Mondrian Nicholson In Parallel

This weekend I visited the Courtauld Gallery to see a very good exhibition of the paintings of Piet Mondrian and Ben Nicholson, two painters from the 30's who explored the beauty of geometry.

I learned that they were friends, knew one another and shared ideas. To see their work in parallel, hanging next to one another was enlightening. Both worked and found that satisfaction in the balance of shapes, composed them on a plane of canvas and created compositions that are beautiful. Beautiful in the way it brings a sense of pleasure in yourself, that inner sense of balance.

Mondrian created his shapes with black lines, I found the austerity classical and abstract. He used color like punctuation, carefully placed and made the canvases sing.

Nicholson used shapes to define the space and used color like an embrace, his colors were yellow ochre, red, a soft blue, grey, black and white, closer to the colors of the earth and sky, I would add the British maritime climate sky.

I have always admired both their work, seeing this small exhibition and learning of their friendship opened another appreciation of their work. They had profound influences on 20th century design and architecture. I still see it today.

Sadly the exhibit is over, I made it just in time.

Gerhard Richter

Cage 1

Cage 6

Today was the last day at Tate Modern for the exhibition of Gerhard Richter and I got on my bike to go see the retrospective of this great painter.

The exhibition covered a large selection of his work and showed in that way that retrospectives can give you a glimpse into the development of imagination. This exhibit displayed his early dark and sombre work to the later colorful and atmospheric series Cage 1-6. They are layers of color that are then dragged with a squeegee that resemble nature: water, woods, sky, trees, light reflection. They are beautiful and calm.

Richter survived the bombing of Dresden, whether this effected his imagination, one can only guess, but his early paintings of simple domestic objects and family are all tones and shades of gray with sombre and blurred brushed strokes, like a memory that won't fade, is fading or persisting.

Source: gerhard-richter.com via Kelly on Pinterest

Source: gerhard-richter.com via Kelly on Pinterest

Paint charts from hardware stores and paint companies are endlessly attractive. There is something about color arranged neatly on cards that fascinate us. Richter like so many of us was equally fascinated by these charts. It lead to a series of paintings of color blocks. An exploration.

Colors

The show is finished in London but travels to other cities, if it comes to your city, make the time to see it, his work is reflective, sometimes disturbing, but beautiful with a quiet inner peace.

Lucien Freud

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Source: elijahbrubaker.com via Kelly on Pinterest

A painters view is often disturbing to many, some will find it too penetrating. Lucien Freud's work brought many mixed reactions from people and various critics. I thought he had an understanding of form and volume, of proportion and balance and painted with tenderness.

Most saw his angle intrusive. Many of his angles reminded me of the times when I would rush to a crowded life drawing class and get the last place to set up my drawing board, I would than have an awkward, foreshortened view of the model. Those are usually the more difficult positions to draw. Freud could draw from that angle and paint it with an understanding of the body, seated, reclined, folded in relaxed poses.

His palette was natural, earthy pigments, he chose to paint with natural light, to me, sometimes it seemed he painted under a fluorescent light, a cold shadowless light.

He was a very good painter, by that I mean with the skill of putting paint onto a flat surface he could create a complex 3 dimensional form; the body, the head, a tree, drapery and express it with a sense of beauty and humanity. Not many can do that. He will be missed.

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