Visual Arts Reviews
George IV: Art & Spectacle, The Queen's Gallery review - all is aglitterWednesday, 29 July 2020
Prince of Wales, Prince Regent, and finally King: George IV, (1762-1830) was an unpopular and greedy ruler, but his compulsive collecting and passion for redecorating have made a huge contribution to the arts of the nation, and form a significant part of the Royal Collection. Read more... |
Khadija Saye: In This Space We Breathe, 236 Westbourne Grove review - a celebrated series finds new resonanceTuesday, 21 July 2020
Khadija Saye was 24 when she died in the Grenfell Tower fire of 2017, the same year that her series of photographic self-portraits showed in the Diaspora Pavilion at the Venice Biennale: she was the youngest artist in a roster of well-established figures such as Joy Gregory and Isaac Julien. Read more... |
The Golden Age of Modern Spanish Art, Colnaghi review - the sun shines in the City of LightFriday, 10 July 2020
When Picasso left Barcelona for Paris in 1900, he took what by then was a well-trodden path for artists eager to be at the very centre of the art world. Read more... |
Visual Arts Lockdown Special 4: half-way housesWednesday, 01 July 2020
With the first round of galleries opening their doors in June and a new round getting ready to open in July, we’ve a half-way home of a roundup this week. This month’s re-openings include the National Gallery, the Royal Academy, the Barbican, the Whitechapel, the Ditchling Museum of Art and Craft, the Mosaic Rooms, the Estorick Collection, the Garden Museum and the Tates – Modern, Britain, Liverpool and St Ives. Read more... |
Celia Paul: My Studio, Victoria Miro review - sublime isolationWednesday, 01 July 2020
From her fourth floor flat, which is also her studio, the painter Celia Paul looks out over the British Museum, the figures of the Muses carved into its pediment huge and present compared to the antlike, and usually teeming, human life below (main picture: British Museum and Plane Tree... Read more... |
Shirley Baker: A Different Age, James Hyman Gallery review - the old at leisureMonday, 22 June 2020
The note of longing scored into this exhibition’s title is well-judged: as things are now, it is the sight of the elderly in the company of friends, watching the world go by from a doorstep or park bench, that provokes a pang of nostalgia, far more than the surface details of the mid-20th century, when these... Read more... |
Explore Soane review - the museum restored and in 3DMonday, 15 June 2020
The former home of 19th century architect Sir John Soane has long been celebrated as one of London’s hidden marvels, an astonishing treasure trove of architectural models, paintings, sculptures and historical artefacts concealed behind... Read more... |
Dalí Theatre-Museum, Figueres, virtual tour review - tantalising but unsatisfactorySaturday, 30 May 2020
Salvador Dalí’s house at Portlligat on the Costa Brava is straight out of the pages of a lifestyle magazine, its sunbaked white walls dazzling in the sunshine, and light pouring in from every angle. Read more... |
Visual Arts Lockdown Special 3: gigapixel Rembrandt, magic mushrooms, and moreTuesday, 19 May 2020
The limitations of life on screen are all too apparent at the moment, and yet still there are instances where online can offer something beyond the reach of an old-fashioned trip to an art gallery. Read more... |
Unto the Last: Two Hundred Years of John Ruskin, Watts Gallery–Artists' Village, review - a breath of fresh airWednesday, 13 May 2020
Museums and galleries have found innovative and varied ways to keep their collections within reach, and to bring us the many temporary exhibitions forced to close by the virus. But even the most dedicated gallery-goer may by now be tiring of online talks and tours, which so often make unreasonable demands on both guide and viewer and increasingly feel like a very poor substitute for the real thing. Read more... |
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