Upper Sixth History of Art Trip to London
This Tuesday, the Upper Sixth Art Historians visited London. The group took the train to Marylebone and started the day with the exhibition, ‘David Hockney: Drawing from Life’ in the National Portrait Gallery. Hockney is our specified artist for the A Level course, whose works like Mr. and Mrs. Clark and Percy we have studied in class. First, I was amazed by the breath of works on display, ranging from his distinctive acrylic portraits to his new iPad drawings, as well as colour, pencil, crayon and charcoal sketches. His works provided an insight into his personal relationships, through its honest and vividly animated figures like his mother and Celia Birtwell, Hockney’s muse. My favourite of the exhibition was his colour pencil drawings of Celia. The drawings imbued her in soft hues which were carefully contoured to communicate Celia’s enchanting aura to the viewer.
The projected video of Hockney turning pages of his sketchbook with drawings inspired by his time in LA and Normandy was also eye-opening. It was
intriguing to see how cleverly Hockney assembled simple and sinuous lines into figurative forms, and the uncountable number of sketches seemed to capture his daily surroundings like a visual diary. What I found the most fascinating about Hockney as an artist through this exhibition was his ability to apply his unique vision in different media, but equally how influences of distinctively different masters can be spotted in his work. In one colour pencil drawing, Hockney is able to remind us of Rembrandt’s ingenious use of chiaroscuro, by modulating pastel blues and pinks to illustrate human flesh, while his bold compositions and dynamic lines remind us of Picasso. Hockney’s style changed depending on the medium, and the juxtaposition between the tenderly modelled drawings and his energetic portraits with their flat backgrounds and saturated hues demonstrated Hockney’s admirable willingness to never stop experimenting even at the age of 86.
We then went to the main galleries to observe paintings from the Renaissance period. We looked at works of old masters like Leonardo, Raphael, Masaccio, Botticelli and Titian. It was fascinating to see paintings we have been analyzing through screen in real life and feel the presence of the figures and the artist within the paintings. The soft use of Leonardo’s sfumato technique we learnt about when studying the Mona Lisa was evident in The Virgin of the Rocks, and physically viewing Leonardo’s delicately lit figures was an experience of pure excitement. There were some discoveries and realizations from observing paintings in touching distance such as the scale of Raphael’s Portrait of Pope Julius II, a life like portrait which is part of our A Level specification. The painting was a lot smaller than I expected, and I was stunned by Raphael’s virtuosity in conveying different textures like the silky attire of Julius or the velvety quality of his red mozzetta in such limited pictorial space.
The last part of our trip was visiting the Barbican, a residential complex we will be learning about. I was overwhelmed by the tall dominating flats and its distinctive brutalist style as well as its scale which covers 35 acres. We had lunch in a lovely cafe restaurant by the lake side terrace and walked around the Arts Centre, while observing the building’s hammered dark concrete walls which stand on pilotis. I loved the enclosed feel of the site and how the chunky concrete buildings inspired by castellated medieval architecture, were in harmony with the artificial lakes and bridges. The Barbican is so unique in its architectural designs, it was unlike any other buildings. The visit gave us a very clear impression of its atmosphere and its powerful fortified appearance, which will be highly insightful when we come to study the building.
Written by Sixth Former, Haruno Watanabe