I went to an exhibition at Compton Verney on Saturday. Both my daughter & I have birthdays in January & we always try to do something together. We managed to do 2 exhibitions - John Nash (1893 - 1977) plus Grinling Gibbons (1648 - 1721). Totally different in every way. The paintings were oils & watercolours plus engravings & lithographs. The Gibbons is obviously carving, both wood & stone. One dimensional as opposed to two dimensional. Nash depicted the two world wars & the landscapes of the UK. Gibbons created masterpieces of carving for the wealthy from the King downwards.
The Nash was interesting because it showed his development as an untrained artist. His early oils are quite crude. I really liked the famous paintings of the first world war though.
There is a mural like, naive, quality to the work. His watercolours however are my favourite. The watercolours are much subtler in tone.
The Gibbons is shows stunning carving skill. It is hard to understand how a lump of wood can be made into an image of a lace cravat. But the joy of this exhibition was that I did show how the work was done.
I wasn't feeling particularly well, but I really enjoyed both of these exhibitions & came away feeling inspired, uplifted & informed. The creative arts are so important to humanity. Grayson Perry has shown more than most artists just how creative ordinary people can be. As has "Portrait & Landscape Artist of the year" on TV.
Over the past years the Arts have dwindled in our education system. The ruthless march to numeracy & literacy has pushed art to a subsidiary role. It's a mistake. We can't all be highly intelligent. This is the normal IQ curve.
We can all appreciate beautiful things & I believe we can all be creative.
We need to feed the soul as well as the mind.
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