ART4001 Critical Debates MA Exhibition Visit - Tuesday 12th November 2019

As a fan of Peter Rabbit and Beatrix Potter illustrations, I couldn’t help but choose to attend that exhibition for our Gallery Day. The V&A is a very expansive museum with such a wide variety of artwork, and so I was a bit taken back that the Beatrix Potter exhibit was rather small, only a handful of images. At first glance, in fact, it seemed that you could walk through the whole of it in less than 10 minutes, and I noticed a number of people did only spend a few minuted walking through. But upon deeper inspection, it was clear the pieces had much more to offer than what they seemed upon first glance.

Beatrix Potter - unused draft for Benjamin Bunny — Beatrix Potter - unused draft for *Benjamin Bunny*

Upon entering the exhibition I realized I had actually started at the end. Interestingly a full color piece had been placed at both the beginning and the end of the exhibit so that familiar styled, truly Beatrix Potter-esq pieces bookended the space. I believe this was done intentionally should someone do what I had done and enter from the end side. In addition, the text paired with each piece seemed to be informative for both an illustrative audience and a non-artistic one. I imagine there are some people who visit the exhibition because they enjoy the books Beatrix Potter has illustrated more so than illustration in general. The descriptions mentioned why Beatrix Potter did certain sketches, not just how they were composed. For example, in the unused draft for Benjamin Bunny it was noted that the use of the flower made the image very sweet, but the intention for the image was to convey mischievous rabbits invading Mr. McGregor’s garden. In this way, it is helpful for both an illustrator and a lay person to understand why an image wasn’t used in a final piece. Editing based on choices such as this is something we as illustrators should be doing as well. In this way, I found these descriptions to be helpful, interesting, and informative.

Beatrix Potter - draft page for The Roly-Poly Pudding — Beatrix Potter - draft page for *The Roly-Poly Pudding*

While there weren’t many images, I think that in the end this was actually better. Had there been a larger number I might not have spent as much time on each as I had. Being able to see up close the pencil sketches and clean, thin ink lines allowed an insight into how Beatrix Potter worked. As we complete our own projects, it’s incredibly helpful to see the way a fellow illustrator composes her pictures and the methodology she uses to get to her final product. Her use of color in some areas verses another created a story in itself. It’s important to see the different ways in which illustrators, artists, and designers use color and when they don’t. Recopying her images in my own styling allowed me to better understand how her images move across the page and the way the lines, though simple, contain so much life and expression when they’re all put together. It was incredibly worth while to see the pieces and spend my time enjoying them.

my own sketches with one by Beatrix Potter

The exhibition Into the Night at the Barbican Centre had a very different effect. It was spread out between over a dozen rooms, each with a different location and time as its focus. What connected all the rooms was their focus on night life and how the arts tied into the era and feelings of those night clubs, whether it be music and dance or architecture/design and posters. While seeing all the ways in which night life found its own, unique persona depending on the time and location of the club or bar, some of the rooms fell short of a true sensory experience. My hope had been to be transported to those clubs, but not all achieved this. The Chat Noir and Folies achieved this in some regard, showing video clips of Loïe Fuller moving in her flowing fabrics and displaying metal cutouts which splashed dancing shadows across the wall of one of the lower galleries. These I felt were more of a success than some of the other sections, such as the Zurich display.

The level of success or failure of a display had to do, in part, with the section that came directly before or after it. For example, the Harlem Jazz area was lively and more experiential as there was jazz music playing as you walked around it. Directly next to that display was the London one and the dramatic transition from jazz music to silence was palpable. It, in my opinion, ruined the London display and in fact I found myself barely spending any time looking at that section.

What also disappointed me was that there were two spaces which recreated two of the bars, but the recreations were completely separate from the rest of their city’s displays. This disconnect made the recreated spaces seem like an afterthought. The recreating of the bars is exactly what I had hoped for in Into the Night, but unfortunately I don’t think it was successfully done. In our group afterward we all touched upon this, wondering if having music playing and even drinks being served would have helped make the spaces more effective. The exhibition on the whole screamed for more interactive spaces. As I walked around, I craved more sound and movement. Despite it being one of the spaces I preferred, one of the pieces in Chat Noir showed a drawing of a crowded room with people applauding a performance. I wish I could have had some background, white noise of people in a bar, speaking French, and applauding a show. This would have made the images come to life and, I believe, made the exhibition more memorable.

In our group discussion afterward we also debated how much information and text is appropriate for a gallery exhibit. There were mixed feelings as sometimes an explanation is necessary and contributes to the overall display, but other times it becomes too much and lessens the experience. I often find that if the text in a gallery is taking away from my experience of it, I stop reading. Though while this means I don’t limit my interpretation of the exhibition to that of the curator, I may be missing some vital or interesting information. On the whole, it was a day well spent! As days spent at galleries often are.

References

Beatrix Potter’s Art: Drawn With Design (Victoria & Albert Museum)

Into the Night (The Barbican Centre)

Exhibition Day (click to comment)

ART4001 Critical Debates MA Exhibition Visit - Tuesday 12th November 2019