Dimensions: support: 533 x 432 mm
Copyright: CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 DEED, Photo: Tate
Editor: This is Spencer Gore’s "A Singer at the Bedford Music Hall." I’m struck by how the broad strokes of paint almost flatten the figure. What's your take on Gore's approach to materials and representation here? Curator: Gore's choice to depict a music hall singer in such a deliberately unrefined manner challenges the traditional hierarchy between high art and popular entertainment. Note the visible brushstrokes; they draw attention to the labor involved in the painting's creation. Editor: So, the painting itself is highlighting its own production? Curator: Exactly. The materiality of the paint and canvas becomes part of the subject matter, reflecting the cultural value placed on both the singer's performance and Gore's artistic practice within the social context of the music hall. What does that imply for the audience of the work? Editor: It makes me consider how the work asks us to think about the value of labor in art and entertainment. Thanks, I hadn't considered that! Curator: My pleasure. These paintings show the artist's interest in representing the everyday.
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http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/gore-a-singer-at-the-bedford-music-hall-t02260
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The 'New Bedford' Music Hall in Camden Town was a favourite of both Gore and Sickert. This study was based on a drawing Gore made from the audience there. The singer's curiously contorted face looks like a disfigurement, but it may be that she is winking exaggeratedly at the audience while singing one of the bawdy songs with double meanings which were the point of most of these acts. However, the effect is unsettling, as too is the strange lighting of the scene, which bleaches her features. This is unlike any other painting by Gore, both more experimental and more expressive. Gallery label, September 2004
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