[Authors Own, September 13]
The Gerhard Richter exhibition shown in London’s Tate Modern ‘Transformed Visions’ room 11 on level 3, curated by Mark Godfer, consisted of the ‘The Cage Paintings’; 6 oil on square canvas based paintings which together make a coherent group, which are named after the American Avant – Garde music composer John Cage.
Richter, born in Dresden 1932, is an art academy trained
significant contemporary artist. In 1961 he migrated to West Germany to study
in where he became interested in Avant –Garde where he became to collaborate
with fellow artists such as Konrad Lueg. As time went on he began to really
speak through his art in which he would started to challenge societies views and
use societies issues and events to help inspire his work.
Cage, an American composer, born in 1912, was known as one
of music’s most influential composers of the 20th century and became
of the leading figures of the post war avant-garde. His music spoke volumes and
meaning, which really reflected in the figurativeness of the Cage paintings (Bernstein, 2001). In
both Cages and Richter’s work I believe the artist leave the meaning of their
work very open, leaving it entirely to you to find meaning and almost scan for something
that reminds you of a certain ‘thing’ that will link to a fugitive meaning that
may even be linked to the title of the work, which in this case is caged.
When initially walking into room 11, where the paintings are
displayed, I felt someway captivated by the paintings electrified and pulsating
colours and brush strokes. I quickly saw the link between each painting through
Richter’s artist method and choice of colour palette, in which I personally
enjoy looking at. By having each painting positioned separately around the
room, 2 on each wall, gave me the feeling as if I was being charged, the
splashes of colours in each painting for example the reds, yellows and blues,
really brought the room to life and highlights the movement in each piece,
whereas the grey tones really help to illustrate the movement between each piece;
linking each painting together. For me I get the message that Richter is trying
to put across a message to us as designers of our own that we shouldn’t always
get caught up in trying to make our work like other designers/ artist that we
look up to – he wants us to be brave and try out new things, not to be scared
if we make a mistake and take it as inspiration or see it as another path that
we could go down with our work. More profoundly I believe that he wants us to
be inspired by what happens in our everyday lives and our interests and let it
influence and reflect in our work both visually and emotionally; which I
believe I need to start to practice to help develop my work. Living, learning
and working in London; experiencing the great range of cultures, lifestyles and
overall atmosphere of city life can be easily related to the cage paintings and
the concept be applied or serve as inspiration for future projects. Gerhard
Richter’s cage paintings inspired by music has really inspired me to create a response
to the artwork as a keen lover of music myself, in which I can easily see
myself combing other mediums of art like expressive dance or even drama. Lasting
I would like to leave you with this quote from Richter when he was asked if he
always thinks about how to make a timeless object.
“ Its not that I’m always thinking about how to make something
timeless, it’s more of a desire to maintain a certain artistic quality that
moves us, that goes beyond what we are, and that is, in that sense, timeless.” (Richter,
2008)
Bibliography
Gallery
Tate Modern, Transformed Visions Gallery, 2013
Book
Bernstein, Hatch. (2001) Writing through John Cage’s Music, Poetry, And Art. USA. University Of Chicago
Richter, Gerhard. (2008) Panorama. London. Tate Publishing Limited
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