Van Gogh to Kandinsky:Symbolist Landscape in Europe 1880-1910, Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh

***Update 19/9/2012

During my stay in Edinburgh I checked out many muffins in order to arrange them in a way that would match Monet's Haystacks in the Symbolist Landscapes exhibition.  Using a print of the Haystacks as a backdrop, a plate of two muffins was arranged in front and photographed.  This was sent to the National Galleries of Scotland who tweeted it out as below.
 

National Galleries ‏@NatGalleriesSco

Thanks @ProfWhitestick for his Monet's Muffins #SymbolistLandscape photo! Not to mention best Haystack Muffin research! pic.twitter.com/bWQkF4MW

***end of update

 

30th July, 2012

This is a wonderful exhibition of Symbolist Landscapes which was the fashion after the Impressionism phase at the turn of the 19^th Century and early 20^th Century. (http://www.nationalgalleries.org/whatson/exhibitions/van-gogh-to-kandinsky)  

Many classical themes are interwoven into landscapes and while not as clear as Claude they are more accessible in the main from some of the Turner blurs which I can no longer enjoy (http://profwhitestick.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/turner-inspired-in-light-of-claude.html)

Symbolist Landscape exhibition

National Gallery of Scotland

Edinburgh

This exhibition is housed in the roomy galleries of the National Galleries of Scotland in the Mound Complex (Royal Scottish Academy Building adjacent to the Tramlines. For access I climbed the steps and was greeted by a friendly guard who suggested leaving a backpack (full of books from the new Portrait Gallery in Queen St ) in lockers.  The exhibition staff were very helpful and when asked about facilities for visually impaired visitors said there was no audio headset facility at all though there were Tablet driven headsets posts in the rooms with audio input.  (I know one friend who would dread taking his sighted relatives/friends to this one), there had been an event early in the exhibition for visually impaired and if I intended to go to more exhibitions I could get a culture vulture package for 4 ticketed exhibitions.  I signed up and will be going to the other three which are:

Expanding Horizons: Giovanni Battista Lusieri and the Panoramic Landscape

Scottish National Gallery

Picasso and Modern British Art

Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern One)

Edvard Munch: Graphic Works from the Gundersen Collection

Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern Two)

The pictures are varied in size and the artists include many better known for their other works.  This includes Monet, Van Gogh, Munch, Kandinsky, Mondrian, Whistler, Gaugin, Hammershoi and Strindberg.

We wandered around the exhibition and there was much to enjoy.  My companion, who enjoys Impressionism and Post Impressionism, was more animated and rather than pointing out the symbols from the picture labels asked me what I could see.  Monets Muffins may be a highlight of the trip. In this way I was asked what was up, down, left and right and I also found that using anti glare sunglasses helped me in picking up perspective lines in landscapes and town scenes, especially in Copenhagen (Hammershoi) and in Bruges. 

I did not have a pigment analyst to hand but the white pigments are really bright.  Lead White gives a buttery white but this was more of a titanium dioxide white.  In fact the helpful assistant in the shop asked me about the brightness of the exhibition as a whole. 

My sunglasses were on and off.  With the sunglasses I could make out the geometry and the removal allowed me to detect some of the colours.  This technique worked particularly well with Kandinsky’s Church in Murnau and a couple of Van Goghs (The Sower,  and Wheatfield with Reapers)

The Scandinavian input was varied with some Finnish artists working in their myths into landscapes of forests and lakes.  The Hammershoi landscape in Zeeland was familiar as I had driven my father round Zeeland, Funen, Langeland and other islands using ferries and the new bridge connecting Odense with Copenhagen via the Great Belt.  At the National Gallery in London we covered one of Hammershoi’s Interior pictures. 

The notes below were made from the picture labels which were written down by my companion with some remarks which I have been retained.  Monet’s hay stacks look like muffins which I enjoy with a coffee.  My companion mentioned that large print lists were in each room on the benches with the catalogues.  We did not try the audio system and not being able to resist touching a touchscreen discovered that the exchange of letters could be heard between Vincent van Gogh and his brother Theo.

