Mary Sibande Opening

Sue and I went to the opening at the National Gallery last night.  It was an interesting experience.  Really good wines etc and smart waiters.  Incredible and plentiful food, even red velvet cupcakes.

Not sure if all National Gallery Openings are like this but it seemed extravagant when they are supposedly struggling to keep afloat.

The sculpture of the rearing horse is titled “Reign”.  It’s an enormous work that dominates the space as intended.  The horse is cast in resin.  The National Gallery has just bought this work with the assistance of Friends of  the Gallery.

The new work “The Purple Shall Govern” was quite disappointing.  My bad picture doesn’t help much.  Sue Kaplan has a lot of interesting observations that I will not try to repeat but hopefully she will elaborate on this blog, except to mention that an artist who sometimes works similarly is Annette Messager.  I hadn’t heard of her before but did some googling and was very excited by her work.

Last time I was at the Nat Gal I got into trouble for taking a pic (the rules seem to change all the time) but last night, perhaps because it was an opening, nobody was complaining.  So I grabbed the opportunity to take a shot of the installation below.  A work I just love.  Now I cannot remember the title or the artist!!!!

 

 

There are quite a few lovely etchings on display near this part of the gallery.  Including Deborah Bell, Robert Hodgins and William Kentridge.

The main attraction is actually the Kevin Atkinson retrospective.  It failed to move either Sue or me, except for some interesting etchings with embossings and multiple plates on one page that provided some fresh technical ideas .  The bulk of the work, for us, did not pass the test of time too well.

Would love to hear from other BSR’s if any of you get around to visiting the gallery.

PS. Apologies if the layout is messy.  Not too familiar with the way this site works.