Tate Liverpool

Last Sunday, I visited the Tate Liverpool , which is located at Albert Dock in the English city of Liverpool.



"DLPA Piper Series: The twentieth century: how it looked & how it felt" Exhibition
The exhibition “DLA Piper Series: The Twentieth Century: How it looked & how it felt” is on at the Tate Liverpool until the end of April 2009, with almost 200 works on show.

The first floor is dedicated to figuration, starting with a sculpture of Degas
“Little Dancer Aged Fourteen”.

Here are some works that caught my attention:

The Bath by Pierre Bonnard. The paint has been applied very thinly apart from Mrs. Bonnard’s head that sticks out of the water and has more visible brush strokes. The water has been glazed over and present the subtle quality of watercolour washes. By contrast, the rest of the work present some dry brush work. The raw canvas is visible on the edge and shows that the work has been stretched afterwards (see for more details on this on my previous post Bonnard: working in batch and creative process ).

Nude bending down by Pierre Bonnard is another painting on show

Woman in a Tub (circa 1883) is one of the pastels on paper of a women taking her bath by Edgar Degas. The work is delicately executed with a fantastic work on lost edges. Degas was famous for the high luminosity he achieved in his pastel work and this one is no exception. The interesting point from an execution standpoint is to see the predominantly vertical strokes on the woman’s body.

Three sculptures I liked in the exhibition:

• Man Pointing 1947, a bronze sculpture by Alberto Giacometti
• Lobster Telephone 1936, a sculpture Salvador Dalí (1904-1989)
• Seated Woman: Thin Neck 1961, bronze sculpture by Henry Moore was inspired by the breast bone of a bird.

A whole room is dedicated to Andy Warhol (1928-87) and is covered with The Cow Wallpaper that was first used by Warhol in an installation at the Leo Castelli Gallery (New York) in 1966. The works on show have been made using the method of silk-screening. A Marilyn Monroe series is on display as well as the Electric Chair series.

The Second floor is dedicated to Abstraction, with works from Jackson Pollock, Mondrian, Calder, etc. I feel less attracted to this type of works, although I find the works of Vasarely clever.

The website of the “The twentieth century: how it looked & how it felt” exhibition offers more details and photographs of some of the works.


Meeting Georges at the Tate’s Cafe




We ended our visit in the Tate’s cafeteria. I noted a gentleman seated a few tables away from ours, concentrated and trying to solve the Rubik’s cube. I did not pay much more attention to him until much later, when it looked odd to me to see him still in the same position, visibly puzzled. Also, the face of this visitor looked vaguely familiar. On close inspection, I realised that I had been fooled by a work by Alison Jackson.


More information

Tate Liverpool
Albert Dock
Liverpool
L3 4BB
0151 702 7400http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/
Entrance : FREE (Donation suggested to keep it free)





Tate gallery Tate Liverpool Art exhibition Pierre Bonnard Degas Andy Warhol Salvador Dalí Alberto Giacometti Alison Jackson