McCurry at the GoP? Seawright at the Kerlin?

sineadw

I'm wondering what the general consensus is from those who've made it this far? I was in on Saturday.. And Seawright in the Kerlin? I'm hoping to make on Tuesday..

Any thoughts anyone?

Prenderb

sineadw wrote: »

I'm wondering what the general consensus is from those who've made it this far? I was in on Saturday.. And Seawright in the Kerlin? I'm hoping to make on Tuesday..

Any thoughts anyone?

I saw the McCurry exhibition, and was impressed, they really are some brill photographs - worth it if you're passing or in the area. I wouldn't like to have gone all the way from home especially, but I had business in Dublin anyway.

Definitely worth a view if it's not much of a trek for you, or can spare 20 mins on your way to do something else. Is that a bit harsh?

sarkozy

I thought McCurry was so-so. I felt captions with descriptions could have been more consistent. His photos are good, colours very saturated, but for me, they're just more of the same photojournalistic boasting. An amateur made good, or something. However, I loved the photo of the street in Calcutta (or some Indian city). A spectacular example of an ensemble decisive moment. A photo you could ponder for years.

Really want to see Seawright as I'm a big fan.

charybdis

I went to see the McCurry exhibit a week or two ago. I'm familiar with a lot of the work on show through The Unguarded Moment, so there wasn't all that much new to see (although the large print of the spear fishermen was great).

I don't know all that much about gallery layout and lighting, but the Gallery of Photography seemed very badly laid out or just generally ill-suited to being an exhibition space. It was very cramped. In order to increase the available amount of wallspace everything was an alcove only barely a couple of meters across, and there was generally not really a way to stand back and view the prints from a distance appropriate to their size so you end up having to stand a couple of feet away from huge prints to look at them. (I have a similar complaint about the Jack B. Yeates paintings in the NGI which are laid out in such a way that it is physically impossible to give them the distance needed to view them to appreciate the full effect of his technique.)

Also, the combination of lighting and glass used on the pictures produced a lot of annoying reflections that - because of the cramped layout - could not be avoided.

I like McCurry, though. He's not my favourite photographer or anything, but he's the archetypal National Geographic Kodachrome photojournalist.

Good photography. Bad gallery.

sineadw

charybdis wrote: »

I don't know all that much about gallery layout and lighting, but the Gallery of Photography seemed very badly laid out or just generally ill-suited to being an exhibition space. It was very cramped. In order to increase the available amount of wallspace everything was an alcove only barely a couple of meters across, and there was generally not really a way to stand back and view the prints from a distance appropriate to their size so you end up having to stand a couple of feet away from huge prints to look at them. (I have a similar complaint about the Jack B. Yeates paintings in the NGI which are laid out in such a way that it is physically impossible to give them the distance needed to view them to appreciate the full effect of his technique.)

Hah! I went to the Moderns exhibition in IMMA a few times, and each time was blown more and more away by Yeats. Even though I've been in NGI lots, and the OH is a huge Yeats fan, I'd never seen it. IMMA gave him space, and more importantly for me, light. I'm dying to get to the exhibition running in the Model in Sligo..

The Yeats NGI gallery is dingy and small. I found the same this time round with GoP. I'm going to go back midweek, as in fairness I don't think Saturday is the best time to visit, especially not something that's going to draw the crowd that McCurry does. I had to stand right next to the shots as there were so many there, and I *really* didn't think the prints were up to close-quarters viewing. For someone whose portraits are so about the eyes, they lost all impact with the scale and rendering. I loved the one of the boy disappearing down the lane, with the big chunks of colour. I felt fairly neutral about the rest though. I have more to say, but I'll wait till a second viewing at least before I make up my mind...

charybdis

sineadw wrote: »

Hah! I went to the Moderns exhibition in IMMA a few times, and each time was blown more and more away by Yeats. Even though I've been in NGI lots, and the OH is a huge Yeats fan, I'd never seen it. IMMA gave him space, and more importantly for me, light. I'm dying to get to the exhibition running in the Model in Sligo..

The Yeats NGI gallery is dingy and small. I found the same this time round with GoP. I'm going to go back midweek, as in fairness I don't think Saturday is the best time to visit, especially not something that's going to draw the crowd that McCurry does. I had to stand right next to the shots as there were so many there, and I *really* didn't think the prints were up to close-quarters viewing. For someone whose portraits are so about the eyes, they lost all impact with the scale and rendering. I loved the one of the boy disappearing down the lane, with the big chunks of colour. I felt fairly neutral about the rest though. I have more to say, but I'll wait till a second viewing at least before I make up my mind...

I haven't been to The Moderns yet (although - as someone interested in Modernism - I have a hard time in thinking what the show contains given the general paucity of Irish Modernists - with the exception of Eileen Grey - and it looks like it really should've been called "The Postmoderns") but I'm glad to hear Yeates' work is being displayed with proper regard for how it should be viewed. I'm fairly sure the Yeates paintings in the NGI weren't in such an arrangement when I was there as a kid, so it must've changed relatively recently (although the last time I saw them was a couple of years ago).

I'm not really sure why all McCurry's works were printed so big. It's only 35mm film (Kodachrome notwithstanding) and while suited to some, I think the large size of many of the images detracted from what might possibly been a more intimate experience if they were rendered in a smaller scale (particularly given the gallery's spatial deficits). I don't know if it's Dusseldorf school inflation, the idea that art needs to be big, or just the-new-normal-is-a-96-inch-canvas mentality; but I think the size of the images and the space of the gallery were out of scale.

kjt

I went to them both a while ago. Seawright did nada for me, I just felt he hadn't pushed the project enough. It seemed like he was doing the project for the sake of it, as opposed to having any passion for it...

McCurry's work is superb, I've been into the gallery 3/4 times now. There's 4/5 images in there that blew me away. In saying that the space doesn't work, they're trying to cram too much in. On some of the images they seem a bit pushed/over saturated but maybe that's what he's going for.

I also went along to his talk and really didn't think much of him. It felt like he was just rehashing exactly what it said on the snippets beside each photo in the gallery. Maybe I was expecting too much...

sineadw

charybdis wrote: »

I haven't been to The Moderns yet

(as an aside) it finished a while back. Have to say it was very *very* good though. Mainie Jellett was a revelation for me, and I was in my own personal little heaven with having le Brocquy and Bacon so well represented in the same room :rolleyes: , but Yeats was undoubtedly the star of the show.

I'm still sick I missed the McCurry talk Kyle, especially as I had a bloody ticket for it. The interview he did on rte radio did sound fairly generic. I wonder if he's gone for popular, generic shots here?

kjt

I suppose if you're giving these talks day in/day out it's got to be hard to keep things fresh and mixed up.

No excuse though