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Melting at the Hepworth

This is a post from the weareoca.com archive. Information contained within it may now be out of date.
 
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On a bright and meltingly hot day 9 students joined myself at the Hepworth for a full day of viewing. My intention was to allow all the students to partake in the discussion of selected artworks from the exhibitions on show. After a brief discussion on the building itself we made our way firstly to the Barbara Hepworth screenprints and lithographs show. I asked the students to take in the room and then to select a print for us all to discuss. I wanted to encourage the students to objectively break a work of art down to start with and then talk about how they respond to the work through their senses and intuition, eventually including the cultural phenomena that may impact on the work. As we went through this process I felt the students were becoming more open to the idea of an in depth discussion of an artwork no matter how abstract or minimal it might appear to be.
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The discussions progressed through to the Hepworth sculpture room and then finally before lunch we had a very interesting crit around an early Eduardo Paolozzi sculpture titled “The Cage”. This completed our mornings viewing and by 12.30 everyone was ready for a coffee and break. After lunch we headed for the William Scott rooms and continued to get into these interesting domestic fuelled abstract works. The day ended with a brief look at the contemporary art installation of Haroon Mirza, which even I have to admit didn’t give us as much group dialogue as the previous works we had seen had. For myself I am still wondering if this new artist might have a bit of the emperors new clothes about him.DSC01260
Thank you to Rosemary, Anee, Andrea Campbell, Trauti, Mike, Andrea Welsh, Pam, Kay and Anne-Marie for coming along and giving such great input, I hope you all found my take on the act of looking at a work of art interesting and constructive for your own future art viewings and crits.


Posted by author: Doug Burton

6 thoughts on “Melting at the Hepworth

  • I think it was great visit and feel I got a lot out of it. Doug was very good at getting us to look at the works without any pre-conceived ideas (at least we tried not to have any). Being in such a small group made it easy to talk to everybody and exchange ideas. Doug is right about having become more open about looking at an abstract work that one might have dismissed before. I am glad, however, I wasn’t the only one in the wilderness about the Mirza work – even after discussion and trying to be open about it.

  • Thanks for a great day. A really positive start to studying with the OCA. Interesting discussions and opinions. It was a pleasure to meet fellow students and I felt welcomed by the tutor and group 🙂

  • It was a good visit with lots of interesting discussion and also quite focussed. And it covered quite a lot – I think by the time we got to the Haroon Mirza work, it was a bit late in the day to make the mental shift (from gentle historical) into light and sound, at least it was for me. I just wanted to get out of the building! However, that’s what stuck with me, and I’ve been doing a bit of youtubing, if anyone’s interested, here’s my list: http://pamwright66.wordpress.com/2013/07/21/haroon-mirza-wakefield-visit-revisited/

  • A thoroughly enjoyable visit with good company and an insightful tutor who encouraged us to articulate our thoughts and feelings about the work on offer. The only disappointment for me was the Mirza, was it a case of demand outstripping creative supply?

  • Rosemary Clark
    I found this visit excellent it was also nice to meet my tutor in person.
    I particularly liked the way Doug encouraged the group to participate and really think about how the picture made us all feel. Exploring why the artist had created a composition with the various colours, shapes, materials. For me it made me start to think in a more structured way about abstract art, and to look at pictures an element at a time. Asking why the artist did it the way he/she had is also is useful when thinking about your own composition.
    I would have not thought about a picture in such a critical manner in the past but hope to get a lot more out of future trips to art galleries.
    In a smaller group it was interesting to hear the views of others, and to challenge your own initially reactions .
    This is my first visit and good to meet students and share ideas about the course.

  • Barbara Hepworth was my first ‘art love’. I was given a book of her work whilst studying Medicine at University and desperate to change to Art. It wasn’t until more than thirty years later that I visited her museum in St. Ives. I’ve always found an intuitive response to be the best way to approach an abstract work of art. I don’t try to ‘understand’ it, but try to ‘feel’ it.

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