Two Exhibitions at the Tate
Millais (1829-1896 ) at Tate Britain until January 20th 2008
Louise Bourgeois (born 1911) at Tate Modern until January 13th 2008
Both these artists vividly reflect certain assumptions about the role of art in the centuries in which they have lived. For Millais and his wealthy patrons, art must reflect what is beautiful and worthy. In contrast, the work of Louise Bourgeois has attracted collectors and buyers by the exploration of certain sexual and psychological themes and the ability to shock. To crudely summarise, it would appear that dreams in the Victorian era have given way to nightmares in the twentieth century.
At the Millais exhibition one makes ones way through rooms showing the different phases of his career, from the Pre-Raphaelite period to his late portraits and huge picturesque landscapes. One can only wonder at such a prodigious talent and output. In the first room, the intricate detail in the portrait of the drowning Ophelia, has the aura of a medieval tapestry re-envisioned, as it was executed from life: the pool and surrounding trees were painted in the open air in Surrey and indoors the model, Lizzie Siddal, clothed in an antique silver dress, reclined in a bath, barely warmed by the oil lamps set beneath it (at great cost to her health).
The juxtaposition of death, female beauty and youthful innocence were themes to which Millais frequently returned. Indeed the portraits of his young daughters are some of his most accomplished work.
Walking through the exhibition I felt as if I had already absorbed many of the images almost by osmosis, they are such an inescapable part of our cultural heritage. At the end of his career though Millais confided to his friend Willian Hunt that he did not feel he had fulfilled the hopes and ambitions of his youth. This gives an added resonance to his well known picture, ‘The Boyhood of Raleigh’ in which the old mariner, pointing out to sea tells an inspiring tale to the youths seated beside him. It is set nostalgically in the Elizabethan age.
Millais achieved fame and fortune and it is symptomatic of the commercialism of his age that despite his best efforts to prevent it, the picture of childhood innocence that came to be known as ‘Bubbles’ was popularised as an advertisement for Pears soap.
A monumental spider installed in front of the Tate Modern, entitled “Maman’, announces Louise Bourgeois.
A further glimpse into the subjective world of this 96 year old Grande Dame of the New York art world, is afforded by the video playing outside the exhibition itself. ‘Life is not just black and white’, she announces, pointing to a print that initiated the inclusion of red in her palette. After further gnomic utterances, we see her sterilising her spoon in the gas flame, a ritual before eating, as she fears contamination by germs.
As a child she discovered that her father was having an affair with her governess, and she is still imprisoned by a sense of trauma, evident in the series of room sets she calls ‘cells’ into which one can peep and peer. I appreciated the solidity of some heavy doors that had obviously been sourced from a French reclamation yard, more than the type of scene they enclosed. In one such ‘cell’, chairs of different shapes and sizes are used to denote the patriarchal family structure of her childhood,by which she apparently still feels betrayed, and differently sized glass spheres are placed symbolically upon them. In others, beds are imbued with a sinister significance, hinting at violation.
Millais, we may feel, is frequently sentimental, but what does the success of Louise Bourgeois tell us about the cultural life of our contemporary era?
One editor's question: Is art therapy art?
An Art Therapist writes:
This show is challenging and more interesting than I had anticipated. It is not aesthetically beautiful in a conventional way. In fact much of the work is ugly, but I came out feeling that I had experienced something true – something nearer real life emotions and inner human experience than most contemporary art.
Childhood experiences are the source of the artist's inspiration and, as she says in the exhibition video, her energy is fueled by a huge anger generated from that time. In her art work she has found a way of thinking about and transforming intolerable, confusing and sensitive areas of her life that have haunted her. The connections are obvious with Psychoanalysis, Art Therapy and the Feminist Movement: a 30 foot spider sculpture named ‘Maman’; an all red installation of the family dinner table called ‘The destruction of the father’, devoured by his children; multiple sexual organs; body parts and heads; and the ‘Cells’. These latter are like cages or rooms, enclosed by wire grilles or wooden panels where the viewer can experience peeping in on atmospheres in suspended animation – shocking, intriguing, creepy and personal.
This work is not art in a traditional sense. It is not demonstrating immutable laws or raising our perception to higher levels through the expert handling of materials. Rather it is an inner exploration of a very intense, sensitive, intelligent human being acting in response to the influences she was born into and to her catastrophic early life experiences. These she expresses in ways that can connect with and deepen our own experiences and understanding. She experiments with a wide diversity of materials – wood, metal, marble, glass, plaster, latex, fabric – handled with lively inventiveness to fulfill her aims.
In recent decades, Louise Bourgeois has become a major name in the international art world and this is reflected in the scale of her work and the price it commands. However, despite being idolized by the art industry she continues, at the age of 97, to get on with her own vital, personal exploration.
Peppy Wilson
‘The museum experience’- what is the purpose?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7075030.stm
