After seeing a piece in the Guardian on Saturday - decided to visit an Exhibition on 'Flight - and the artistic imagination' at Compton Verney. The exhibition explored the instinctive human desire to fly. There were paintings, sculpture, photographs, documents, prints and video. All coming together to show how artists have represented the experience of flight in both fact and fantasy from the 1400s to the present day.
There was work by Leonardo da Vinci, Henri Matisse, Paul Nash, Elizabeth Frink and Mark Wallinger amongst others.
I was unable to take any photographs whilst in the exhibition so will provide links to websites so you can see the works I am referring to:
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| Paul Nash - Battle of Britain (1941) bbc website |
Paul Nash - The delicacy used to depict the con trails are not replicated in the landscape or cloud structures, perhaps emphasising how frail and delicate man is amongst all this.
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| Henri Matisse - Icarus - in Jazz (1947) |
Henri Matisse - It was a delight to see this book - in the flesh - it was open on page 54 and I spent a while trying to translate the french :
"un moment
di libres
ne deviation
pas faire au
complis un
grande voyage
en avion aux
jeunes gens
ayanlteermime
leurs etudes".
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| Pat Douthwaite - Death of Amy Johnson (1976). National Galleries Scotland |
Another painting that stood out for me was Pat Douthwaite's Death of Amy Johnson - I think it appeals to my love of abstract.
What a lovely day. I got so much inspiration for new ideas and projects from this visit - it is always good to recharge your batteries with looking at other work and it does not have to be in the field of photography.
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