Nothing in the World But Youth, some local developments and a bit of a ramble.

I went to The Turner Contemporary on Sunday, again, you are not allowed to take photographs in the main exhibition, “Nothing in the World But Youth” and it was my intention to sketch some of the exhibits but frankly the exhibition is far too busy and there isn’t really anything much to sit on.

There is no criticism of the gallery here, there isn’t anything they can do about the photography rule, there are fare too many exhibits that are still in copyright for them to allow photography and it is too busy for them to put lots of seats in the galleries.

The exhibits all relate to youth, either exhibits by artists when they were young or older artists producing pictures expressing aspects of youth so it does provide inspiration. Above a summery youth related picture from my sketchbook which I hope gives a bit of the feel of what the exhibition is about.

Sorry about the delay here, sometimes one wonders about this country, I have spent most of the day trying to reduce the amount I pay for processing credit cards in my bookshop.

Anyway on to my ramble, I was a bit miffed that the Turner Contemporary only publicised the queen’s visit after it had happened. Saying why not visit Margate last week isn’t entirely helpful to struggling local businesses.

It is reassuring to know that Margate has beaten places like Cambridge to the Great Neighbourhood Award, see http://www.academyofurbanism.org.uk/awards/main_awards_2012.html anyone know what the academy for urbanism is?

I will ramble on as the day continues.  

Despicable business at the Turner Contemporary Margate

I am afraid to say that the unhealthy side of contemporary art has reared its ugly head in Margate, contemporary artist Andy Warhol appeared to be handing something wrapped in silver paper to Margate schoolboy Joe Turner and it appears that money changed hands.

Fortunately I had my brush handy so sketched the miscreants, this is the second such incident witnessed in Thanet in two days see http://birchington.blogspot.com/2011/09/despicable-business.html

Both Andy and Joe are exhibiting paintings at The Turner Contemporary’s exhibition “Nothing in the World But youth” which is on at the moment, see http://www.turnercontemporary.org/exhibitions/nothing-in-the-world-but-youth although both of them have produced exceptionally good exhibits, it is such a shame when gifted young people behave in this way.   

Paintings of the Turner Contemporary Art Gallery in Margate

 As we have a major new art gallery designed by an internationally renowned architect, I wondered what artists had made of this civic ornament adorning Margate seafront.

I have to say that I have Googled in vain, trying to find paintings of this architectural gem.

Like Turner I keep a sketch book, there the resemblance ends unfortunately, however ts amuses my children, so here are possibly the first two paintings of the gallery.

One of the gallery, and one a notion of how it may have arrived.

The pictures should enlarge if you click on them.

Nothing But the World of Youth at the Turner Contemporary Margate

I visited this exhibition for the first time today and it is very good indeed, I had my nine-year-old daughters with me and we had all afternoon, it just wasn’t long enough and we will need to go again.

Photography is not allowed at this exhibition so they took pencils and sketch pads with them, so they could copy any pictures they liked.

The four watercolours by Turner that are hung together, were painted when he was nine (according to the sign on them although my memory of his biography tells me they were done when he was eleven and they do look like the work of a talented eleven year old) so these were of special interest. Art gallery signage is in this instance is inadequate for the enquiring nine year old, what colours did he use daddy?

I gave my best guess on this one, Indian ink, sepia ink, chrome yellow, yellow ochre, rose madder, cobalt blue, burnt umber and a pencil. Any better information on this one would be appreciated, it was an off the top of my head in the gallery answer and my guess would be that Turner added some sort of opaque white to his watercolour paintbox in later life and that was about it.

Much subsequent discussion about how a ten year old boy could have only five paints in his box and some practical experiments have ensued. If you are wondering how a nine year old managed to get hold of something as precious as rose madder, mine managed it today.

Frankly I am finding it very difficult to be critical of this exhibition, so I will stick to my childrens criticism, this was mainly that the four Turner watercolours were pretty much the only pictures that were not done by people who were a lot older than they are. Frankly these were the pictures in the exhibition that they most identified with, two of them are of Minster Church and I have had to promise my children that we will go there so that they can have a go at painting it.

As I said photography is banned at this exhibition, although a great many people were taking photographs while I was there, partly I think because there isn’t anything in the way of clear signage and partly because in this digital age the ban is almost impossible to implement. I did take a few pictures before I saw any indication that you were not allowed to.

I also took some pictures of Margate today, here are the links

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/netbook911/id4.htm

http://www.michaelsbookshop.com/netbook911/id6.htm

The main problems with the gallery still haven’t been resolved, which is a shame, see http://thanetonline.blogspot.com/2011/05/fine-tuning-turner-contemporary-margate.html if you don't know what I am talking about.

One thing that does surprise me is the lack of news stories and reviews about this exhibition on the internet, it may be that people only want to write negative things about Margate and the Turner contemporary, something that it is very difficult to do after visiting this exhibition.

We genuinely had a good day out in Margate today and I honestly think that the other people who visited the exhibition will come back again, not to make any particular point about art but just because it was enjoyable, you could tell from the smiles on the faces..