All the visual art reviews on this blog, in one handy go-to list! (Note some are split into two parts.)
I would say I have, in general, triple interests in art. First I’m keen on Modernism, particularly the era of ‘High Modernism’ running roughly from 1905 to around the end of the Second World War. (Of course, as I say in just about every review I write, Modernism saw itself as multi-disciplinary and it’s only retrofitting that tries to reduce it to a visual arts medium. But that’s the way it’s packaged so that’s the way we tend to come across it.)
I’m also keen on (for want of a better term) ‘popular arts’ and/or art designed for reproduction; the world of comics, animation, prints, posters, illustration, graphic design and street art. (Do they all belong together? I like to think they do!)
Finally, I’m a fan of folk art, naïve art and outsider art.
In practice these three get jumbled up together, so I haven’t tried to separate them at all in the list below.
In practice these three get jumbled up together, so I haven’t tried to separate them at all in the list below.
I openly confess to being no sort of expert about any of this. I hopefully imagine this means I come to an exhibition ‘clean’, with open eyes and not too much baggage. I’ve always held that the best way to find out about a band was to see them live; it’ll all be there before you, in once concentrated dose. Similarly, the best way to get the measure of an artist is to submerge yourself in an exhibition.
ART FROM THE MARGINS
(Pallant House Gallery, April '13)
Companion pieces to 'Dubuffet:Transitions' - 'Outside In', a group show of contemporary outsider art, and 'Pat Douthwaite: The Uncompromising Image.'
JEAN DUBUFFET: TRANSITIONS
(Pallant House Gallery, March '13)
The pioneer of Art Brut (aka Outsider Art) and arch-enemy of Classicism receives a rare retrospective, mostly focusing on his Sixties work.
PRE-RAPHAELITES: VICTORIAN AVANT GARDE
(Tate Britain, March '13)
Were these Romantic Brit painters kitsch in technicolour or steam-punk pioneers of Modernism? The short answer is "yes".
LIS RHODES' LIGHT MUSIC
(The Thanks, Tate Modern, Oct '12)
Lis Rhodes' instillation piece, where electronic music generator doubles as light show, works like a discotheque for Modernists.
INVISIBLE: ART ABOUT THE UNSEEN 1957-2012
(Hayward Gallery, Aug '12)
The best exhibition you'll never see, stuffed with invisible or otherwise unseeable works.
HAJJ: JOURNEY TO THE HEART OF ISLAM (1)
HAJJ: JOURNEY TO THE HEART OF ISLAM (2)
(British Museum, May '12)
ART FROM THE MARGINS
(Pallant House Gallery, April '13)
Companion pieces to 'Dubuffet:Transitions' - 'Outside In', a group show of contemporary outsider art, and 'Pat Douthwaite: The Uncompromising Image.'
JEAN DUBUFFET: TRANSITIONS
(Pallant House Gallery, March '13)
The pioneer of Art Brut (aka Outsider Art) and arch-enemy of Classicism receives a rare retrospective, mostly focusing on his Sixties work.
PRE-RAPHAELITES: VICTORIAN AVANT GARDE
(Tate Britain, March '13)
Were these Romantic Brit painters kitsch in technicolour or steam-punk pioneers of Modernism? The short answer is "yes".
LIS RHODES' LIGHT MUSIC
(The Thanks, Tate Modern, Oct '12)
Lis Rhodes' instillation piece, where electronic music generator doubles as light show, works like a discotheque for Modernists.
INVISIBLE: ART ABOUT THE UNSEEN 1957-2012
(Hayward Gallery, Aug '12)
The best exhibition you'll never see, stuffed with invisible or otherwise unseeable works.
HAJJ: JOURNEY TO THE HEART OF ISLAM (1)
HAJJ: JOURNEY TO THE HEART OF ISLAM (2)
(British Museum, May '12)
The history, art and culture of the pilgrimage to Mecca that every Muslim must make once in their lives.
EDWARD BURRA (1)
(Pallant House Gallery,
Chichester, Feb. ’12)
The “English Surrealist”, featuring sailors getting down with prostitutes, sailors fighting with sailors, sailors getting down with sailors, sailors fighting with prostitutes... and more!!!
