How can a painter be modern? Let me count the ways while visiting Turner’s Modern World for this review. Turner and Modernity One of the last cultural outings I squeezed in to review before Lockdown 2.0 was Turner’s Modern World. You may remember that I had been to Tate Britain a couple of months ago […]
Late works seem to be quite fashionable at the moment: late Turner, late Rembrandt, late Matisse, probably late other people as well. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as it is interesting to explore whether an artist’s output changes towards the end of their life and what the contributing factors are, but in the case […]
A thought-provoking and deeply reflective exhibition, Entangled Pasts, 1768-now looks inwards and outwards to examine the Royal Academy‘s entanglements with British colonial history over the centuries. Entangled Pasts, 1768-now “What does it mean for the Royal Academy to stage an exhibition in 2024 that reflects on its role in helping to establish a canon of […]
The Tate co-organised exhibition Radical Landscapes moves to the William Morris Gallery, bringing with it new connections and meaning. Radical Landscapes Landscapes are not neutral. This is the central thesis of Radical Landscapes. Instead, the exhibition suggests, landscapes are a contested space in life as in art. Radical Landscapes is all about how we view, […]
Some seventy years after its first production, The Crucible still has the power to illuminate aspects of human nature. The Crucible Thank goodness for West End transfers – I love a second chance. The Urban Geographer and I ran out of time to see The Crucible at the National Theatre last year, so were pleased […]
A group exhibition at No. 20 Arts in Islington challenges us to question our perceptions. Bright colours, a range of materials and messages of hopefulness herald the season in Spring Again, Spring Ahead. Spring Again, Spring Ahead It’s a pleasure to once more be at No. 20 Arts in Islington. This gallery in a former […]
A well-considered exhibition at the Queen’s House in Greenwich aims to restore the Van de Velde family to some of their former fame and glory, but is also interesting for its insights into the art world of the 17th-18th Centuries. Who Are The Van de Veldes? The thing about the Van de Veldes is, even […]
A West End production of a play that started out as a 2015 Edinburgh Fringe hit, Sam Steiner’s Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons works in this new context with a few caveats. Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons First of all, please forgive me if I choose to call this play Lemons for the sake of […]
At an intriguing space in Islington, this exhibition of work by artist and filmmaker Jim Threapleton is abstraction flirting with figurative representation. Lorem Ipsum It’s one of those exhibition titles that makes sense the second you see the works. Lorem Ipsum. You know, like the placeholder text? It looks like Latin but is actually nonsense, […]
Join me on a second arboreal walk through London, taking inspiration from Paul Wood’s 2020 book. This time we explore some of my old haunts, from Wapping to Canary Wharf via Limehouse. A Second Tree Walk Through London The thing about London is that you get busy. There is a lot to do! Theatre, museums […]
