Art in History:
Michelangelo Pistoletto at Bleinham, the Zuleika Galley, and Lubaina Himid
Winter 2016-2017
Bleinham Palace recently announced the next contemporary artist tapped to create and exhibition in the Stately Home (Jenny Holzer), and it’s got me excited enough to do a bit of a throw back.
As I’m sure most people have noticed, it’s gotten a bit trendy to have exhibitions of contemporary artists in places like stately homes. It’s no mystery why. When done well, it can be very productive for both the artist and the institution. The old homes get to expand their visitor base, provide a new reason for repeat visits, and engage in contemporary discussions. The artists get to exhibit in an extraordinarily beautiful place, breaking free from the White Cube and potentially picking up historical debate.
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| Pistoletto with Miraggio / Mirage (2016). Courtesy of Blenheim Art Foundation. |
I saw the Bleinham Art Foundation’s first exhibition at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, Ai Weiwei. I’m still kicking myself for missing their second, Laurence Weiner, though, so I knew I simply couldn’t miss their survey of Michelangelo Pistoletto's work. I may have gone on one of the last days of the show, when the gardens had turned bare and the trees were all decorated for Christmas, but I made it none the less.
Like most modern art exhibitions in historic sites, it ended up being a mixed bag. The pieces are successful when they find a way to achieve some kind of harmony with their surroundings, when they seem to be responding to the building and its past. This is fairly easy to do on the grounds, and indeed, the majority of the work that was placed outdoors found its mark. When you stepped out into the magnificent back courtyard, taking in the stunning view of the lake and the magnificent landscaping, your sense of pleasure and ease is arrested by the sight of a gold car half drowned in the large, ornate fountain (Miraggio / Mirage). It startles— how did such a ruin arrive here of all places? What happened to cause such a scene? It’s a second before you remember— Pistoletto. The gold of the car seems to pick up on all the gilding that adorns the palace and makes a mockery of it. It is a startling reminder that when it comes to historic palaces, there is more at play than meets the eye. There is a murky history of violence under their shinning surfaces.
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| Michelangelo Pistoletto, Venere degli stracci / Venus of the Rags (1967 – 2014). |
This contrast between the shining veneer of classicism and the reality of society is something Pistoletto picks up on time and again. When you first entered the palace itself, coming in through the chapel, you encountered Venus of the Rags. The iconic white classical statue stands, facing away from the viewer. Behind her, a mountain of rags is piled, standing nearly as tall as the figure herself. The ideal of the past is brought to face the messy reality of our world once again.
Upside Down Furniture was another success for me. In the green drawing room, Pistoletto positioned a collection of ornate, traditional furniture upside down. On their exposed undersides, he placed his signature mirrors. Their reflections show fragmented details of the ceiling and walls, altering the reality of the space. It wasn’t the first time that mirrors were introduced in the exhibition (and it wouldn’t be the last), but for me, it was undoubtably the most successful. It encourages you to reflect on your surroundings, on the nature of reality, on perception.
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| Michelangelo Pistoletto, Mirror Paintings, 1961-2016. |
The other mirror pieces were classic Pistoletto, and it’s hard to imagine mounting an exhibition of his work without including them. The library, where you had to enter and exit due to construction work, was taken up by a long line of his mirrored portrait pieces. They were a joy to see, as they always are, but I couldn’t help but wonder if their installation at Bleinheim really added anything to their meaning.
Still, it’s hard to complain too much about the opportunity to see such excellent, iconic work, and I’ve never left Bleinham feeling anything other than completely at peace. These days, a trip out to the palace brings everything I need in the world to be happy— beautiful architecture, plentiful opportunities for fine walks, excellent tea and now even a touch of contemporary art. I can’t wait to see what Jenny Holzer comes up with.
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While we’re speaking of Oxford— a small addendum. I recently discovered a new gallery here, and I just had to share. The Zuleika Gallery is a pop-up gallery based in the city run by ex-Bonhams specialist Lizzie Collins, who also operates an art consultancy. I read somewhere (though I can’t find the page again) that the gallery tends to focus on prints for their accessibility, and the show I caught (the day it closed per usual) fit right into that model. The exhibition was of Richard Smith’s prints from the 1970s and was situated in a small room off of Oxford’s Story Museum. They were simply glorious—a riot of colour and innovation. The colour part was probably to be expected. Smith was a contemporary of Hockney and was known at the time for his colour-field paintings. What I hadn’t anticipated was the exuberant originally in his print making.
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Richard Smith, Two of a Kind 1a (light blue cross), 1978.
Lithograph. Image courtesy of Zuleika Galley.
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Throughout the space, there were countless examples of Smith’s attempts to push the form. Many prints had been folded so that there was a shallow crevice down the centre of the work. Time and again, I found myself peering into this dark, shallow space, hoping to catch a glimpse of the design hidden there. The three dimensionality didn’t stop there. In other places, Smith added extra elements— paper clips, a translucent overlay. In one work, he had literally stitched two torn pieces of a print back together with a rough twine. They were like a type of collage or sculpture— two things I had never before associated with print making. I found myself back in my student shoes, wondering how I would’ve catalogued them for an exam. It was hard to tear myself away.
Now that Zuleika Gallery is on my radar, I can’t wait to see what they have planned next. I won’t be missing it, and I suggest you don’t either.
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| Labaina Himid, Swallow Hard: The Lancaster Dinner Service, 2007. |
I’m going to leave you with a few words about an exhibition you can actually still see (how unlike me). Right after visiting the Zuleika Gallery at the Story Museum, I headed over to Modern Art Oxford. It’s always been one of my favourite places in the city, and I simply couldn’t be so close to the gallery without visiting. Currently, they have on a exhibition of work by Lubaina Himid, “Invisible Strategies.” Himid was born in Zanzibar in 1954 before emigrating to London with her mother when she was a child. The show covers a range of her output from the 1980s to present day, including both figurative and abstract paintings, multi-media pieces, sculptural work, and conceptual interventions. Still, while there is a great diversity in her work, the intention behind Himid’s work is clear. She is striving to reveal a forgotten, excluded black past, to claim a stake for those who have been marginalised. The history of slavery, for example, is present throughout. You enter the main gallery and are immediately confronted by a multi-media painting, Freedom and Change. Here, Picasso’s bathers are reconfigured as two black women wearing clothing made from air mail envelopes.
Later in the exhibition, there is a display of English bone china that has been altered by Himid. Their traditional surfaces now bear, among another things, portraits of slaves. The colonialist history of their creation becomes impossible to ignore. The title says it all— Swallow Hard: The Lancaster Dinner Service. In the same space, the walls are covered with another one of Himid’s alterations. Negative Positives is a series of newspaper pages that contain stories depicting people of colour. With her painted additions, she draws attention to the way we represent, critique, celebrate.
It’s a stimulating exhibition and best of all, you still have time to see it. “Invisible Strategies” is on until the 30th of April.
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