Tate St. Ives Gallery Visit

A Silver Arts Award gallery review

Hi I’m Louis I have taken over Nicki’s Substack to talk about my experience at the Tate St. Ives art gallery.

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On Saturday 29th June 2024 I visited the Tate St. Ives & Beatriz Milhazes. This art gallery presents modern and contemporary art from around the globe.

Near the cost of St Ives the art gallery has a unique structure with a modern Greek style. It looked very different to other buildings near bye which caught my eye. The building was an art in itself. As I went into the spiral entrance of the building it felt light and airy. It was like I was in a tiny Roman colosseum with its stadium like seating and stone work floor. After purchasing my tickets, I walked in to view the art work. When I was inside the gallery they had quite a few rooms spread out which were dedicated to different artists. One exhibition was of the artist Beatriz Milhazes. She was born in 1960 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She show cases her art work all over the world and is known for her large scale works and vibrant colours. She has been called Brazil’s most successful contemporary painter. Beatriz practices painting, drawing and collage.

One piece that stood out the most was the collage above, which was made out of wrappers and packaging I found it incredible that she turned waste into art which was beautiful. She sourced materials from every day life, like a personal diary. She cuts the wrappers into shapes influenced by her environment in Brazil. I like how she is using rubbish in a new way creatively. I have learnt that you can make art out of anything. I like how the background is made of chocolate wrappers.

Beatriz Milhazes, Controlled Freedom

Beatriz Milhazes, Dança dos reis 1997-8. Her art work reflected her diverse influences. This included motifs from Catholic iconography, Baroque colonial architecture, Brazilian modernist architecture and floral fabrics. She is inspired by Brazilian and European modernist artists including Tarsila do Amaral, Henri Matisse, Sonia Delaunay and Piet Mondrian. The art work above gives me clockwork vibes and the circles look like cogs. The colours look rustic and desaturated. The patterns look symmetrical and in some parts of the painting it looks spray painted with the dripping effect. I am inspired by the choice of colours and the overlapping of the shapes this is something I could potentially add to my future art work.

Beatriz Milhazes, Dança dos reis 1997-8.

Also exhibiting in the gallery was Alfred Wallis’s paintings. He was born 18th August 1855 In Devonport near Plymouth and lived until 29 August 1942. He was a fisherman and a British artist he had no artistic training and started painting at 70 years old. He was poor so he used house hold paint and scraps of cardboard. His type of style is naïve art because it looked child like as the paintings are not to scale or proportional accurate. He painted many seascapes pieces. The paintings have a calming vibe because of the colours he used and the scenery. His art work has made me feel confident with my own art work because he uses harmonious colours like I have in some of my art work this has reminded me that there are no limits to art.

Alfred Wallis, Houses at St Ives, Cornwall

Ben Nicholson’s art work was also displayed at the Tate. He was born in 1894 in Denham Buckinghamshire and died in 1982. He was known for painting in an abstract style and used a lot of squares, circles and rectangles which were often simple and flat. He was influenced by real objects and transformed them using abstract shapes. This artist has not inspire me at all because the colour choice is dark and depressing. It reminds me of going into a old persons house. However I can see how people would like his art work because of the subject being real.

Ben Nicholson, 1933 (guitar)

I have learnt that there are lots of different colour palettes and how they can impact on the viewers emotions. The media and materials that the artists use are fascinating, such as Beatriz using rubbish on the ground and turning it into an art piece and Alfred using house paint and cardboard to create seaside paintings. It would be interesting to use cardboard instead of A4 paper in my art work.

I would recommend the Tate St. Ives art gallery because they refresh the exhibits every few months to display new art work from various artists. The vast amount of creativity on display has inspired my own art and could inspire others as well. The art work on display enhanced the gallery because it was diverse due to being created by different artists from around the world. P.S. the café was lovely.

I would appreciate if you could write some feedback in the comment section so I can evidence it in my arts award. Thank you.