Colour at the National Gallery, London

The curators of the National Gallery must have taken note of my list of favourite paintings, because Degas' La Coiffure is going to be appearing in a major new exhibition there next year.

The show is called Colour, and is going to be at the National Gallery in London from 18 June - 7 September 2014 in the Sainsbury Wing.

Here's what the website says about the show - sounds pretty exciting.

‘Colour’ will provide visitors with a unique and exceptional opportunity to journey through the history of colour, by exploring the wide range of materials that are used to create colour in paintings and other works of art. 

Woo-hoo!!  

‘Colour’ is the first exhibition of its kind in Britain.  

Boy, they must have been punching the air in delight when they brain-stormed that one as a USP.  "Think of the fridge magnets!!  It's a marketing goldmine...   

Each room will be dedicated to a particular colour from the spectrum, as well as a room devoted to gold and silver.  

Now, you'll note that they differentiate gold and silver from the actual colours of the spectrum.  This is, of course, as I've pointed out before, because gold is not a colour, it's a metallic element.  Thank you, National Gallery, and take that, Dr James Fox (see my blog HERE for what I'm ranting on about).  Anyway... 

‘Colour’ will draw on the expertise of the  National Gallery's scientific department and the spectacular range of paintings in the Collection.  The exhibition will help visitors to understand the history of the use of colour over a 700 year period – from the early Renaissance  to the Impressionist movement.  

Yum.  

Visitors will explore the origins and developments of the physical materials themselves, from natural and mineral products to manufactured pigments. The exhibition also examines the material problems faced by artists in achieving their painterly aims; the breakthroughs they struggled for and the technical challenges they faced.  

Yum yum.   

Several major national cultural institutions have loaned works for the display – which has painting at its heart but also includes minerals, textiles, ceramics and glass. These form a rich and diverse exhibition which illustrates the importance of colour in the way that creators of works of art experience and represent the world.  

Just my sort of show.  Looking forward to it already!  

Read more HERE.

Strangely Similar...

It just struck me today how two of my favourite paintings that I've mentioned previously in my blog are in fact strangely similar, and yet so completely different.

Take a look and you'll see what I mean.

Here's Caravaggio from this article

Caravaggio Judith Beheading Holofernes, (Oil on canvas, 1598)

..and three hundred years later here's Degas from this article.

 Edgar Degas, La Coiffure (Oil on canvas, 1896)

Now I'd never have thought of Degas and Caravaggio as being in any way similar before, but see what I mean...?

I know they're two completely different subjects - one is a violent beheading with three figures and startling chiaroscuro, the other is a calm domestic scene mostly in red tones with only two figures -  but just take a look at the composition.

In each, one figure lies submissively on the left, and a standing figure carries out the action of the piece on the right.

In the Caravaggio, Judith holds Holofernes' hair and cuts the throat with a red surge of blood.  In the Degas, the maidservant holds the hair and wields a comb through the red swathe of hair, in an act that seems to be producing a certain amount of pain as well as pleasure.

In both, the loops of the circles of the arms of the two main protagonists form a rhythmical figure of eight across the painting. 

But the oddest thing of all linking the two pictures is the loop of red curtain hanging from the top of both paintings.  In both it signals an enclosed, shallow, intimate space, like a theatre set, something almost womb-like. 

It's an oddly disconnected piece of drapery in both - in the Caravaggio it writhes in an agitated convulsion, echoing the blood and pain of the brutal act.  In the Degas, it hangs in sensuously suggestive folds.

Did Degas have the Caravaggio at the back of his mind when he painted his blood-red painting?  I have no idea.  

All I can say that it strikes me that there are strange resonances between them both, and now that I've noticed it, it gives a whole new sub-text to Degas' painting for me!