Anselm Kiefer - White Cube

Anselm Kiefer: Il Mistero delle Cattedrali is showing at White Cube Bermondsey, the gallery's huge new space in South London. The title of the exhibition is taken from a 1926 publication by Fulcanelli, which claimed that the Gothic cathedrals of Europe had openly displayed the hidden code of alchemy for over 700 years.

The exhibition promises big themes (alchemy, German history) and Kiefer's trademark large-scale work. In an interview in The Guardian, Kiefer says: 

Art is difficult. It's not entertainment. There are only a few people who can say something about art – it's very restricted. When I see a new artist I give myself a lot of time to reflect and decide whether it's art or not. Buying art is not understanding art.

Asked his response to Charles Saatchi's recent outburst, declaring that,

Being an art buyer these days is comprehensively and indisputably vulgar. It is the sport of the Eurotrashy, Hedge-fundy, Hamptonites; of trendy oligarchs and oiligarchs; and of art dealers with masturbatory levels of self-regard.

Kiefer replied,

"He described himself, no?"... laughing uproariously. "[These days] art becomes fashion, it becomes [financial] speculation, but Saatchi started it."

The artist also reveals that he has bought a decommissioned nuclear power station: the Mülheim-Kärlich reactor; he remarks that standing inside the power station's cooling tower was overwhelming. It's so wonderful it's like the Pantheon. It will be a challenge for me to do something with it because it's already very good. (See picture, below.)
The exhibtion continues until 26 February, 2012.

Anselm Kiefer, Dat rosa miel apibas (detail), 2009

Anselm Kiefer, Antonin Artaud Heliogabalus, 2010-2011

Anselm Kiefer, Samson (detail), 2010

Anselm Kiefer, Tempelhof, 2010-11

Anselm Kiefer, Sprache der Vögel (detail), 1988-2011

The decommissioned Mülheim-Kärlich reactor being bought by Anselm Kiefer

London: The Mystery of Appearance - Haunch of Venison

Francis Bacon,  Pope I -study after Pope Innocent X by Velazquez, 1951

London: The Mystery of Appearance - Conversations between Ten Postwar Painters is an exhibition at Haunch Of Venison. The title is taken from a quotation from Francis Bacon:

To me, the mystery of painting today is how can appearance be made.  I know it can be illustrated, I know it can be photographed. But how can this thing be made so that you catch the mystery of appearance within the mystery of the making?... one knows by some accidental brushmarks suddenly appearance comes in with  a vividness that no accepted way of doing it would have brought about

Francis Bacon in Sylvester, David (1980) Interviews with Francis Bacon, 1962-1979, London: Thames and Hudson, p105

The exhibition presents work by ten British artists who sustained a commitment to figurative art through a period dominated by abstraction:  Michael Andrews, Frank Auerbach, Francis Bacon, Patrick Caulfield, William Coldstream, Lucian Freud, Richard Hamilton, David Hockney, Leon Kossoff and Euan Uglow.

See review by Andrew Graham-Dixon. The exhibition continues until 18 February 2012.

Michael Andrews, Study of a Head with a Green Turban, 1967

Frank Auerbach, Study of Primrose Hill, 1973-4

Frank Auerbach, Primrose Hill, Winter Sunshine, 1962-4

Patrick Caulfield,  Coloured Still Life, 1967

Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon (study), 1961

Leon Kossoff, Willesden Junction, Summer No.1, 1966

Euan Uglow, Nude, Lady C, 1959-60

Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2012

Pieter Hugo, Yakubu Al Hasan, Agbogbloshie Market, Accra, Ghana, 2009

Just as the winner of the 2011 Turner Prize (Martin Boyce) has been announced (see below), the shortlist for the 2012 Deutsche Börse Photography Prize has been made public. This prize lacks the visibility of the Turner but has been the subject of some local debate (see below). The shortlisted photographers are: Pieter Hugo, Rinko Kawauchi, John Stezaker and Christopher Williams. Read comment by Sean O'Hagan.

Examples of their work are shown below. NB these images are selected from their oeuvres as a whole and are not necesarilly representative of the work for which they have been shortlisted. An exhibition of work by the selected photographers will be at the Photographers' Gallery next summer.

Pieter Hugo, Abdullahi Mohammed with Mainasara, Lagos, Nigeria, 2007

Pieter Hugo, Abdulai Yahaya

Pieter Hugo, Pieter and Maryna Vermeulen with Timana Phosiwa

Rinko Kawauchi, Untitled, from the series "Illuminance", 2009

Rinko Kawauchi, Untitled, from the series "Aila", 2003

Rinko Kawauchi, Untitled, from the series "Aila", 2004

Rinko Kawauchi, Untitled, from the series ‘the eyes, the ears’, 2005

JohnStezaker, Marriage (Film Portrait Collage) XLIII, 2007

John Stezaker, Pair IV, 2007

John Stezaker, Blind I, 2006

JohnStezaker, Gothic II, 2009

Christopher Williams, Fachhochschule Aachen, Fachbereich Gestaltung, Studiengang: Visuelle Kommunikation, Fotolabor für Studenten, Boxgraben 100, Aachen, November 8th, 2010

