Visual Arts Reviews

Visual art at Brighton Festival - disturbing, playful, but ultimately rudderless

Mark Sheerin Thursday, 18 May 2017

As befits a festival with a spoken word artist as its guest curator, storytelling is at the heart of the visual arts offer in the 2017 Brighton Festival. It is not known if performance poet Kate Tempest had a hand in commissioning these four shows, but she can probably relate to the four artists in town right now.

57th Venice Biennale review - riveting and bewildering

Alison Cole Wednesday, 17 May 2017

Riveting and bewildering, the 57th Venice Biennale has just opened its myriad doors to the public with several thousand exhibits spread across Venice and its islands.

Alberto Giacometti, Tate Modern

Marina Vaizey Saturday, 13 May 2017

Chain-smoking and charismatic, the painter, sculptor, draughtsman and printmaker Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966) lived much of his life in Paris from his arrival there in his twenties. He was just in time for post-war cubism and pre-war surrealism, the energetic noisiness of the avant garde.

Picasso: Minotaurs and Matadors, Gagosian

Alison Cole Thursday, 11 May 2017

At 93, Picasso’s revered biographer, Sir John Richardson, has curated a vital new celebration of the artist’s life and work, focusing on one of his most enduring and delightful subjects, the Minotaur.

Pink Floyd: Their Mortal Remains, V&A review – from innocence to experience and beyond

Adam Sweeting Wednesday, 10 May 2017

The title of this exhibition is typical of Pink Floyd’s mordant view of the world, not to mention their sepulchral sense of humour.

Comment

Richard Long: Earth Sky, Houghton Hall

Florence Hallett Sunday, 30 April 2017

“I’m a great opportunist,” says Richard Long, a statement that for all its economy brims with contradictions and possibilities. While his sculptures made in wild and far-flung places often look stumbled-upon, incidental, his method is so careful and considered, each gesture so meticulously planned, that opportunism seems hardly the word for it.

Comment

Chris Ofili, National Gallery

Florence Hallett Wednesday, 26 April 2017

Flashes of intense colour pulse rhythmically across the piece, contrasting with delicate washes and pools of watery pigment that seem to quiver plumply, set to run uncontrollably at any moment. Lines drawn fast and bold describe four figures, while more tentative, carefully made marks barely delineate a foot, and a bird in a cage.

Queer British Art 1861-1967, Tate Britain

David Nice Thursday, 20 April 2017

"Good for the history of music, but not for music," one of Prokofiev's professors at the St Petersburg Conservatoire used to say of artistically dubious works which created a splash, according to the composer's diaries.

Geta Bratescu, Camden Arts Centre

Sarah Kent Thursday, 13 April 2017

What a delight to be introduced to an artist whom you have never heard of and whose work is inspirational.

Giacomo Balla: Designing the Future, Estorick Collection

Alison Cole Friday, 07 April 2017

The wonderful Estorick collection, tucked away in Highbury Fields in London, is internationally renowned for its collection of modern Italian art, with a core of major Futurist works.

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