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| In the Car (1963) Oil paint and magma on canvas |
Whenever work
sends me away from home for a day or so, one of the first considerations is
food. Hot on its heels comes the question of whether there is any art to be
hunted down.
Thus a
working weekend in Liverpool instantly meant two things: at least one visit to the
Docklands Fish & Chips for lunch and a look at what was on at the Tate
Liverpool, which is just along the same stretch of the Albert Dock – both no
distance from the conference centre where I’m working.
Arriving
yesterday in mid-afternoon, a quick lunch saw me choose scampi and chips –
served in a box with mushy peas, sliced lettuce, gherkins and silverskin
pickled onions. I’m not convinced by this approach, so today I made a point of
asking for just battered cod, two potato scallops and mushy peas.
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| Reflections: Art |
If yesterday’s
wasn’t bad, this was much better. The chips are not sensational – I still
remember a fish ‘n’ chip lunch to die for in Scarborough in 2011, where the
chips were double-fried properly, in front of us, in dripping – then today’s
fish was absolutely superb.
And the
service is as warm and friendly as you would expect north of Watford Gap.
So, what
of the art?
Tate
Liverpool is 30 years old this year and it’s staging a major show by Fernand Léger,
together with one that pairs works by Egon Schiele and Francesca
Woodman to examine nudes and self portraiture.
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| Water Lily Pond with Reflections |
At
present, however, the main exhibition is work by the British artist John Piper.
However, there is also a concise, two-room show by pop artist Roy Lichtenstein.
Perfect for the time-strapped and free to boot.
Having not
actually seen any Lichtenstein in the ‘flesh’ – and probably because one
unthinkingly knows that a comic fits in your hand easily – I hadn’t even given
much though to the scale of Lichtenstein’s works or, indeed, to the mixture of
media and techniques that he used.
These are
big pieces – and when you realise the precision that is key to them, it’s
hardly surprising. But the variety of techniques, from print-making to working
with all sorts of media on canvas, to mass-produced ceramics, is the real eye
opener.
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| Sea Shore |
For
instance, in Reflections: Art from
1988, we get oil and acrylic on canvas. Pretty conventional, really. But then Sunrise (1965) is porcelain enamel on
steel and Sea Shore (1964) is oil
paint and magma on plexiglass, while Seascape
from the following year is screenprint and paper on plastic.
Then there
is Water Lily Pond with Reflections
(1992), a screenprint on enamel on stainless steel.
Together
with Water Lillies with Cloud from
the same year – it was a series of six made in collaboration with master
printmaker Donald Saff – it’s impossible not to think back to Monet. Indeed, a
series of four haystacks prints takes us directly there.
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| Seascape |
Yet part
of the pleasure here is in seeing the links to the past, but in conjunction
with Lichtenstein’s extraordinary mastery of such a range of modern materials.
And he used those materials to gain specific effects that actually add to the
work, rather than simply as some sort of art geek’s technical exercises.
After moving from comic-style works to landscape and a video installation, we come full circle to finish
the two rooms with Wall Explosion II
(1965), executed in enamel on steel – in many ways, a work that epitomises the power that this incredibly concise exhibition packs: not everything needs to be so vast as to exhaust.
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| Wall Explosion II |
Mixing
some of these iconic comic-style works with less-expected landscapes makes for
fascinating viewing.
Indeed, such is the familiarity of the comic-book images
that I suspect many people scarcely even begin to imagine that Lichtenstein did
anything much else.
It’s very
much the case that, while those comic works are a very long way from being
disappointing, the landscapes are the revelation and the unexpected delight
that you come away with.
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