Last week, our GCSE Art students went on a trip to the British Museum to kick-start their second coursework component.
The first exhibition they saw was entitled ‘Hew Locke, what have we here?’ An exhibition by the artist that combines traditional notions of artistic making with curation. The artist exhibition explores, questions and challenges narratives of British imperialism through objects from the British Museums collection, alongside specially commissioned new works by him. One of these commissions included a series of figurative sculptures that loom down on visitors from above, further encouraging them to engage with the idea of “reflexive looking”.
The second exhibition, ‘Picasso Printmaker’, offered an exceptional opportunity to delve into Picasso’s versatile approach to printmaking. The exhibit featured a wide range of visual styles and techniques, including works that trace his influences, particularly from earlier masters like Rembrandt. This exploration emphasised the importance of contextualizing art and provided valuable insight for our students as they consider their own creative processes.
To wrap up the trip, our artists spent some time exploring other areas of the museum, further developing their understanding of the themes and concepts for this year’s GCSE Art examination paper.
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Picasso’s focus on lithography and then linocut printing following the Second World War is explored, as is his move to the South of France, marking a change of lifestyle that is evident in his work. Thematic threads include the circus, the bullfight, love and sex, and Picasso’s interactions on paper with artists from the past. The exhibition ends with a selection from the 347 Suite, named after the number of prints in the series, which Picasso completed aged 86 in 1968, in a remarkable burst of late creativity. Image above from British Museum website.
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