A Final Goodbye…

We The RAMMbassadors started all the way back in the summer of 2011, it is sad to think that it is now coming to an end. The ‘Into the Light’ exhibition will close on the 11th March 2011 and with that our job is done.

We have very much enjoyed our time working with the staff at RAMM as well as the public we encountered. We have worked hard over the last 7 months or so to produce this blog, make doodle buddies and iPod tours (which can be found here - http://rammuseum.org.uk/exhibitions/pages/rammbassadors-gallery-talks),as well as our 5 minutes gallery Soap Box tours.

The team and I are very thankful for the opportunity that the museum has given us, and would like to especially thank Penny Hammond and Kate Osborne for running the project allowing us to take part, we would to like to thank Rick Lawrence and Sam Smiles for their help along the way too.

Finally we would like to thank you, the reader, for reading our blog and attending our Soap Box gallery tours.
Best wishes
Victoria Smith

Art & Music

Hello all! Viktoria here for my final blog post!

A quick thank you to all of you who came to listen to mine and Rachael’s soapbox talks this week, it was great to see so many people interested in what we had to say on our chosen paintings in the exhibition. Today my friend and I were discussing the Impressionists and he brought a very interesting part of this movement to my attention and I realised that it was something I had overlooked when thinking about the Impressionists. … Music!

In general when an art movement develops; a variety of the creative arts are involved, but I have often been guilty of forgetting the impact of one art form on another (I am sure I am not alone in that). It is great to step back and look at the movement from another perspective. Impressionist musicians were very much like Impressionist painters in their aims – wanting to create descriptive impressions and the idea was to evoke a mood or atmosphere. This way of composing created a sound which was much more hazy and atmospheric, a step away from the succinct approach used by composers of the classical era.

An example of this interdisciplinary nature is the work of Debussy who was greatly influenced by paintings of the time. Although Debussy fought the term ‘Impressionist’, calling it an invention of the critics, he has come to be known one of the most influential composers of the Impressionist movement. “L’îsle Joyeuse” (“The Island of Joy”) by Claude Debussy for example, is actually a musical interpretation of the painting “The Embarkation for Cythera” by Jean-Antoine Watteau.

This is not the only example, Debussy also composed several “water-pieces” which mirror the spirit of Impressionist pictures, specifically En bateau (1889), Sirenes (1899), Reflets dans l’eau (1905), Voiles (1910), and La Cathedrale engloutie (1910). I hope this gives a new dimension to the way you view the work in the ‘into the light’ exhibition and Impressionist painting in general.

Thank you for reading.

Here is the link to a youtube video of – Debussy: L’isle joyeuse (1904)

Today its all about co-operation, male bonding and making money….

Hey all, hope this blog finds you well, and hopefully enthused about all the exciting things the other RAMMbassadors have been saying/doing.

So I thought I would delve into the wonderful world of art-groups, movements etc Many of the paintings in the into the light exhibition are painted my members of a particular group or movement, Mainly men and lets not forget Vanessa Bell who was an active member of the Bloomsbury group. Of course, we may understand the need for artists to work together, especially when they feel that the world around them miss-understood them…their genius etc….However, there are other reasons why working in an co-operative environment was a valuable exercise. Money!! Yes not all ART has been produced solely for the artists creativity, often it was because a particular client wanted a pleasant picture to hang in the living room.. Today we may call this net working, or listening to the markets demands.

 Lets take the Camden Town Group whose formation was first and foremost a reason to get their work displayed, so basically we may see them as a exhibiting association. Also male bonding played a part,  Sickert used to hold Saturday morning gathering’s for like-minded artists, art-lovers and tea and cake and gossip was often on the agenda!!

Artistic collaboration was not a new idea, the notions of brotherhood, and craft movements had been in circulation in the Victorian period and William Morris was just one of these examples.

I have not gone into to much detail, but it is always worth remembering when we look at an image that the reasons for its creation are not as favourable or indeed worthy as we are led to believe. However, that will never take the beauty away from these images it just offers another perspective on life.

