Looking at the view - Tate Britain exhibtion 29 May 2013

This exhibition was an interesting use of pairing items from the Tate collection that allows us to look at the 'view' from a different selection of vantage points e.g. inside a room looking out, taking in a view outside from a hill , across a landscape or seascape. What drew me particularly was the juxtaposition of painting and photograph in some instances and the positioning of paintings from different centuries alongside each other allowing an opportunity to see how subjects were treated across the centuries. The works included were also an interesting selection coming from such as Tracey Emin, Paul Graham, J.M.W. Turner, Lucien Freud, Gilbert & George, Spencer Gore, Tacita  Dean...

What struck me was the similarity of patterns of looking at and composing an image that stretched across the centuries:

Tacita Dean Disappearance at Sea 1996 (film still)

The exhibition showed Tacita Dean's 16mm colour anamorphic film 'Disappearance at sea' which was taken inside Berwick lighthouse. She was inspired by the story of Donald Crowhurst who realising that he was not up to taking part in a single-handed non-stop round -the-world yacht race eventually jumped overboard. The sense and feel of the immenseness of the sea comes over in the film and gives some idea of what Crowhurst must have experienced.
Placed close by I found John Brett's painting  which explores the effects of light and colour but to my mind also gives a similar sense of the vastness of the ocean. Both images using a similar composition referencing light within the image. Both works struck a real chord with me.




John Brett The British Channel seen from the Dorsetshire Cliffs 1871

When I first looked at Paul Graham's photograph below, I wondered what it was that made it stand out from the crowd so to speak. At first glance it looks almost pedestrian but a closer examination of the composition made me realise how much it lent a dynamism to the subject matter and a depth of meaning coming from the juxtaposition of affluent housing and elements of urban disruption i.e. the broken edge of the roundabout and the damaged lamp post; the man calmly crossing the road apparently oblivious of the running soldier. Normality set against a disruption of everyday life. It was paired with a painting by Tristam Hillier which portrays a similar sense of calmness rural life and the everyday ( man walking with dog along the road ) disrupted by progress of modernity ( the march of pylons etc. across the landscape and ruined buildings in the distance). Interestingly the composition in both images shows similar focal points.. i.e. the curve of the road and the lampposts/ pylons reaching to the sky ( the future?).




Paul Graham Roundabout, Andersonstown, Belfast 1984. From Troubled Land. 





Tristam Hillier La Route des Alpes 1937 

These last two images below are linked over two centuries through composition and subject matter:

Joseph wright's painting of Sir Brooke Boothby shows the subject  alone and deep in a wood holding a book inscribed with Rousseau's name. It seems that Rousseau had given his manuscript ' Dialogues' to Boothby for safekeeping during a visit to Paris in 1776 and Boothby has subsequently published the work. Exhibition notes suggest the scene here is very much in accordance with Rousseau's ideas i.e. shunning 'the 'civilised' world for contemplation alone in nature'.

Joseph Wright of Derby Sir Brooke Boothby 1781

And almost two centuries later...



Tracey Emin Monument Valley(Grand Scale (1995-7)

Tracey Emin is captured here holding her book 'Exploration of the Soul' in an amazing location. Interesting that overhead cables intrude at the top right hand ?


NOTE: All of the images above are scanned from postcards purchased at Tate Britain.