Exhibition Reflection

Barbican Centre

The Bride and The Bachelors: Marcel Duchamp

The Bride and The Bachelors Exhibition, set up within the art gallery at the Barbican Centre, is a function to celebrate and house some of his most inspirational and famous artwork of one of the most significant characters in the history of contemporary art.  Marcel Duchamp was widely considered the ‘father’ of conceptual art and the most influential artist of the 20^th Century. 

This was one of Duchamp’s first exhibitions to explore the huge impact his work had on four additional great modern artists, including composer John Cage, dancer and choreographer Merce Cunningham and visual artists Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns.

Duchamp's work, including Bicycle Wheel from 1913 and an autographed upturned urinal entitled Fountain 1917, drastically altered what we think of as art today by distorting the division between art and life. He used objects that are used on a day to day basis to create what he calls ready-mades and titled it art.  This alone made some people find his art pieces provocative and sometimes controversial. 

The exhibition featured an assortment of paintings, sculptures, stage sets and musical notations, composed by leading contemporary artist Philippe Parreno.

My initial interpretation of the space was that it created a very noticeably calming and relaxing atmosphere and on entering I immediately thought that the exhibition was very simplistic and basic.  However when inspecting each of Duchamp’s pieces of art, I spent a long time trying to understand what some of his work actually meant and at times was baffled by some of his creations.  I do believe that Duchamp had purposeful meanings behind why he made some of his creations, but this wasn’t blatantly apparent or easy to interpret.  I believe Marcel Duchamp’s work to be a statement of intent that demonstrated he wanted to provide a different means for people to perceive art.

When walking around the exhibition I was especially drawn to the ‘Bicycle Wheel’ and wondered what use it actually had, I came to the conclusion that it could have just been out of boredom or lack of inspiration, that caused him to put two already useful objects together to create a single un-useful object but this is just my own opinion. I struggle to relate to his work, as I myself, just see them as ordinary everyday objects. However I do find his work inspiring, mainly because it is unlike any art that I have seen before and isn’t the type that usually interests me.  This could in some ways be a good thing as it gave me the chance to take into account different reasons for why artists produce certain work.

Although I do enjoy the combination of music and art together, I found that the random and yet spontaneous music being played in the background within the space, for me, didn’t really interlink with the art work that I could see before me.  Sometimes I felt it worked and sometimes I didn’t, but this depended on the piece I was viewing.

The exhibition also entailed work from two modern artists, who were strongly influenced by Marcel Duchamp’s work; Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns. I enjoyed their art much more as I have learnt a lot about their work in the past and also understand and relate to their style of artwork considerably more.

Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin

This is the museum for modern art focusing mainly on 20th contrary art. The gallery was designed by Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe and was opened in 1968. I really enjoyed this museum as the exhibition pieces are displayed in an a very different method. Some things were interactive, media, paintings and unusual lighting and sculptures. Every room was unique: No two rooms are the same. 

The Bride and the Bachelors Exhibition: Duchamp

The Bride and the Bachelors Exhibition: Duchamp with Cage, Cunningham, Rauschenberg and Johns

As part of our Art and Design Theory module we have analysed many influential art and design manifestos, written in the 20^th Century.

The first manifesto which I researched into was “Dada Excites Everything” by Tristan Tzara and others. The manifesto portrays the Dada art movement, which occurred at the end of WWI.

One if the artists that contributed to the Dada art movement was Marcel Duchamp, with his series of ready-mades. 

We attended the exhibition on 27^th February, which showcased some of Duchamp’s work, as well as other like-minded artists. 

As photographs were not allowed to be taken inside of the exhibition, the images below illustrate some of the artwork that was shown:

“Fountain” One of Duchamps chosen objects for his ready-mades.

The Bride Stripped Bare by her Bachelors, Even (The Large Glass) 1915- 23

Bicycle Wheel, Marcel Duchamp, 1951

Overall, the exhibition was very eye-opening and educational to be able to see the objects in person, and to be able to apply the theory behind them. Although at times understanding the full meaning behind each object was difficult to comprehend, the context of the Dada manifesto, and other previous research allowed me to appreciate what was being shown.

The Bride and The Bachelors: Duchamp with Cage, Cunningham, Johns and Rauschenberg

We had to visit an exhibition as part of our Art and Design Theory module. On the 27th February I visited ‘The Bride and The Bachelors: Duchamp with Cage, Cunningham, Johns and Rauschenberg’ at the Barbican Art Gallery. 

