Gerhard Richter | Kate McCalmont-Woods

I feel particularly drawn to this photograph of my father. It’s solitary and contemplative, evoking a sense of vulnerability – a side which was never apparent whilst I was growing up. It makes me want to go and give him a hug. He was the world’s best hugger. Either that, or he’s watching someone doing something and he’s not that impressed – a more familiar experience.

Having missed out on visiting a couple of exhibitions on Sunday, I decided to experiment. I took a piece of A1 flipchart paper, a graphite stick and a 5B pencil and got to work. First I created multiple silhouettes of the image using the graphite stick.

I was inspired by the Richter drawings (The Rich Are Getting Richter) and used the tiles on the kitchen floor to create texture with some frottaging.

Having really liked the effect of some of the lines and marks made in my automatic drawings, I used the 5B pencil to create a wandering line, holding it at the top and twisting it from side to side in the process and then holding it on its side to create a second softer line. I like the idea of tree roots and mycorrhizas connecting and creating a support network for trees, a concept we touched on in last week’s session. The lines are connecting each figure so it’s no longer alone. They are also reminiscent of a map or a mapping out. Not sure which, but I like the effect. I like the delicacy of the lines. They also remind me of the lines in skulls at the points where the plates have fused or cracks in a surface, fault lines. I wasn’t keen on the overlap on the two figures on the right which created a hard box-like edge, so I cropped it out on the last image.

I really enjoyed doing this, particularly the lack of control of the line making and the unpredictability of the frottaging, and despite that, it does bear a resemblance to the vague image I had in my head. It ties in with the idea of shadow selves (Sniper’s Alley) and the idea of inheritance and being made up of multitudes (Bus Replacement Service). It’s definitely an approach I will develop further, but I’ll use better quality paper next time.

Well, it was either that, or For Richter, For Poorer…

I couldn’t quite work out why, during the Low Res, I arrived at CSM each day feeling increasingly out of sorts. And then it struck me. As I came up through Kings Cross underground station from the Piccadilly Line, I walked through a tunnel with music playing in the background. The music was Vivaldi’s Spring 1 by Max Richter and this is where I’d heard it before.

https://youtu.be/e-ymoWfHBwI

It’s amazing how music can alter your mood or take you back in time. The other day, I heard Queen and David Bowie’s Under Pressure playing in the background somewhere, and I was immediately a teenager in my bedroom on a Sunday evening listening to the chart show on the radio, trying to tape my favourite songs whilst doing my homework, which I had left until the last minute, as always. It made me feel that Sunday feeling again.

Another Richter, this time Gerhard, was the subject of the book I selected in the CSM library during our small group visual exercise.

In my wanderings I first came across this book and was intrigued.

I had decided to pick the second book along from the first artist I recognised beginning with ‘E’. I was drawn to the spine, but put it back, abandoned my plan and walked on into the ‘R’s. I like Richter’s blurred images, but this book – and would you believe it, I forgot to take a photo of it – includes recent drawings and photographs with lacquer.

I particularly like the last drawing which includes what looks like frottage to create texture. They are less than A4 in size, in stark contrast to his huge canvasses of colour.

Having just done a quick search in the online library, I’m 99% certain that this is the book.