Visual Arts Reviews
The Encounter, National Portrait Gallery review - dazzlingly evocative drawingsFriday, 14 July 2017
As a line flows or falters, registering each slight change in pressure, pause, or occasional reworking, it seems to offer a glimpse into the mind of the artist at work. The line is the instrument of the artist’s eye, the often unpolished, provisional nature of a drawing offering a spark and freshness that tends to gradually lessen as a composition is rethought and worked up in paint. Read more... |
theartsdesk in Antwerp: Richard Deacon says nothingTuesday, 11 July 2017
Something like a parked zeppelin sits on three mirrored legs on a museum lawn in Belgium. It’s a cigar-shaped steel fabrication that, were it to float free of its three legs, could also pass for a UFO. But given the context - a sculpture park outside Antwerp - we can rest easy. Never Mind is a work of art by Richard Deacon. Read more... |
theartsdesk at Les Rencontres d'Arles: breadth and depth at the veteran photo festivalSaturday, 08 July 2017
Now in its 48th year the veteran photography festival is in better shape than ever. You can walk through the French sunshine to more than 20 exhibitions, hear a talk, meet the snappers and shop on the fringe. Read more... |
The Exhibition Road Quarter review, V&A - an intelligent and much needed expansionMonday, 03 July 2017
Oh those Victorians! Hail Prince Albert whose far-sighted ambition led to Albertopolis, embracing museums, galleries, universities and the Royal Albert Hall. Read more... |
Sargent, Dulwich Picture Gallery review - wonders in watercolourThursday, 29 June 2017
This sparkling display of some four score watercolours from the first decade of the last century throw an unfamiliar light on the artistry of John Singer Sargent (1856-1925), the last great swagger portrait painter in the western tradition. Read more... |
Portraying a Nation, Tate Liverpool review – an inspired juxtapositionMonday, 26 June 2017
Portraying a Nation juxtaposes photographs by August Sander with paintings by Otto Dix. It's an inspired idea as both artists wanted to hold up a mirror to German society during a time of extreme change. Read more... |
National Gallery of Ireland review - bigger and betterThursday, 22 June 2017
The marvellous National Gallery of Ireland, founded in the 1860s, has opened its doors to its brilliantly revamped, updated and expanded galleries. As a spectacular bonus in its opening summer, Vermeer and Masters of Genre Painting reposes in the enfilade of the newly re-done permanent galleries for temporary exhibitions. Read more... |
Fahrelnissa Zeid, Tate Modern review - rediscovering a forgotten geniusFriday, 16 June 2017
I can’t pretend to like the work of Fahrelnissa Zeid, but she was clearly an exceptional woman and deserves to be honoured with a retrospective. She led a privileged life that spanned most of the 20th century; born in Istanbul in 1901 into a prominent Ottoman family, many of whom were involved in the arts, she died in 1991. Read more... |
A Handful of Dust, Whitechapel Gallery review - grime does payWednesday, 14 June 2017
Why is dust so fascinating yet, at the same time, so repellent? Maybe the fear of choking to death in a dust storm or being buried alive in fine sand provokes a visceral response to it. My current obsession with dust comes from having builders in my home over the last seven months. Read more... |
Michelangelo: Love and Death review - how to diminish a colossusTuesday, 13 June 2017
As perhaps the greatest artist there has ever been – and as one of the most fascinating and complex personalities of his era – Michelangelo should be a thrilling subject for serious as well as dramatic cinematic documentary treatment. Read more... |
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