London galleries - highlights (08/04/12)

Euan Uglow at Browse & Darby - Radical Clarity
I was lucky to spot a small announcement for this exhibition in Galleries magazine, and the works included really made the visit all the more worthwhile. Having studied some of Uglow's works in college (I had chosen several figurative paintings to reference purely on aesthetics), I hadn't really gained a true understanding of his practice until recently; some of the featured paintings really consolidated my feelings towards the work. 

Euan Uglow - "The Quarry, Pignano", 1979-80

In particular, "The Quarry, Pignano" had been a key influence in one of my A-level projects and I had admired Uglow's use of colour and strong form. However, as with all paintings, it is not until you see it face-to-face that you really grasp the fleshiness of the paint and its application. "Sue Wearing a Blue Swimming Cap" and "Marigold" also caught my eye with their bold composition and subtle line.

Chris Orr at the Royal Academy - Lithorrgraphy
After a wander around the Johan Zoffany exhibition, the smaller Tennant Gallery offered some light relief from Georgian conversational painting in the form of a selection of humourous prints in Orr's seemingly distinctive visual language. I found them engaging for the collage and illustrative elements; also for the childish captions and the overt nostalgia. The imagery largely reminded me of Ladybird children's books (Things to Make and Do, Read it Yourself, etc.)

Chris Orr - "I Want to Dress Up Like a Green Grocer", 2000

I was also very much reminded of a documentary I had watched about Eduardo Paolozzi and his early obsession with collage which of course led to the Bunk! series and more.

Eduardo Paolozzi - "Collage", 1953

Royal Society of Portrait Painters at the Mall Galleries - Annual Exhibition
A highly rich and diverse amount of work was on show here from both established and unknown painters, with an inevitable tendency for realism. With such a saturated market for photorealism in portaiture, the paintings that appealed to me most were a little more experimental with material, media and composition; they just seemed much more characteristic of the individual subject. 

Notable work included:

Malcolm Ashman - "Mask"

Tony Noble - "Portrait of a Man in a Striped Shirt"

Graham Flack - "Elliot II"

Sally Cutler - "Camberwell Heads"

Picasso and Modern British Art at Tate Britain
Several of my favourite works were shown - including "The Frugal Meal", "Girl in a Chemise" and some excellent (and previously unseen) pencil portraits, and I enjoyed the highlights on Picasso's work in theatre design. The general feeling of the exhibition was a little lacklustre for me, but after seeing "Guernica" at the Reina Sofia in Madrid a few years ago, perhaps my expectations were a little high.

Pablo Picasso - "Girl in a Chemise", 1905

Pablo Picasso - "The Frugal Meal", 1904

That said, the rooms that displayed the works of Francis Bacon, Graham Sutherland and David Hockney alongside Picasso's were a pleasant surprise and very informative to me in detailing his respective influence upon each artist. The Hockney prints were a particularly welcome sight.

David Hockney - "The student: homage to Picasso", 1973