Wonderful exhibition at the Barbican (no photography allowed) but few examples from Sugimoto’s and Arman’s collections from the catalogue. Anatomy of a woman’s spine by French anatomist, painter and printer Jacques Fabien Gautier d’Agoty, 18c. and Home Sweet Home accumulation by Arman, 1960.
In 1949 Kelly meets composer John Cage and choreographer Merce Cunningham and this meeting together with Kelly’s encounter with Jean Arp’s collages that were arranged to the ‘laws of chance’ (see: http://www.moma.org/collection/object.php?object_id=37013) had a profound impact on Kelly’s work. The work on the left Deesis I is made by horizontal lines which are oil on wood and the work on the right Gate-Board is made by vertical lines which are oil on wood with string.
Six blocks of willow are glued to a wooden mould, one on top, one below and two on either side. The side blocks are shaped with the gouge to make pointed corners. Thin strips of maple wood are bent to form the sides, or ribs, and are then glued to the blocks.
The blocks are tapped free from the mould leaving a box shaped like violin. The box is strengthened with narrow strips of willow, glued to the inside face of the ribs.
A wedge of spruce cut from a log and a similar wedge of maple are both sawn in half, making two matching wedges that are glued together along the thicker sides. These form two rectangles of wood thicker in the centre and joined down the middle like an open book. The spruce is used for the front and the maple for the back. Outlines of the back and the front are traced onto each of the rectangles, slightly enlarged in order to ensure an overhang when front and back are glued to the box.
The outline is sawn from the wood and the outer face is roughly shaped with a large gouge.
A narrow line is chiselled out along the edge of back and front and filled with the thin strip of wood called purfling.
The inside of the [back] is hollowed out with the gouge. The back is glued to the box.
The eyes of the sound holes on the front are drilled out and curved outline of the f-hole is cut with the saw and finished with the knife.
A bar of wood, the bass bar, is glued to the inside of the front under the place where the G string will run.
The neck and scroll are shaped from a block of maple. The pegbox is hollowed out with the chisel and two flutes are carved on the back of the scroll.
A space is chiselled through the middle of the upper ribs and the neck is glued to the upper block. The neck is finished with the scraper and chisel to make a smooth, rounded surface for ease of handling. A small post is inserted inside the box, joining front and back and the front is glued to the box. The violin is now ready for varnishing.
Five coats of varnish are applied.
A tailpiece is fixed by the loop of gut to a button inserted in the lower ribs. Pegs are inserted into the pegbox and the instrument is strung, ready for playing.
This is one of the Couple series that Louise Bourgeois did in the last year of her life in which the drawings are made separately but then joined together as one. See more variations of these drawings here: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/41799102766548659/. Tracey Emin did a very British variation on the theme of these drawings also worth a look here: http://www.hauserwirth.com/exhibitions/814/louise-bourgeois-tracey-emin-do-not-abandon-me/list-of-works/2/. While I appreciate both artists I much prefer the original joyful ambiguity and non narrative focus of Bourgeois drawings.
The Forest Fire by Piero di Cosimo, 16c. The scene is inspired by the poem On Nature by Lucretius who traced the origins of humanity and saw fire as a catalyst for new discoveries.
The Hunt in the Forest by Paolo Uccello, 15c. Hunting, an aristocatic pastime, could serve as metaphor for love and pursit of beloved.
Wonderful exhibition at the AA in the front gallery of old drawings by Jan Kaplicky accompanied with even more wonderful book of his work while running Future Systems. Apologies for reflections in the photographs.
