Mucha disappointed

The Walker gallery in Liverpool are currently hosting an Alphonse Mucha art exhibition and for the sum of £7 (£5 cons.) you can pop in and have a look around. It also includes a 5 minute video by his great grandaughter actress Tamsin Omond.

However, if you’re expecting to find a treasure trove of Alphonse Mucha original paintings in this art exhibition you will be sorely disappointed as most of what is on display are just prints, large prints maybe, but still prints, not the originals. The four originals included are three rough sketches and a study, hardly a collection worthy of such a great artist as Alphonse Mucha. The Alphonse Mucha exhibition is not massively large and clearly they ran out of prints, let alone originals, since a massive Burns Jones adorns much of the last part of the far wall … and there’s a Mackintosh artbook on the bench for some reason. Oh I see, that’s Art Nouveau as well so let’s throw it in. I was really very surprised to find a major art gallery hosting an exhibition by a famous artist like Alphonse Mucha with so little original work on display. The prints may be old but they are barely antiques by anyone’s standards and one or two have seen better days too.

Clearly it is all about making money nowadays and if we can get the public to pay for looking at a load of art prints why bother trying to get an exhibition of original artwork together? Pleasant enough to look at but ultimately rather disappointing and disillusioning. I think the Walker Gallery should really have done better than this.  In fact, you’d probably be better off spending your money on an art print you can keep forever by looking here.

Ed Org Solo Exhibition

Enchantment by artist Ed Org
Enchantment by artist Ed Org

If you can possibly get on down to the PopUp Gallery in Cirencester between 23rd June and 5th July you’ll have the chance to see some of celebrated artist Ed Org’s amazing art on show.  It is a solo exhibition so just tons of fabulous Ed Org art for you to enjoy.  Please tell them you found out about it here.

The PopUp Gallery, New Brewery Arts, Brewery Court, Cirencester,GL7 1JH.

You’ll find more info on how to get there here.

You can also phone them on 01285 657181.

If you want to get some idea of what you’ll see there just click on the image above to see more art by Ed Org.

01285 657181
01285 657181

Great art or arty farty?

I had my birthday yesterday and we went into Liverpool to visit the galleries in the morning. At the Walker Gallery there is an interesting exhibition of black and white photography on at the moment. It isn’t usually my thing but these are exceptionally good and many of them are very interesting and often also very amusing. These photographers definitely had a remarkable sense of humour and a quick eye to spot these often extremely transient phenomena. We also saw the John Moores prizewinners. Some of the winners seem so ridiculous it makes you wonder how they arrive at a result like that.  I recall that one of the entrants was a truly magnificent massive watercolour work that caught the attention of many local artists but that was , naturally, not to be found amongst the prizewinners.  Why that piece and some others were not “deemed worthy” is beyond me.

This morning as I sat down with a coffee I burst out laughing as it suddenly hit me (I don’t know why I never saw it while I was there!) but the John Moores competition being held at The Walker Gallery is unbelievably ridiculous. If it was at the TATE, fine, but at the Walker it actually shows something utterly ridiculous.  All these works of art in the Walker gallery have been collected over many years as great works of art including many of the country’s most loved artists and yet not one of them could possibly win the John Moores competition. So are they all rubbish and redundant in the face of the John Moores competition? Or is the John Moores competition a load of self-serving twaddle and redundant in the face of the great masters of the past? In the context of the Walker Gallery as a whole I do not see how one or the other conclusion is not applicable. Anyway, the absurdity of the whole thing certainly made me laugh. Maybe you can think of an answer to this dilemma but I can’t.  Let’s see what the comments show, if anything.

Glorious Schuiten !

The Final Plan by Francois Schuiten
The Final Plan by Francois Schuiten

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If you haven’t seen the amazing artwork of Francois Schuiten then just click on the image above and see a whole range of the most stunning artwork you could imagine.  These small images cannot really do justice to Francois Schuiten art though.  The large fine art prints of Francois Schuiten’s drawings are unbelievably impressive and are often used as a centrepiece for a large room.  Artists like Francois Schuiten show quite clearly how artists who made their name in drawing comic books are often as talented and at least as creative as other artists despite the long-term prejudices in many art colleges against comic art as a worthwhile profession for a “real” artist.  Perhaps it will be the work of people like Francois Schuiten that will one be hanging in the world’s national art galleries.  Francois Schuiten gives you an amazing perspective, tones and colours that hint at some kind of film noire plot that is not explicit but only hinted at.  There is almost a sense of vertigo in some of the art and books play a prominent role.  To have a look at more of the incredible art of Francois Schuiten all you need to do is click on the image or if that is a bit too far away then how about right here.

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So that’s the jury!

Château des Réaux have still not sent us the information we requested. However, one of the artists in contact with us who was considering submitting paintings to the art exhibition competition did get a reply from them with the list of the judges for the competition. Since they don’t want the names published we will honour that but we will give some details that artists thinking of submitting their oil paintings might like to consider. Château des Réaux state the following: “The acceptance of works is decided by a jury, the members of which are figures of art and literature.”

There are five members of the jury who will decide what artworks are accepted etc. Of these, one is a published French art critic whose inclusion would appear quite valid. However, the other members are one poet (guess who), two civil servants and someone who works for an auction house (as yet unnamed). Four of the five members are French. We are really not sure why these people have been chosen and how they can be deemed qualified to judge this competition. It seems like a case of “it’s my game and I’ll choose anyone I like”. Certainly it is hardly an international jury and to describe these people as “figures of art and literature” is really stretching the concept in most cases. In any event, what would a “figure of literature” be doing judging an art competition anyway? Would you have Salvador Dali, Gil Elvgren, Pablo Picasso, Claude Monet and HR Giger deciding who gets the Booker prize?

After reading the list of judges, the artist who contacted us decided not to send her paintings off to Château des Réaux, thanked us for our blog and immediately sold one of the paintings for far more than 305 Euros and without losing her copyright on it :-)