ART FOR ART'S SAKE

Can you suggest an alternative title?

Albert Bloch

This Albert Bloch painting already had a a title, but for me it does not hold the same interest as some of his other works I have posted here. There is nothing to interpret.

What can be said about it? "Nice colours", I suppose.

Again I have added my own title to this painting by Albert Bloch.

What do you think this painting portrays? It certainly suggests grief.

I have found on the internet a new source of Albert Bloch paintings.

Unfortunately there are no descriptions, or titles.

I have added a title of my own, but I invite you to do better, or tell me what you think the painting is all about.

SeveraI of you have said that you find clowns ominous and threatening. I must admit that I find this painting a little disturbing.

I promised clowns - and here they are!

Albert Bloch

I may return to Maggi Hambling in a few days time - but I have decided to stay with Albert Bloc for a short while.

I will tell you more about him tomorrow, but today I am continuing yesterday's theme.

What do you make of this picture?

"Three Pierrots and a Harlequin"

Today I am departing from the works of Maggi Hambling to bring you this painting by Albert Bloch (1882-1961) of "Harlequinade", which I found when looking for a suitable illustration for "Columbine" on my poetry blog.

Apart from the dancing Harlequin, the characters look a little grim, don't they.

And where is Columbine?

It is all a little reminiscent of Edvard Munch.

"In The Boy At the Window 1983", Maggi Hambling captures a strange state of radiance. The boy is simple-minded, but not desperately so. He is looking down, as he does every day, on the busy traffic thundering along the main road. The spectacle delights him, and causes him to laugh and jabber. His hands, too, are giving expression to his joy. The tenderness of perception displayed here is one of the qualities I most admire in Hambling's work. Mental retardation, like the plight of the aged, is a subject that invites a particularly maudlin kind of sentimentality, which is wholly avoided in this touching picture."

Self Portrait in 'Gallery', 1986

"Maggi Hambling was telephoned by Harlech Television to ask if she would do a pilot programme for an art quiz. She laughed.

They assured her she could smoke as much as she liked and that George Melly would be in the chair.

A few weeks later, "Gallery", the HTV art quiz, was chosen to be made for Channel 4.

Her career as a TV personality was launched."

(http://www.maggihambling.com)

Thia painting by Maggi Hambling is a montage of several images, as explained below.

"The painting was done in autumn: leaves are falling into the top and out of the bottom. The nude in the bottom right corner was based on a current lover. In the top left corner is a portrait from memory of a man Hambling had observed doing card tricks in order that people might buy him drinks in a local pub. The tomato was the sole product of the carefully-nurtured plant Hambling had in the studio. Three hands were necessary, for the brush, the cigarette and the drink. Onde, the cat, did not sit still, so her tail appears in three positions."

Sunrise, Orwell Estuary 3.6.88 (2)
Maggi Hambling

Anothr of Maggi Hambling's Sunrise/Sunset watercolours, A rather explosive start to the day.

Here is the sun falling into the sea . . . and drowning

Drowning Sunset
(Maggi Hambling 1988)

Now this is an exciting watercolur from Maggi Hambling.

It is certainly not a calm sunrise.

Look at those figures hurrying away in terror.

Or are they just trees?

P.S. It looks like a female dragon!

Dragon Sunrise

Today's painting by Maggi Hambling is a watercolour from her series 'Sunrises & Sunsets'

Sunrise. Orwell Estuary 13/7/1990 (5)

Is that a fish - bottom centre?

We are back to real people again with this pinting of "Lett".

Lett Dreaming

"Lett" was Arthur Lett-Haines, who in the 1960s was Maggi Hambling's mentor at the East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing.

This painting is not from Maggi Hambling's series " Towards Laughter"

Female Sunrise

Does this one need any explanation or interpretation?

This will be the last of my postings of Maggi Hambling's paintings in her series "Towards laughter"

I feel that I have already shown the best, so tomorrow I shall move on to other examples of her work.

Secret Laugh

Ladybird ladybird fly away home,
Your house in on fire and your children are gone,
All except one and that's little Ann,
For she crept under the frying pan.

Ladybird Laughing - Maggi Hambling

A glass or two too many makes you very merry!

'

'Champagne Laugh by Maggi Hambling is in the permanent collection of Christchurch Mansion, Ipswich Borough Coucil.

Here is another painting from Maggi Hambling's "Towards Laughter" series.

What do you make of it?

Is suicide a suitable subject for merriment?

Suicide Laugh

This painting is another from Maggi Hambling's "Towards Laughter" series.

Bonfire Laugh 1991

"Her partial inspiration for the series was the stock market crash and the fact that economically the art world in London at that time was in such deep depression, the only thing left to do was to laugh."

This painting was shown at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition 1992, where it attracted a pleasing variety of critical response.

The painting went on to be included in the 1993-4 solo exhibition 'Towards Laughter' which opened at the Northern Centre for Visual Art and then toured.

Brothel Laugh

George Melly wrote: 'Maggi has pursued the laugh as Bacon has pursued the scream. She, like him, exploits chance and welcomes it, but unlike him she moves in on the laugh, so close as to remove any items of reference beyond a suggestion of fishnet stockings '.

Blind Man And Ocean Sunrise

This painting was first shown at the Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London, in 1991. It combines the artist's interest in depicting nature, with a powerful and affecting figure of a blind man and his dog.

I am sure you remember George Melly, the flamboyant English jazz and blues singer, who died in July 2007 aged 80.

If you did not see him person, perhaps you watched him on TV with Jools Holland.

Here is Maggi Hambling's portrait, which reveals much of his character.

It was painted in the year before he died.

And here is a painting by the Welsh portrait artist David Griffiths:

How do the two compare?

(Maggi Hambling 1986-87)

I find this painting rather frightening, but at the same time erotic.

But perhaps that is just me!

Sir Michael Gambon is one of our most acclaimed British actors.

He is revered for his many stage performances, but he gained a wider audience as Albus Dumbledore in the Harry Potter films.

He auditioned for the role of James Bond after George Lazenby left the series, but was turned down because they didn't want to hire another unknown!

Maagi Hambling painted this portrait of him in 2000.

There is a lot of energy and movement in this portrayal, isn't there?