WHISTLER in DC & HUDSON. Kiki Smith & Co in Hudson. The FRICK in NYC. GSA, Will Maw & Ashley Cook in Glasgow. 

I did my dissertation on Whistler many years ago. A first love. I have not seen the current major show: An American in London: Whistler & the Thames, in DC, but as my good friend Margaret MacDonald of Glasgow Uni, had a hand in it, it's bound to be good. 

Whistler was 25 when he settled in Victorian London in 1859, depicting the docks, bridges, workers, sailers, clippers, of the greatest port in Europe in all its detailed bustling activity. He lived within sight of the river & over time, captured its many moods. In the 1870s his style became atmospheric, almost abstract. These famous impressionistic "Nocturnes" are among the 80 paintings, etchings, lithos & drypoints which make up this lovely show which focuses solely on the Thames. 

For those not in the US, Glasgow's Hunterian Museum has arguably the world's 2nd best Whistler collection - which also has great portraits. 

It's these portraits, with their subtle, sombre tones & arrangements in grey & black, that have influenced Aline Smithson's striking photo portraits of her 85 year old mother in profile, titled Arrangement in Green & Black. 

"The idea sparked when I came across a small print of Arrangement in Gray & Black: Portrait of the Painter's Mother by Whistler at a garage sale. The composition made me ponder the possibilities of using it in a photographic series. Within an hour, at two other yard sales, I happened upon a leopard coat & hat, a cat painting & a chair similar to the one in Whistler's painting. A sign to proceed."

Taken with a Hasselblad, the photographs incorporate traditional photography techniques on hand painted silver gelatin prints. "My patient mother posed for 20 shots before she died. This series allowed us to be together. My mother brought her formal side to the portraits -she was very proper, but at home had a wicked sense of humour & fun. These portraits reflect her dignified self, but also show she was game. The series encapsulated everything I love - searching for props in flea markets, setting up the backgrounds & styling. The whole series was a total joy."

Like Whistler, Smithson is  influenced by the Japanese concept of celebrating a singular object."I tend to isolate subject matter & look for complexity in simple images." 

See these great pix on the poignancy of ageing at Davis Orton Gallery Hudson, NY.  

Hudson has a big advantage for such a small place. It's only 2 hrs from NYC and lots of artists live here abouts. 

Locals, the famous Kiki Smith, & Valerie Hammond, plus Kiki's sister Seton Smith have a superb 3 person show at Historic Hudson's 1812 Plumb- Bronson House. Beautifully installed by the artists themselves, the work both benefits from the amazing architectural spaces & derelict walls, and enlivens the house itself. 

Valerie Hammond

Kiki's large scale drawings of girls - often in pairs - are strangely arresting, and perfectly at home here. Seton's semi-abstract photos of architectural motifs could have been made specially for the house, (they are not!) while Valerie's miniature dresses and spooky hands echo the Victorian setting. 

Kiki Smith installation

Kiki

Quite the most successful installation I have seen in years. 

The elegant Federal-style Bronson House, a National Historic Landmark in need of huge restoration & fundamental repairs, was built in 1812 for a wealthy Hudson merchant who established a tow-boat business on the Hudson River. The house was extended in 1839 & 49, including a spectacular 3-storey elliptical staircase. "The House captures a seminal decade in the development of the Hudson Valley Picturesque, which, during the 1840s & 50s, became the dominant national style.   Abandoned & neglected, it was almost demolished. Now $100,000 matching money is needed to leverage $300,000 in grants.

These 3 artists have contributed a great deal by their show. My only objection is the title - "3 Women Artists". For heavens sake!  I look forward to the next show:  "Three Men Artists"   Hope they make as good a job.

IN NYC the famous FRICK is making waves with a proposal to expand via a new 6 story wing. Expansion is all the rage in the US but maybe not a great idea here. The Frick is a joy because of its relatively small, intimate, town house mansion original setting & garden. True, it's exhibition spaces are not ideal, but SIX stories seems excessive. The recent Vermeer Girl with a Pearl Earring did of course cause queues along 5th Ave & 70th St, but that's a one-off.

The current enigmatic beauty, Parmigianino's Turkish Slave, (on loan from Parma) is not such a draw. Yet this small show in which she is surrounded by handsome Renaissance men, 2 painted by Titian, another by Bronzino, emphasizes what show-stoppers are in the Frick's own collection. 

Little is known about the lady, except that she is not Turkish & not a slave! Curator Aimee Ng, herself a beauty, hopes the exhibition will throw some light. "I think she's a poet!" There are no Parmigianino portraits in American museums so this is a rare chance.  www.frick.org

 Titian

Back in Glasgow, GSA students affected by the horrendous fire, show a single piece of digital work in the McLellan Galleries. 

