

Boetti established a “classifactory” process where he would initiate, design and then leave others to complete.  In his first solo exhibition in Turin in 1967 he made objects out of industrial materials including corrugated cardboard, aluminium, varnished wood, fibre glass, steel rods, wire wool, spaghetti  an lighting devices. There are assembled piles of varnished wood range from yellow to cobalt dark shades.  Stephen noticed about 40 clusters.  I could make out the overall shape but missed out on the shades of the wood. On leaving the room I noticed a pair of flashing lights on either side of the door, they said Ping and Pong and flashed one after the other. The symbols chosen for the group resembled “Bassetts Dolly Mixture and liquorice Allsorts!”

X38479

X38945 Stretched cloth 2x3 metres with a 2m hand rail in front.

X39052 Lithograph Showman

A chessboard with squares of about 2 inches made of rusty steel with squares of tracing paper giving the chessboard effect. I noticed this on my peripheral vision when navigating to an item hanging on the wall.

Order and disorder is a subject where Boetti has formed letters from the Italian and mixed them up in sketches and later used the results for other works.

X38350 - 2m square formed from paper dots arranged.

X38338 The sighted vedete.

X38635 Boetti has assembled a montage of glossy magazine covers from Vogue, Economist, Elle , Scientific American, Il Mondiale, Le Figaro but these have been drawn on paper with pencil from issues of 1990.

X38395

In talking about the maps of the world I made a comment about the Hajj Exhibition maps of the Middle East and an alternative projection other than that of Mercator.  Regarding the Afghans not knowing the colour of the ocean, there was a programme on BBC Radio 3 on Schubert settings of Goethe’s poetry of Sicily and some sea descriptions. Schubert had never seen the sea and had only visited the Austrian lakes.

Postcards:

lo che prendo il sole a Torino il 19 gennaio 1969 (Me Sunbathing in Turin 19 January 1969)
Guatemala 1974 4 photographs
La Mole Antonelliana 1970-75 - 7 stamped postcards

Yayoi Kusama

Kusama was born into a middle class Japanese family and used materials from the family nursery and horticultural business to use as artist’s materials which were in short supply.  She also made use of sacks.  She moved to USA and in some way predates Andy Warhol by 3 years in painting by repetition.  This is obsession par excellence and her pen strokes when repeated and assembled form patterns which I could recognise.  Any scientist familiar with Wave Theory would recognise peaks, troughs, beats and both sound and light effects (Young’s slits with single slit and double slit)

To say that Kusama was obsessive is putting it mildly.  In some of the work there is definitely a single theme of bits of male anatomy. Everything is apparently in what Grayson Perry called Herms.

Notes from the recordings:

Room 7

Series of repetition themed items with a collage of airmail stickers. Kusama had to be supported secretly by her family and the collage in 1962 has the theme of letter writing as the point of communication. 

Room 10

Kusama adjusts to being a voluntary In-Patient in a hospital. Using the hospital as a base she returned to running a sculpture studio.  The accumulations series which had resulted in a motif has by now changed to snake like coils or as Stephen said, like entrails.

Revived soul 1995. Acrylic on canvas X34402

This was probably the first item we enjoyed. It may have been that we were tired and it was after lunch.   This is a large painting triptych 1.5 m by 4 metres. Black background with dots applied. The dots vary in size from a pin prick to dots about 12 mm across. This gives an undulating effect rather like the folds of a curtain. The effect is like snake skin, though when I saw this from a distance it seemed clear enough but in the installation it is not possible to view it in any other way than from an angle. There is an assembly of what appear to be cushions of various sizes piled up.  The cushions have paint applied to the fabric and some spray paint on the edges.

Room 11

Kusama has by now (1980s and 1990s) returned to painting with acrylic on canvas. Installations were multi-canvas thus “extending the visual field”. There is something haunting about these paintings and in some I could imagine an eye. 

Earlier work of Kusama had shown eyes with caterpillar eyebrows.  Her repetitions are by now of the polka dot or tadpole variety.

Yellow Trees 1994 Acrylic on canvas X34380  Brown/yellow on black 1.2 m by 4 m

The final installation is a big surprise! This is one of two which I enjoyed and seemed to be popular with younger people and families.  There is some basic entertainment with the use of polka dots in the dark with some UV lighting picking up the polka dots. The exhibition has by now come alive for me and I enjoyed the last few rooms. 

