Saturday, September 15, 2007

But is it art??

Having seen his recent exhibition on the South Bank, and the installation at Blundell Sands, seeing as I'm passing it would be rude not to visit Anthony Gormley's most famous work - so here I am.

Like much of his other work I've seen it's impressive - the sheer scale of the installation is amazing - but I come away from it thinking "yeah... and..?". Probably makes me some form of ghastly artistic philistine but if I walk away from a piece of art thinking "well, what was the artist trying to say?" you can't help but conclude that the artist has failed on one level. Recently the Angel of the North came second on a list of most disappointing tourist attractions - it was behind Stonehenge. A bit unfair I feel - I may not be a huge fan of the piece but it is a stunning artistic installation on a huge scale.


On the way south I make an unscheduled and impulsive stop at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. It's an amazing place with wonderful galleries and beautiful sculptures (such as Moore and Hepworth) set in the rolling Yorkshire countryside. Spent a lovely couple of hours wandering around enjoying it all - made all the more enjoyable as it was visited purely on a whim. Only slight disappointment is with it being so far from where I live I expect I'll be a rare visitor.

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