“Exist. Persist. Resist.” - Esther

"Rage, Rage Against the Dying of the Light" (Gluck)

In the weirdest and possibly most splintered Pride month, LGBT+ artists of all disciplines and mediums will need the support of allies more than ever. Pandemics aside, the world is more fractured, more dangerous & more uncertain than it’s been for many years. LGBT+ people are seeing hard-won rights & protections being eroded as laws change & overarching nonsense prevails.

Since today is the “official” Global Pride date, described online as a “no in-person attendance” event, I’d like to celebrate some LGBT+ artists, acknowledge the difference they make & appreciate a few of the artworks that have enriched our lives.

The title idea for today’s blog comes from the slogan for Global Pride 2020, empowered, empowering & insistent.

As ever, all opinions are my own…

1) Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (1475-1564) Detail, Sistine Chapel

Arguably from where all modern understanding of fine art stems, Michelangelo’s effect on Western art is unequalled. His ability to work with a range of media is incomparable. This detail from the Sistine Chapel shows all the sensitivity, beauty & technique we are familiar with. But there too is movement, a mood, a sense of the personality & I feel, a tension & possible conflict. Taken out of context, I read a very contemporary sense of a relationship between sitter & artist or perhaps a more existential essence of languor, dissatisfaction or weariness in the subject.

2) Kaffe Fassett (1937-) Seed Packet Quilt

One of the few artists in any sort of applied art field that I have much interest in. He helpfully says himself his name rhymes with “safe asset” & I often encourage other males to take up knitting with that in mind. As an avid knitter, I have frequently looked at Kaffe’s works & gasped. His patterns are undoubtedly works of art, whatever your opinion of design or decorative items as art may be & although high colour is rarely my thing, his knowledge & understanding of colour is staggering. A major exhibition of his textiles in Aberdeen Art Gallery in 2014 was one of my most visited shows.

3) David Hockney (1937-) Desk, July 1 1984

I’m a big Hockney fan but not of all his individual works. He has done so much, in so many disciplines that his body of work is the art in itself. His is a life as artistic search & journey. It’s difficult therefore to pick a single favourite piece of work but I am very fond of his photo collages. They are incredibly clever & satisfying as visual objects. I like the concept of transforming an existing piece of work – or series of works - into another article entirely, to make it something more. The collages teeter on the brink of cubism, only more figurative.

4) Francis Bacon (1909-1992) Painting 1946

Francis Bacon is one of my favourite 20th Century artists & defies most categorisation. Painting 1946 ticks many of the boxes for which he’s well-known & for which I admire him. Technically proficient, check. Broad “painterly” aspect, check. Abattoir imagery, check. Unsettling, check. Bleak, check. The cause & result of all nightmares, check. Weird tooth business, check.

Incidentally, the website for his estate is excellent: 

https://www.francis-bacon.com/

5) Gluck (1895-1978) Gluck

There are few self portraits that announce a personality & character as effectively & uncompromisingly as Gluck. You can confirm this for yourself with a quick glance at her biography or wiki. It’s perhaps not considered to be her most famous & defining work but the pose, the technique, the direct gaze dare you. Defiance appears to have been a major aspect of her life, whether regarding her name, her titles, her appearance, the paint she used. Over time, her painting style varied & wasn’t always as unswerving as Gluck. Having said that, her final piece was of a rotting fish head & entitled Rage, Rage Against the Dying of the Light.

6) Maggie Hambling (1945) Scallop

One of my favourite things about Maggie Hambling is her demeanour in front of a camera. She refuses to be filmed without being allowed to smoke throughout, the presenters warning viewers of this decision & their disagreement with it beforehand. She maintains an unmoved, unwaveringly profound & cantankerous look of disdain. Any interview with her is thrilling as a result. Another is her sculpture Scallop, a memorial to Benjamin Britten & in honour of the passion of the sea.

7) David Hoyle (1962-) In the Realms of the Banal

I first came across David Hoyle as an actor in TV series Nathan Barley in 2005, when he perfectly embodied the pretension & self-absorption the writing lampooned whilst still being likeable. His versatility & skill in the performing & visual arts is in itself worth celebrating as well as his commitment to artistic community. Often with text embedded in them his paintings convey thoughts, frustration, angst & anger. The work is energetic & expressionist but perhaps his most wonderful canvas remains himself.

8) Antony Sher (1949-) The Fool

Antony Sher is best known as an actor of TV, film & theatre. He is also a profoundly talented novelist, diarist & artist. He mostly chose the theatrical life over the visual arts yet often comes to a character through painting or sketching it first. As a result, much of his artwork comprises self-portraits or depictions of his fellow actors. A man deeply concerned with the variety of aspects to his identity, he has spent a lifetime adopting others. Here he is as Lear’s Fool, a role he writes was altered entirely as soon as he donned the red nose.

9) Smith (1985-) Untitled (Hear us marching up slowly series)

The faded filtering of Smith’s photography renders the sitter’s image extremely clean, clear & cold. That’s not to say I don’t find them beautiful or lacking humanity. On the contrary, there’s a very deep human connection to all the sitters & I see the photographs akin to dreams. The sadness & introspection of the images is incredibly humanising but they seem lost & unreachable, as in Untitled. Smith has also become part of their own exhibition by having an implant fitted into their body that could detect or sense the viewers of their work.

10) Kehinde Wiley (1977-)

Yes, he appeared in the blog a couple of weeks ago but I’m not sorry. His works are visually stunning & luxurious. I love this particularly indolent pose, bright expression & the reference to “reclining” models of the Old Masters brought up to date. (In fact it’s from a series originally inspired by Holbein’s The Dead Christ in the Tomb). The richness of colour, the sumptuous decoration & super-realistic rendering is at once baffling & delightful. Kehinde may appear in future blog entries & I am not sorry.