Miranda McArthur’s’ quarterly review of the Arts, Gallery and Museum scene.
Born in America in 1834, James McNeill Whistler spent some of his teenage years at the Imperial Academy of Arts in St Petersburg, trained at West Point, moved to Paris, and lived and worked for much of his life thereafter in London.
His earlier work was contemporaneous with the Pre-Raphaelites and bears some similarities, though he later eschewed the sentimentalism and moral messages that characterised much of their work. His focus was on beauty, truth and progress and his subsequent work disrupted Victorian sensibilities. One of his paintings, Symphony in White No 1.The White Girl (1862) was later included in Le Salon des Refuses, having been rejected by the Royal Academy as not conforming to conventional techniques.
Symphony in White, No 2 The Little Girl in White James McNeill Whistler 1864 Tate Collection Photo: M McArthur
This is the first major European exhibition of Whistler’s work for 30 years and features 150 works of painting, drawing, print making and design, including the iconic painting of his mother (which was also nearly rejected by the RA), several ethereal Nocturnes and previously unseen sketch books.
Whistler perceived strong harmonies between painting and music, and several of his paintings have musical titles, another thing the RA disliked, along with his use of Japanese-inspired brushwork. He became a practitioner of Tonalism, using a limited palette, sometimes appearing monochromatic but, on closer inspection, rich in tones.
If you like the slightly mystical beauty of the paintings you know, you’ll enjoy the array of subtle figure and landscape paintings and his later self-portraits this show offers.
Though both artists spent time in St Petersburg, by contrast, the work of Estonian artist Konrad Magi, featured in the current Dulwich Picture Gallery exhibition, is full of colour. Though little known in Europe, Magi is famous in Nordic countries. One of the first Modernists, Magi produced over 400 paintings in a 16 year period and some of his best landscapes and portraits are featured here. He admired Seurat and adopted the pointilliste style, achieving subtle gradations of colour, though his mark making differs in being larger than the French artist’s.
The exhibition finishes on 12th July.
Also in the Gallery from 28 July is Portrait of a City, a celebration of American photography, including works by 34 influential photographers from 1907 to 2012. Finishes 4th October.
Portrait of a Norwegian Girl 1909 Konrad Magi. Courtesy of Tartu Art Museum
Lake Kasaritsa. Konrad Magi. 1915-17. Courtesy the Art Museum of Estonia
Hepworth in Colour, running at the Courtauld Gallery until 6th September, presents a collection of 20 sculptures and 30 drawings rarely exhibited before, covering the work of Barbara Hepworth from the period soon after the beginning of WW2 when she and her husband, Ben Nicholson, moved to Cornwall.
Hepworth is best known for her abstract sculptural forms inspired by nature and rugged seaside landscapes. Less familiar is her work in colour which she used in highly original and innovative ways. The core pieces in this show are a group of carvings in wood and stone, painted with vivid blues and yellows in the curves and hollows.
Her interest in colour extended into the 50s and 60s with patinated bronze surfaces and the use of coloured marble, more reflective of expressive drawing and painting practice.
Sculpture with colour (oval form) Pale blue and red. Barbara Hepworth 1943. Photo Mark Heathcote
