Watercolour at the Tate Britain: wishy-washy or a breath of fresh air?
It’s clean, cheap and easy to get started. But in many ways, the greatest strength of watercolour is its greatest weakness. Its very accessibility is its own worst enemy. We all know amateur painters who work with watercolour for a few hours at the weekend or while on holiday, more as a means of unwinding rather than expressing some essential part of their selves through the process of creating art. We all learnt to paint in watercolour at school and as adults we’ve all seen children painting in the same way. Most of us are familiar with the efforts of famous practitioners such as Prince Charles and the popularity of TV programmes like Watercolour Challenge boosted the profile of watercolour even more. All of these things might have widened the appeal of painting in watercolour but they’ve had the opposite effect on the credibility of the form.
A kind of hierarchy has operated in the world of painting for as long as anyone can remember, with oil-based work being considered the gold-standard. If watercolours are seen as an important ‘entry point’ to painting or a suitable forum for more established artists to sketch out early drafts of work to be completed in oils, then this has led to a general lack of respect for the form. In fact at one point painters who worked exclusively in watercolour were respected so little that they were virtually banned from the Royal Academy and forced to set up their own society, The Royal Watercolour Society, which still exists today.
But just because it’s easy to get started in watercolour doesn’t by any stretch of the imagination mean that it’s easy to master. In fact, many watercolour painters argue that the form brings with it its own set of difficulties. For example it’s a very unforgiving medium; once you’ve painted a stroke with a watercolour it’s very difficult to un-do. There’s no wiping it off or painting over it as there is in oil painting. And because of this, artists need to learn how to work with the chance and spontaneity inherent in the process, which isn’t always a great fit with some artists’ sensibilities. Not all artists are suited to ‘going with the flow’ but with watercolour this is a pre-requisite.
One thing that IS unfortunately true however is that painting in watercolour is considered naff, uncool and unfashionable. Interestingly, in the Far East there’s no tradition of oil painting and all painting is water-based. So there are no pre-conceived ideas about the form and it doesn’t come with any baggage. But here in Britain, most of us have a very fixed image of what a watercolour should look like. And there’s a general acceptance of a fixed set of rules for painting ‘correctly’ in watercolour. For the most part, these rules have been obeyed – something which is almost unheard of in every other territory of the art world. With watercolour we think of misty landscapes, cloudy skies and choppy seas all rendered by thin washes of somewhat anaemic colour. We think of climactic effects like the dapped sunlight falling on the walls of twee old country buildings. We certainly don’t think of subject matter that’s remotely cutting edge. No wonder watercolour is considered conservative and boring.
But this is why Tate Britain’s new watercolour show is such a breath of fresh air. Because, as well as giving us several brilliantly executed examples of what we’ve come to expect from watercolour, it also shows that there’ve often been artists who’ve broken all the rules of painting in the form. Standout pieces for me are The Blue Rigi (pictured), Sunrise by JMW Turner, Berlin, the Last Week in April by Tracey Emin and The Blue Night, Venice by Arthur Melville. It’s also interesting to see so much exactitude on show, in paintings by the likes of Edward Burra and numerous maps, miniatures and botanical illustrations. And on top of all this, there’s a lot of abstract work by artists such as Anish Kapoor, Rebecca Salter and Andy Goldsworthy.
OK, I have to admit that while visiting the exhibition I did occasionally feel that I wasn’t looking at the real thing. I’ll openly confess that I did sometimes crave the more muscular texture of an oil painting, almost as if I was reading a short story rather than a good, meaty novel. At one point I even wondered how washes of colour could ever turn out to be anything other than wishy-washy. But despite this, my overwhelming reaction was that the show does confound expectations – and while it’s at it, offers plenty of pleasant surprises.
So while I’ve said that the greatest strength of painting in watercolour may be its greatest weakness, the power and pull of this strength shouldn’t be underestimated. One of the things that most surprised me about the Tate’s new show was finding out how many artists known for working in other areas of the visual arts have often returned to the simplicity of watercolour, almost as an occasional release from the complexities of their usual practice.
From now on, in my practice of viewing art I intend to do just the same.
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There are 7 comments on this post
Matthew,
Nice piece.
Glad to see a mention of Eastern art. Too many Westerners haven’t the faintest idea of its great accomplishments. Islamic art can be particularly beautiful and had a long tradition of abstraction before it was even thought of in the West.
As to Oil versus Water, it’s a non-argument. Both are valid if completed with talent and passion.
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I’m, thrilled to see Rebecca Salter getting recognized in the UK. There’s currently a major retrospective of her work at the Yale Center for British Art in the Connecticut.
http://www.yaledailynews.com/news/2011/feb/02/japan-influences-new-ycba-retrospective/
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“popularity of TV programmes like Watercolour Challenge”
Too bad that channel 4 hasn’t yet had the sense to take advantage of this popularity and release this excellent show on DVD.
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and then there’s David Hockney…
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Watercolour has a definite and interesting abstract quality if you want to explore it.
Flowery landscape compositions maybe pleasant to look at but abstract is interesting, it makes you investigate.
In Mairi Hedderwick watercolours I like the clean minimal composition of Lakefield House,
the unusual subject of looking through an old car windshield in the Golden Sands and the
fun subject in the Red Hens.
Its difficult to get excited about watercolour but what you are showing us today is that it can be wild and exciting as in Edward Burra, bold and bright contrast in colour as in Anish Kapoor or calm and elegant as in Rebecca Salter
i liked just looking at the paint brush clouding and ribboning through the jar of water.
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I love to see that watery, misty colour of landscapes which creates so much atmosphere that magic and mystery invites the viewer to enter into the scene. I experimented with splodges of gawdy colour at school too.
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Have to say in seeing the show I was was surprised to have enjoyed it so much. The contemporary room was a let down. Was glad to see watercolour expanding it’s description as a paint. I support the idea of it being seen more than a medium made from pigment, gum arabic and water. So good to see the honesty of gouache, tempera extra included. I know it is a diverse medium that still has a long way to go.I really enjoyed Burra. Definately worth a second visit to take it all in.
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