Art of the Sea: In Pictures

[anteros_lmc]

I’ve finally got round to writing up a (rather long) summary (with pikchurs!), or rather an edited transcription, of Art of the Sea shown last week as part for BBC4’s Sea Fever season. This was a fascinating programme presented Owen Sheers, which introduced a historical chronology of how the sea has influenced British art interspersed with interviews and reflections from contemporary artist for whom the sea is still their defining subject.

Hunt HMS Renown in company with La Gaditana

In historical terms the programme began with Willem Van der Velde, naval draughtsman, and son, brought to England by Chares II to record the might of the British sea power and the growth of naval supremacy. Van der Velde was essentially a war artist who sailed into battle and recorded what he saw in minute detail. His son by contrast created more romantic compositions.

Geoff Hunt arguably follows in this tradition of figurative naval art. Hunt described how his works are inspired by notes from contemporary masters logs. To plan his paintings he uses a plotting board complete with map, compass, wind vane and tiny ships to arrive at the desired composition for his work. Hurt spoke openly of his fascination with ships describing the sea as “a very scary alien element” and ships, particularly sailing ships, as being “a very clever trick”.

Turner Sunrise with Sea Monsters

After Van der Velde and Hunt Sheers focused on Turner and Anish Kapoor, winner of the Turner prize and son of an oceanographic hydrographer. Many of Kapoor’s own works refer to the involuted organic form of shells and the sea floor. Turner himself is described as a controversial artist, seen as an eccentric by his contemporaries. He disrupted all conventions of nautical artistry as his subject increasingly became the elemental power of the sea itself, the radiance of light on water and the enveloping skies, rather than man’s naval dominance of the element. Interestingly many of Turner’s sketches retain the human figures that are pared out of his works in the later period. Most fundamentally Turner removes the horizon form his painting and with it removes boundaries in art itself. It is this removal of the horizon that fascinates Kapoor who describes how the lack of horizon causes you to “go into the picture”. Turner’s later works are “an internal project where paint stops being ‘stuff’ and almost becomes religious; light and God”. Kapoor ends by adding simply “These paintings are truly ineffable”.

Hambling Scallop

Moving on from Kapoor to Maggi Hambling and specifically her memorial to Benjamin Britten, a vast steel sculpture on Aldeburgh beach of a broken scallop shell. Cut through the edge of the shell, so that they can be read against the sky, are the words from Peter Grimes “I hear those voices that will not be drowned.” Hambling explained that she chose the scallop shell as a fitting memorial to Britten as it is the symbol of both the sea and of love. She also spoke of her fascination with capturing the movement and power of the sea, adding frankly “I think the sea is very sexy. The moment before a wave breaks is like the moment of falling in love… the sea has everything going for it life, death and sex all at once.” Asked to name her favourite painter of the sea Hambling chose “Constable, every time, over Turner.”

Constable Seascape Study with Rain Cloud

Constable said that “Of all the works of the creator none is so imposing as the ocean.” And despite the fact that he often sketched directly in oils on the beach his seascapes are still often over looked. I have to confess I has never seen any of Constable’s maritime works however the one painting in the programme that really stunned me was Constable’s Seascape Study with Rain Cloud. I would never have recognised this as Constable in a million years.

By the late 19th century, the sea was no longer a place for fighting battles. With the advent of the railways and annual holidays the coast became available to everyone irrespective of class or wealth. The sea side became a democratic space and increasingly in was people that made the sea such a fertile subject for artists. William Powell Frith’s Ramsgate Sands, shown at the Royal Academy was particularly influential. It shows people of different classes forced into close proximity on the beach and was bought by Queen Victoria giving a royal stamp of approval to this kind of art.

It was people that also attracted Marin Parr to the sea. Parr is best known for a series of photographs taken in the 1980’s The Last Resort. There is a political element to theses works in that Parr was trying to explore the run down backdrop of Thatcher’s Britain. Parr photograph’s with a collector’s eye and is attempting to capture a lifetime archive of a sea side in perpetual decline.

