Jeff Koons Now at Newport Street Gallery

When I read that Damian Hurst had opened a gallery I got a little over excited. It’s situated in Vauxhall on street which feels authentically London.. not the showy facade of the west end or the sole destroying repetition of Oxford street  grid locked with consumers.. This part of London is untainted by tourists; the dark bricked building and car garage nestled in the railway arches perfectly compliment the gallery, which reminds me of the classic Victorian industrial building silhouette.

http://www.newportstreetgallery.com/about

The first piece in the gallery was everything I hate about modern art. Simplistic cheap rubbish that literally anyone could throw together and call it ‘art’. It’s the kind of crap you see in art college, put together by the guy who smokes too much weed.. so whilst there will be a highly elaborate bullshit back-story, the piece took no skill to put together. It was two inflatable flower’s placed on mirrors.. that’s it (sigh)..

Short White, Tall Purple 1979

To be fair to Jeff Koons this early theme clearly inspired his later works (which we will get to), so it was logical to include the piece if nothing else as a reference point, a mere undeveloped embryo of an idea so the poor execution (in my opinion) can be excused.

The exhibition is titled ‘Now’, the irony is clear now but will develop over time, these pieces are like time capsules, a snapshot of what is considered to be current at the time, everyday objects deprived from serving their intended purpose, instead frozen in time and preserved indefinitely..

 

 

Next came balloon monkey. I loved this piece, although I wasn’t sure why. There is something about a very large scale piece that is immediately impressive. The balloon monkey stands over 3 meters tall, perfectly fabricated from stainless steel and with an immaculate polished surface. You could see a reflection of yourself in every angle, and the scale makes you look up in wonder.. it makes you feel child like (which is nice).

Following on from monkey was a room containing explicitly sexual images of Koons and his (now ex) wife, large scale pieces of unashamed and blatant fucking.. I expect these were some of his more enjoyable pieces to put together. Now I’m a fan of nudity, the female form is beautiful and even the male in this case. I feel this falls into the category of easy art though.. I enjoyed looking at them. Come on, everyone enjoys looking at sex.. but whilst the expression on her face stopped the pieces just looking like hardcore porn, the subject matter seeks to shock because of what it is, and if you are like myself and sexual images carry little shock value, the images seem a little self indulgent and almost narcissistic.

When I walked into the room with the lobster and crocodile inflatable’s  I died a bit inside.. i fully expected to stroll straight through what looked like a room containing random shit and inflatable toys, but I actually spent around 15 minutes in there.. Fascinated at the quality of Koons’ work. They weren’t inflatable’s, they were casted aluminium painted to look like the real thing, and they were perfect, it was fascinating the level of detail he’d achieved. The only place you could actually tell they weren’t real inflatable’s was on the valve, whilst almost perfect, you could see the whole piece had been painted. I’ve never been so tempted to touch an artwork.. just to check it wasn’t inflatable!

 

The unexpected highlight of the exhibition for me was play-doh. A large scale replica of his child’s pile of play-doh. 27 individual cast pieces held together by their own weight. This is a celebration of a moment in time, elevated by its sheer scale, an ensuring celebration of childhood.

I walked away from this exhibition shocked at how much I’d enjoyed it and deeply impressed by the craftsmanship involved. My issue with some modern art it is takes no skill, now while i don’t claim to understand the motivation for some of his pieces I can see the talent in the execution. These were not pieces that just anyone could put together.. Koons’ latter work clearly demonstrates his  superior fabrication and painting ability, I couldn’t help but be impressed.

So, it seems I can accept an inexplicable subject matter if the technique is impressive.. I’ll continue discovering!

I really dislike modern art.. or at least I think I do.

Art (generally) excites me, it lifts my spirit.. I like being around it, for no apparent reason I just do. And I know that isn’t consistent in all people which makes it special, and something that should be explored at least.. but that’s not the vibe I get from modern art.

I remember one of the last things I did at art college was to write a particularly rancorous essay on Tracy Emin’s bed; which contained the passage “Just because you take something out of context it does not make it art! This isn’t art, it’s just a shit up room! Being unhygienic is not art!’ etc… it went on.

Tracy Emin’s ‘My Bed’

Tracy Emin’s bed went on to be considered for the Turner Prize in 1999, it didn’t win, but did successfully make me question if was right for the art world, modern art was being thrust down our throats at art college.

How could I aspire to creating something I saw no skill in? There was no talent in these works.. just an object or collection of objects taken out of context with a bullshit back story.

I also cannot get on board with the concept that a piece is art, simply because it evokes strong emotion.. pieces that are fundamentally at odds with what I consider to be true art, which took a level of skill some modern artists could only dream of, are not art just because they infuriate me.

A prime example is Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain 1917. It’s a urinal.. if I need to say more we (my dear reader) are on very different pages..

I left art college shortly after a careers day during which artists came and spoke to us about the potential career we might have after our studies. I had selected fine art, I wanted to paint like the greats, I adore impressionism Van Gough’s Starry Night, turners ‘Rain, Steam and Speed’ 1844 and George Stubbs Whistle Jacket is the piece that inspired me to take the fine art route in particular.. But the lady who should have fuelled my passion for art and cemented by desire to succeed in the industry dashed my hopes by declaring she didn’t make any money from art.. she does it for the love of it. Which is admirable of course but doesn’t pay the mortgage, so I left.

Whistlejacket by George Stubbs, (1762)

Fast forward 17 years and my work has bought me back to London. I have the mortgage I desired but I want to rekindle my affection for the art world, take a fresh look at it with an older (wiser) pair of eyes and a level of open mindedness which was beyond my capacity as a rage filled teenager.

I’m surrounded by the galleries I loved to run around as a student, the National in particular. But when I heard Damian Hurst had opened a gallery I got a little over excited.. But that’s modern art! I hear you say.. yes.. I’m fully aware of this, but I’ve been to one of his exhibitions and was thoroughly impressed by the techniques he used. There was a level of skill involved, not just a bullshit back story.. I’ll revisit that exhibition later in the blog, but for now take away the fact that it opened my mind to the concept of enjoying modern art (rather than it simply enraging me).

So I went along to the Newport Street Gallery and it inspired this blog.

I was quite frankly shocked at how much I enjoyed it.. So I intend to persist, I shall visit the many galleries on my doorstep and reach a considered opinion on my view of modern art.. If I truly don’t like it or just didn’t fully understand it. Perhaps I will get drawn into the bull shit back stories or maybe you will just get to read another embittered essay about how modern art takes no skill.

We shall see…