Review by Elle:
The Kurt Schwitters exhibition opens tomorrow at The Tate Britain. Flo and I went down there with our family for a bit of a sneak preview last weekend.
I know I've said it before but I love The Tate - both Flo and I have been members for years. The Tate membership is something that I couldn't recommend more, as it gives you access to the gorgeous member's bars where they serve subsidised wines and you can go to see all the exhibitions as many times as you want. It's a lovely thing, to be able to take your friends, family or a date to see something knowing it's pre-paid and it makes you get out more to see more art.
Kurt Schwitters was working during and after the second world war mostly in Germany and Britain. His early works are my favourites: intimate collages made up of adverts, bus tickets, newspapers and photographs or prints. Putting on my best philistine hat, my first reaction to these was simply to enjoy the elegance of old typographies and advertising bits and pieces. Look out for a cutting of old Basset's Liquorice Allsorts packaging. My inner ad-geek was very happy.
It has become very fashionable for exhibitions to contextualise the artworks as part of the curation by including swathes of historical documents. I'm often a little put off by this (again with my philistine hat on), and would prefer to enjoy the gallery without feeling that sense of guilt - that I'm not doing it 'properly' by ignoring the wordy bits. I have to say though that in the case of The Schwitters exhibition the non-art materials were actually very interesting, adding depth and personality to your experience of Schwitters - the best bit of this was a Dada sound recording of hi s voice. We also liked the inclusion of letters to the Royal Academy about 'alien' art not being properly credited following on from when artists fled Germany to England and were put into camps to properly ascertain who they were. My advice: Go to see this with a lot of time on your hands and someone equally as interested as you.
I'm a big Tate fan but am more likely to be found hanging out at the members bar of The Modern than The Tate Britain of a weekend. Every time I go to The Tate Britain I'm reminded of how much I love it, how great the permanent collection is and how nice it is to be in a quieter environment. If you fancy the livelier bustle of Tate Modern afterwards, you can always get The Tate Boat between them and then mosey over to The Maltby Street market for afters.
There's a lot of great collage to see at the moment. I'd also recommend Perspectives on Collage at The Photographer's Gallery - another great space. Flo and I came away from our weekend feeling inspired. I've got a new piece of writing that I'm working on (watch this space), whilst she set about making personalised collages, that could be used for birthday cards or thoughtful gifts.
Collages by Flo:
I made this collage using pages and adverts from an old Vogue and a newspaper page that was incongruously about the situation in Lebanon (note to self - read piece of newspaper before using). That said, a newspaper cutting can firmly locate something in a specific time, just as the type sets of Schwitter's collages do, and there is a poetry to that.
Once I had made it I cut a square out of an A4 white page and used it as a sort of view finder to find the best section of the collage and keep it. If it was for a card I would mount it with thicker card to give it some depth.
I might use this one as a cover to my little moleskin notebook.
Flo and Elle London Blog Best London Blog Art review Tate Tate Modern Membership Tate Boat Kurt Schwitters at The Tate Review collage collage birthday card Flo and Elle London Blog Best London Blog Art review Tate Tate Modern Membership Tate Boat Kurt Schwitters at The Tate Review collage collage birthday card Flo and Elle London Blog Best London Blog Art review Tate Tate Modern Membership Tate Boat Kurt Schwitters at The Tate Review collage collage birthday card Flo and Elle London Blog Best London Blog Art review Tate Tate Modern Membership Tate Boat Kurt Schwitters at The Tate Review collage collage birthday card Flo and Elle London Blog Best London Blog Art review Tate Tate Modern Membership Tate Boat Kurt Schwitters at The Tate Review collage collage birthday card Flo and Elle London Blog Best London Blog Art review Tate Tate Modern Membership Tate Boat Kurt Schwitters at The Tate Review collage collage birthday card Flo and Elle London Blog Best London Blog Art review Tate Tate
