hogarth tate britain
Being a member of the Tate I feel like I’ve missed something when an exhibition passes me by. So I wanted to get in quick with this one rather than leave it near to the closing date.
Perhaps a Saturday lunchtime was not the best time to go as the place was completely packed and they were issuing timed tickets. This gave rise to a snakelike queue that weaved its way around each room. And every new person entering the room would just gravitate to the end of the queue. I wanted to see the exhibition at my own pace and in an order that suited me rather than follow the snake.
I saw the first three rooms quite thoroughly and the rest I looked at briefly, so I’m going to have to back and have a proper look at those.
Having seen the promotional material in the Tate booklet, I had imagined that the works would be similar to that of William Blake as I had no previous knowledge of Hogarth. But some of the cruel and grotesque depictions were not that of reverie, but much closer to reality.
I got a sense that Hogarth was a working artist rather than an artiste as such. He had a strong sense of social commentary in his works. There was also a moral aspect to his works asking his viewers to consider the consequences of their acts. The truth of life that he portrayed in his works was balanced by humour as well.
At first I didn’t really like the lithographs and preferred the oil paintings. But then considering the subject matter, the lithographs seemed to me to be more fitting. The paintings seemed a little blurred and undefined compared to the clear lines and a sense of harshness of the prints.
The portraits were also interesting in that even though they were of rich people of the day and very much posed to capture a certain mood or look to present to their friends, something more human shone through. There was a photographic quality to them, more than photographic I would say. It was possible to see beyond the costume and pose and actually see the person. As though they were right there in front of you. Quite remarkable.
There was also a historical record with the paintings and prints acting like a window to the late 1700’s. And it made the history lesson all the more apparent, more so than a dramatisation or a novel. The squalor, the filth, the overcrowding and the downright naivety of the average person living in London at the time. We have become so much more civilised since then. Or have we?
Looking forward to going again and seeing the rest of the exhibition. Perhaps I’ll get the audio guide too.