Prof Whitestick between Van Gogh and Kandinsky

Edinburgh

Clytie c1892

Frederic, Lord Leighton (1830-96)

Leighton House, London

Quite bright, telegraph pole in bottom right hand corner

Reminds me of The Cherry Orchard

Tomyris and Cyrus c 1885

Gustave Moreau (1826-1898)

Terror Antiquus 1908

Leon Bakst

State Russian Museum, St Petersburg

Huge painting, figure of woman in bottom centre, bolt of lightning

Woman and a White Horse 1903

Paul Gauguin (1848-1903)

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Trees, three figures, one a woman on a horse

Nocturne with Cypresses 1896

Henri-Edmond Cross

Association des Amis du Petit Palais, Geneva

Diagnol lines (sails), cypress trees

The Lake, Evening c1910

Lucien Levy-Dhurmer (1865-1953)

Lucile Audouy and Galerie Elistir Paris

Horizontal lines half way, very vivid reflection of moonlight

Winter Night, c1900

Edvard Munch

Kunsthaus, Zurich

Eiger, Monch and Jungfrau - Rising above a sea of mist, 1908

Ferdinand Hodler

Musee Jenisch, Vevey

Snow-capped mountains, very very bright. I wondered if this had been painted from Murren in the Interlaken area and it had been based across the valley in Wengen/Grindelwald.  I skied this area mid 1970s.

Grain stacks/Hay stacks, Snow Effect 1891

Claude Monet

Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh

Pair of Large (name of coffee chain) muffins

Tuesday’s Wood 1893

Vilhelm Hammershoi

Ordupgaard, Copenhagen

Flat, big Scandinavian sky

The Lac d’Amour, Bruges, 1904

Fernand Khnopff

The Quay, View of the Quai Long in Bruges, 1898

Henri Le Sidaner

Flemish houses with steep triangular gables, chimneys, canal/water

Amalienborg Square 1896

Vilhelm Hammershoi

Large painting

Can make out quite a lot: plinth, man on horse, railing round plinth, house, windows, roof etc

Royal Galleries, Ostend 1908

Leon Spilliaert

A Beauvais Square by Moonlight c1900

Henri Le Sidaner

The Horses of Neptune 1892

Walter Crane

Couldn’t make this one out at all, though there was plenty of swirls indicating waves and eventually I was persuaded that some parts of the painting were in fact legs of horses.

Man and Woman on the Beach 1907

Edvard Munch

Munch Museum Oslo

Merges faces, beach is at Asgardstrand

The Sower 1888

Vincent Van Gogh

Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

Vision of the Sermon (Jacob wrestling with the angel) 1888

Paul Gauguin

Women on the Cliffs, St Briac 1888

Emile Bernard

Wheatfield with Reapers 1889

Vincent van Gogh

See more with spectacles, very bright

Alpine Landscape 1894

August Strindberg

Painting of Dornach in Lower Austria

Melting Snow, Elgersburg 1906

Edvard Munch

Vonder Heydt Museum, Wuppertal

Woods near Oele 1908

Piet Mondrian

Gemeentemuseum, The Hague

Hockney moment, vertical and horizontal lines

Setting Sun, Sardine fishing, Opus 221 (Adagio) from the series The Sea: The Boats, Concarneau, 1891

Paul Signac

Murnau with Church II 1910

Wassily Kandinsky

Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven

Bavarian church with onion top

Very distorted landscape, bright red top right

Cossacks, 1910-11

Wassilky Kandinsky

Rainbow said to be inspired by Wagner’s Rheingold

Lake Thun and the Stockhorn Mountains 1910

Ferdinand Hodler

Mill near Domburg 1908

Piet Mondrian

Windmill, cut of triangle like lighthouse

Sea After Sunset 1909

Piet Mondrian

Beach at Heist 1891

Georges Lemmen

There is a gift and book shop at the end of the exhibition.  A very helpful assistant asked me how I found the exhibition.  I had found a postcard of the Kandinsky Cossacks but wanted the Murnau church.  We found the picture in a hardback Taschen book of Kandinsky, on sale. We discussed Kandinsky and Bauhaus and I mentioned my visit to the Bauhaus exhibition.   In the main bookshop  in The Mound, a book on Gauguin's Vision of the Sermon is available.  The book is called Vision of the Sermon - The Story Behind the Painting and is by Belinda Thomson. 

