Curatorview [Alfredo Cramerotti]

Arts Council England

2 March 2010

by Kate Stoddart
Arts Council England Assessor

(excerpt)
The exhibition celebrated this Derby artist with a national and international reputation by showing several bodies of work dating from the 1960’s to 2005. Not presented as a retrospective, the exhibition gave a vivid impression of his life’s work and his main preoccupations – finding the extraordinary in the ordinary, the Diaries (diary making across several formats, sometimes fusing fiction and fact). He worked with the media that best expressed the idea – photography, film, drawing and text, and collage. The exhibition was curated by QUAD, in partnership with the artists widow and gallery .
[…]
Unlike some conceptual artists, there is a close attention to the viewer, a desire to communicate clearly. There was a melancholy dark humour that was communicated via this work, part of the artists personality and presence.
50 Reasons for Getting out of Bed 2005 – a poem presented in large format vinyl letters on the wall, was very moving – a list of the ordinary things the artist loved seeing, doing, feeling, eating ending with a give away line abut the nausea accompanying the treatment for his cancer, the reason for the poem. Yes, I felt the artist’s’ voice’ (as stated in the introduction panel and in the companion book) was well explored, as was his way of working. The work will leave an impression with me.
[…]
The publication was a strong addition to his current published works however. One of the best publications accompanying an exhibition in that it will help give a comprehensive recall of the works in the show but also gave a strong feel of what it felt like being in the show.