William Blake – The King of the Power Stance
I’ll admit that I didn’t know a lot about William Blake before going along to this year’s Tate Britain exhibition. I remember someone in my school art class really loved his work, but that was pretty much it.
A few things in particular really interested at the exhibition:
The Power Stance
When you look at a William Blake painting, I think it’s fair to say they are pretty dramatic; there’s not one subject that’s just standing around looking vacant- if they weren’t doing a Ted Talk worthy power stance, then they probably wouldn’t have made it onto the canvas.
The Subject Matter
Blake was clearly very spiritual, and not just in the religious sense, although a lot of religious subject matter definitely features. The exhibition doesn’t try and analyse his paintings, which is quite refreshing as it leaves you to reach your own conclusions; something people have been doing with Blake’s works for decades.
The Size of Them (spoiler alert, they’re tiny!)
Now I’m a big fan of a massive canvas, and I would have thought if anyone shared this love it would be William Blake, who tackles some pretty epic subject matter. But walking through the exhibition you realise he’s painted these powerful iconic images - but on a teeny scale! It’s impressive that they still manage to make the impact that they can whilst being so small.
I learnt that Blake always dreamt of painting some massive frescos of his religious art, and it was such a shame that he never did as they would have been incredible. At one part of the exhibition they even superimpose one of his works onto the back of an altar piece, to see how it would have looked in large scale, I think he really missed a trick.
Overall, I came away with a better grasp on the man who claimed to have visions, who some saw as a genius and whose creativity continues to inspire language and painting to this day.