Royal Academy
Léon Spilliaert, Royal Academy review - a maudlin exploration of solitudeTuesday, 10 March 2020
What a spooky exhibition! Léon Spilliaert suffered from crippling insomnia and often spent the nocturnal hours in the conservatory of his parents’ house in Ostend drawing his haggard features (pictured below right: Self-portrait, 1907). His shock of... Read more... |
Best of 2019: Visual ArtsTuesday, 31 December 2019
Notable anniversaries provided the ballast for this year’s raft of exhibitions; none was dead weight, though, with shows dedicated to Rembrandt, Leonardo and Ruskin among the most original and exhilarating of 2019’s offerings. Happily, a number of... Read more... |
Eco-Visionaries, Royal Academy review - wakey, wakey!Saturday, 23 November 2019
As I write, I’m listening to Clara Rockmore intoning The Swan by Saint-Saëns. Her melancholy humming also welcomes you to Eco-Visionaries along with a globe suspended in the cloudy waters of a polluted fish tank. This simple installation by artist... Read more... |
Lucian Freud: The Self-Portraits, Royal Academy review - mesmerising intensitySunday, 27 October 2019
Lucian Freud died in 2011 after a career spanning some 70 odd years. Over the decades, he painted and drew himself repeatedly, creating a fascinating portrait of a man who spent an inordinate amount of time scrutinising himself and others.One of the... Read more... |
Félix Vallotton: Painter of Disquiet, Royal Academy review – strange and intriguingSaturday, 29 June 2019
Félix Vallotton is best known for his satirical woodcuts, printed in the radical newspapers and journals of turn-of-the-century Paris. He earned a steady income, for instance, as chief illustrator for La Revue blanche, which carried articles and... Read more... |
Phyllida Barlow: Cul-de-sac, Royal Academy review - unadulterated delightSaturday, 23 February 2019
It doesn’t get better than this! Phyllida Barlow has transformed the Royal Academy’s Gabrielle Jungels-Winkler Galleries into a euphoric delight. Entering the space, you have to turn right and process through the three galleries; but by closing the... Read more... |
Bill Viola/Michelangelo: Life Death Rebirth, Royal Academy review - empty rhetoric versus focused intensityFriday, 25 January 2019
Its a preposterous act of hubris, isn’t it? Pairing large scale video installations by American artist Bill Viola with drawings by Michelangelo can’t possibly illuminate our experience of either art form; or can it? Are we meant to conclude that... Read more... |
Klimt/Schiele, Royal Academy review - the line of gauntnessMonday, 05 November 2018
The most touching tribute to the relationship between two giants of early 20th century art, Gustav Klimt and the much younger Egon Schiele, hangs in the first room of this fascinating exhibition at the Royal Academy – Schiele’s poster for the... Read more... |
Renzo Piano, Royal Academy review - worth the effortFriday, 14 September 2018
Architecture is notoriously difficult to present in an accessible way and this survey of Italian architect Renzo Piano, who gave London the Shard, does not solve the problem. With 16 tables arranged in rows over two rooms, the Royal Academy show... Read more... |
The New Royal Academy and Tacita Dean, Landscape review - a brave beginning to a new eraFriday, 18 May 2018
This weekend the Royal Academy (R.A) celebrates its 250th anniversary with the opening of 6 Burlington Gardens (main picture), duly refurbished for the occasion. When it was dirty the Palladian facade felt coldly overbearing, but cleaning it has... Read more... |
Charles I: King and Collector, Royal Academy review - a well executed display of tasteTuesday, 30 January 2018
Titian! Mantegna! Rubens! Dürer! Veronese! Van Dyck! Raphael! Velazquez! About 140 works which were once part of Charles I’s 2,000-strong collection are reunited in a sumptuous collaboration between the Royal Academy and the Royal Collection.... Read more... |
Lumiere London review - London in a different lightSaturday, 20 January 2018
It seems they’re having trouble with the lights. Thirty-five past five and they’re not yet on. “Typical,” laughs a woman, surveying the huddle of hi-vis chaperones. Palm fronds wave in the wind, suits leave work. St James’s Square slowly fills with... Read more... |