Single handed, artist ASHLEY COOK does a great job curating, organising & promoting Scottish printmakers.  She curates Glasgow's The Brunswick Brutti Ma Buoni plus Gandolfi. www.cafegandolfi.com/bar-gandolfi/     in  Glasgow. 

Recent prints there by Will MAW, titled "Half Life"  refer to nuclear physics plus our ever changing global situation. 

 Radio Brazil by Will Maw RWA

A Royal College graduate, with long term connections to Glasgow, Maw has been busy completing two high-profile commissions: a suite of ten prints for Standard Life Investment’s London offices at The Gherkin was completed in April 2013 and a two-year project comprising of a suite of 21 prints and a portfolio edition for Coutts Bank was completed in July of the same year.  The large-scale ‘Departures’ works were made and exhibited at the Royal West of England Academy (RWA) in Bristol prior to Maw’s appointment as an Academician in 2013. www.cafegandolfi.com/bar-gandolfi/

 by Ashley Cook 

Ashley's own always enticing, colourful prints are at The Brunswick Brutti Ma Buoni. She is also exhibiting in Barcelona at Sala Ramona Carrer Amistad. Busy girl!

RAQUIB SHAW at PACE, NYC and TEMPLETON DESIGN STUDO 1843-2005, Glasgow UK 

Happy 2014 to u all. I will start the year as I mean to go on - looking at exhibitions and art events on both sides of the Atlantic. 

Calcutta born, St Martins London educated, Shaw's detailed erotic dreamscapes are painted with 3D delicacy, rather like cloisonné on canvas. Inspired by Milton's Paradise Lost, his hybrids of man and beast fight & fly in settings of Piranesi-esque classical ruins. 

Shaw's cherubs have a deeply evil smirk as they fire their arrows at St Sebastian amid a field of gorgeous blood-red poppies. Fanged fish, prowling big cats, male lizards make up giant-size paintings, one 60ft long. Scary stuff - but memorable.

This seductive story telling of violent, yet opulent fantasies embellished with enamel, glitter and crystal has been shown at Tate Britain, MoMA, the Met, Prague & Sydney.  In NY it occupies all 3 Pace galleries in Chelsea.      http://pacegallery.co 

Shaw begins by outlining with gold stained glass paint. Then, using porcupine quills for their precise point, he applies colourful enamel. Oil paints are used for modelling the images. Surface then embellished with inlaid semi-precious stones, glitter etc. Vulgar but irresistible.

At GLASGOW SCHOOL OF ART,  there's another great show which, like Shaw, closes Jan 11th, so run see it. Templetons carpets are world famous with commissions from the White House, Titanic, Queens Coronation, Holyroodhouse and Scottish Parliament. Founded in Glasgow in 1843, it had a terrific in-house design department with commissioned outsiders including Voysey, Walter Crane, Frank Brangwyn, Mary Quant.

The show was researched by GSA textile staff member Helena Britt who has already interviewed over 30 folk with Templeton-Stoddard memories of working there. T-S was renowned for its design quality & the show, (a minute selection from the vast archive) is full of gorgeous floral, geometric, animal & oriental prints, folios, with1920s-30s especially well represented. 

We forget that 100 years ago - no internet, little photography, no xerox, travel by sea. So directors abroad brought home actual books, paintings, screens, design objects from all over the world to inspire their staff. Vibrant hand coloured pochoirs by guys like Benedictus, Delaunay, Seguy, Sorokine, are my favourites. GORGEOUS! 

John Byrne's play, The Slab Boys, from the 1970s, immortalised the people who ground pigments, sketched at the draughting table, worked the looms.(In an average year the 50 staff - majority MEN till mid 1980s - sharpened away 475 pencils, wore out 97 erasers, applied 700 lbs of paint to 10,000 sq inches of paper, using 960 brushes. Designs were transferred by hand onto gridded drafting paper with each square representing a different tuft of wool. 

Templetons was established in 1843 by a Paisley shawl producer and weaver. Stoddart joined on in 1871, and carpet design and manufacture became an important industry for the West of Scotland. Employees often had a job for life staying for over 50 years. Designers attended classes at GSA. When Stoddard finally closed in 2005, their Design Studio archive was up for grabs. Happily a combination of GSA, GU & Glasgow Life have saved the day.

Founded in 1845, Glasgow Art School has a long & golden reputation. New director Tom Inns comes from a design background. Welcome to him. And a new £50m building will house textiles and design depts when open later this year.  

        Film at vimeo.com/80325935