portraits
Jane McAdam Freud: Lucian Freud My Father, Freud MuseumThursday, 26 January 2012
In one small room of the Freud Museum, which was once the home of Sigmund in the last year of his life, are the works Jane McAdam Freud made in the final months of her father’s life. Below an imposing photograph of Freud the elder, the progenitor of... Read more... |
The Scottish National Portrait Gallery, EdinburghFriday, 09 December 2011
The Scottish National Portrait Gallery has been transformed with a £7.6 million facelift. As a first-timer I confess I don’t have a clue what it looked like before, but I am assured it was dark and gloomy and had the air of a building cast aside in... Read more... |
America in Pictures: The Story of Life Magazine, BBC FourFriday, 02 December 2011
Before the internet and the Kindle were invented, generations of Americans saw their lives refracted through the pages of Life magazine. In particular, through its photography, since writers at Life were largely relegated to supplying glorified... Read more... |
Gainsborough's Landscapes: Themes and Variations, Holburne MuseumMonday, 03 October 2011
Dogs, horses, cows, sheep, goats and pigs are the creatures that, however minuscule in stature, take pride of place in the fascinating exhibition of Thomas Gainsborough’s imaginary landscapes at the Holburne in Bath, an ideal complement to the nine... Read more... |
Q&A/Gallery: Photographer Rich HardcastleTuesday, 06 September 2011
From Edinburgh to London and back, via Tatooine and Port Talbot, Rich Hardcastle has photographed playwrights and magicians, burlesque dancers and rugby captains, and regularly adorned the covers of The Big Issue, FHM and The Sunday Times Culture... Read more... |
Frans Hals at the Metropolitan Museum, New YorkMonday, 29 August 2011
If one comes away with any certainty from the New York exhibition Frans Hals at the Metropolitan Museum (until 10 October) it is that the Golden Age Dutch master (1582/3-1666) keenly understood and sympathised with his fellow human beings. Whether... Read more... |
Lucian Freud, 1922-2011Friday, 22 July 2011
Lucian Freud, who died aged 88 at his west London home on Wednesday, was often described as Britain's greatest living artist. In the six decades he was active, figurative painting went in and out of fashion - though mostly it was out - but... Read more... |
Glamour of the Gods: Hollywood Portraits, National Portrait GalleryWednesday, 13 July 2011
In the days before there were any paparazzi to catch celebrities unawares, the pictures of the stars that reached mere mortals like ourselves were carefully staged by the film studios. Establishments like MGM, Warner Bros and Paramount Pictures... Read more... |
British Masters, BBC Four/ The World's Most Expensive Paintings, BBC OneTuesday, 12 July 2011
Does James Fox fancy himself as the Niall Ferguson of art history? I ask because clearly this latest addition to the growing pantheon of television art historians wants to do for British art what Ferguson sought to do for the British Empire. He... Read more... |
Thomas Struth: Photography 1978-2010Sunday, 10 July 2011
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Eyewitness: Hungarian Photography in the 20th Century, Royal AcademyThursday, 30 June 2011
A subtly haunting and brilliantly composed photograph by André Kertész lives on as a wistfully memorable image of exile: in Lost Cloud, 1937, a small, isolated cloud drifts we know not where next to a New York skyscraper. Kertész is one of the... Read more... |
Toulouse-Lautrec and Jane Avril: Beyond the Moulin Rouge, Courtauld GalleryThursday, 23 June 2011
As one of the stars of the Moulin Rouge, she was variously known by the nicknames "La Mélinite", "Jane la Folle", and "L’Etrange". The first was after a brand of explosive, the other two attesting to a little craziness. Jane Avril’s eccentric dance... Read more... |
