The exhibition was visited by a large group of Goths and Vampyres from the Vampyre Connexion and the London Vampyre Group earlier in the year. It was an occasion that had impact on the participants and the rest of the crowd as this contingent was dressed to impress.
Feelings about the exhibition were mixed. The inspirational painting, the Nightmare, by Fuseli, is visually both amazing and disturbing, and anyone seeing it for the first time is forced to think about why it was created and in what context it should be displayed. This man clearly had a strange imagination for the times and his other paintings in this exhibition show him to be capable of coming up with a shocker often in his career. I was forced to consider whether the other painters shown here had the same kind of consistency and commitment, and this means the visionary William Blake and the opportunist satirical artist James Gillray.
Does the exhibition give an insight into the meaning of "the Gothic"? Quoting from its notes, we are told "Gothic is the name given to art and literature dealing with themes of terror and supernatural, often in mediaeval settings. The Gothic was a complex phenomenon, involving a reappraisal of mediaeval literature and architecture, new philosophical and aesthetic ideas, and the influences of changing economic and social realities." Given that this was likely to be the brief given to whoever compiled the exhibition, there isn't that much to argue about, but, was this achieved without really scraping the barrel? Given also that the period in which these painters was working was full of intrigue, change, struggle and political conflict, as the paragraph above admits, it is difficult to portray the art without referring to what is actually going on in the world and which was possibly motivating them. This you don't get in the exhibition until three quarters of the way through which I felt was a bit late. I also felt that an exhibition like this should also refer to literature and writing and not just to fine art, but then, this is in an art gallery!
What is on show gives some insight into Gillray, who, as an anti Jacobin, and therefore against the French revolution, comes over as an old reactionary. Blake on the other hand, supported the revolution until its fortunes changed in Britain and he was threatened by the equivalent of MI5, after which he softened up and became less of a visionary radical and more interested in fairies and superstitious stuff.

One part of the exhibition is behind a curtain, which can't fail to be a compelling invitation, and contains material of an exp-licit sexual nature. Lots of erections and penetration and the explanations put these down as "masturbatory accessories". This raises two interesting points, one, that art can become porn when it isn't on the wall any longer, and two, that painters were forced to use their skills to make money out of rich people in this way - the eighteenth century jazz mag for the aristocracy.
There was a section linking modern films as being inspired by these pictures. I'm including Nosferatu and Caligari as modern films here, sorry. The links are a bit tenuous and I was not convinced that Max Shreck in 1922 looks the spitting image of the Succubus in "the Nightmare". Or that Lugosi had done a study of William Blake as his motivation.
Did the exhibition succeed? In its own terms it did, and I can't help thinking about the person who has to compile works together like this. It's a bit like being an editor and making the most of what you can get from people. You don't necessarily get access to all the things that you want. As an insight into the works of Fuseli, the show was magic, but overall there were too many faeries and mythical beings for me, and I think an opportunity was missed here.
A personal reminder to self: go to these exhibitions when it's quiet, i.e. during the week. Sunday means rude pushy bastards who have no idea of others' space, plus why do people bring their sticky brats to an art gallery on such a day? I only say this because my mobile went off while I was in there and I was severely reprimanded for spoiling the punters' concentration. A Nokia gothic Horror!!!

Probably a nice place to go if you just want to show off your threads, though