Art and Culture in the Capital

As the GCSE Art and Textiles course continue to develop their portfolios this summer, students were keen to find fresh inspiration with a visit to the Barbican followed by the Tate Modern on Thursday 18th May.

Currently exhibiting at the Barbican is Alice Neel’s Hot off The Griddle. “Neel’s vivid portraits capture the shifting social and political context of the American twentieth century.” commented Head of Art, Mark Wood.

Before a stop for lunch surrounded by the iconic Brutalist architecture, the group made their way to the Tate Modern via Southbank, providing the perfect opportunity to experiment with some photography.

At the Tate Modern, students explored the gallery’s rooms and floors in groups of three or more before regrouping for sketching activities. The Tate Modern has over a hundred years of art, from modernism in the early 1900s to exciting works created today. This includes paintings, sculptures and more, made by artists all over the world.

Mark continued, “By visiting a major art museum, students can enhance their contextual knowledge and gather photographs and make drawings of the artworks, shapes and surfaces from first-hand experience.”

GCSE student, Livi in Year 10, reflected “My favourite installation was definitely a piece by Alice Neel at the Barbican. It was a social commentary on the US draft of soldiers where she had painted the sitter’s face perfectly, but the body was simply marked in pen and left on a huge blank canvas. The man she was painting had been drafted to war and had never returned for his second sitting.”

The theme for this year’s coursework is ‘suspend’ and the art and culture of the capital did not leave anyone short of creative feeling. Livi continued, “The trip was amazing for giving me inspiration and now I have lots of really strong directions I could take my GCSE art coursework in. I am hoping to use all the photography we took at the Barbican, the textile inspiration I gathered at the Tate and all the vibrant colours on the Southbank for my final exam at the end of this year.”

“My favourite part of the trip was walking through London with my friends because the culture and vibrancy of the city was art too. We even got ice cream after dinner and ate it by the Thames in the sun which was so lovely.”