Category: Architecture
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A History of British Architecture: Roman Britain 43AD to 410AD
A meander through the history of British Architecture by era. Part 2 Roman Britain.
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A History of British Architecture: Prehistoric Britain c.3800 BCE to 43 AD
A meander through the history of British Architecture by era. Part 1 Prehistoric Britain.
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The Line and the Circle
Two formal languages run through the whole of British architectural history, and the tension between them is the engine of everything worth discussing.
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I Am Ashurbanipal exhibition at the British Museum review ****
I Am Ashurbanipal King of the World, King of Assyria British Museum, 15th February 2019 Crikey. Those Assyrians had a way with reliefs carved in gypsum/alabaster. Even if it was primarily all in the service of terrifying aggrandisement. The King hunting, the King and his soldiers slaying his enemies, the…
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Edward Burne-Jones at Tate Britain review ****
Edward Burne Jones Tate Britain, 11th November 2018 Turns out Burne-Jones isn’t quite as awful as I had previously thought. Don’t get me wrong. All that hippy-dippy, fey, dreamy. dusky-toned, doe-eyed, ginger-permed, long-bodied, nymph-y, mannequin-esque, briar-strewn, Arthurian, industrialisation-denying, fake-Medieval, cod-Renaissance daubing is still guaranteed to do my head in. But…
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Monet and Architecture at the National Gallery review *****
Monet and Architecture National Gallery, 14th June 2018 I am not the biggest fan of Monet’s later, post-Giverny work. Loved the actual garden, the white suits, the pipe, the spectacular beard, the repetition and the joy. But the colours make me queasy and the smudginess is disorientating. I know that…
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Andreas Gursky at the Hayward Gallery exhibition review ****
Andreas Gursky Hayward Gallery, 4th April 2018 Odds are you have seen one of Andreas Gursky’s giant, hypnotic, immersive photographs. He charts the relationship between man and environment, fiddling with perspective, highlighting the repetition of our own industry and locating the beautiful and the ugly, often simultaneously. His viewpoint is…
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Designs of the Year 2017 at the Design Museum review ****
Beazley Designs of the Year 2017 The Design Museum, 8th November 2017 If you have any interest in design you are probably on to this but, if not, you should be. This is the tenth year of the exhibition, now held in the basement of the Design Museum’s plush new…
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Rachel Whiteread at Tate Britain review *****
Rachel Whiteread Tate Britain, 25th September 2017 If you take even a passing interest in contemporary British art you are probably aware of Rachel Whiteread, and you may well have seen some of her work. Even if you are not interested, or are firmly in the nihilistic, hater camp that…