Oxford was full of Chinese tourists, yet just one young couple had made their way to Gallery 11 at the Ashmolean. This exhibition – timely, given the recent significant change in Chinese law on national ethnic integration – is a subtle collection of mostly 20th-century works. It looks with studied care at how minority ethnic… Read More
Category: Art
Walked in on a whim, walked out ashamed I’d never heard of her. Van Herpen fuses materials science and couture into dresses that look organic despite being anything but — alien goddess in one room, skeleton in the next, cracking bone soundtrack included. One petty grumble: not enough footage of the clothes being worn, because… Read More
Most of the internationally famous names (Courbet, Brueghel the Younger) hanging here have one or two lesser works on display. Nothing to get the heart fluttering. The collection’s strength lies in Alsatian artists who are highly regarded, but not household names. The Benner twins (Emmanuel and Jean) feature heavily, but it’s local hero Jean-Jacques Henner… Read More
Loved this mind-bending deep-cuts retrospective from the godfather of op-art. From black & white abstract studies, to 3D works playing tricks with light and shadow, through to geometric optical illusions, you’d be curmudgeonly not to at least respect the vision and execution, even if the aesthetics weren’t your thing. What made the exhibition most compelling… Read More
Timed tickets (bought earlier that morning) for the win. Jumping the queue, when the queue is standing in 40C temperatures, brought a certain joy. Once inside though, the crowds were clumpy as people moved from one famous work of art to another. Klimt’s The Kiss is the most famous work on display. Full confession: I’m… Read More
Anni Albers’ textiles had a soothing quality, much needed as we escaped the searing Vienna heat. Amid the imperious Belvedere Palace complex’s baroque lower galleries, the deceptive simplicity of Albers’ work – from Bauhaus to Black Mountain College and beyond – lulled me into a quiet comfort. Her textiles merited close inspection thanks to her… Read More
Having thought the temporary exhibition was the whole thing, “GASP” there’s more. A lot more. “WOWZER!” The punchy approach to this Belgian national obsession (too strong?) is mercifully light – one hopes deliberately so – on The Troubling Adventures of Colonial Tintin. The standout was an immersive exhibition on Seuls (Alone), a fantasy children’s comic… Read More
Post-industrial Roubaix seems an unlikely setting for an art-deco masterpiece. The former communal swimming baths – built when sunburst stained-glass windows were de rigueur – had been saved by the town once; so successfully it needed a major expansion, completed in 2018. It was crowded on our visit – but no less beguiling. There is… Read More
Waldemar Januszczak is my favourite TV art critic (James Fox is second in case anyone cares). In The Art Mysteries, Januszczak showed just how much can be done in a 30-minute documentary. Each of the four episodes featured a painting by a giant of post impressionism: Van Gogh, Seurat, Gauguin and Cezanne. Januszczak delved into… Read More
1932 was a prolific year for one of the most prolific artists of all time. Astonishingly, almost all the works on display in this simply yet effectively curated exhibition come from that one year. Many of the works seems familiar, thanks to PP’s overexposure, but standing in front of the real thing is still an… Read More
A bit of a higgledy-piggledy collection this one, and stretching the conventional definition of the medium. Some interesting paintings in and among some frankly random selections. Glad I saw it; probably won’t trouble it again unless I really want to look at a Hodgkin, a Nash, a Heron, a Frederick Lewis or of course the… Read More
It’s my own fault for leaving it so late. I’m not a big fan of Gauguin, but thought I should check out this blockbuster before it closes on Sunday. Far far far too busy to see much. Couldn’t take it after five minutes and just walked through. Shame, because from what I did see, it… Read More
Four artists on this year’s shortlist: Dexter Dalwood paints expressive luminous pieces full of hidden characters. White Flag was my favourite. Angela de la Cruz’s objets trouvés sculptures are a little harder to love, but still engaging. My favourite was “Untitled” (two large black “boxes” joined together). Susan Philipsz’ sound installation required more time than… Read More
Selection of Muybridge’s early landscape photos before vast numbers of his famous horse-trotting pics and other extracts from Animal Locomotion. Interesting but not compelling. Feels like it’s stretched out to fill the exhibition space. 6/10 Exhibition archive
I mooched over to the National Gallery to see what was on there. I’d not heard of “A Radical Light“, which is the Sainsbury Wing exhibition. This is perhaps not surprising. It’s an artists’ art exhibition. The Divisionists were a bunch of disparate late 19th century artists in what was a rather shaky country called… Read More
I’m at the British Museum. Last time I was here was for the Terracotta Warriors. Now it’s for “American Scene” in the invariably excellet print room. It’s a take on American prints roughly from the first half of the 20th century. The marketing throws out the two famous names: Hopper and Pollock. But there’s lots… Read More
Took Friday off and headed to the Hayward. Having been to an entertaining evening celebration of all thing Hayward a few weeks earlier (Antony Gormley special guesting), was even more keen to go to the Psycho Buildings exhibition that’s been the cultural talk of the town of late. If you like buildings and you’re a… Read More
Last Sunday I trotted off to the Courtauld (never been before) with two of the History of Art gang to see the Cézanne exhibition there. Only a room. Bit steep for a fiver (this causes an argument later in the week), but I get in for free – thank you Art Fund membership. Good though.… Read More