The Engine

THEO VAN DOESBURG AT THE TATE MODERN, LONDON, MARCH 2010 One question this exhibition begs is: who is this exhibition really about? Not just Piet Mondrian (1872-1944) but the works of the Bauhaus, Moholy-Nagy, the Surrealists intrude upon van Doesburg's work. Perhaps van Doesburg might modestly be described as a cypher meaning an entire outlook on life, an avante garde moment beyond which is an entire sunrise replete with sea monsters. This is a retrospective of the Dutch de Stijl art group best known for the works of abstract artist Piet Mondrian, van Doesburg's older mentor. Theo van Doesburg (1883-1931) was an artist entrepreneur, today practically forgotten. Every art movement is summarised by it's leading artist, but de Stijl possibly more than others. Van Doesburg's own art is often painfully derivative of Mondrian's but his range of influences, activities is vastly more eclectic. Theo van Doesburg comes over as an eccentric figure, inventing pseudon...

HENRY MOORE AT THE TATE BRITAIN, MARCH 2010  The new exhibition at the Tate Britain is a relatively condensed retrospective of the life and work of Henry Moore (1898-1986). The exhibition traces the origins of Moore's art in his interest in the very early history sculpture which he saw at the British Museum while a student in London before WW1. Moore's work was shaped by pre-Columbian art, sculpture especially, but also by the architectural sculpture of the Sumerian and Biblical era. Moore served in the trenches during WW1, narrowly escaped death, was traumatised by the experiences, as was his entire generation. WW1 politicised Moore, pushing him to the Left in politics. Moore supported the Republican side against Franco during the Spanish Civil War, opposed the rise of fascism generally, later helped to found CND, providing it with its quintessential image of a mushroom cloud formed into a human skull.  Moore's Modernism evolved out of an unusual set of interests,...

CHRISTEN KOBKE, DANISH MASTER AT THE NATIONAL GALLERY, LONDON, MARCH 2010  This exhibition trumpets Christen Kobke (1810-1848) as the greatest master of the Danish Golden Age, which more or less means Danish history from the defeat at the hands of Lord Nelson at the Battle of Copenhagen (1801) to Denmark's defeat by Prussia in the Second Schleswig War of 1864.  At this time the states of Schleswig and Holstein were lost and incorporated into the new German Reich under the leadership of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. Christen Kobke's life was lived against this backdrop of militarism and militarisation. Denmark was ruined financially by the Napoleonic Wars and Kobke lived during the period of economic reconstruction that followed.  This period was ended by the succeeding wars against Prussia. By 1864 Denmark had virtually ceased to be an independent country, becoming instead a satellite of a Greater Germany.  Christen Kobke's father was master baker in The Citad...

Delaroche and Lady Jane Gray: National Gallery, London, March 2010  Paul Delaroche (1797-1856) is an inherently historical, then dramatic artist, spinning his own history in the guise of English history, as a consequence of sensitive recent events in his homeland, France. First and foremost is his work The Execution of Lady Jane Grey (1833). The painting evokes immense pathos, then the spectacle of Lady Jane Grey as innocent victim groping for the execution block, an account at variance with official history that states that Lady Jane Grey went to her death with dignity. Delaroche, by the standards of his own day, was a consummate researcher of his own works. This was hardly the norm in Delaroche's time. Delaroche's work is possessed of vivid historical verisimilitude. Hardly a brush stroke is apparent in this painting. There’s a tangible objectivity about Delaroche's work, as if the artist himself had to somehow disappear in favour of his realist technique.  Supp...