In her latest gallery tour for Dukes Club members, Candida Cave, esteemed art historian and founder of Hampstead Fine Arts College, explored the rich variety of 20th Century art forms in the Tate Britain’s permanent collection.
From Cubism, Futurism, Vorticism and still a hint of Realism, this tour focused on the incredible diversity of art works produced in the decades that spanned two World Wars and immense social change.
Starting off with Epstein’s two-sided sculpture, ‘Primeval Gods’, a piece that demonstrates the artist’s change in style over two decades, we discussed the parallels with another of his famous pieces – the tombstone of Oscar Wilde – which caused scandal amidst its traditional neighbours in Paris’ Pere Lachaise Cemetery.
Moving on through the gallery we discovered how varied the art from this period is. From the simple decorativeness of Ivor Hitchens compositions, the balanced geometry of Ben Nicholson’s ‘White Relief’, the dark Surrealism of Meredith Frampton’s ‘Trial and Error’ and the shock value of Stanley Spencer’s ‘Double nude portrait of the artist and his second wife’, this truly was not an era for rule-following.
Candy remarked on the naivety and simplicity of the little-known Christopher Wood’s work which in no way revealed his disturbed personality, in contrast to the dark emotive displays shown by other troubled artists such as Rothko in his dark maroon and black ‘Seagram Murals’ housed in a dimly lit room of the gallery.
Befitting to the time, we explored several war pieces. From the disturbing but beautiful stillness of Paul Nash’s ‘Dead Sea’, to Francis Bacon’s more familiar ‘Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion’, mirroring the Fates and Furies of antiquity.
In a final contrast, the tour concluded with the serene and beautiful sculptures of Henry Moore, an artist who became an internationally renowned figure unlike many of his quieter, though no less talented, British contemporaries.
Dukes Club members can enjoy more of Candida’s inspirational art tours:
The Wallace Collection Guided Tour - Connoisseurs’ Acquisitions
Lucian Freud Exhibition – National Gallery. Details coming soon to our events page
Cezanne Exhibit – Tate Modern. Details coming soon to our events page