At Home He Feels Like A Tourist

Category: art

  • Encounter drawings at the National Portrait Gallery review ***

    The Encounter: Drawings from Leonardo to Rembrandt National Portrait Gallery, 7th September 2017 Short, sweet and eclectic. The exhibition of 50 or so portrait drawings at the NPG contains works by some of the greatest draughtsmen revered by art history from the Renaissance and Baroque, but blink and you might…

  • Judith at the Arcola Theatre review ***

    Judith: A Parting from the Body Arcola Theatre, 7th September 2017 I am guessing they don’t watch Bake-Off in the Barker household. Howard Barker does not write easy plays. By his own admission he wants each of us to experience his plays as an individual: none of that namby-pamby rush…

  • Sargent Watercolours at Dulwich Picture Gallery review *****

    Sargent: The Watercolours Dulwich Picture Gallery, 5th September 2017 There have been some top drawer exhibitions already this year. The comprehensive survey of American painting in the 1930s at the Orangerie and Royal Academy, the joyous Rauschenberg retrospective at Tate Modern, the astonishing survey of Michael Andrews’s spray painted landscapes…

  • From Selfie to Self-Expression at the Saatchi Gallery review ****

    From Selfie to Self-Expression Saatchi Gallery, 20th August 2017 I hadn’t really intended to seek out this exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery. I had forgotten it was on but realised I would be passing when engaged on another mission (taking a twirl around the relatively newly opened National Army Museum,…

  • Queer British Art at Tate Britain review ***

    Queer British Art 1861-1967 Tate Britain, 18th August 2017 I learnt a lot from this exhibition. A damming reflection of my ignorance of gay history in Britain over the period under review. However I am afraid I didn’t really see much in the way of compelling art or artists which…

  • Grayson Perry at the Serpentine Gallery review ****

    Grayson Perry: The Most Popular Art Exhibition Ever! Serpentine Gallery, 8th August 2017 Grayson Perry has set himself up as an “astute commentator on contemporary society” as the blurb for his current exhibition would have it. And very good at it he is too. If you haven’t seen any of…

  • Giacometti at Tate Modern review ****

    Giacometti Tate Modern, 5th July 2017 Alberto Giacometti fitted the bill of the artist perfectly. Day upon day, month upon month, year upon year ploughing the same furrow. To capture the essence of the human form largely through sculpture and occasionally with paint. More than a nod to the representation…

  • British Watercolour Landscapes at the British Museum review ****

    Places of the Mind: British Watercolour Landscapes 1850 to 1950 British Museum, 3rd July 2017 Any right thinking Londoner or visitor thereto knows that time spent in the British Museum (or the V and A for that matter) is never wasted. I have remarked before on the rich run of…

  • Vanessa Bell exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery review ***

    Vanessa Bell 1879-1941 Dulwich Picture Gallery, 3rd June 2017 Sun shining. Dulwich Park at play. Bit of a picnic then off to the Vanessa Bell retrospective with SO, BUD and KCK. This is London. It won’t go away. Dulwich PG does a fine job in bringing together thoughtfully curated exhibitions…

  • Howard Hodgkin at the National Portrait Gallery review ***

    Howard Hodgkin: Absent Friends National Portrait Gallery, 18th May 2017 I haven’t really known what to make of the work of Howard Hodgkin who sadly passed away just before this exhibition began (having been involved in its creation). And I am still not sure what to make of it. This…

  • Some ideas for the culturally inclined in London

    Here is a very brief round-up, (apparently I can drone on a bit so have tried to be disciplined), of the current and forthcoming major theatre and exhibition events in London that have caught my eye (and ear). I have a list of classical concerts which is still good to go…

  • David Hockney at Tate Britain review ****

    David Hockney Tate Britain, 2nd May 2017 OK so this is embarrassing so I will get it out of the way. I didn’t really know David Hockey’s works beyond a cursory glance at a handful of works in permanent collections and some mixed exhibitions and didn’t really know what all…