Author: Eleanor Heath

Antony Gormley is a contrast to Lucian Freud as Gormley is not interested in real likeness but instead invites us to rediscover our space. My first encounter of his work was the ‘Iron Baby 1999’ a fragile object but not by material – set against the towering enclosed courtyard of the RA. The six-day-old newborn baby is cast in iron and a very fragile but solid object. The material contradicted its subject and made me feel vulnerability.

In contrast to this solo human form, the first gallery consisted of fourteen sculptures placed across the floor. The steel slabs were actually geometric interpretations of the human structure making up a body.

As I walked through his early works he created during the 1970’s and 80’s I thought the gallery lacked in colour, however the forms were intriguing, especially the ‘One Apple’, which cut the space – 53 items in lead cases mapping the growth of the apple. The sculpture did not move me in any way just made me more intrigued about this documentation. I learnt that he used lead, which can insulate against radiation – this was in response to Gormley growing up during the Cold War. I now understood why he concealed objects. This technique of wrapping in Gormley’s words was ‘Seeds for the future’ Does he see this as preserving nuggets of time?

Next I entered a gallery full of 8km of square aluminum tubing coiled into a room, as thought is had suddenly been let go and expanded into the space. It was called ‘Clearing VII 2019’ and aimed to challenge the boundaries of sculpture. You had to bend and step over parts whilst looking into the center you were very much part of the installation, inside its bones.

My favorite sculpture was called ‘Subject II 2019’ a life size body made from steel bars with its head bent down. The steel bars formed what I see as a pixel like form highlighting the space of the body and the absence of skin. Ghost like in appearance it seemed to me to be a digital relic.

As I walked into the next gallery a sky of architectural lines were in front of me with its perspective moving on every step, ‘Matrix III 2019’. The horizontal and vertical steel mesh highlighted the space and made a great photograph, with all the angles at juxtaposition as the cages intersected. I felt like this construction of space was then deconstructed and Gormley had edited this down to the minimal steel bars that spanned through the next galleries with ‘Co-ordinate VI’. It was like looking at a macro element of ‘Matrix III’

In the next room there were a huge selection of Gormley’s sketchbooks, which I found fascinating and was drawn towards two of them. The first a sketch, which looked like figures, wrapped up with thread stuck to the page and the second a perspective drawing of figures placed in space along what could have been a park or a beech.

‘Lost Horizon I 2008’ was what I know Gormley for. Cast iron figures arranged in unexpected positions defying gravity and questioning our perception of natural orientation. In contrast to these figures came ‘Concrete Works 1990-93’, which I felt were baron. These concrete blocks that concealed a void reminded me of Rachel Whiteread’s concrete ‘House’. The blocks mapped the reverse and you were only able to glimpse at sections of the body.

The ‘Cave’, which seemed intriguing and reminded me of Robert Wogan’s steel lined maze I visited at the Liverpool Biennial in 2002. However when you emerged from this cave I came across ‘Host 2019’, A gallery full of a thin layer of earth and water, very still and untouched. It felt surreal and not like any form of preservation but a new creation after some sort of devastation.

Last Tuesday I took myself back to the Royal Academy of Arts to see the current exhibition of Lucian Freud – The Self-portraits. As I have dabbled in portraits myself I thought this would be a good place to get myself back into painting again. I haven’t done a self-portrait in a long time and this exhibition certainly inspired me to get started again.

The first Lucian Freud painting I ever saw in my life was one of his later works called Eli and David a portrait of David Dawson and his whippet Eli. This was in a small show at the V&A along with paintings from Frank Auerbach, when I worked at the V&A in 2006 as a gallery assistant. I remember working at the exhibitions private view and Lucian was there, the 2^nd time I had come into such close proximity to a famous artist, I was in my element. I remember working in the paintings gallery starring at Eli and David for hours at a time, fascinated by the way Lucian captured David’s expression through paint. A painting that had caused the sitters consciousness to emanate, a truly brilliant piece of work.

Lucian Freud is one of the greatest realist painters of the 20^th Century who has dedicated his life to the preoccupation of the human face and figure of family, friends and lovers. Most importantly he returned to self-portraiture over an over again over his life span.

The exhibition situated in the Sackler Gallery of the RA documented his self- portraits from 1940 when he attended art school after being expelled from Bryanston School in Dorset, to Freud’s late self-portraits in the 1990’s. You could see his confidence with paint develop from start to finish of the exhibition. What I hadn’t seen before was his ‘Man with a Feather’ (1943), which revealed his interest in Northern European painting of the Renaissance.

Lucian Freud, Frank Auerbach and Francis Bacon were associated with each other and I have admired their dedication to their style as during their time they worked against the grain when Abstract Expressionism and then Conceptual and Experimental Art where in vogue.

Things I like/learnt about Lucian Freud:

Ability to capture expression and character –The light and shade -His flesh detail – The sitters gaze – The unexpected compositions – Vigorous brushstrokes – The fact that Freud found self portraits challenging – The drama created by paint – The fact he required his sitters to be present even when he was painting the backgrounds – He rarely took on commissions – and finally the time he dedicated to portraits. David Hockney’s portrait took 130 hours to complete.

Lucian worked with mirrors to document his autobiographical life capturing his consciousness that would be difficult to do using photographs. In 1975 he began to use Cremnitz White, a granular looking paint that created a texture and structure giving that relief on the flesh of the human form. I found he texture slightly disturbing and preferred his fluid use of paint he did in the 1960’s. I was fascinated by the way he folded the skin and his colour use where you could see a mixture of tones in one brush stroke. For me the Cremnitz white began to create a sculptural element that was a step away from the 1950-60’s paintings when his style become looser. At that point he had lost the narrative and symbols is his early work and concentrated individually on the sitter.

In Lucian Freud’s ‘Some thoughts on painting’ 1954 he says, ‘my object in painting is to try and move the senses by giving an intensification of reality’. He talks about understanding and feeling the person or object and I feel he has certainly achieved this in his works. You feel like you have an understating of the sitter.

As an artist I have learnt a lot from Lucian Freud and will have a go at a self-portrait very soon…

A few of my recent collage pieces from my sketch book, images courtesy of the Sothebys brochures given to me by a friend. Showcasing a mixture of Pollock, Warhol, Hirst, A touch of Renaissance, Bacon, Giacometti, Munch, Albers and Daumier.

Delighted to have some of my work in The Flying Ducks Art Gallery in Stone Staffordshire.

Moved into my new studio today in Stone town centre above a lovely gin bar called ’10 Green Bottles’.