Category: Exhibition
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All Too Human at Tate Britain review *****
All Too Human: Bacon. Freud and a Century of Painting Life Tate Britain, 15th March 2018 I love paint. I love painting. I love paintings of people. I love Britain (though I appreciate that is a loaded statement). I love London. I love paintings of London. So, surprise, surprise, I…
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Modigliani at Tate Modern review ***
Modigliani Tate Modern, 5th March 2018 One Modigliani nude or one Modigliani portrait is a thing of not inconsiderable beauty. Less so, one hundred, or what feels like hundreds. The elongated bodies, the mask-like faces, the blank, almond-shaped eyes. Look beyond the USP’s though and the influences, from which Modigliani…
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William Kentridge: Smoke, Ashes, Fable at Sint-Janshospitaal review ****
William Kentridge: Smoke, Ashes, Fable Sint-Janshospitaal, Bruges, 20th February 2018 Off to Bruges and Brussels for a couple of days. Main purpose. To soak up the best paintings that the Northern Renaissance has to offer. Now you all know that it doesn’t get much prettier than Bruges, (though Ghent may…
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Ilya and Emilia Kabakov at Tate Modern review ****
Not Everyone Will Be Taken Into The Future: Ilya and Emilia Kabakov Tate Modern, 19th January 2018 I know it is not easy to make out but take a good peer at the image above. This is an installation created in 1985 by Russian conceptual artist, Ilya Kabakov. The Man…
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Red Star Over Russia at Tate Modern review ****
Red Star Over Russia: A Revolution in Visual Culture 1905-55 Tate Modern, 19th January 2018 I have always coveted a collection. I mean a proper collection. I have a fair few CDs, (I have bought maybe 6 or 7 download only albums in my life – not having a physical…
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Bomberg at Pallant House Gallery review *****
Bomberg Pallant House Gallery, 9th January 2017 Best British painter of the twentieth century? The mighty triumvirate of Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud and David Hockney from the second half of the century certainly would be in with a shout, though Bacon is easy to admire though sometimes hard to like, and Hockney…
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Cezanne Portraits exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery review *****
Cezanne Portraits National Portrait Gallery, 14th December 2017 Frankly they could have hung the 50 or so paintings here upside down and turned the lights off. I would still have given it 5 stars. It’s Cezanne. The painter who showed all the other painters who have come since how to…
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Dali/Duchamp at the Royal Academy review ***
Dali/Duchamp Royal Academy, 29th December 2017 I don’t really get Salvador Dali. Maybe it is the over-familiarity with images of his work. Maybe it is the obviousness of the in-yer-face Freudian, symbolism. Maybe it is the flat, lifeless effect of his paintings. Maybe it is the fact that once he…
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Impressionists in London at Tate Britain review ***
The EY Exhibition: Impressionists in London: French Artists in Exile 1870-1914 Tate Modern, 30th November 2017 Would I pay £17.70, the full adult price to see this. Hmm. Maybe. Different story if you are a member, (as you should be if you can afford it), but, if not, I’d say…
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Age of Terror exhibition at the IWM review ***
Age of Terror: Art since 9/11 Imperial War Museum London, 24th November 2017 The IWM has a splendid collection of war art which is always worth seeing and reflecting on when it is exhibited. Here the curating team has assembled 50 or so works from 40 or so artists to…
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Natural Selection exhibition at the Former Newington Library review *****
Andy Holden and Peter Holden: Natural Selection Artangel at the Former Newington Library, 24th November 2017 This might just be the best exhibition I have seen this year. The Former Newington Library was new to me I confess, and reeks of institutional instruction, which matched the tone of this “installation”…