Duchamp was a french artist most associated with the Dada and Surrealist movements, and considered one of the most important artists of the 20th century. This exhibition focused on Duchamps legacy he held within contemporary art and the collaborations and influence he had on composer, John Cage, choreographer, Merce Cunningham, and visual artists Robert Rauschengerg and Jasper Johns. 

I found some of Duchamps work quite humorous, such as Bicycle Wheel and Fountain. I tried to relate with Duchamp and see it as art, but it’s so far from the conventional that I struggled to do this. For him to be such an influential figure is bizarre to me because after looking at his work, couldn’t anyone do what he did? Fountain after all is just a urinal, and Bicycle wheel is just an up-side-down wheel on a stall. But I think it’s this scandalous approach he had towards art that made him so popular. 

Although I do find Duchamps ‘readymades’ some what of a practical joke, they did what they was supposed to do, they go against what people knew as art and create a light hearted and humorous approach instead, and thats what I understand the Dada movement to be about. 

The work that most interested me was the work by Jasper Johns. He experimented with numbers and colour, and I found his work the most enjoyable to look at. 

Overall I thought the exhibition was thought provoking but it didn’t radically change my views on how I saw Duchamp and his work before. It was useful and informative on what the Dada and Surrealist movements stood for and has contributed to my Art and Design Theory module. 

Dancing Around Duchamp @ The Barbican

Photographs taken outside after the exhibition at the Barbican Centre. No camera's inside..

The Bride and the Bachelors exhibition explores the artist Marcel Duchamp, and the way he influenced the artistic world.
Many young artists were inspired my Duchamp at the start of their careers, causing a direction of this type of art in the 50's and 60's. 
The exhibition features over 90 pieces of work that tell the story of Duchamps relationships with the composer, John Cage, choreographer, Merce Cunningham, and visual artists Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns.

The exhibition starts with Duchamps most iconic pieces.

Scheduled dance performances reflect on Duchamp's inspiration.

Sketches drawn whilst in the exhibition.

One piece that I particularly liked were the Viels 1-4 by Rauschenberg. 

I also like the work by Jasper Johns, which experimented with the form of numbers, for example, Figure 8.

Overall I found the exhibition interesting, but quite hard work. The pieces from all artists overlapped, and there was no real timeline to the way they were set out. This meant that you needed to connect the dots between pieces elsewhere in the exhibition in order to understand the relationship between them.

Neues Museum - Berlin

Neues Museum, Berlin

One of the places we visited in Berlin was the Neues Museum. The museum was built between 1841 - 1859 by Friedrich August Stüler but was badly damaged during the second world war. David Chippperfield reconstructed the museum repairing and restoring its original design. The building is a fantastic example of a combination of new and old. It has won the prestigious Mies van der Rohe Award in 2011. 

My Trip To The Courtauld Gallery

As part of our Art and Design Theory Module we had to visit an exhibition. There were many exhibitions to choose from and I decided to visit Becoming Picasso at The Courtauld Gallery in Somerset House, London. I partly chose to visit the Courtauld Gallery because we are currently doing a design project on the former boiler house of Courtauld's Silk Factory in Halstead and I was intrigued to see part of the legacy Samuel and George Courtauld left behind.

Somerset House is beautiful and provided lots of picture taking opportunities. You have to walk through the main entrance of Somerset House and then upstairs and across the courtyard to get to the back of the building where the Courtauld Gallery is situated. Unfortunately, photos were not allowed inside the exhibition, but I took some of the outside.

I find Picasso's art very interesting. The exhibition "Becoming Picasso" is about his breakthrough year into art. He moved to Paris to launch his career as art was much more important in Paris. The exhibition was set in 2 rooms which started with the earlier work and went up to 1902 which was at the beginning of Picasso's "Blue period". A friend of his, Casagemas, committed suicide and Picasso's paintings became dark, he pretty much only used shades of blue, very occasionally embellishing them with warmer colours. He painted one of Casagemas in a coffin. I really remembered this piece, along with another of women standing around a grave, because of their morbidness.

Casagemas in his Coffin

Evocation (The Burial of Carles Casagemas)

From the beginning to the end of the exhibition it was easy to notice the change in Picasso's artwork. At the beginning his art uses warm colours. He painted a self-portrait and another called Dwarf-Dancer. 

Dwarf-Dancer (La Nana)

Self Portrait (Yo, Picasso)

I found my visit very interesting and I learnt a lot of new things about Picasso which I hadn't known before hand. It was also good to see the transition from his warmer coloured paintings to his Blue period paintings in one room, so that you could make a direct comparison.