Dog Art Today

Tag: tate

  • David Shrigley: I’m Dead Stuffed Dog Artist Nominated for Turner Prize

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    David Shrigley poses with "I'm Dead" photo credit Empics


    David Shrigley, the 44-year old Glasgow based artist known for his darkly humorous line drawings, was nominated for the Turner Prize, Britain's most prestigious contemporary art award.


    He was recognized for the spring retrospective of his work, Brain Activity, at the Hayward Gallery in London.  The exhibition included drawings, paintings, film, and a stuffed dog holding an "I'm Dead" sign. The website for the show is an interactive treat (my favorite is the screen where you can turn the light switch on and off…it is endlessly entertaining).

    I highly recommend you visit the Brain Activity website to see more of David's work.   It's not creepy, serious, here-are-dead-stuffed-animals-to-make-you-uncomfortable work.  It's thoughtful and truly hilarious.  In fact, according to Nick Clark's article in The Independent, the director of Tate Britain and chair of the jury, Penelope Curtis, believes “[Shrigley] had been wrongly overlooked for a long time because his work suggested itself as being just funny and therefore marginal…Just because it’s funny, doesn’t mean it’s not good.”

    Good luck, David.  The winner is announced December 2, 2013.  I think he'll take it.

    See all four nominees here.

    Via The Independent.

  • Dawn After The Wreck by JMW Turner

     

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    Dawn After the Wreck by Joseph Mallord William Turner, circa 1841

    We woke to tragic news of another mass murder in our country.  An appropriate day for a heartbroken dog.

    Via Tate, courtesy of reader Peter Halston.

  • A Windy Day by David Cox

     

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    A Windy Day by David Cox, 1850

    Via Tate Collection.

    Have a great weekend.

  • Van Dyck the Dog Artist

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    Duke of Richmond and Lennox, 1633-8

    No one does criticism like the Brits.  Brian Sewell of London's Evening Standard is no exception with his evisceration of Van Dyck and Britain which opened last week at Tate Britain.  Sewell doesn't like the artist:

    Repeatedly Van Dyck and Britain demonstrates how bad a painter he could be and swamps the few masterpieces with paintings that are curate’s eggs, flawed in drawing and construction, more than faintly ridiculous in conception, and by workshop hacks as much as by himself.

    The name of the exhibition:

    And why call it Van Dyck and Britain instead of Van Dyck and England? He was attached to the English court, his duties as a courtier and painter were carried out in London and any influences that he absorbed here and traditions of portraiture that he chose to respect were those of earlier painters in London and the court. Scotland was another country and the courtly Stuarts were divorced from it; Britain did not exist.

    Or the organization and information:

    I felt that I had been subjected to a plodding tutorial by thoroughly dull minds, to essays written by students with access to Wikipedia, and to the connoisseurship of eyes less accustomed to looking at paintings than to examining reproductions. I could identify neither new research nor a fresh approach to this dry as dust material.

    But what he does like are the dogs:

    Van Dyck was far better with men and dogs than with women and there is morew pleasure to be had from the hounds and lapdogs that inhabit these paintings than from any of their masters and mistresses.

    If you never want to enjoy looking at a Van Dyck again read Sewell's full article. Actually, I think he makes some valid points about scale and composition issues.  But no one handles satin like Van Dyck and his hounds are magnificent.  Here are some of my favorites: 

    Van_Dyck_Charles_I_and_Queen_Henrietta_Maria_with_Charles

    Charles I and Henrietta Maria, 1632

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    A Lady of the Spencer Family, 1633-8

    Van_dyck_crowning_christ_with_thorns

    Crowning Christ with Thorns, 1618-20

    Van_dyck_children_of_charles_1

    Children of Charles I, 1637

    Van Dyck and Britain is on view at Tate Britain until May 17, 2009.  Click here for more information.

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  • Francis Bacon at Tate

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    Figures in a Garden, 1936

    The Francis Bacon (1909-1992) exhibition at Tate Britain that opens this Thursday, September 11, 2008 will bring together his best and most important paintings from throughout his turbulent life.  It will also feature at least two dog art works, Figures in a Garden (above) and Study of a Dog (below), both part of
    Tate's permanent collection.

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    Study of a Dog, 1952

    Man Walking Dog (below) is one of my all time favorite dog paintings.  I am not sure if it will be part of the exhibit.

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    Man Walking Dog, 1952

    Click here to watch co-curator, Chris Stephens, give insight into the show, which runs until January 4, 2009.

    Related links:

    Francis Bacon's record setting sale.