Postcards which I bought:

Lake Thun and the Stockhorn Mountains (1910) by Ferdinand Hodler

Oil on canvas, 83 x105.4 cm

GMA1523

Haystacks: Snow Effect by Claude Monet

Oil on canvas, 65 x 92 cm

NG2283

Cossacks (1910-1911) by Wassily Kandinsky

94.5 x 130 cm

Winter Night (c1900) by Edvard Munch

81 x 121 cm

The Sower (1888) by Vincent Van Gogh

73.5 x 93 cm

Book: Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944) : A Revolution in Painting by Hajo Duchting

Other Prof Whitestick posts that might be of interest include:

on Hammershoi (http://profwhitestick.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/two-paintings-and-killing-of-sister.html)

on Picasso: http://profwhitestick.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/picasso-exhibition-tate-britain-13th.html

on Munch: http://profwhitestick.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/edvard-munch-modern-eye-tate-modern.html

on Bauhaus: http://profwhitestick.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/bauhaus-art-as-life-barbican-art.html

on Monet: http://profwhitestick.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/royal-academy-from-paris-taste-for.html

Footnote:

AA Gill reviewed A History of Art in Three Colours in the Culture magazine of this week’s Sunday Times (5-8-12).  Gill did not enthuse about the programme on the colour blue.  Gill mentions the absence of any discussion concerning the Blaue Reiter group which had been led by Kandinsky (and Franz Marc).  I am grateful to a friend who read out this review for me. 

Gill takes the presenter James Fox to task over his choice of colours – gold, blue and white – given that this exhibition in Edinburgh has some very vivid gold colouring in the Van Gogh sun and very brilliant white, I think the technical term of pigment as applied to paint may be more appropriate. 

In heraldry, pedants will refer to gold and silver as metals ‘Or’ and ‘Argent’ respectively.  Non metals are referred to as tinctures.  This is another case for a lead white - titanium white discussion.

Murnau Church - after Kandinsky

coloured magnetic wooden blocks on mild steel whiteboard

8 August 2012

(Prof Whitestick 'Grand Crew' collection)

Bauhaus: Art as Life, Barbican Art Gallery, London

This was my first trip to a show in the Barbican on my own since I lost my sight.  I called the Box Office and they explained what they could offer the visually impaired community.  One of the options was a curator guided visit and this could be arranged with some notice depending on interests and requirements.

With an exchange of emails with Rebecca Oliver, I got a phone call from Corinna Gardner and discussed what I could see and where my interests lay.  I mentioned items I had enjoyed and written about in the blog such as the Zoffany theatre paintings and the sharp lines in Gerhard Richter and also that I had been through parts of Germany in the past and was not unfamiliar with the Bauhaus movement.  I casually mentioned to some friends that I was going and they wondered how I was going to get there.  I decided to do a reconnaissance trip the day before.  (http://profwhitestick.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/barbican-underground-station-for.html )

On 4^th July I arrived at the Barbican Gallery for my tour and Leila Hasham, assistant curator was there to take me round the gallery.  With some 400 items of art, film, photo, design, textile, print, books etc there is a lot to do.  I indicated that I would appreciate Leila’s choice (curators always have interesting tales as they have to do a lot of the research, negotiations and liaisons with authorities) and this is apparent in the end result.

I first went to Weimar in 1979 and visited the city again in the 1980s.  I had been to both Goethe and Schiller houses as well as some of the museums and galleries.  I still have a hardback guidebook for Weimar from the former East Germany (DDR), although I had only been driven through Dessau.  I had, however, been to Berlin often and had studied in Munich. 

My peripheral vision allows me to see shapes and Bauhaus is ideal.  So, if you can make out triangles, cubes, circles and geometry, then Bauhaus may be a genuine pleasure.  I commented on how the Picasso show, Henry Moore’s sculpture and the paintings of Bacon and Sutherland were lost on me.  My colour perception is variable and though I could make out the blue and even reds, I failed to pick up on some yellow on a parchment background.  The lighting was appropriate and the lines in a Sitten sculpture were very clear in my mind, even though it was white on white.  It had a Robert Adam effect that I noted in Osterley House.

