Estorick Collection

While we were in Islington for the Almeida we also dropped into this collection of 20th century Italian art.  A small but really interesting permanent collection together with a new exhibition ‘Identities’ a collection of Lisette Carmi’s photographs. 

Carmi’s work is in two galleries on the ground floor.  Thematically organised with one documenting the lives of working people on the docks and a cork factory in particular and the other on a transexual community in the 1960s.  Described as a Humanist artist, and focusing on marginalised communities, the photos are very much in the social and cultural history genre and of their time but highlighting the humans behind the labels and the social conditions they faced.  In an interview playing in a loop Carmi talks about being a woman in a rigidly gendered world, she describes how her work was criticised and ridiculed, and how the years that she spent with the trans community helped to understand her own identity as just a human being. Timely, given the othering and persecution currently being ramped up against various marginalised groups at the moment.  

A couple of favourites from the permanent collection are The Hand of the Violinist (The Rhythm of the Bow) by Giacamo Balla and Dancer (Ballerina and Sea) by Gino Serverini , both exploring and capturing energy and movement

And I just love Leaving the Theatre by Carlo Carrà which captures that feeling perfectly although it feels a bit impressionistic to me amongst the other radical Italian art of the period. 

So, I am recommending this place as well worth an hour or two of an amble about, and with what looks like a very nice coffee shop.  The Carmi exhibition is on until December.  https://www.estorickcollection.com/