A Feast of Exhibitions
I always enjoy going to exhibitions. Some attendances are planned far in advance. These for me tend to be the Big Names. In the past year, I have seen Yves St Laurent, the Turner Prize, Michelangelo. In each case, I was going in company and the tickets were limited, so planning rather than spontaneity was the way to go. Which turned the visit into an occasion, with other things added - a drink, a meal, the journey of anticipation, the post-match dissection of feelings of satiety and/or disappointment. Others are visited at short notice or by happenstance, as were the two I have visited in the last couple of weeks.
The first was WoolNEss, held at the Life Centre in Newcastle, the second was of Norman Cornish, held at the he Town Hall Gallery in Spennymoor.
WoolNEss, where Nic was exhibiting, was really interesting, based as it was on the importance of craft and creativity in a person's mental health.
The Norman Cornish exhibition in Spennymoor I came upon purely by accident, on my way back home from another visit. Cornish, whose centenary year this is, was born in Spennymoor, spent his early working life as a pitman with painting as a recreation, for which he gained critical appreciation. He later went on to study Art, to leave the pit and to establish a reputation and a living as an accomplished and influential artist.
This is a favourite image, as is this,
a depiction of a shift change at the pit where he worked.
I find tenderness and brutality side by side in these works, and a sense of the man's strength of line and deceptive simplicity. As a knitter, strength of line is a quality for which I strive, although simplicity is not necessarily at the top of my agenda. Cornish's images provide inspiration for me as well as food for thought. Would I have enjoyed this more if I had planned it, and been accompanied? I honestly don't know. It would have been a different experience, and I might have been left with different impressions and memories. As it is, it was a lovely accidental find.
And there's another exhibition of his work in Durham! Can't wait, but next time I shall be going with a friend who is a knowledgeable fan of Cornish. It will be interesting to compare and contrast.
