seduced by art photography past and present
This exhibition, comprised of paintings from the collection of the National Gallery, London and photographs drawn mostly from the Wilson Centre of Photography, is a stimulating and provocative investigation of how photography and painting have informed, connected and enlightened one another since the 1830’s.
Two curators worked together, Hope Kingsley on photography and Christopher Riopelle from the National Gallery. Painting has many centuries of art history to draw from, which Christopher Riopelle has amply demonstrated, beginning the show with Delacroix, The Death of Sardanapalus (1827) to which Hope Kingsley has responded with the magnificent Jeff Wall, The Destroyed Room (1978) and the Tom Hunter Death of Coltelli (2009).
Favourites in the show include Helen Chadwicks, One Flesh (1985), a modern reworking of Madonna and Child and the Bartolemmeo Schedoni, Holy Family with the Virgin Teaching the Child to Read (about 1613-15).
Also the beautiful Roger Fenton, Still Life with Fruit, Flowers, Vase and Putti (1860) is hung poetically with Ori Gersht, Blow Up: Untitled 5 (2007) and Ignace-Henri-Theodore Fantin-Latour, The Rosy Wealth of June (1886).
By choosing to take only the first thirty years of photography and the last thirty years of contemporary photographic work, there is a sense of history and modernism. I regret that there is not more 20th century photography but we can hope that there will be an exhibition to follow this one.
The wealth of material, the intelligent captions and wall texts make this a learning experience which is pleasurable and timely.
The most enjoyable parts of the exhibition are those when photography and painting are not compared like for like, but each medium lends something positive and unique in its own way to the outcome. This is an important landmark show and the National Gallery is to be commended for blazing this trail.
This exhibition, comprised of paintings from the collection of the National Gallery, London and photographs drawn mostly from the Wilson Centre of Photography, is a stimulating and provocative investigation of how photography and painting have informed, connected and enlightened one another since the 1830’s.Two curators worked together, Hope Kingsley on photography and Christopher Riopelle from…