Do the ‘First Actresses’ really take centre stage in their exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery?

By Ally Crossland

The original ‘It Girls’ have found a new stage in the National Portrait Gallery’s latest exhibition. ‘The First Actresses’ celebrates women finding fame on the stages of the West End, and in the beds of the aristocracy. The Cheryl Cole’s and Sienna Millers of their day, these women were proud and defiant of the social codes which contained most of their female contemporaries. Icons such as Sarah Siddons and Mary Robinson became manipulators of their own brand, and portraiture became their public calling card. Many even forged their own careers in writing novels and plays. In the newly forming consumer market, their potent blend of fast living and loose morals was irresistible. Many of these women came from the world of prostitution and continued to use it as leverage in their personal and professional lives. It certainly is empowering stuff for the average twenty first century girl, when freedom for women to perform on the public stage has always been a given.

Sir Joshua Reynolds' Nell Gwynn 

Take for example the infamous Nell Gwynn. She used her beauty and skill on the stage to work her way into an astonishing world of social mobility and became the most famous actress of the period. She secured the position of mistress to Charles II, and bore him two illegitimate sons. In one of her luxuriously erotic portraits, Nell casually bares both her breasts to the viewer, her head coyly cocked to one side. Like Nell, the sitters in these portraits were far from afraid of using the idea of sex to further their careers. This meant however that they became ‘fallen women’, condemned socially for their publicly promiscuous behaviour. Portraiture became a medium through which the respectability of the sitter could be elevated. In Sarah Siddons’ grand portrait by Joshua Reynolds, she represents the respectable side of theatre and art, in a dignified Classical pose, engulfed in silk and pearls.

This exhibition is the first that solely celebrates women and their public role in this period. In our post feminism culture, surely this must be a positive step forward? However, if we begin to look beyond the seductive gazes and expensive costumes in these portraits, we can uncover a far more complicated dialogue that existed in this world. Who were the people watching these women perform? Who took these courtesans as mistresses and commissioned portraits of them to hang in the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition?  Who married these professional women, often forcing them off the stage and back into the private sphere of the home where they were they could be made ‘polite’ again? Could the answer be as simple as, men?

Gainsborough 'Mrs. Richard Brinsley Sheridan'

Take for example Elizabeth Linley, who was forced off the stage by first her father and then her husband. In her exquisite portrait by Gainsborough, she reclines in an idyllic forest scene, far removed from any of the vulgarities of the working stage world.

Now I am not the raging burn-your-bra kind of feminist, but there are social issues of this period that have been glossed over by these glamorous portraits. The more sinister side of this colourful, yet fiercely patriarchal world has been discounted. The exhibition undoubtedly celebrates the beauty of women, yet fails to recognise that their beauty was the façade of a world where all forms of performance was constructed and controlled by men. These portraits are the final flourish of mans’ social authority over their female counterparts in the eighteenth century public scene.

'The First Actresses: from Nell Gwynn to Sarah Siddons' is open at the National Portrait Gallery until the 8th January 2012. Tickets £11, £9 concession.

Reflections on Frieze Art Fair 2011

Frieze Projects

By Niamh Morgan

Frieze Projects is a programme of artists’ commissions realised annually at Frieze Art Fair. Curated by Sarah McCrory, the 2011 selection included seven specially commissioned projects as well as the Emdash Award. Interspersed amongst the 173 galleries taking part in the fair, the various installations and performances that comprised the Projects offered a breath of fresh air, an alternative to the increasingly commercialised art world that monopolised the rest of the space.

Pierre Huyghe's 'Sebastian'

McCrory’s cast of artists embraced a huge array of media from Cara Tolmie’s daily performance art to Laure Provost’s inconspicuous and humorous signs, casually scattered around the temporary walls. Elsewhere, Bik Van der Pol’s live scoreboard, constantly updated by assistants with art-related quotes, idioms and maxims stood in stark contrast to Pierre Huyghe’s installation which was located at the back of the fair and offered an escape from the bustling commerce outside. Once inside, visitors were faced with a live ecosystem that hosted a specific narrative created for Frieze Art Fair, containing select seawater creatures. Placed in a darkened room, Huyghe’s aquarium created an ethereal centrepiece, inviting the spectator to peer closer, where they were faced with delicate spider-like creatures floating effortlessly among the rocks. Meanwhile, crawling steadily through the landscape was the main event; a hermit crab. At first glance, this choice seemed to be in stark contrast with its surroundings but peering closer, what first appeared to be a humdrum seawater creature turned out to be a crab carrying a replica of Constantin Brancusi’s ‘Sleeping Muse’ in place of a shell. I would constantly return to this space throughout my time at the fair to find an increasing amount of visitors glued to the glass, enthralled by the eerie underwater performance.

Christian Jankowski's 'The Finest Art on Water'

In contrast to the serene of Huyghe’s site was the constant uproar surrounding project number 6; Christian Jankowski’s ‘The Finest Art on Water’. The most talked about artwork of the entire fair, it sparked furious debates over its price and subject matter. Working in conjunction with a luxury yacht company, the project consisted of a boat dealer selling a full-size motor yacht from a conventional gallery stand. Where the controversy arose was in the idea behind the pricing; Jankowski’s work could either be bought as a boat or as a Christian Jankowski artwork; the latter being available for €625,000 and the former for €500,000. Jankowski explained that the yacht is an extension of the idea of the readymade artwork, a glance back to Duchamp and his urinals. But whereas Duchamp was criticizing the art market of the time, Jankowski appears to have no such agenda. "I'm interested to see whether some collector has the capacity to push what they do to an extra level" commented Jankowski. His interest lies in the interaction of art and viewer ending with the new owner’s inevitable role as a participant in their own special piece of performance art.

Despite the furore over this incredible idea, to me the outstanding project this year was Lucky PDF; a collective of artists based in Peckham. During the course of the Fair, Lucky PDF invited over 50 artists to show and produce new work for a series of live daily broadcasts. Throughout the day, visitors could wander in to watch open rehearsals and live recordings, sometimes even participating in these themselves. Any visitor, who throughout the rest of Frieze would have found themselves a passive spectator, was turned into an active member of the collective, becoming a part of the various shows Lucky PDF put on. Thursday night, for example, consisted of a live karaoke act, with various members of the group furiously editing away in the background whilst Friday viewers were treated to a show to promote a wrestlers’ fight taking place the following week. For me, this was the highlight. Filmed before the fair opened, the two wrestlers could be seen rampaging through the various galleries, using art as a prop in their combat whilst viewers of the later broadcast were left to ponder the aftermath of what would have happened if they’d actually been using the galleries’ real pieces.

Frieze seems to exist in a space outside the real world and maybe this is the appeal to the diverse range of visitors who come to the fair annually. Almost acting as a parallel universe it seems not to have been hit by the aftermath of the recession. Instead artists like Damien Hirst, represented by the White Cube Gallery seem unaffected; with works still selling for thousands of pounds. This for me, is why Frieze’s projects this year were the highlight of the fair; they offered another side to an art world which seems increasingly focused on a commercial agenda, proving that there are still artists who are out there to have fun with their work and push the boundaries, instead of sit back, content and smug that with one sale of a factory made dot painting, they've just earned themselves another couple of thousand. 

Incredible!

The horrific flooding in Pakistan has causes millions of spiders to flee the rising water levels and create these delicate cocoons of webs in the trees. Not only are they beautiful, they are thought to be trapping all the mosquitos and keeping them away from the stagnant water, greatly reducing the risk of malaria.