In summary the Kusama was a very slow burn and the obsession can grate unless you can pick up the visual tricks. The last installation is the culmination and one enters the lit world after having been at a slight advantage within a dark room with polka dots, mirrors and a maze type path which, I suspect, disorientates the others but we cane users are used to tapping and navigating our way round obstacles.

Postcards:
Late-night Char is Filled with Dreams 2009
I Want to Live Honestly, Like the Eye in the Picture 2009

Gerhard Richter – Panorama : Tate Modern, London

Update: 20th December, 2011

Further to my original post, Tate Modern arranged for an after hours access visit to the exhibition on 18^th December, 2011.  This was led by Marcus Dickey Horley of Tate Modern and we had the exhibition to ourselves for well over 2 hours.  Marcus personally greeted everyone and met and made sure departures went smoothly. 

Galleries often have to host corporate events in the evening, so it’s very much to the credit of people like Marcus at Tate Modern who arranges these events so that there is a complete hassle free access to what is a stunning exhibition.  I found out on reflection that by about Room 5/6 one can get a bit of an overload as one progressed through the exhibition and the crowds.

In addition to myself, there was one other visually impaired person, two wheelchair users and another disabled person.  Including carers, chaperons, etc there were around 12 people in total.

Group gathers around Candle (Kerze) with Marcus talking about the painting.

Marcus was able to tell us about the meticulous planning that went into the exhibition, down to fridge magnet models for the paintings and glass pieces.  The assembling of the exhibits was also taken with great care regarding lighting, context and positioning of the very large paintings with some of the smaller ones. 

One of the amazing aspects of Richter’s work is that he continued to paint in a photographic way while experimenting with other abstract art and the use of glass, mirrors in providing some dynamic or even kinetic image on passing by.  This was something I hadn’t appreciated at the time though I did note some of the visual effects his artwork had.  It was also interesting to hear other peoples’ views and how they perceived such artwork.  Various names such as Richard Hamilton and Duschamp and Corbusier were mentioned as the various exhibits were discussed. 

In the room where Richter’s Number 4096 is displayed, there are two large panes of glass in the centre of the room and as we moved around the room, one of the participants was able to give a description of what he saw as he looked between the two panes of glass.  I also discovered that my encounter with the ventilation grills (cane) in front of Silicate may have been intentional as there are covers over many of the ventilation grills and it may well have been planned that this painting was placed above the ventilation grills as a reflection; reflections are a theme of Richter’s works in painting, seascapes and horizon lines, so this may well have been intentional, though I doubt if they considered some visually impaired person hitting the grill with a cane, as the image does have a jarring effect on my peripheral vision. 

Professor Whitestick using a festive cane to demonstrate ventilation grill symmetry on Silicate.  Marcus to the right.

Marcus also told and elaborated on the story of the mystery movements of some of the glass panes and the steel ball (Kugel), that inevitably gets ‘kicked’ around the exhibition!  One of the rooms had many paintings to do with the Bader Meinhof terror attacks in West Germany in the 1970s, while the final room is referred to as the cage, though it has nothing to do with being in a cage or with Max Weber.  It is, in fact, a tribute to John Cage, who wrote a piece of music which has a prescribed piece of silence (4 minutes 33 seconds).

This was a very informal gathering and my thanks again to Marcus for arranging such events so that we’re able to share our own experiences as each of us have slightly different accessibility requirements.  We continued our discussion at the end, when our group sat and chatted about access to the arts, retail and travel. 

Many thanks again to Marcus and Tate Modern for showing us around and also for taking us ‘back stage’ on a touch tour of the turbine hall walls to the parking area.   Marcus can be contacted by phone on 07733-110-244  or by email Marcus.DickeyHorley@tate.org.uk

end of update


Tate Modern is located in the old Bankside Power Station and the building has been adapted to form gallery space including use of the turbine hall.  I have been in “working” turbine halls in Cruachan (hydro), Chapelcross (nuclear) and many thermal power/desalination plants.  These spaces are cavernous, as your ears soon detect.  I had been to Tate Modern before with a friend about 8 years ago and enjoyed the visit.  Recently, I have been aware of Tate Modern on travelling on the Thames Clipper and crossing the Blackfriars Bridge by train.  So last week when another friend suggested we go to the Gerhard Richter exhibition currently on, I agreed.  We went via the Southwark Underground station and I may try to do this journey on my own next time by counting the railway arches overhead!

