The hesitation in writing steps in now because I left rather flattened. Here’s why - I LOVED the first rooms, I loved seeing hand crafted, considered pieces of photography and reading about Dora Maars life was fascinating yet I stalled at room 6 + 7 - I’m not sure if that’s the curators intention.
In these rooms the exhibitions and my attention turned to Picasso.
Because of this interjection I’m afraid my concentration on the beautiful work I’d seen in rooms 1 through 5 slithered away + became diluted. MY NOTE TO TATE Modern - Picasso was obviously an important part of Dora’s life BUT it seems a little unjust to dedicate some of the rooms to his work and her inspiration on him - as if a house hold name would ‘pad things out’ when that was the last thing that was needed. **The exhibition up until this point had been full and robust, inspiring in its freshness and the inclusion of the solarised image which inspired ManRay was sublime.
As a female photographer myself I applaud the ever growing inclusion of female photographers being displayed now because I remember a time in the not too distant past, when my photography history programme wouldn’t include even 1. + yes I realise that in fact makes me sound ancient - I’m not!!! However, I felt the reference to their relationship : single/complicated/married wasn’t needed, it didn’t add to the validity of her work and his work then overshadowed hers because it felt so off piste + random to have two rooms dedicated to it..
If you absolutely needed to, just perhaps one image representative of his painting of Dora during their time together would have sufficed, remove the fact she was having an affair with him and the huge image depicting the painting of both of the women in his life and we would have a gorgeous collection of images, inspiring the viewer to learn more about Surrealism/Photography/Dora.
I felt confused as to what you felt these rooms brought to the viewing experience aside from confusion and a peppering of annoyance?
The following 2 rooms of her return to painting was both textural and fluid although in part also looked like she was thoroughly pissed off their relationship had ended + in all honesty was how I felt that so much of his work had been included. I didn’t go to see Picasso, I went to see a little known female photographer and artist in a celebration of her contribution to the Surrealist movement. Step it up TATE, the work speaks for itself.
