Outside of Photo London there are several photography museum exhibitions around town to visit when one tires of Somerset House. They include Strange and Familiar: Britain as Revealed by International Photographers at the Barbican, Paul Strand: Photography and Film for the 20th Century at the V&A, and Double Take: Drawing and Photography, a collaborative, two-venue exhibition between The Photographer’s Gallery and Drawing Room. The Photographer’s Gallery is also exhibiting the four finalists for the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2016 (my favorite of the four was Trevor Paglen).
The most interesting was Double Take (April 15 – July 3), which focuses on the relationship between the mediums of drawing and photography and displays works by 18 artists from the 20th century to the present day. According to the exhibition synopsis:
“Drawing and photography are each considered the most direct, ‘transparent’ media with which to engage with the world. They share fascinating parallels: the relationship to indexical, the blank sheet of paper or surface, graphite and silver, pencil weight and aperture, the sense of an invisible ‘apparatus’ (the camera and pencil), the engagement with surface, light negative and positive and the trace.”
Though the show is modest in comparison to Paul Strand or to the recognizable photographs and photographers included in Strange and Familiar, the selection of artist’s in Double Take offered a level of well-curated, conceptual playfulness that was refreshing. Accompanying the exhibition are two small publications; a collection of Double Take related essays produced by the Drawing Room and another collection of writings in vol.2 issue ii of Loose Associations by The Photographer’s Gallery. Both publications feature writings by the curators and artists, such as Turner Prize nominated artist Tacita Dean (b, 1965, UK) and photographer Nancy Hellebrand (b.1944, USA) – whose work is also featured in Strange and Familiar.
The full list of artists included in Double Take:
László Moholy-Nagy
Curtis Moffat
Běla Kolářová
Anna Barriball
Jolana Havelkova
Lisa Junghanß
Nancy Hellebrand
Pierre Bismuth
Marcel Broodthaers
Richard Forster
Paul Chiappe
Jiří Thýn
Dove Allouche
Josh Brand
Tacita Dean
Margarita Gluzberg
Matt Saunders
Thomas Zummer
My favorites were the Tacita Dean’s Still Life I-VI (2009) and Jolana Havelkova’s series First Time Skating (2008-2009).
Tacita Dean’s Still Life I-VI are 6 photographs of ‘found drawings’ by the Italian artist Giorgio Morandi. They are effectively artifacts of this painting practice – he would place a sheet of paper beneath the objects in his still lifes and would draw the outline around the base of the objects to aide in creating his carefully crafted compositions.
Jolana Havelkova’s (b.1966,Czech Republic) First Time Skating captured the gestural traces left by ice skates on ice.
Exhibition Details:
• Double Take: Drawing and Photography
April 15 – July 3, 2016
Exhibited both in The Photographer’s Gallery and Drawing Room
• Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize 2016
April 15 – July 3, 2016
The Photographer’s Gallery
• Strange and Familiar: Britain as Revealed by International Photographers
March 16 – June 19
Barbican
• Paul Strand: Photography and Film for the 20th Century
March 19 – July 3
V&A