On arriving, I was pleasantly surprised when Emiliana at the desk asked if I could make use of the touch screen audio tour.  I tried it and although I could not navigate the screen, Emiliana gave me details of facilities should I return on my own.  This was a kind gesture as we had not sought any particular assistance.  My friend had been twice before to the exhibition and is used to reading out captions and describing items which I obviously miss and listening to images which I perceive.  We must have spent 2 hours going round the exhibition. 

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

Richter used a variety of techniques in his art, so a lot of the early paintings seem like photographs, some appear as figures and many are totally abstract.  Quite a few are very large scale and as my friend was reading a long caption I got ‘lost’ in the painting itself, so to speak.

Gerhard Richter was born in Germany in the 1930s and there are themes such as World War 2, Bombing of Dresden and Cologne, East/West German Angst as well as other topics.   The following are notes my friend scribbled down on a piece of paper and rewrote as we were having lunch in the Friends’/Members’ Room.

Mustang Squadron:  I can make out the line of planes with a titled horizon and what appear to be fields below.

Tote – the dead: my friend has written this with an intrusive ‘r’, making it torte.  I could make out a block (could be ice, could be cheese; turned out to be masonry) with something underneath.  A pair of feet indicate it’s a body which has been crushed by masonry from a bomb.  (I note a connection with the artwork of John Issacs at the Wellcome Collection.)

Tisch: there are two figurative artworks – tisch (table) and stuhl (chair).  These remind me of the Hammershoi painting which was described in the National Gallery in October.  To some extent, this is an ‘interior’ genre and I recognised this type of painting in some of Anton Henning’s work. 

Grey beams (grauestrahlen): we had some problem in reconciling the title.  I thought my friend said ‘green beans’ and he himself thought the beam implied an architectural feature!  On a bit of catechesis, I said that the German title had to do with rays of light and we both realised the work referred to beams of light.  This reminded me of a test for the visual field where one’s vision is checked using a device where you have to indicate when you note something appear on the screen.  It’s like playing Space Invaders in a darkened room! 

http://www.gerhard-richter.com/art/paintings/abstracts/detail.php?4581

Himalya: we had some fun with this one, as it’s a monochrome work with irregular shapes.  While on second study it could be a mountainscape, my first thought was of a lady with a wide rim hat and long black hair standing in profile against a snow-covered hill.  Given my loss of central vision and reliance on peripheral vision, this is like a gestalt moment for the brain and I still have a vision of Jenny Agutter playing the soppy role in The Railway Children.  When I mention it to other people they agree with me. 

Alps II: more mountain work

4096: colours.  (http://e.tate.org.uk/shop/do/Prints-Posters/Gerhard-Richter-Poster-4096-Colours/product/48579)

This is an absolutely stunning piece of art and somehow links, in my mind, to the human genome, which again is described in the Wellcome Collection.  Richter has taken 1024 and used four types of paint to produce an entrancing painting.  Geometric shapes at a distance still stand out and it reminded me of one of the tapestries which had been woven at the Dovecot Gallery in Edinburgh.    You can get posters of the painting in the Tate bookshop. 

Grey streaks

Juni (June): this is an abstract painting with some red colour similar to that used in Richter’s version of a Titian painting of the Annunciation.  (I made a joke about the pronunciation of Titian and the painting entitled Tisch, but it went over the head of my friend though allowed me to remember both the abstract painting June and Richter’s version of the Annunciation.  I am reliably informed that this is an example of building a schema.)

Room 12 of the gallery has a space entitled “The limits of vision”.  Two paintings in particular were noted by me: Silicate Silikat, which provide some visual exercise for both those with or without sight loss.  One in particular had an extra feature for me as it was located above a ventilation grill.  Many of the paintings have a security cordon and my cane was able to make contact with the ventilation grill below Silikat, which added to the slight unnerving image which my peripheral vision picked up.  This was an unintended touch tour!

The above notes were collated after having been through the eyes, ears and hands of several people.  I am going back to this exhibition by kind invitation of Tate Modern and will endeavour to report back any other notes that I make.  I think I ought to invest in a decent digital recorder, but one still has the problem of tagging the notes to the right painting.  This is a working post and will be revised over the next few weeks.  I’ve tried to make links to both Tate Modern and to some of the images which are available on Gerhard Richter’s website: http://www.gerhard-richter.com  The exhibition runs till 8^th January 2012.

Many thanks to Emiliana and my friend who took me and wrote down my comments and observations for posterity!