Tate Modern’s Leigh Bowery! offers a vivid, if restrained, look at one of performance art’s most unruly icons. Leigh Bowery! Before you say anything, I know I’m at the point in the exhibition cycle again where I’m not leaving you much time to see things. My apologies. In my defense it’s a constantly busy museum […]
I like the idea behind the Barbican’s Feel the Sound, perhaps a little more than the actual experience of visiting. Feel the Sound The Barbican bill their current exhibition Feel the Sound as an “exhibition experience on a different frequency.” This is a clever play on words, but also mostly true. Feel the Sound takes […]
A new exhibition space at the Barbican opens up fresh possibilities, starting with Encounters: Giacometti x Huma Bhabha. This Place Looks Familiar If you’re interested in seeing this exhibition, I haven’t left you very long to get to the Barbican to see it. Yes, it’s that time in the exhibition cycle again where I’m rushing […]
A once in a lifetime exhibition, this is your chance to see Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, the Mona Lisa of manuscripts. A Once in a Lifetime Exhibition To begin with, it’s important to understand that I am very much a Benjaminian when it comes to art. I don’t care how good […]
I was invited to see Time Travelogues From Those Left Waiting, a film and installation by Harmeet Singh Rahal at the Acme Propeller Factory, and found myself drawn into a world where time is fluid and powerful. Time Travelogues From Those Left Waiting There’s a line that repeats in Time Travelogues From Those Left Waiting, […]
Jenny Saville: The Anatomy of Painting at the National Portrait Gallery – a raw, compelling look at the body, form, and feminist art from one of the UK’s leading contemporary painters. A First Encounter with Jenny Saville I was glad to catch this exhibition early in its run (OK, fine, it then took me a […]
Ithell Colquhoun offers a compelling introduction to a quietly radical Surrealist who merged nature and the occult into a singular artistic vision. Getting Value from that Two-for-One Ticket Recently on the blog, I wrote about Tate Britain’s exhibition Edward Burra. It was, I said, very refreshing to have the enormous Tate Britain temporary exhibition space […]
Edward Burra’s vivid, unsettling vision is given rare breathing room in this well-curated and thoughtful exhibition. Two-for-One Exhibitions: The Perfect Solution It’s no secret I often find Tate Britain’s exhibition galleries overwhelming. In fact I complain about it so frequently, even I’m sick of it! The winding trek through its ground floor temporary exhibition space […]
In Heiress: Sargent’s American Portraits at Kenwood House, John Singer Sargent’s luminous images of Gilded Age heiresses reveal women wielding beauty, money, and portraiture to cross oceans, claim titles, and shape their own mythologies. Heiress at Kenwood House: A Fitting Setting for Transatlantic Dreams There could hardly be a more appropriate venue for Heiress: Sargent’s […]
José María Velasco: A View of Mexico offers a quietly powerful window into 19th-century Mexico through the eyes of one of its most careful observers. José María Velasco: A View of Mexico I saw José María Velasco: A View of Mexico on the same day as Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300–1350. It made for […]
