On the edge with art
by Karen McLauchlan, Evening Gazette
A 14ft tower has been pieced together at mima - but should never be climbed. Equally, you cannot sail away in the huge swan boat.
They are just some of the unusual and sizable pieces inside and outside the downstairs gallery space.
They are part of sculptor Eric Bainbridge’s Forward Thinking 1976-2008 exhibition and - aside from their quirkiness - they all have one thing in common. Whereas other sculptors chisel away at marble and glass, Eric, pictured left, works in fake fur.
There are nearly 30 of these mighty marvels downstairs at mima, including a giant red H, along with four of Eric’s drawings.
A further 36 drawings hang outside the upstairs gallery where a second outstanding exhibition, The Naked And The Nude: Works From The Tate Collection, is simultaneously on show.
Eric, 53, is from Consett in County Durham and lives for part of the week in Hartlepool.
He rose to prominence in the 1980s by wrapping objects in fake fur fabrics that were often in the garish colours popular at the time.
One of his signature pieces is the fake ocelot Dark Style Swan, which looks like the head and neck of a bird attached to a boat.
Drawings on show date back to Eric’s student days and have been carefully archived by his wife, Liz.
Even now Eric goes back to them. Some even have coffee stains.
Eric spent several years studying art in Newcastle and Leeds before ending up at the Royal College of Art in London.
He later taught there for 10 years until appointed Professor of Fine Art at Sunderland University eight years ago.
He confesses that others saw his future as a sculptor before he did.
“It was one of those things people said I would do long before I accepted it was what I would do.”
His main home with Liz and sons Max and James is in London where he has lived since 1978. His first involvement with Hartlepool was in 1999 when he was commissioned to create what became the Heaven And Earth roundabout installation.
“Someone showed me The Headland and I just thought it was fantastic, one of the most extraordinary places in the North-east.”
He eventually moved in there.
“I’ve always been interested in how sculpture can develop so I constantly ask ‘How can it be made?’
“I’m very much interested in art that is on the edge. It had led me to making work that looks different but interests me.
“I’m also interested in humour, taste, whatever. It’s like life. Humour is a necessary strategy for living in the world we live in.”
The new mima line-up also includes The Naked And The Nude, which brings to mima British works in the Tate Collection from the last 100 years, including some by the highest valued living artist Lucian Freud who recently sold one of his paintings for £33m.
The exhibition traces some of the ways in which 20th century artists have approached this loaded genre, from the impressionist style of Philip Wilson Steer to Euan Uglow’s more anatomically exacting approach.
It exposes the stark artistic difference between the nude and the naked.
“A nude is what you paint as an artist,” explains curator James Beighton, “and nakedness is pornography.
“The nude has been a major genre since classical times when it used to emphasise the idea of beauty rather than a living person. Then it became overtaken by photography and has become much more troubled.”
This journey is emphasised by the paintings on show and begins with Philip Wilson Steer’s Seated Nude: The Black Hat from 1900 which was hidden from public view for 40 years until bought by the Tate. It was significant for one reason: the hat.
“Steer’s friends were outraged because they thought the hat turned it from a classical nude to a naked portrait of a woman,” explains James.
C R W Newman’s A Studio in Montparnasse was also at the centre of a minor artistic scandal. This exceptional work features a room and a naked woman looking out of the window at the buildings opposite.
“Newman borrowed his friend’s apartment and the friend went mad with him because the portrait included a nude figure,” says James.
Lucian Freud is represented by Girl With A White Dog from the 1950s - the girl baring one breast is his former wife, Tilly Epstein, the daughter of Jacob Epstein - and Naked Portrait from 1971.
“In ‘Girl’, look at the intensity with which the model fixes you with her gaze and note that she’s wearing a wedding ring,” says James.
The other makes much more uncomfortable viewing, not least because of the strange and uncomfortable pose of the model at the bottom of the bed.
Other artists represented are William Nicholson, Duncan Grant, Adrian Stokes, David Bomberg, Richard Michelmore, William Coldstream, and Euan Uglow.
Female artists are represented by Vanessa Bell and her Nude, a study of a naked woman which she completed on her return to painting after taking time out to bring up her daughter.
Fact File
The exhibitions run until November 16.
Mima is open Tuesday to Saturday 10am-5pm, Thursday 10am-8pm, and Sunday noon-4pm.
It is closed Mondays.
Admission is free.
Details on 01642 726720 or log on to www.visitmima.com
