Saloua Raouda Choucair - Tate Modern

Saloua Raouda Choucair is a 97 year old Arab woman artist. She is virtually unknown outside her native Beirut and France, where she studied art in her late twenties. I must admit to never having heard of her but as is so often the case I found this small, four roomed exhibition to be more interesting and stimulating than many of the blockbuster exhibitions that I have been to.

I read in the Financial Times newspaper that Choucair fits the profile of the sort of artist that the Tate likes to put on following on from 83 year old Yayoi Kusama last year and 96 year old Louise Bourgeios in 2007 and that she is not 'a significant figure in the history of 20th century art' as if this exhibition has been granted as some kind of politically correct affirmative action. Personally I think the Tate should be applauded for hunting down interesting artists that are not well known - how many 97 year old Arab woman artist's get shown in internationally renowned art galleries? How many Arab woman artist's get shown in internationally renowned art galleries come to that? Having said that how many woman artist's get shown in internationally renowned art galleries? More than there used to be certainly, but surely that's because of galleries that are willing to take a chance and push the boundaries like the tate has done here.

Lichtenstein: A Retrospective - Tate Modern

I do like Lichtenstein, best known for his comic strip paintings, but the downside of this large exhibition, apart from the usual problem with Tate blockbuster's - the crowds, 'hell is other people' indeed, is you will already know the good stuff. There is lots to look at and enjoy here but not much to take you by surprise. I did like Lichtenstein's reproductions of well known works by other artists but in his own style though, those based on Van Gogh and Mondrian shown below.

 

Public Service Broadcasting at Rough Trade East

Public Service Broadcasting are a musical duo comprising drums and guitar/banjo/synthesiser who sample old public information films and other assorted archive material and blend it with their  music to come up with an orginal and interesting sound. They played at Rough Trade East (a great record shop near Spitalfields market, if you like that sort of thing) as part of 'record store day' (a day to celebrate and promote record shops) so we trotted along with assorted other hipsters (or possibly nerds depending on your point of view) to check them out and rather spendid they were too.

Further information on PSB can be found on their website - http://publicservicebroadcasting.net/

Dorothy Iannone: Inncoent and Aware - Camden Arts Centre

Dorothy Iannone is a self taught artist, orginally from America, who met Swiss artist Dieter Roth on a trip to Iceland in 1967. This meeting transformed her life and she moved to Europe to be with Roth where she has been ever since, she is now based in Berlin.

Her work is tremendously vibrant, reminding of indian erotic art and psychedelia, she documents her relationships giving free expression to this celebration of her (erotic) life.

A life affirming exhibition, only slightly spoiled by the arts centre attendants continually popping up as you move around, like the shopkeeper out of Mr Benn. They are very friendly and helpful but I prefer to be able to look around an exhibition without the feeling that I'm not to be trusted and need to be watched.

Gaiety is the Most Outstanding Feature of the Soviet Union: New Art from Russia – Saatchi gallery

I found this a varied show, at times moving especially the portrait photographs of poor Russians by Boris Mikhailov, and being a Saatchi show it was also at time rude, horrific but always interesting. I liked Dasha Fursey's jars containing pickled traditional Russian food's.

 

Like a lot of this exhibition there is always the spectre of the history of Russia and the Soviet Union and it's shortages in Fursey's work. The USSR also looms large in Sergei Vasiliev's photograph's. He was a prison warder under communism and he continued a project begun by a collegue to document the tattoo's of the prison inmates. Tattooing was illegal, so the images were made using scalpels and melted boot heels, these were hard men who often did not expect to ever be released. The tattoo's were a form of defiance to the state.

On the top floor of the gallery there was another, related, exhibition which has now unfortunately closed, Breaking the Ice: Moscow Art 1960-80's. As much of 'Gaity' looks back to, and is informed by the Soviet period the two exhibition's complemented each other very well but to be honest I prefered Breaking the Ice. Things somehow always become more interesting when they are from the Soviet period as questions always occur such as 'what were the artists permitted to produce?' 'how careful did they have to be to avoid censorship?' etc. Having said that perhaps I'm not the best judge as I'm always more interested by anything from the Soviet period ... wouldn't wanted to have lived there but always fascinated by it.