Christopher Williams, Ritter Sport Von oben nach unten / from top to the bottom 100 g Tafeln / 100 g Bars Offizieller Produktname / Official Product Name / EAN Code Bar / UPC Code for Case / Bars per Case Voll Nuss / Whole Hazelnuts / 4000417019004 / 050255013005 / 10 Joghurt / Yogurt / 40004170270 09 / 050255027000 / 12 Voll Endnuss / 4000417262202 / ... / 10 Weisse Voll Nuss / White Whole Hazelnuts / 4000417013002 / 050255013003 / 10 Marzipan / Marzipan / 400041725005 / 050255025006 / 12 Cappuccino / Cappuccino / 40004172300 03 / 0550255230042 / 12 Fotostudio Axel Gnad, Düsseldorf, October 24th, 2008 [No. 1], 2009

Christopher Williams, Linhof Technika V fabricated in Munich, Germany. Salon Studio Stand fabricated in Florence, Italy. Dual cable release. Prontor shutter. Symar-s lens 150mmm/f 5.6 Schneider kreuznach. Sinar fresnel lens placed with black tape on the ground glass. Dirk Schaper Studio, Berlin, June 20, 2007, 2008

Christopher Williams, Tenebrionidae Asbolus verrucosus Death Feigning Beetle Silverlake, California October 1, 1996, 1996

Christopher Williams, Bergische Bauernscheune, Junkersholz, Leichlingen
September 29th, 2009, 2010

Martin Boyce wins the Turner Prize

Martin Boyce, Our Love is Like the Flowers, the Rain, the Sea and the Hours, 2002 (installation at the Frieze art fair, 2003)

Martin Boyce has won The Turner Prize 2011. Read comments by Adrian Searle and watch videos of Boyce talking about his work - with Charlotte Higgins, and for the Tate. The Turner Prize exhibition continues at Baltic until 8 January 2012.

Martin Boyce,  No Reflections, 2009 (installation in Dundee Contemporary Arts, 2009-10)

Martin Boyce, Do Words Have Voices, 2011 (Turner Prize installation, Baltic)

Daniel Buren - Lisson Gallery

Daniel Buren, 5 Squares of Electric Light # 2, 2011

Daniel Buren, the artist who has, for over 40 years been making art out of  8.7cm wide white and coloured vertical stripes is showing new work at the Lisson Gallery: One Thing to Another, Situated Works. In the past Buren has made stripes in canvas, plexiglass, aluminium, wallpaper and many other materials. This exhibition features stripes made out of woven fibre optics, as well as A Perimeter for a Room, described as follows by the gallery:

The work traces a line following the full perimeter of the space. The horizontal transparent Plexiglas panels coloured with self-adhesive vinyl, lined up sequentially at a set height along the walls, alter our perception of space by introducing a new height within the room and by washing the walls with coloured shadows.  While the work uses a familiar vocabulary in Buren’s oeuvre: colour, light and black and white 8.7 cm stripes, A Perimeter for a Room defines an entirely new system in its treatment of interior space that opens the way for new developments. 

Judging by the pictures, the whole show looks beautiful.
Listen to Buren talking about his work for Frieze Foundation.

Daniel Buren, A Perimeter for a Room, 2011

Daniel Buren, A Perimeter for a Room, 2011

Daniel Buren, One Thing to Another, Situated Works, 2011

Daniel Buren, One Thing to Another, Situated Works, 2011

Michael Wolf - Flowers Gallery

Michael Wolf, Architecture of Density #77, 2006

Michael Wolf is, I think, one of the most interesting of contemporary photographers: his first solo show in the UK is at Flowers until 7 January, 2012. He first came to my attention when given an honourable mention in this year's World Press Photo Awards for an intriguing set of work drawing from the Google Street View project: A Series of Unfortunate Events: Google Street View (see below). However, this exhibition presents 3 groups of work: Architecture of Density, Tokyo Compression and Transparent City. Flowers describes the work as follows:

Architecture of Density is a study of Hong Kong’s high rise residential developments. The structures are photographed on large format in extreme detail without the context of sky or ground; Tokyo’s subway is infamous for its cramped conditions but the psychological effects of the uncompromising close human proximity experienced daily by thousands of workers are rarely depicted. Tokyo Compression captures the moment and reaction when individuals are forcefully sandwiched between their fellow commuters and the parameters of the carriage; Transparent City depicts the architecture of both domestic and office buildings in the city of Chicago - a place renowned for its iconic towers. The structures are composed and compressed into groups and surfaces rather than shown individually.

Michael Wolf, Tokyo Compression #1062009

Michael Wolf, Tokyo Compression #05, 2009

Michael Wolf, Tokyo Compression #92, 2009

Michael Wolf, Architecture of Density #111, 2006

Michael Wolf, Architecture of Density #1, 2006

Michael Wolf, Architecture of Density #25, 2006

Michael Wolf, Transparent City #12, 2008

Laura Oldfield Ford - Hales Gallery

Laura Oldfield Ford, Transmissions from a Discarded Future #10, 2011

Transmissions from a Discarded Future is an exhibition by Laura Oldfield Ford at Hales Gallery until 14 January, 2012. Ford is author of Savage Messiah, a sustained and angry critique of urban regeneration and a lament for a lost urban future; she is a committed psychogeographer exploring and documenting the urban fabric and its social narratives. 

Read text to accompany this exhibition and for her previous show at Hales Gallery: London 2013: Drifting Through the Ruins; see also interview in Mute magazine, a brief profile in The Guardian and Ford's blog, Savage Messiah.
Savage Messiah, the book, by Laura Oldfield Ford is published by Verso (2011) - read a review by Iain Sinclair.

 

Laura Oldfield Ford, Heygate Estate 1974 (detail), 2010

Laura Oldfield Ford, Violence Solves Problems (detail Ferrier Estate), 2010