l’fxlllllllh
MONET: THE SEINE AND THE SEA, 1878-1883 Stunning and sublime .0000
You've read the hype, scanned the many colour spreads, and finally it's here. Edinburgh’s stellar art exhibition of the new millennium has opened and it won’t let you down. Walking into the newly refurbished Academy building, elegant arches beckon you into the space where Monets from all over the world hang on freshly painted walls. lt's impressive, yes, but this is a subtle, deeply thought out exhibition which attempts to look beyond the cliche and assumptions of the celebrity artist. Concentrating on the relatively unknown period in Monet‘s working life when his family moved to Vétheuil, a small village near Rouen, and then spent time on the
. an} ’ .—a Kr‘o-‘t “M '4'“ The Manneporte, Etretat, 1883
Normandy coast, it is an intense and focused selection of work. Every season, time of day and weather effect, including the brutal winter of 1879, has been captured on canvas — a wall of snow scenes makes way for a spread
of breezy spring days on the Seine.
A few paintings will jump out at you; familiar works such as the Poppy Field Near Vétheuil, 1879 and The Artist’s Garden at Ve'theuil, 1881. But they don’t seem like tired images: put in their context and seen in the flesh, they are fresh and alive. It’s like rediscovering the vitality in something so familiar that you‘d stopped noticing it.
Viewed at a distance, the paintings have an energy that is intensified by the hanging of similar scenes by contemporary artists. Through seeing the more solid or smooth oils of artists such as Corot and Courbet, it brings home just how radical Monet’s technique was. Getting closer, you see how, within a cliff-face glowing in evening light or a snowy bank glinting in midday sun, hundreds of different flecks of colour make up the whole.
The appealing idyllic and sublime qualities are no accident, mind. He chose angles that hid roads, omitted boats that suggested a busy, industrial port, and promoted a general sense of untouched rural perfection. Monet bigged up his outdoor activities, denying time spent in the studio and, as one of the curators, Richard Thomson, puts it, ‘he span'. But what spin. Beautiful, awesome, delicate pieces of work light up the walls of this refurbished space. It
is an electric start to an exciting future. (Ruth Hedges)
I Hot/a/ Scott/sh Acar/errrv Bur/tirer tight (PM). until ."(i ( )rit. .l‘r‘-I_."><’l 'r’ '.r"‘ ,
8(2Ul l’llllit KATJA STRUNZ Visually hypnotic sculptures 00..
In cellaheratreri wrth the Modern Iristrtule. which recerrtly represented Katra Struri/ lll its (‘ilasriew ()rtrlecl space. (lugger'lrsher exhihrts a new sculptural series by the (Eerrriari haserl artist.
Huggerfrsher preserrts a larger carrvas fer lllt' )lh arrtl tier fragile. hut rrrturtrvely placerl. (Meets currrlrrrrt» intensely. Hypnotic, truth Visually aritl £1tl(llll|‘,, three whet :ls relate Ill syriclrrurirsatrprr wrth each other arrtl ‘.‘.’|lll the whrrrrrrt} pulse ()1 the motor. Irrrre (if the Seasrrrr shuulil. by rights, not lurictrerr at all as the rrl>l>eri that rlrrves the rrrecharrrsrrr oscillates as if l)l(}l)£ll|llt) to give up the ghost. By the same rights, Struh/ lorries stasis hetweerr twp upright hreri/es. cast ll()lll a price trerr/retl tree hm- llrrs heautrlully (lt?ll(3£ll(?(ll)]tl(11 staritls apart truth aesthetically and physically upon a lerre plrrith lll the gallery ':;
Corripusrtrtm is spiriethrrrt; rri which Slrurt.‘ t-xt‘trlr; [)ettetl around the space rrr a seerrrrrrtily arhrtram tashrer:_
cer‘tre.
Weed terms like teltletl paper clrrrtr tn the nails (lilit‘ll‘, relererrcrrrgr rriotlerrirst rriurals. lrr the small trailer, .i prrate's heard ()1 gultl (irapes trerrr the cerlrrrrr t‘rrtxxues t‘lrarrrs .rr‘l irri.i:;.
Fer trie- rltltlltillt‘e- at: .lltet‘tetl in Sue ltrrrrr‘krris' l)t?lliillll;tlltlt‘ sr‘ectat‘ular err the eperrrrrt; night. a return Will to tulh appreciate Slrurr." ‘.'.er’r\ rs a must. iMatlhew l-learrri I tr'ttgrtrtrrfrstrt>'. 5458 J‘l 7t). 1 Alli}. "NU.
