Gerhard Richter

I'm not frightened. I'm not frightened of anything. The more I suffer, the more I love. Danger will only increase my love. It will sharpen it. It will give it spice. I'll be the only angel you need. You will leave life even more beautiful than you entered it. Heaven will take you back.... and look at you and say: Only one thing can make a soul complete; and that thing is love."

~Frederich Von Schiller, "Love and Intrigue"

Reader, 1994

The Mad Square

Modernity in German Art 1910 – 37

National Gallery of Victoria

“Experimental, provocative and utterly compelling...”

Two of my earliest memories of graphic inspirations were László Moholy-Nagy and El Lissitzky and since then Constructivism and later Modernity have been of huge inspiration throughout my career. On discovering NGV latest exhibition entitled “The Mad Square” (Der Tolle Platz), it was a pre-requisite for me to attend. The exhibition name derives from Felix Nussbaum's 1932 painting of Berlin's famous Pariser Platz. 'Tolle' translates to mean both 'mad' and 'fantastic.' which is certainly a common thread, running through the exhibition. The 'square' is approached as a physical space, with representations of the city, as well as a state of turbulence and unrest, which characterises the era.

Felix Nussbaum, Der Tolle Platz, 1932

Aptly the exhibition begins with a screen excerpt of “Das Cabinet Der Dr. Caligari,” which is the story of deadly sonambulist, Cesare, approaching mental illness in a way which forces the viewer to be sucked in and an example of early German Expressionist cinema.

My recently completed university dissertation follows themes of unrest in Weimar Germany, in relation to artists such as Hannah Höch and Marianne Brandt, both of whom feature in the exhibition. A time of turmoil within Germany inspired incredible 'avant-garde' art movements; Expressionism, Dada, Constructivism, Bauhaus and New Objectivity. It was really inspiring to me to see so many points of cultural and contextual reference grouped together in one exhibition, and especially considering their relevance and importance to my own creative development. For me the exhibition combined both artistic, graphic, physical and filmic examples of a whole spectrum of inspiration and as I followed the prominent jagged red arrow around the space I was never disappointed by what was around the next corner.

El Lissitzky, Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge, 1919

László Moholy-Nagy

Aritists featured in the exhibition include: Max Beckmann, Otto Dix, George Grosz, Christian Schad, Hannha Hoch, August Sander, Laslo Moholy Nagy, El Lissitsky
Website

Sir Eduardo Paolozzi; General Dynamic F.U.N

Sir Eduardo Paolozzi

General Dynamic F.U.N

Holden Gallery, Manchester.

A New Exhibition at The Holden Gallery, Manchester features 50 photolithographs and screenprints from renowned artist and sculptor, Eduardo Paolozzi. Paolozzi places disparate images next to each other and finds a connection between the two, however tenuous this may be, the treatment and composition of his prints are striking and a social comment on the world of benevolent technology.

"Thermo-nuclear weapons systems and soft drinks commercials co-exist in an overlit realm ruled by advertising and pseudo-events, science and pornography"

I found the prints intriguing and incredibly contemporary, it is clear to see that Paolozzi (b. 1924) has been a great influence to other artist working on the topic of mass media advertising and consumerism or dealing with the diversity of the image. I find that some of the attitudes expressed in his prints are reflective of those discussed in the documentaries of Adam Curtis, a sinister undertone juxtaposed with a certain 'squeaky clean-ness' are present within Paolozzi's prints and Curtis' documentaries.

After the recently attending a lecture by Vaughan Oliver, I find the exhibition especially relevant, regarding Oliver's discussion of the importance and impact of placing two seemingly disparate images together within a graphic design context. The unexpected connection can create a sense of joy, fear, horror, beauty....or a combination of jarring emotions.

I definitely recommend this exhibition to anyone interested in the semiotics of the image and the potential subversion of that.

see It Felt Like A Kiss