Wallis Headland with Two Three-masters

Sheers then moved on to cover Winslow Homer, 1920's social realism and “the elemental struggle of life at sea”, the British Impressionists (Percy Craft, Walter Langley, Stanhope Forbes) and the St Ives school of modern art (Terry Frost, Patrick Heron, Ben Nicholson, Chiristopher Wood, Brian Winter) who were influenced by the quality of the light on the sea.

Alfred Wallis, a local former cabin boy, was discovered by Wood and Nicholson who were enthralled by the authenticity and freshness of his work and saw in him a primitive spirit of painting. They bought Wallis work, exhibited it in London and he became an avant garde celebrity.

Hepworth St Ives Harbour

Wallis worked with a very restricted palate using yacht paint and house paint, “real paint, not paint like artist use.” Wallis had always lived and worked by the sea and he painted the sea as he’d always known it and there is still an immediate clarify and freshness to his work.

Art of the Sea concluded with Barbara Hepworth whose works internalises landscape; “What I saw and what I was” and Sax Impey, who works in the building on the quay shared continually by the St Ives fishermen and artists for over a hundred years. The artists’ studios are upstairs, the fishermen’s sheds downstairs, both look out across sea and the coast where "Britain is distilled and defined".

Comments

[esmerelda-t.livejournal.com]

I'm not a big fan of paintings of the sea (I've tend to think most look a bit kitsch..like giant sea shells for example) but I really like that Constable. I also really love Munch's sea based work, I guess I like the stuff that's a bit darker?

still need to catch up on your fic, it's all been a bit hectic the past few days though

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

The Constable one is amazing isn't it? Although I have to confess I rather like the kitshness of Hambling's Scallop. Turner leaves me rather cold though. I saw the Turner Late Seascapes Exhibition at the Burrell Collection in 2004 and I have to confess Sunrise with Sea Monsters is the only one I actually remember. Anish Kapoor I adore, I saw Ghost at Tate Modern and fell in love with it.

[esteven]

Thank you again. This is a wonderfully detailed summary. I am likely to view things a bit differently as an AoS fangirl. :D

Asked to name her favourite painter of the sea Hambling chose “Constable, every time, over Turner.
And I would chose Turner over Constable every time as I adore Fighting Temeraire, a print of which is on my wall. I am also an admirer of Geoff Hunt, who has painted all my favourite ships. Admittedly, most of those paintings are kitsch, but I only distinguish between art I like and art I don't.

I will be looking forward to other summaries you care to write. :D

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

This is a wonderfully detailed summary.
Glad you found it interesting, it is very much a summary rather than a review, most of this was transcribed directly from the programme. I don't usually talk like this ;)

And I would chose Turner over Constable every time as I adore Fighting Temeraire
While I admire Turner hugely, I can't say I love his work as much as other some other artists. However you're absolutely right about Temeraire, it's really something special, as are the Seamonsters!

I am also an admirer of Geoff Hunt
I'm rather fond of Hunt too *nods at icon* In fact one of the things I really liked about the programme was that it covered such an eclectic range of artists and Hunt's work was afforded ever bit as much respect as Kapoor's and Hambling's.

I will be looking forward to other summaries you care to write
Ok, I'll see what I can do :)

[esteven]

:D
I have a DVD about Geoff Hunt only. That man is such an O'Brian fanboy.

I'll be interested to read your next review.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_likimeya/]

The scallop is fascinating! At least in the picture. The real things looks a bit shabby. I don't know, a pile of steel on a beach seems just wrong. :/

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

You're not the only one that thinks that! It's quite a controversial sculpture that's been vandalised several times. From what I've read most of the objections are based on its siting on the beach. I rather like it but I think I'd have to see it in situ to judge for sure.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_likimeya/]

I don’t like metal constructions in general. I find modern city centers with their glass-and-steel buildings dead ugly, and when I go past a cargo harbour or an industrial area with refineries or generating plants or other such horrors, I feel queasy.
Heavy metal belongs in the CD player and nowhere else! *hammers her gavel* ;)

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

Here's another nice soothing coastal icon for you before I confess that I sometimes think there can be a strange beauty to the metal, bricks and mortar of industrial landscapes. It's very much in the eye of the beholder though.