As always do respond if you have any valid points or just have enjoyed or disagree with my opinions, Best wishes to all you art enthusiasts , and thanks for reading, Lorna  Walsh  : )

‘The father of the Newlyn School’

Dear Reader, it’s Rachael once again – having not posted for a while and seeing as my Soapbox is quickly approaching (1st March) I wanted to provide a quick preview of my topic for discussion: Stanhope Alexander Forbes.

 

I will be talking about two paintings featured in Into the Light, A Fish Sale on a Cornish Beach, 1885 and Study for ’A Fish Sale on a Cornish Beach’, 1884. The Impressionists were amongst the most prominent users of the ‘en plein air’ technique – painting outside. One of the most important developments in making this possible, was the invention of paint tubes, something that may sound insignificant, but before this artists had to mix their paints which can be an long and difficult process. Tubed paints made it possible for artists to set up an outside studio for themselves and begin working straight away with ease and it was felt that the Newlyn School of painters in Cornwall were some of the most important users of this technique.

Dubbed as ‘the father of the Newlyn School’, Forbes’s painting A Fish Sale on a Cornish Beach (1885), brought national recognition to the unique art colony that had grown around the west of Cornwall. Forbes was married to fellow painter Elizabeth Forbes (1859-1912) and together they founded the School of Painting in Newlyn in 1899.

To hear more about Stanhope Alexander Forbes, come to the next RAMMbassador Soapbox on March 1st…

 

Thank you for reading!

In the middle of the light

Hello again readers,

After a successful start to our soap box series of talks we are all very excited and keen to see the next installment, which will see Kitty and Lorna braving the public eyes and ears.

I’m sure that you will all agree that hearing a different point of view regarding an image is often interesting and thought provoking while likely to start a debate.

Certainly the discussions raised at into the light following Kirsty’s soap box were very interesting and appeared to engage most of our audience. This was of course an absolute pleasure for Kirsty and I.

I do hope that you will continue to support us on our journey through the light and hope to see many faces which will become familiar as we continue with the series.

Hopefully within the coming weeks we will have some images of the RAMMbassadors in action to share with you.

Happy viewing.

With best wishes,

Ros.

Shedding light on suburbia…

Hey there all fellow art lovers,

Yes your eyes did not deceive you suburbia is this discussion topic! However, it is best that you leave all preconceived notions of a suburban landscape behind. Because the two images by Spencer Gore depicting suburban landscape in the exhibition are not even remotely tedious, dull or uninspiring. Instead these images with their bright colours and post-modernist reduction of form depict the first ever Garden City called Letchworth. This phenomenon was to prove an artist’s haven and Gore produced I believe, some of his most radical and best images whilst staying at a fellow artists home in Letchworth. While the City is often seen as a theme of Modernism, and the Rural Landscape as its traditional opposite, Suburbia has no fixed place in arts hierarchy. But as the Garden City was a new venture, as was the depiction of it, surely we can see Suburbia as the most modern of Modernist subjects? I would be really interested to hear any views on the matter, especially as this is at the heart of my dissertation topic.

P. S. I will be doing a soapbox stint on Feb 16th 2012 so please come along and hear me rave about…yes you got it…Spencer Gore! This artist is undervalued and I will explain why then. Hopefully see you all soon bye for now, Lorna Walsh.

Soap Box Tour No 1: Ros & Kirsty

Evening all, hope you are keeping warm out there brrrrrr.

Ros and I just wanted to add a little extra blog into this week, to tell you about our lunch box soap box tour today and also to thank those that attended.

I personally thoroughly enjoyed sharing my thoughts with you of Phillip Wilson Steer’s depictions of Walberswick beach, from the perspective of viewing the paintings through the eye of the artist and considering the reception of the works in the nineteenth century verses today’s reception, highlighting the change in opinions and respect for British art and British impressionism in particular.

It was an honour to see so many interested faces at our public debut. I hope that so the other RAMMbassadors receive as warm a welcome as we did today. Thank you again to all that came to support us.

We would welcome as much feedback as possible and love hearing different perspectives on our chosen works, do look out for the next instalments of soap box tours, next up are Kitty and Lorna on the 16th of February, followed by Viktoria and Rachael on the first of March, our soap box tours will be completed on the 8th of March by Vicky and Will… In the meantime keep an eye out this Sunday for another RAMMbassador blog.

