Tate Etc. #22

TATE ETC. Issue 22
Visiting and Revisiting Art, etcetera

Highlights include…
Ernest Hemingway on Joan Miró
Beatriu Meritxell on Miró's politically charged works
Eleanor Antin, John Baldessari, Thomas Demand and
Jeff Koons on René Magritte
Bridgid Peppin on the Vorticists
Kaelen Wilson-Goldie, Kader Attia, Vasif Kortun and
Wael Shawky in conversation about Art in The Middle East


Ernest Hemingway writes about his friendship with the then penniless Joan Miró and how his love affair with the painting The Farm led him gamble for its possession and the subsequent taxi ride home.

Tate Modern's current exhibition explores Joan Miró's political engagement, his Catalan identity, and resonances the Spanish Civil War and Franco's regime had on his work. Here, Beatriu Meritxell discusses a commission by the Republican Government, at the height of the Spanish Civil War that resulted in the anti-war mural, 'The Reaper'.

The Belgian Surrealist, René Magritte, remains an influential figure amongst contemporary artists. Eleanor Antin, John Baldessari, Thomas Demand and Jeff Koons share their passion for Magritte's work—from the rarely seen postcards, to an account of how staff where persuaded to dress in suits and bowler hats for a Magritte exhibition.

The short lived Vorticists movement was often seen as a predominately masculine affair, but as one of the descendents of the group of female painters of the period, Brigid Peppin revels their work was equally compelling, innovative and should not be so quickly erased from art history.

Recent openings of art centres and national museums across the Middle East and North Africa visibly acknowledge a thriving contemporary art scene. Kaelen Wilson- Goldie, Kader Attia, Vasif Kortun and Wael Shawky come together to discuss what it means to be an artist from the Middle East, the impact of politics on their work and the role that art can play in their respective societies, in a conversation that took place before the recent people's uprising.

'Wyndham Lewis is reputed to have said "Let's not have any of those damn women."' Brigid Peppin, pg 31

"The materials, styles and subjects served to define Gaudier's Vorticist output." Mark Antliff, pg 38

'He described the act of painting The Reaper…"the execution of this work was direct and brutal…"' Beatriu Meritxell, pg 43

'This was probably the only good business move that Shipman ever did in his life. But doing a good business move must have made him uncomfortable because he came to me the same day and said, "Hem, you should have The Farm. I do not love anything as much as you care for that picture and you ought to have it." Ernest Hemingway, pg 45

"But what was even more curious is that the disappearing man should have reappeared a couple of years later, albeit only temporarily, in another painting from the Tate Collection." Neil Matheson pg53

"While 'Prostitution' ran for only eight days at the ICA, it received a hostile and widespread reaction from the national press, who saw its content as a deliberate assault on the moral and artistic values of the time." Lizzie Carey-Thomas, pg 68

"What contemporary visual culture lacks are images of political and social consequence that can bear a sustained look: that what internet and 24 hour rolling news contributes in terms of the immediacy and quality of images, it lacks in providing objects of consideration and reflection." Simon Baker, pg 77