I couldn't resist posting these last photo's from The Lightbox, Woking - from the line of statues at the entrance, mainly on loan from the Ingram Collection.
The gallery is largely dependent on loans from Chris Ingram's huge collection of 20th and 21st century art.
I liked this self portrait of the sculptor Eduardo Paolozzi;
It's from his 'Man Machine' series and that's clearer from this detail;
Paolozzi is most famous for his influence on 'Pop Art' and if you want to see a particularly good example of it, take a trip to Tottenham Court Tube Station where he was commissioned to cover the walls in the most amazing mosaic tiles.
It shimmers.
Paolozzi was Scottish although his art took him around the world. From 1960 to 1962 he taught art in Hambourg and one of his most gifted pupils was Stu Sutcliffe, early member of The Beatles and friend of John Lennon.
Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)
Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com
We had a trip out to Woking and I certainly enjoyed watching some local lads doing Parkour over the flower beds on the High Street;
But we were there to pay a visit to 'The Lightbox' to see the new exhibition of artworks from The Chris Ingram Collection.
There were some real treats - here's a few of my highlights.
This is one of Barbara Hepworth's famous series of drawings of surgeons and nurses at work in the early days of the NHS.
Celebrating free treatment for all, based on need rather than ability to pay, Hepworth spent long periods in operating theatres, drawing people working in life or death situations.
The drawings concentrate on faces and hands;
There is also a small but spectacular example of her abstract sculpture, which I love.
'Colour and strings';
There's a couple of Ben Nicholson's, her friend and collaborator and a few Terry Frosts, another fellow resident of the artists colony in St. Ives.
This is typical of his later years, large expanses of colour;
There are a series of Eduardo Paolozzi collages from the 1940's;
There are some nice 'realist' paintings, I liked Edward Burra's "Seamen Ashore";
I can't help but post this George Large painting of workers at Smithfield market in the 1990's, not so very long after I worked in the meat trade;
Out of the series, Robyn preferred 'Cleaning St. Pauls', stonemasons balancing high above London on the scaffolding around the cathedral;
I have to show you this Bridget Reilly - you would normally expect to see the abstract optical illusion paintings that she is famous for.
This is much more imtimate;
All of these pictures and others can be seen for the next couple of months and form part of the Chris Ingrams Collection - a local communications businessman who has made his collection available to the gallery. All the exhibitions can be accessed for the £5 pass that lasts for a year - I'm hoping to return in a few months time for a different selection that will follow on after this one.
Meanwhile here's a mobile from the stairwell;
And this is a 'Harris', you can create your own sculpture from these shapes. I had to have a go and mine probably lasted for about half a day, until some else had a go, I hope;
Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)
Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com
I'm kicking myself; we had two glorious sunny days over the weekend and we were either doing chores or I was too tired to do anything.
This week is all rain and it's too late to go anywhere. At the end of this week it's my last Chemo session so I'm more than fed up..
So, on a miserable rainy afternoon we went to Woking;
That's the rather dirty and tired looking fighter jet from outside the cinema. Woking used to be a centre of the aerospace industry although it's now trying to reinvent itself for a new century. It's a centre for new flats and offices these days.
There is some public sculpture - I liked this;
They are celebrating the 150th anniversary of H.G.Wells birth this year - the author and early socialist. This is a sculpture of one of the alien war machines from "War of the Worlds".
Scary stuff!
Here's the plaque;
We wandered through the shops to get to 'The Lightbox', which I haven't been to before.
It's a modern, light, local art gallery.
Actually I want to go in about a fortnight when there's a good exhibition of modern art from the Chris Ingrams Collection but we were there today!
S, I guess we went to an art gallery when there wasn't anything we wanted to see.
They had a small room of local artists work.
This is Forbes Moores piece;
And Juliet Renny's "Old Harry's Rocks".
Ironically, I've been to Swanage four or five times and never seen "Old Harry" yet - it's a sea stack.
The Lightbox is a real asset and we hope to come back soon.
I really enjoyed Ralph Brown's depiction of Smithfield meat porter's.
I worked at Smithfield, in the off market meat trade for three long, hard years. This captures a vanishing world.
It was also designed to be public art in Stevenage - a post war 'New Town' which took people way from the old East End - working class people familiar with this kind of life.
It represents an aspect of 1950's optimism and celebration of peoples lives that is completely missing these days.
This is one of the original sketches for the sculpture;
The description of the work used the word 'Visceral', which sums up the meat trade for those who aren't familiar with it.
We clearly need to make trips to towns to check out the disabled parking because I ended up parking a long way away, not realising there were spaces much nearer.
By this time I was pretty shattered and had to have a sit down to get over it.
We had a coffee and a chat....lots of laughter.
And a look around the shop;
Neil Harris
(a don't stop till you drop production)
Home: helpmesortoutstpeters.blogspot.com
Contact me: neilwithpromisestokeep@gmail.com