White on white sculpture

Bauhaus: Art as Life (3 May – 12 August, 2012), Barbican Art Gallery, London

© Luke Hayes

Many of the drawings were accessible and though some objects were cordoned, most could be approached close up.  I was also struck by a setting where the Bauhaus furniture was arranged with a backdrop of the Gropius study office view through perpendicular windows.  I commented to Leila that in Edinburgh there was an installation of Rennie McIntosh furniture against a backdrop of Mrs Cranston’s Tea Shop in Glasgow.  Bauhaus, however, is more angular than McIntosh and has no gimmicky chairs.

There are some benches to sit on so after my tour I went round again using some landmarks which Leila had described in our 90 minute tour. 

On my return home, Leila had already sent me text files of the captions and some photos of the installations for the show.  Leila also kindly wrote down the caption note and artist on some items which I liked.  In going round a second time, I viewed a black & white film with gamelan music chosen by Nagy’s daughter.  There is a little background music in the show but it does not grate.  Surprisingly my mobile phone went off twice on my second round (reception not great)!

The gift shop has much to offer in textiles and books including a Bauhaus styled catalogue.   I bought some Brio magnetic wooden blocks to try out as I am quite messy with acrylic paint these days.  The post card choice is mainly restricted to photographs, which was part of the Bauhaus training.  I did however buy 3 post cards:

Paul Klee: watercolour from the Gropius portfolio

Oskar Schlemmer: Figurationen, 1923
Laszlo Moholy-nagy: z 1’ 1922/23

Overall, a wonderful tour and a relaxed 2^nd round on my own with a chance to fix some of the works in my mind.  I have listed below the items which I particularly liked.  Leila Hasham noted down the names and titles for me and a friend has read and typed the notes.

Room 1

Lyonel Feininger, Studio Window, 1919
Lyonel Feininger, Gelmeroda II, 1920

The Feininger woodcuts were used in the Bauhaus prospectus or manifesto.  The movement also moved away from traditional Gothic German Fonts in order to develop clearer fonts.  (Richard J Evans’ books on German history are available on RNIB Talking Books and are a useful chronological accompaniment to the Bauhaus emerging in 1919 to its end in 1933)

Room 2

Hedwig Jungnick, Gobelin with abstract forms 1921-23

Tapestries can be difficult for me but the textile and weaving patterns are all clear.  I discussed weaving with Leila on what I had made out in the Dovecote Gallery in Edinburgh.

Tapestries with clear lines

Bauhaus: Art as Life (3 May – 12 August, 2012), Barbican Art Gallery, London

© Luke Hayes

Adolf Sommerfeld, Swivelling Bookcase, 1922 from ‘Sommerfeld House’

The house was destroyed but a relative in the family has loaned this attractive bookcase.

Wassily Kandinsky, Questionnaire, 1922-23

Kandinsky’s shapes reminded me of an eye test I had taken the week before in Judd Street.  Geometric shapes are used in these. 

Kandinsky circle - 'landmark' in exhbition

Bauhaus: Art as Life (3 May – 12 August, 2012), Barbican Art Gallery, London

© Luke Hayes

The captions which are in large print for visitors is as follows:

A Kandinsky Painting is in this view.

Circles in a Circle, 1923
Oil on canvas
Philadelphia Museum of Art. The Louise and Walter Arensberg Collection 1951

When Kandinsky arrived at the Bauhaus in summer 1922 he was moving away from the amorphous forms and mottled colours of his Expressionist canvases and towards incorporating harder-edged geometric shapes, influenced by his contact with Russian Constructivists in Moscow during the War. In its use of intersecting lines and overlapping geometric shapes, Circles in a Circle has affinities with work of Moholy-Nagy. Kandinsky, however, employed a wider range of colour to create a sense of movement and depth and believed that the circle had a ‘link with the cosmic’.

