Lichtenstein Retrospective at Tate Modern | Beyond Pop Art

Think Roy Lichtenstein is just about dotty cartoon pictures? A new retrospective at London’s Tate Modern will make you think again.

Masterpiece 1962 Private Collection © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein/DACS 2012

“I don’t care! I’d rather sink than call Brad for help!”

That’s the line from a speech bubble in Drowning Girl, one of Roy Lichtenstein’s most famous paintings, showing a crying girl struggling in a stormy sea as waves crash around her. It was painted in 1963, during the period when the American artist was preoccupied with two main themes, romance and war, depicted in vivid studies of comic book images. These melodramatic pop paintings would make Lichtenstein famous, and they’re still his most well known works today. But a new retrospective at Tate Modern, running until 27^th May 2013, reveals there’s far more to Lichtenstein than just cartoons and caricatures.

Born in 1923 in New York city, Lichtenstein worked right up until his sudden death in 1997. The exhibition spans the five decades of his career, starting with the earliest explorations of his signature style. Look Mickey, considered a breakthrough piece, is a painting of Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck fishing that Lichtenstein based on a picture he found in his sons’ comic book. This imperfect rendition, comprised of patches of primary coloured spots, set the artist on a path that led to his most famous pop paintings, of which there are also plenty on show at the Tate.

It’s thrilling to see these much-parodied paintings in the flesh, to experience the full visual impact of the rocket collision in the huge Whaam! (1963) and see that all those dots (they were created using something called a Benday screen) aren’t quite so uniform up close.

Whaam! (1963) © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein/DACS 2012

But what’s even more fascinating are the many rooms of lesser known, but equally visceral, works. Did you know Lichtenstein painted a great many landscapes and seascapes in his time? Or that he took the works of celebrated artists like Monet and Picasso and recast them in his own style? Or that in the 1990′s he painted a series of idealised cartoon-like nudes? Neither did I. It’s not all paintings either, there are ceramics too and a series of art deco brass sculptures.

Unless you’re already a Lichtenstein know-it-all, this exhibition is full of surprises and easily dispels the myth that he was a one trick pony. Plus, at the moment queues aren’t insane like they often are for Tate blockbuster exhibits – you’d do well to head down soon before word gets out.

The Roy Lichtenstein Retrospective at Tate Modern is open until 27^th May 2013. For ticket details visit the Tate Modern website.

Oh, Jeff…I Love You, Too…But… (1964) Collection Simonyi © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein/DACS 2012

Listen up London fashion lovers

As the only Scotland based member of the Style and Then Some team, I often find myself green with envy at some of the fun events my blogging counterparts get to attend regularly here in the Big Smoke (anything Kardashian related aside). However, for the entire month of November I am lucky enough to also be a resident of this multifaceted city and take full advantage of all the exciting goings on.

During a recent scan of Vogue’s website I began to realise just how good you Londoners have it sometimes. Due to severely insufficient funds of late, I had to make the devastating decision to discontinue my Vogue prescription, but always make sure to get my much needed fashion news fix from the magazine’s website to avoid feeling out the loop. It was there I came across some very interesting stories, one informing me of the Valentino exhibition taking place in Somerset House at the end of the month which pays homage to the Italian designer’s talent and an upcoming book signing with Grace Coddington, star of The September Issue film and American Vogue icon at Browns on the 22nd of November to celebrate the release of her memoir.

I don’t just have Vogue.com to thank for my recent realisations, I have also added to my London list of things to do that I must visit the Victoria and Albert museum for their Hollywood Costumes display, featuring outfits belonging to Judy Garland and even Darth Vader (gasp). I’m also yet to pop into Tate Britain to no doubt have a slightly immature chuckle to myself over the usually pretentious Turner Prize exhibition.

In conclusion, I have quite a lot to cram in before I depart but if you are based in London you of course don’t face quite the same limitations as me so don’t forget to take full advantage of what our capital has to offer right on your doorstep. Maybe I’ll see you around.

Click on the event you wish to visit to find all the information you need.

If Paul Noble doesn’t win the Turner Prize 2012 it will be a travesty

Like a lot of people, I don’t really get the Turner Prize.

I mean, I understand that it’s a competition held annually by Tate in which a shortlist of four British artists is chosen, their works exhibited at Tate Britain, and then a winner is selected to receive the £25,000 prize money. I go to the exhibition every your, but more often than not I look at the art on show and think: really? This guy? Are you kidding me? Last year, one of the exhibits was an empty room into which snippets of Welsh folk songs were played. I think. I don’t know, but I was confused and it wasn’t enjoyable.

This year, however, it’s different.

This year, one artist eclipses all the others by such a margin that it’s a bit like if Jay-Z competed in a rap battle against 3 particularly inarticulate four-year-olds. That artist is Paul Noble.

I first came across Noble’s work in a gallery in Rotterdam with my Dad more than ten years ago. A teen at the time, I didn’t have a clue about modern art (whereas now I go to Tate Modern allll the time OK?), but on a trip to see a Dali exhibition (so, like, mainstream right?) we happened upon a room filled with huge but minutely detailed pencil drawings of Nobson Newton, a fictional townscape created by Noble. We were blown away, and I frequently thought about those amazing drawings over the years. So when I heard that Noble was nominated for the Turner Prize 2012 I was very excited.