Untitled
70 THE LIST FESTIVAL GUIDE 1.:
.‘t Arr:
lt‘hi” k‘y'r'll ,7‘ It" ' y‘. f’oh‘l
Tenaris: Saigon, Vietman, December 1968
ltrlertltrlw‘rl! Jilliqu WORLD OF BUTTERFLIES Harbingers of doom 0..
‘ l‘ ' ."-..1prrritsas‘mu first s..:~l w “. t .f .l t " " l ."M‘ifa'y ti‘ tl‘t: hurrr>rs (if .r', l"- “"--i ' r i that lias t.’).'lllllll.ll|‘,‘
their" ell n-aj ’.,:‘~ ' w" ~-: «firms cl butterflies,
" :f’*~' 1.2"" i'w-r; a": l-~ 12:: ' .1 'flth. and ther‘
1 it» " .: :-- tt‘ "'2'V. '\ :' i. :rarr‘atx l)ll()Tl)i]l£tl)ll
" .i" °."_:'. ".2: z l :f : fi'. ‘r'st 'f is hard to litEtT';)"t7.’ the 'i/l 1'." it": r‘ "i- l "’l The culmutfu? lxatte'r‘s '1‘ f'v-z .iftw" . t ..f T"-"‘ '.'w- ' :' f"-‘- 'lt’lfi .i'r’l tt‘e Wing's s: , {w‘
S I“ the 'r .:.;i-:. . ,. ' T" {More irrf fhe
T’ltl'l f: “1'”? .'. "‘ f'Vf" .l.." ' "’l " 1"" :‘.'.’)ll‘:r" lrf:l|!‘:‘;. "it?
("NH") l-n l .1! ..T I" l v a" f. a" I T' 6‘ l' with; ll")lll‘:l are i l -- 'n lll‘fr’ ater: arrxrrrri the '. 71"} w. "Ki". '."‘-_-\; .lm’f. " 'r'rs ’l“ a (ruftert‘,
(N y. " as ' K ‘ ‘~‘;r:‘3‘l"l£illtlll, the \.’r-.>t"<‘ri.r >;."‘r t'." ~:-;:' at :m‘. f :z--? {farts t out. and PW" 'rt.‘i:‘°. " '. .i'e .: .»x-" '-'::«:'ta"’;4: t;~':r;a.i‘se (it the under ‘srf Wire-.13.. it"‘l. "es it‘s: t‘rirrrr' lrr this ~3th :‘r‘ { ..°...2"°:'?ES t..'-'i ' l"‘_*; r“ faith. irrt', l‘art‘i":ie's' ‘ ' la:
.Utt’lr ' ( r‘ '1 /' i‘lr tv ’ ‘3 I” N?) Aug, fret).
TOGOSEE...
I MATTHEW BARNEY’S CREMASTER CYCLE
1. It's weird Matthew Barney has created a multitextual marriage of art and cinema. with a looping symbolic narrative drawing on biology, geology, myth and legend. Think The Waste Land filmed by Bunuel in a laboratory. Not just any old laboratory. either. One full of Vaseline.
2. No, seriously, it's weird In Cremaster 1, a woman sits in a blimp arranging grapes on a table. choreographing the movements of dancrng girls on a blue Astrolurf footy pitch below. The drummer Out of Slayer plays a solo in Cremaster 2, while covered in bees. No 4 features a four-horned satyr and a sidecar race around the Isle of Man, complete with ‘gelatinous gonadal lorms’ bursting out of the racers' torsos. No 5 is an operatic grand finale featuring Ursula Andress and loads of underwater fairies. (We had to leave out No 3 for being too weird.)
3. Bollocks Cremaster isn't a made up word. It's a muscle that controls testicular contraction in response to external stimuli. Insert wry smile here. The cycle runs from a state of testicular ascension (1) all the way to descension (5). a journey from pre- genital oneness to sexual division. This may not be immediately apparent while watching the films.
4. Everyone's famous Not in a Warholian sense. As if the drummer out of Slayer wasn't enough, the cast features everyone from Norman Mailer (playing Houdini) to Aimee Mullins (playing, um, someone with potato-slicing shoes) via sculptor Richard Serra (playing Masonic overlord Hiram Abiff ). Barney himself appears too. as the aforementioned satyr and serial killer Gary Gilmore. 5. Bjérk Everyone loves everything Bierk does. Barney is her current main squeeze. Ergo . . .
(Jack Mottram)
I Cremaster4 8 1, UGC, Thu 14 Aug, 7. 15pm 8 Cameo, Fri 22 Aug, 7pm; Cremaster 5 8 Cremaster 2, UGC, Fri 15 Aug, 7.15pm 8 Cameo. Sat 23 Aug, 3pm; Cremaster 3. UGC, Sat 16 Aug, 8pm 8 Sun 24 Aug, 3pm. £6 (£4). fickets from 0131 623 8030.