-end of caption

Paul Klee, Tomb in three parts, 1923

Klee has beautiful colours and his work is well known.  He was also influential in the puppet and theatre design with Oskar Schlemmer.

(For those with screen readers, note how JAWS has switched the pronunciation of Kandinsky and Klee.) 

Wassily Kandinsky, Circles in a circle, 1923

This is a cordoned picture and can be observed in one of the illustrations. 

Alma Buscher, Building Blocks, 1923-24
Gunta Stölzl, Wall hanging in black and white, 1923-24

Oskar Schlemmer, Triadic Ballet, 1923
3 figurines: These can be viewed as reconstructions from the sketches. 

Gunta Stölzl, Five chairs
Anni Albers, Wall hanging 1926
Gertrud Arndt, Wall hanging, 1927

Wassily Kandinsky, Development in brown, 1933

This item is rather sombre and there is a hint of rebirth of the movement as members of the school relocated to the USA and Hampstead in London. There is an organised walk from Belsize Park to Frognal illustrating the buildings associated with Bauhaus émigrés following the 1933 Nazis in Power.

The 2 items which I found myself on my 2^nd trip and asked other visitors to note were as follows:

Charlotte Voepel, Poster Design for Nivea, 1928
Nivea Crème zur Hautpflege

The tin of Nivea caught my eye as it was an iconic image.  The brand name and rights had been dispersed following the First World War (Henkel lost Persil in USA and UK markets)

Xanti Schawinsky, Circus stage and clown

I was attracted to this beautiful sketch and though the name was difficult to pronounce, I rembered Xanti, listed as a student of the Bauhaus.  

My perception:

There was a rotating spiral with a shadow in a triad of puppets which I liked a lot. 

Triadic Ballet

Bauhaus: Art as Life (3 May – 12 August, 2012), Barbican Art Gallery, London

© Luke Hayes

The following is taken from the captions sent to me by Leila with this photograph of the reconstruction:

Oskar Schlemmer
The Triadic Ballet Turc I (Pink Series), 1922 (remade 1995)
Silk, velvet and felt on wire figure
Bühnen Archiv Oskar Schlemmer, The Oskar Schlemmer Estate and Archive

For Schlemmer the costumes were the most important part of The Triadic Ballet. He designed the 18 with the full intention that they constrict the wearer’s range of movement and thereby generate new dance expressions. The ‘figurines’, as he termed them, were formed from geometrical shapes made from stuffed and padded textiles as well as papier mâché, wood, glass and metal.

- end of caption

There is a film clip showing a spiral object which has a kinetic effect.  In fact the film reminded me of some images I see first thing on waking which suggests Charles Bonnet Syndrome, something that often affects people with significant sight loss. 

There are many fine examples of metal craft of everyday objects such as ashtrays, kettles, teapots, cups and saucers.   There are also showcases of glass and ceramic objects.  The town of Jena is famous for glass and optical glass products and brands such as Schott Jenaer Glas and Karl Zeiss Jena were well known. 

The Bauhaus movement inspired so much design changes and it is hard to realise that many of these early objects were in fact handmade objects.  While some in the movement wanted to link design to industrial production there was always some friction within the Masters and some of there students. 

A note in the Barbican What’s On include a gold metalwork exhibition as follows:

The Goldsmiths Company

1^st June – 28^th July
Goldsmiths’ Hall, Foster Lane, EC2V 6BN
www.thegoldsmiths.co.uk

Conclusion:

This is an exciting exhibition.  I have not read any reviews though I heard some favourable comments on the radio. The live guiding system in operation obviously works and my access to one of the curatorial team was much appreciated.  Leila had guided me in a way where I was able to remember most of the “landmarks” in the show.  The clear lines of the Bauhaus are pleasing even to those with visual impairments and I would recommend this show to anyone interested in this important short period of invention in what were difficult times.   

Many thanks to Leila and the Barbican Gallery for making this exhibition so accessible! 

I have described the way to the Barbican from the Barbican Station on the London Underground in my earlier post: http://profwhitestick.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/barbican-underground-station-for.html

For access details contact :

Rebecca Oliver
Licensing & Access Manager
Barbican Centre
www.barbican.org.uk