A reflective look at Seduced by Art

Bit late, but as we both really enjoyed this exhibition last year we thought that we'd write up about it. Better late than never...

'Seduced by Art' looked at the links between photography and painting, exploring how photographic practitioners draw upon themes and traditions from the old masters. The exhibition was broken down into 6 rooms - Setting the Scene, Portraits, The Figure, Tableaux, Still Life and Landscape. Paintings and photographs were placed together to show the correlation between the two. 

A few particular photographers caught our eye, some we knew and others not so familiar.

The first was a very well known photographer to us, Tom Hunter.

Tom Hunter's photograph, 'Death of Coltelli' was in the first room of the exhibition presented next to the work of Jeff Wall. With a spotlight aimed directly onto it, and in the low light surroundings, the naked skin of the woman gave the print an appearance of a light box. 

Next on our list of favourites was the work of Richard Learoyd, whose image 'Man with Octopus Tattoo, 2011' became the memorable cover for the exhibition. As we are both interested in portraiture we found this an interesting take on the genre. The man's face is never revealed but still a sense of personality is shown. The image becomes revealing in its lack of facial identification. And, Learoyd's process interests us as he uses and unconventional method of using a camera obscura directly onto photographic paper.

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This video piece visually describes the process in creating the painting it aims to represent. We see the constructed piece in sped up time with the added humour of a cheeky wink at the end. 

So overall the exhibition has inspired both of us and re-ignited our appreciation for paintings, inspiration that we hope to carry forward within our own work.

All images found through google image search.