Monday 13 July 2009

Tate Liverpool

I went to the Tate in Liverpool today to see the "Colour Chart" exhibition. I love the Tate, and would highly recommend a visit if you're ever near Albert Dock. Perversely though - and I've found this before - I found one of the free exhibitions more interesting than the one I paid nearly £8 to go and see! The exhibition I paid for was "Colour Chart". It was comprehensive and quite interesting, but for my taste a lot of the work was a bit ... well, minimalist. The exhibition I LOVED though, was "This is Sculpture"! The exhibition has work from dozens of artists, including Picasso, Degas, Epstein and Dali (yes, the famous lobster phone!) But my absolute favourite piece in the Tate is still Ron Mueck's "Ghost" (left). Mueck specialises in creating super-realistic sculptures of the human body, changing scale to produce often quite disconcerting images. This is the only one of his sculptures that I have seen in "real life", and it's amazing. What I love about this is the vulnerability he has captured in the girl's expression and posture. The fact that she is about six and a half feet tall somehow seems to make it all the more touching. Even when you're looking at something else in the gallery, you're aware that she's still there - she has such a haunting presence in the room. Maybe that's why it's called "Ghost"!

6 comments:

  1. wow! that's an awesome sculpture! i thought it might be a mime artist until you said 6 feet tall :)) so real and that pose ... i think most of us can relate to that...

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  2. His work is stunning Luthien - so much detail - even down to the fine hairs on her arms. Though apparently the girl who modeled for this was at pains to state that her arms weren't actually as hairy as the sculpture :)

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  3. Based on your fabulous description I think I would have enjoyed the free exhibition as well! What a truly haunting sculpture!

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  4. Thanks Sharon - actually, though I know it's never the same, if you're interested you can see a lot of it online -
    http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/CollectionDisplays?venueid=4&showid=2279
    (go to the bottom of the page and click through the rooms!)

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  5. Thanks so much for the link Angie, I really appreciate it! Isn't the internet wonderful how we're able to visit exhibitions from far away - sure save money on the plane ticket!

    I really liked the "Standing Man", that was my fav♥

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  6. What an amazing sculpture!! I can see why you like it so much!!

    I know what you mean about exhibitions though. We went to the Guggenheim a couple of years ago. What a let down!!!

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