A bigger splash

There are many exhibitions to choose from if you live in a big city and one of the main attractions of London is the richness and diversity of its art scene.
I am a great fan of the Tate Modern. I love the building to begin with, I love the location, overlooking the river Thames on the Southwark side and I love the curatorial choices, they rarely disappoint. I am intrigued by curation, generally, and the Tate curators are able to put together thought provoking shows.
I finally went to see A Bigger Splash: Painting after Performance and it was as good as it promised to be. I was originally sceptical as one of the names mentioned was that of Jackson Pollock and in all honesty I am not a great fan of Pollock and American Expressionism: the misogyny of these men, their alcohol addiction, their attitudes and,  generally, their work, does not endear them to me. But, my own prejudices aside, it was people like Pollock that really began to pay attention to art making as a process and the shift from the canvas to the body as canvas was initiated by them.
The exhibition is packed with works by artists and performance makers, including my favourite, Cindy Sherman about whom I posted earlier.
The first part of the exhibition surveys (all my quotes are from the catalogue) "the agitated relationship between performance and painting internationally from the 1950s to the 1980s". The second part has different rooms featuring the work of just one artist, chosen "as a way of considering the impact of experiments in performance, theatricality and masquerades on expanded approaches to painting from the late 70s to the present day".

This is not an exhibition that will please people who have set ideas of Art and Beauty - note the capital letter. The whole point of the exhibition is to ask questions and unsettle those ideas. The exhibition will at times shock, at times disgust, at times intrigue you, at times move you beyond words. I loved room 9 with Karen Kilimnik's exploration of femininity through a nostalgic and obsessive engagement with opera and ballet. Her installation Swan Lake induced a reverie and a reconnection to my own childhood's love of fairy tales. I also loved A bigger splash, David Hockney's painting that gives its name to the exhibition. Again, it had a special resonance with me, as I love splashing about in water: before going to the Tate I went to my local swimming pool and was mesmerised by the quality of light pouring in through the sky light, I felt quite transported. Of course the point of the painting is that "the burst of water in the pool resembles a spontaneous splatter of painting", hence the juxtaposition with Jackson Pollock: Pollock and Hockney open the exhibition, in room 1, aptly named "an arena in which to act".

A good catalogue, for once not outrageously expensive, accompanies the exhibition, with a very thoughtful introduction by Catherine Wood.
Oh I took pictures finally, I walked around with my Nikon and took images of snowy London and some of the Tate. I even managed to take a picture of one of the art works, until the warden stopped me - I genuinely did not know it was not allowed.

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(All photos in this post are taken by me. The last image is a self portrait and was taken with a Bronica)