Noble got  his Turner Prize nomination for a show featuring more fictional renderings of Nobson Newton, and they’re just as breathtaking, as I discovered when I went to the exhibition last Sunday. Each is centred around one word, written in a font that makes each letter look like a building. Whether on one sheet of A1 paper (i.e. big) or spread over 20 (i.e. HUGE), they’re astonishing. You have to get really close to divine all the details and to realise the time and patience that must go into them. Tiny boulders, overlapping crop circles, meandering plants in greenhouses – the landscapes of Nobson Newton aren’t familiar and they rarely make sense, but they’re beautiful to look at.

The other Turner entries pale in comparison, they really do. In fact, I’m struggling to even remember what they were. I think they were, essentially: 1. a bunch of tiny photographs from Scotland (Luke Fowler). 2. a video about a church that made me sleepy (Elizabeth Price), and 3. a room full of photocopying (Spartacus Chetwynd). There’s a chance I’m being slightly facetious, but you get my point. Hence, why I think it’ll be a travesty if Noble doesn’t take home the bacon this year.

Have you been to the Turner Prize exhibition yet? I would love to know if you agree with me. Or even better if you disagree. I just don’t know why anyone would though.

Want to see a hologram do a striptease?

Then head to the London Film Museum this week for the Lingerie Francaise exhibition.

Running until 7th October, Lingerie Francaise: the Exhibition sees eleven leading lingerie makers from across the Channel airing their undies in public, all in the name of fashion history. Chronicling the history of female undergarments over the last 100 years, the exhibition opens with kind of sturdy whalebone corsets that were constricting women at the end of the nineteenth century and ends with the teensy, Swarovski crystal-encrusted knickers that pretty much demand their wearer gets a Brazilian wax.

Covering – or should that be uncovering? – everything in between is that cheeky digital stripper, stopping off once a decade to shimmy in that era’s archetypal underwear. Check out a little preview in the video below. But don’t worry, it’s only mildly NSFW – she’s more sassy than sexually arousing.

Helen, Jo and I went to the opening on Tuesday night, where we spent almost as much time ogling the adorable miniature pastries as we did the bras and pants. It’s a fascinating exhibition and something that I think fashion students in particular will love. Hurry, you’ve only got til the end of the week to catch it.

Lingerie Francaise: the Exhibition is open from 2 – 7 October 2012 at the London Film Museum, Covent Garden Piazza, London WC2E 7BB (next to the London Transport Museum). For more info, visit the Lingerie Francaise website.

Exhibitions | A second chance at The House of Annie Lennox

As the only Scotland-based member of the Style and Then Some team, I was rather disappointed to miss the exclusive Q & A session with legendary pop icon Annie Lennox at the Victoria and Albert Museum to launch an exhibition dedicated to the singer last October. However I was lucky enough to get a second chance at an insight into this musical genius when The House of Annie Lennox, popped up again, this time right on my doorstep and Annie’s hometown of Aberdeen.

Not only does Lennox have an impressive recording career – spanning over three decades, from her work as one half of pop duo the Eurythmics to being a solo artist – her influence on modern music is still strong today. Whether it’s Lady Gaga being accused of stealing her look, Beyonce singing the Eurythmics‘ hit Sweet Dreams at Glastonbury last Summer or Nicki Minaj sampling Lennox’s solo song, No More I Love Yous for her 2010 break out hit Your Love.

Annie Lennox, 2009 Photograph © Mike Owen

The House of Annie Lennox didn’t just celebrate her talent but also her contribution to contemporary style. Along with the likes of Grace Jones, back in the 80s Lennox’s name was synonymous with the androgynous look; so it was rather apt that the first exhibit as you enter is a Tartan suit by Jeff Banks - one of her favourite designers – worn during the Eurythmic’s 1983 Touch tour. More stage costumes are on display such as the vibrant Union Jack Tuxedo she wore for a performance at the 1999 Brit Awards and a silver and black gothic ball gown worn to perform with fellow trendsetter David Bowie. As are her numerous accolades including the Quadruple Platinum Award Disc Lennox garnered for her 1994 solo album Diva and the Oscar she recieved for the song Into the West off the Lord of the Rings soundtrack.

Annie Lennox, 1991, Photograph © Satoshi Saikusa

Just before you enter the main part of the exhibition where Lennox’s Gold and Platinum disc collection practically covers the room like wallpaper, there is an opportunity to listen to an interview recorded especially for the event. In it, Lennox reveals how her masculine style choices came about as a result of her musical partnership with Eurythmics counterpart, Dave Stewart. Although many people speculated over the singer’s sexuality due to her fashion and often short hairstyles, this did not bother her, as all she wanted was to assert herself and really stand out when placed next to a man and I think it’s safe to say she achieved her goal. Not only will Lennox be immortalised as a great style icon, she is often referred to as one of the greatest voices of our time.

Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart, 1984, Photograph © Gered Mankowitz

For those of you a little further up north than London (OK alot further), The House of Lennox exhibition will be on until September 29^th at the Aberdeen Art Gallery, Schoolhill, Aberdeen. Open Tuesday-Saturday, 10am-5pm, Sunday 2-5pm.

Getty while it’s hot…Marilyn Monroe For Free

Ever since the Getty Images Gallery opened up down my road at work I have constantly found myself, on the way to the tube after a long day, being beckoned in by the glitzy champagne receptions and wondering what celeb-studded bash was taking place to celebrate some iconic retrospective this Monday…or Tuesday, or Wednesday.  Once I even caught a glimpse of Jenson Button at the gallery, being celebrated for his and Lewis Hamilton’s photographic skills…yeah I never knew they did pictures either.  But when the Marilyn Monroe exhibition took up residency, it was the final straw.

The retrospective, which includes iconic photography, as well as rarer images of the Hollywood siren, from her early days as a budding starlet to stills of the actress at her peak, also includes original costumes and garments worn by the megastar.  And we are talking some serious fashion here.  Plunging necklines, skimpy showgirl costumes, and a whole host of beadwork.  Despite the more iconic, highly duplicated images of Monroe being on display, for me the more candid and less universally exposed shots were fascinating.  Many photographs of Marilyn and Laurence Olivier feature in the exhibition, and depict various scenes when the two were in London to promote ‘The Prince and The Showgirl’.  By all accounts Olivier actually found Marilyn very hard to work with, due to tardiness on her part.

The gallery, located at 46 Eastcastle Street (just round the corner from Oxford Circus) is also absolutely free to visit.  Perfect if you want to escape the hoards of shoppers on the main street!  ‘Marilyn’, as the exhibition is known, has in fact been laid on to mark the 50^th anniversary of Ms. Monroe’s death (She passed in August 1962), and runs until 23^rd May.

Images courtesy of Getty Images.

Damien Hirst at Tate Modern | Prebook or prepare to queue part two

The new Damien Hirst exhibition opened at Tate Modern last week. In hindsight, maybe it was a mistake to try and go on a bank holiday weekend, because the queues turned out to be worse than that time I went to David Hockney at the Royal Academy.

In fact, it took two attempts to get in. My first try was on Good Friday, when I joined the back of the longest queue I’ve ever seen for the Turbine Hall ticket desk. I got to the front 30 minutes later only to find that the next entry time on sale was for 7pm. A five-hour wait in the middle of touristville didn’t appeal, so I bought a ticket for the next day instead and returned at midday on Saturday.

The queue for tickets stretched half way through the Turbine Hall

That was when I realised my second mistake of the weekend: Hirst and hangovers do not mix. I had gone to bed at 5am that morning and after cycling to the Tate my energy levels were already flagging. Things were about to get much worse. First, the installation that consisted of two large glass cubes buzzing with flies, the floor coated with hundreds of fly corpses had me feeling pretty nauseous. ‘It’s making my skin crawl,’ agreed someone nearby. Next, a giant ash tray filled with hundreds of cigarette butts, the stale fag smell permeating throughout the room, made my headache ten times as bad. I had to dash through the room of rotating motion sickness-inducing multicoloured Spin Paintings, and by the time I’d gone through the bright, humid, heated room filled with live butterflies I thought I was going to faint. Oh, and there was a queue for that too.

If I hadn’t felt so rough I think I would have enjoyed it all, and there was plenty that I did like in fact. I thought Hirst was basically just about paintings of spots and animals suspended in formaldehyde but there was way more on offer, spanning more than 25 years and starting with work he completed as a student at Goldsmiths. Hirst admits he’s preoccupied with death and the way that medicine is used to try and prolong life: ‘You can only cure people for so long and then they’re going to die anyway,’ he said. In Pharmacy (1992) Hirst recreated an entire pharmacy, the walls lined with cabinets full of drugs. Later, he created huge mirrored frames filled with row upon row of pharmaceutical pills. Lullaby (2002), in which the soft colours of the pills are reminiscent of the famous Spot Paintings, I found quite mesmerising.

As well as the main exhibition, Hirst’s famous blinged up skull is on show in the Turbine Hall and admission for that is free. For the Love of God (2007) is a platinum cast embedded with 8,601 diamonds, estimated in value at £50 million. It occurred to me that in the minute or so you spend looking at it, that’s probably more diamonds than you’re going to see up close in the rest of your life time. But you’ll have to queue to do that as well.

The Damien Hirst exhibition at Tate Modern runs from 4 April to 9 September 2012. Tickets are £14 with concessions available. Visit the Tate website for more information and to book tickets.

Click on the photos below to enlarge them.

© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved. DACS 2011. Photo: Photographed by Prudence Cuming Associates

© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved. DACS 2011. Photo: Photographed by Prudence Cuming Associates

© Damien Hirst and Science Ltd. All rights reserved. DACS 2011. Photo: Photographed by Prudence Cuming Associates

The queue for tickets stretched half way through the Turbine Hall