This week, Year 10 Art students had the opportunity to visit two London exhibitions being held at the Royal Academy.
The first exhibition contained over fifty Lucian Freud self-portraits. Artists have long depicted their own likeness, but few have returned to self-portraiture as consistently as Lucian Freud. He painted or drew his own image every decade throughout his life, starting with the teenage drawings on display in the exhibition. Students observed that Freud’s self–portraits reveal a curiosity towards changes in his expression, appearance and psychology.
The second exhibition of Antony Gormley’s work placed the visitor centre stage. Across thirteen rooms, sculptures and installations called for physical and imaginative participation. In different ways, the works made students aware of their own bodies, the spaces they move through, and the infinite space of the mind. The visit to both exhibitions was organised to complement and inform the current artwork that Year 10 are creating, which interrogates the theme ‘Selfie to Self-Expression’.
