Michael Andrews: Earth Air Water *****
Gagosian Gallery, Grosvenor Hill London, 2nd February 2017
Richard Serra: NJ-2, Rounds:Equal Weight, Unequal Measure, Rotate *****
Gagosian Gallery, Britannia Street London, 21st October 2016
Just a very late shout out for two of the most interesting gallery exhibitions currently on in London in my view. Mind you the Michael Andrews closes on March 25th but if you are anywhere near the gallery (on Grosvenor Hill just off Grosvenor Square) this week I very strongly recommend you take a look. The Richard Serra exhibition at the other gallery on Britannia Street just round the corner from Kings Cross has been extended to April 13th is also definitely worth a visit if you find yourself close by.
I knew nothing about Michael Andrews but he was a contemporary of the big lights in his early days in the 1950s and 1960s in Britain (Bacon, Freud, Auerbach and so on). Apparently post 1970 he focussed on landscapes and by heavens it is as well for us that he did. The Proper reviews can walk you through the important stuff. I will just say I found these works extraordinarily beautiful. I mean just aesthetically some of the most wonderful things I have see in a long time. The key lies in the spray painting technique he employed apparently. This means big swathes of acrylic paint to build up landscapes (of Australia in one room and Scotland/the Thames in another) with a further room dominated by a recurrent theme of an air balloon above the landscape (the Lights series). And the room full of paintings of fish is just stunning – I know that sounds a bit daft but it really is.
Anyway please just take a look. You will not regret it.
The Richard Serra is equally stunning. Three recent sculptures, with NJ-2 the standout, created on a monumental scale. I just kept walking in and out of it – couldn’t help myself. All you need in terms of form and volume but playful and the colour of the weathered steel is breathtaking. The colour of the other two pieces is similarly draw dropping as the weathering on the Rounds pieces is like some sort of reptile skin. Anyway the clever people will tell you more but do go and have wander through NJ-2 and you will see that I am not wrong. It might just be hunks of metal at the end of the day but some of the best hunks of metal I imagine I will ever seen.
At Home He Feels Like A Tourist 