Friday 30th November, I went to theScottish National Museum of Modern Art Scotland. I’ve been there a few times and look forward to any new exhibits they have to show.
Going to the 1st building I saw some of Andy Warhol’s graphic communication. I actually don’t know much about him as most of my tutors I’ve had over the years have told me to always looks away for main stream artists. Seeing his posters, I was actually quite inspired by them. I liked his ‘Frankenstein’ poster as I’ve seen a lot of renditions of this classic book and movie but this one actually stood out amongst the many. No special effects of lightning or the full moon, just the simple stitches on the skin and Frankenstein written under it. Bold and simple.
Looking into the recreated space of Eduardo Puolozzi’s I found it fascinating to look at all the prototypes of sculptures and designs. It really did let you look into his mind and see how he thought when creating his work. An artist’s space can tell you a lot about them. What I found most interesting from it was how he took reference and inspiration for old model making toys, seeing how the parts were put together or how the little parts were actual made with the various types of mould making there is. Take inspiration from those before you so that you might create something new.
There was a painting done by Salvador Dali above this sketch, but I found this more interesting and fascinating to take in. I love sketches from artists as it shows a design at its core skeleton state. His use of media handling of the pen is gorgeous, there are so many different weights and details added to it. So free and delicate with the added heavy lines to keep it all from floating around. It shows that you don’t need to have thousands of lines to show a human figure, as seen in the background figures, you can get away with a few quick strokes and represent a human body. I love this simple sketch.
In the second floor of gallery 1 was an exhibit of Andy Warhol and Eduardo Puolozzi’s work. I found Warhol’s work most fascinating to look at as I see it in the graphic design point of view. This really was a day of realising more of Warhol’s work that wasn’t the can of soup or Marilyn Monroe. He did promotion work for Halston, Absolut Vodka, Art Expo Brooklyn, Film Festival Lincoln Centre and much more. I loved these designs as a lot of them weren’t digitally made but all manipulated by hand to have all these amazing effects on them. I loved how there was still important detail on designs along with the block colours. He made sure these added colours were used to emphasis the little detail and not wash it out.
This was the main show exhibit in building 2, it consisted of a series of films, paintings, collages and more. I honestly didn’t really understand the theme, I most likely missed something describing what it was all about. Even looking online, I couldn’t find much on what it’s main theme was about. But just walking around and appreciating the art was something I could do and was successful with.
When I look at these, they remind me of finding an old object and having dust and bugs all over them. They annoyance that something has gotten onto them and distorted what is under it by covering it. But that is another thing I thought of when I saw they, concealing something from the viewer. You can’t see what is under the prop in front of you. Could there be another figure, a symbol to explain the meaning to it all, anything else? It leaves the viewer, if they haven’t seen the original painting, rattled to know what was truly there before a giant over sized moth got in the way. Things get in our way all the time and sometimes we just have to find another way round them. I like how these giant insects have been made, they are semi realistic in a playful child like way. Giving them eye catching colours and simple body design, it’s easy on the eye.
Just like the ‘Hawkmoth’ and ‘Lanternfly’, ‘Salamanders’ has been made in the same way with giant paper mache creatures over a basic backdrop. I just find this great fun to look at as the salamanders have such adorable expressions on their faces. I like how there is a vary of sizes on the main canvas and how two just seem to float out with the canvas. I almost walked into one that seems to peer round the rooms entrance. The black and white geometric canvas backdrop fits well with the salamanders as it makes them pop out and gives emphasis to their 3D bodies.
Unfortunately I failed to grab the name f the artist who made all these paintings titled ‘Bat Opera’, a fantastic name if I may say. The artist wrote that they aim to paint a bat painting each day, sometimes creating up to 6 a day. They stick to simplistic colour pallets and simple designs so that they may capture the basics of each painting. I used to be very afraid of bats for a long time, now I really like them. Seeing these beautiful small paintings that showed a vary of bat species and layouts, I was mesmerised by them all. I loved the ones of swarms of bats flying, to me it looks like bats flying even though its all one colour.
This was created by Betye Saar with inspiration taken from voodoo traditions of offerings and procession into objects. I found the main attraction interesting but what drew my attention right away was the objects left in offering to this large shrine.
I stared at all the little gifts for ages trying to place who gave them up, what were they doing here, how did they feel looking at this? I love finding odd things and guessing who they belong to beforehand. There were receipts, coins, small photos, crumpled business cards, shells, bottles of hand cream and so much more. I laughed when I saw that a gnome figure and a troll doll were left behind. Those two made me think hard as they are quite large to the rest, not picket trash that was left behind. They had a meaning to be carried around; did someone plan to offer them up and brought them for this reason or where people carrying around a gnome and troll figure for some time? I can think of so many ideas and designs just looking at all these things, so many possible stories to be told…
I visited upstairs gallery as well, a lot of it I’ve seen before in past visits. This piece by Raqib Shaw caught my attention, ‘Self Portrait with Fireflies and Faces’, as at first I thought it was made from those insect stickers you could get from shops. After reading the detail of the piece I found he actually makes these by using liner paint that is raised when dries and inserts acrylic colour fills. The painting is suppose to be reminiscing the artists youth but I saw it as some sort of folk lore thing with all the floating faces. Many a tale is based on weird floating faces and it made me think of some when I looked at it.
I enjoyed my visit to the gallery as it gave me some good inspiration and ideas for my own work
