Peter Blake Frenzy
Nicola McCartney, Thursday, 25th November 2010
‘Homage 10x5 - Blake’s Artists’is a good opportunity to learn about some of the most influential artists of the 20th century through the eyes and art of another great contemporary artist.
This is the latest exhibition at Waddington Galleries (until 11 December 2010), and yet another to celebrate the influences of Sir Peter Blake, alongside his collections of curiosities at the Museum of Everything by London’s Primrose Hill (open until Christmas 2010).
It consists of 50 works in homage to 10 artists who have influenced Blake throughout his career: Jospeh Cornell, Sonia Delaunay, Mark Dion, Damien Hirst, Henri Matisse, Jack Pierson, Robert Rauchenberg, Kurt Schwitters, Saul Steinberg, and H.C. Westermann.
The show is divided into two halves: the first exhibits works by the artists Blake has been influenced by and the second displays his appropriations of them. Most of these are presented as individual series of works dedicated to each artist, more or less imitating their namesake’s form, medium or motifs. It is not quite clear, however, whether the ‘originals’ on display are particularly relevant to the ‘Homage’ or whether this was Waddington’s opportunity to show off their private collection. Nonetheless, the exhibition presents some of Blake’s latest work, demonstrating that, even when he’s supposed to be appropriating other art icons, he still has a unique and lively, contemporary touch to his work.
While the homage works are distinct because of their dedication, the concept and hanging is in keeping with Blake’s montage-like approach to his practice and maintains the coherence throughout the exhibition. Even with Blake’s replica Snail by Matisse (1953) there is still an evident essence of his obsessive nature in the way that he rotates and transcends the collage, with repetition, into something more personable than a paper imitation, always with a touch of humour.
My favourite ‘Homage’ was to Mark Dion, Museum of Black and White (see above). Here Blake presents his collections of German matches, miniature lavatories and obscure animal teeth. Though many of us collect and own our own knick-knacks of sentimental value, Blake’s museum is far more sophisticated because he knows how to sort his thoughts and findings, meticulously. Blake collects, collates and collages his influences like he does his junk, but his skill is in communicating these to us as viable educational artefacts of society from which we can learn.
'Homage 10x5 - Blake’s Artists' is on at Waddington Galleries, Cork St, London, until 11 December 2010.
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