For now enjoy the rest of your week, and let’s hope for a little bit of snow…

 

 p.s. Pictures coming soon …

 

Our Next Soap Box tour:

http://www.rammuseum.org.uk/whats-on/gallery-soap-box-sessions-16-february

Where do we go from here?

This week I would like to take the time to address an issue that has arisen through the earlier part of this year. This is the issue that surrounds new copy right laws and involvement in online piracy. Although a contentious issue I hope to approach this, briefly, from  the vantage point of art. The stand point that I shall take will be from that of the idea of the ‘post medium condition’ explored by Rossalind Krauss in her A Voyage on the North Sea: Art in the Age of the Post Medium- Condition, in brief the view that I will take to explore these ideas of copyright infringement and what these means in terms of art; comes from the idea that if we view artist work on a screen, post card or anything other than the original it is no longer the same work of art.

If we explore this a little further we see that this becomes an almost self evident truth. If you go to an exhibition an see a work of art that you like and connect with, you may when leaving through the gift shop feel the want to by a post card of that work. But if the work that you saw was a large alter piece whose medium was oil on canvas, the post card that you hold in your hand is none of those things. Everything about this postcard is unlike the original work, the size, some times the colour, and most of all the medium of it. The same then is true for images that are viewed on-line or in a digital format, There is no physical medium involved, per say, the work of art has changed completely, the size of it is no longer and issue, one that might been conceptually important.

With these issues of medium and definition of art work, should these new copy right laws affect the way we can access art online and how?

 

Please leave a comment on your views.

So What Is Your Feedback . . .

Heloooooo

And

A Very Happy New Year to You All from me, Kirsty.

Now that the exhibition is finally here and we are firmly into the New Year, we want to hear from you . . .

What has your experience been of the ‘Into The Light’ exhibition and the RAMM re-opening? Do come along to out lunch time soapbox tours  starting on Thursday the 2^nd of February and share with us your experience and thoughts … Looking forward to hearing from you all.

Ros and I popped into RAMM for another view of ‘Into The Light’ exhibition this week. It was really great to see such a varied audience visiting the exhibition, sitting in the gallery and watching how different people from all ages were interacting with the art works was fascinating.  Are the much talked about works what you expected?

I personally have been focusing on the works of Phillip Wilson Steer, having been studying the images on my laptop for some time, to see them in the flesh, hung and framed and was certainly a surprise.  I find it amazing the impact a frame can have on a piece of art and how instantly your perceptions and thoughts from seeing the image in a poster or on a screen to seeing it in the flesh can instantly change. Let’s take Leonardo’s Mona Lisa for example, the painting can be said to be one of The Louvre’s most popular and famous works of art, the work has its own wall in a rather grand room, when you enter the room despite the Mona Lisa being right in front of you, you cannot see her for the crowds of eager tourists, not one of these tourists pays attention to the large and dominating paintings that surround the Mona Lisa. Her size compared to the very large wall she hangs on is amusing and is example to the effect that the way an art work is hung, framed and presented can completely change your perspective. Having seen the paintings in ‘Into The Light’ framed and hung it has made me consider them in a new perspective, look out for our soap box tour to hear more.

See You Soon.

Happy New Year!

Hello, I am sorry once again about the lack of posts over the New Year’s period; but we are all here back and ready to write once again to keep you all up to date to what we have been doing!

Over the Christmas holidays we were lucky enough to be invited to one of the many opening events held at the Exeter Museum and even though only 5 of us attended it was lovely to waltz around the corridors exploring rooms filled with beautiful objects. For me to find paintings by Canaletto were an amazing experience, I have previously seen his work exhibited at the National Gallery but the surprise of seeing in RAMM was greatly received.

Finally I would like to market our next RAMM adventure! In a few weeks’ time we, as Rammbassadors, will be giving 5 minutes talks within the ‘Into the Light Gallery’. The first talks will be by Lorna Walsh & Kitty May on February the 2nd, so be sure to be there as they are not to be missed. We hope to all be there and support the rest of our group. Don’t be afraid to ask questions, we will endeavor to answer as best we can!

http://www.rammuseum.org.uk/whats-on/gallery-soap-box-sessions-2-february

All the best! Vicky Smith signing off.