BUILDING THE REVOLUTION: SOVIET ART + ARCHITECTURE 1915-35 (1)
BUILDING THE REVOLUTION: SOVIET ART + ARCHITECTURE 1915-35 (2)
(Royal Academy, Jan. 2012)
How post-revolutionary Soviet art ventured into the third dimension, and tried to make use of itself in transforming the world.
END OF 2011 CATCH-UP
BUILDING THE REVOLUTION: SOVIET ART + ARCHITECTURE 1915-35 (2)
(Royal Academy, Jan. 2012)
How post-revolutionary Soviet art ventured into the third dimension, and tried to make use of itself in transforming the world.
END OF 2011 CATCH-UP
FRIDA KAHLO AND DIEGO RIVERA: MASTERPIECES FROM THE GELMAN COLLECTION
(Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, Oct. 2011)
(Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, Oct. 2011)
Two classic Mexican artists who mixed modernist with folk styles
RADICAL BLOOMSBURY: THE ART OF DUNCAN GRANT AND VANESSA BELL 1905-1925
(Brighton Museum, Sept. 2011)
(Brighton Museum, Sept. 2011)
A very British take on post-impressionism
Britain’s combative answer to Italian Futurism
LAURIE ANDERSON, TRISHA BROWN, GORDON MATTA-CLARK: PIONEERS OF THE DOWNTOWN SCENE, NEW YORK 1970s (2)
(Barbican, Aug. 2011)
(Barbican, Aug. 2011)
Conceptual, performance and installation art hitting the streets Downtown Manhattan
'OUT OF THE SHADOWS: MACONALD GILL, DECORATIVE MAP POSTERS AND VISUAL GENIUS'
(University of Brighton Gallery, Aug. 2011)
(University of Brighton Gallery, Aug. 2011)
Just what it says on the lid from Eric Gill’s brother
THE FORTY PARK MOTET/ MESOPOTAMIAN DRAMATURGIES/ EVOLUTION OF FEARLESSNESS (THREE BRIGHTON FESTIVAL EXHIBITIONS)
(various venues, July 2011)
(various venues, July 2011)
Installations by Janet Cardiff, Kutling Ataman and Lynette Wallworth
The pioneering post-impressionist
Wide-ranging works spanning the years of British sculptural history
Photographic exhibition exploring notions of voyeurism
The celebrated cartoonist chiefly known for ’St. Trinians’.
Exploring the comic, the satirical, the bawdy and the absurd in British art… so no, not a short exhibition!
BRIAN ENO: RESTORING THE BALANCE (Aug. 2010)
A report on Eno’s festival appearances which includes his installations ‘Seventy Seven Million Paintings’ and ‘Speaker Flower Sound Installation’
Is Britain’s best-known sculptor now safe from harm?
Popular images from the Mexican revolution and beyond
Is the work of this renowned auto-destructive artist a glass half-smashed or half-standing?
A comparison between two Tate Modern exhibitions: the Italian-set ‘Futurism’, and the Russian-based ‘Rodchenko and Popova: Defining Constructivism.’
A polemic disguised as a review of the ‘Babylon: Myth and Reality’ exhibition at the British Museum
The dark British painter famous for depicting screaming Popes and saying “well of course we are meat”
Three of Dadaism’s most infamous and provocative characters in one place at one time
A celebration of artists’ books and independent publishing
FROM RUSSIA: FRENCH AND RUSSIAN MASTER PAINTINGS FROM MOSCOW AND ST. PETERSBERG 1870-1925
(Royal Academy, April 2008)
(Royal Academy, April 2008)
Just what it says on the lid!
Featuring brief… very brief write-ups of ‘Hogarth’ at Tate Britain, and ‘Dali and Film’ at Tate Modern
...with a focus on erotic art from the East.
Not really a proper review of this show, more a reaction to something silly written in the Guardian about it.
Punk inspired and spirited art from Britain and America, 1974 to 1984. This review originally appeared in ‘Last Hours’.