Heavy metal belongs in the CD player and nowhere else! *hammers her gavel* ;)
Rofl! Yes ma'am!

[nodbear.livejournal.com]

Likimeya that is one marvellous icon - have been feeling thirstt ever since the page loaded!

[http://users.livejournal.com/_likimeya/]

Hehe, yes, this icon is great at promoting healthy living. I always get a craving for oranges when I look at it.

[nodbear.livejournal.com]

I love the shell - how it combines and recombines - and it is not the only pile of metal on the beach at Aldeburgh- there are rusting boats and capstans etc which to me make it all the more appropriate, it is a working beach still.Likimeya, i agree about the shabby but to me it says something appropriate. All of which is subjective I know - nothing worse than other people's views on art! - actually though I find them to be fascinating

As for the local graffiti daubers and the " not on my beach" locals - they just prove that George Crabbe was right about the ' Borough' and its small mindedness all along. ( though ironically he wrote the poem which is so much of the sea and wind while living in landlocked Trowbridge Wilts as the Rector there- i discovered this when turning up genealogical records of an ancestor of mine who died at the Battle of Alma - indeed there is a lobster in my family tree-. he came from Trowbridge and was married there by Crabbe. it seemed so odd - I always imagined him sitting writing about Grimes while staring out over the North Sea rather than the rolling wiltshire chalk farmland).

Last but not least in this increasingly irrelevant ramble - and in the spirit of pretty young men - that is one handsome poet/presenter - does anyone not agree ?

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

I love the shell
Somehow I suspected you would have seen this and I wondered what you made of it. I would love to see it in situ.

To my shame I know nothing about George Crabbe. He belongs to that tradition of English literature that is a wilderness to me.

indeed there is a lobster in my family tree
Fascinating! Have you told sharpiefan?

that is one handsome poet/presenter - does anyone not agree ?
Yup, definitely worth filing under cute. And look! He's a nice Welsh boy :) From his own website:

"Owen Sheers was born in Fiji in 1974 and brought up in Abergavenny, South Wales. He was educated at King Henry VIII comprehensive, Abergavenny and New College, Oxford."

[nodbear.livejournal.com]

No. haven't told Sharpiefan yet -because I knoe shockingly little about him really though she could probably put me right about all kinds of things in that front!

Born 1974- nearly a contemporary of I G then though from nearer home to me if he was at school in Abergavenny.
Heres for nice welsh boys with cute faces - yes and golden haired English ones of course. ..

Just back from Kew where have been in state of awe all day - more of which soon.

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

she could probably put me right about all kinds of things in that front!
No doubt!

Heres for nice welsh boys with cute faces - yes and golden haired English ones of course.
Just like these ones :)

Just back from Kew where have been in state of awe all day - more of which soon.
Dying to hear all about it, have been jealous of you all day. Am still in office writing purgatorial project report. Bleh...

[nodbear.livejournal.com]

Yes , those are the very same !

Here is an inspirationally beautiful Archie face to get you through the hours at the office and I have sent you a first little snippet of a treat by email.

will send some more news off post as can't hope to put together decent post about it till Sunday night as h.ve to spend tomorrow writing commments on purgatorial report at this end

certaainly will have to go again - there is a vast amount of treasure to be found there that is certain.

[anteros-lmc.livejournal.com]

Beautiful Archie was greatly appreciated at the end of a very tedious day I can tell you. No sign of snippets in email though. Did you use googlemail address?

Shall look forward to hearing about your discoveries once you have passed through the purgatory of report commenting.