Visual Arts Reviews
Paris Photo 2021 review - a moveable feastSaturday, 27 November 2021
Paris Photo 2021 was a wonderful show. Back after the pandemic it was moved to the Grand Palais Éphémère, a temporary structure built to host major art exhibitions while the Grand Palais itself is modernised in preparation for the 2024 Olympics. There were 178 exhibitors at the Grand Palais from 29 countries, 19 solo shows and 8 duo shows. There were thousands of images on display. Read more... |
Waste Age, Design Museum review - too little too lameFriday, 29 October 2021
I should have emerged from the Design Museum sizzling with furious determination to help solve the world’s rubbish crisis. Trashing the planet is, after all, the most important issue of our time and Waste Age details the enormity of the problem. Read more... |
Yoko Ono, Mend Piece, Whitechapel Gallery review – funny and sad in equal measureThursday, 07 October 2021
Its more than 50 years since Yoko Ono first presented Mend Piece at the Indica Gallery, London in the exhibition through which she met John Lennon. The piece is currently being revisited at the Whitechapel Gallery and, in the intervening years, its meaning has subtly shifted. Read more... |
Theaster Gates - A Clay Sermon, Whitechapel Gallery review - mud, mud, glorious mudTuesday, 05 October 2021
Last year a stoneware jar by David Drake sold at auction for $1.3 million. It fetched this extraordinary price because of its history: Drake was a slave on a plantation in South Carolina who not only made fabulous pots, but dared sign and date them at a time when it was illegal for slaves to read and write. Needless to say, his descendants haven’t received a penny in royalties from sales of his work. Read more... |
Isamu Noguchi, Barbican review – the most elegant exhibition in townFriday, 01 October 2021
Isamu Noguchi may not be a household name, yet one strand of his work is incredibly familiar. In 1951 he visited a lamp factory in Gifu, a Japanese city famous for its paper lanterns. This prompted him to design the lampshades that, for decades, have adorned nearly every student’s bedsit. Read more... |
Gerhard Richter: Drawings, Hayward Gallery review - exquisite ruminationsWednesday, 29 September 2021
In 2015, an abstract painting by Gerhard Richter broke the world record for contemporary art by selling at auction for £30.4m, and the octogenarian is often described as the most important living artist. Read more... |
Mixing it Up, Hayward Gallery review - a glorious celebration of diversityWednesday, 22 September 2021
The 31 artists in Mixing it Up all live in this country, but a third of them were born elsewhere – in countries including Belgium, China, Columbia, Germany, Iraq, Zambia and Zimbabwe – and they’ve brought with them immeasurable cultural riches. Read more... |
Helen Frankenthaler: Radical Beauty, Dulwich Picture Gallery review - adventures in printFriday, 17 September 2021
When you stand in front of Helen Frankenthaler’s Freefall, 1993, in your mind you drop into its gorgeous, blue abyss. It is enveloping, vertiginous, endless and yet there’s none of the terror of falling into a void, only intense, velvety comfort as the bluest blue melts into emerald green. Read more... |
The Lost Leonardo review - an incredible tale as gripping as any thrillerTuesday, 14 September 2021
It’s been described as “the most improbable story that has ever happened in the art market”, and The Lost Leonardo reveals every twist and turn of this extraordinary tale. In New Orleans in 2005, a badly-damaged painting (pictured below left) sold at auction for $1,175. Read more... |
Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Tate Modern review - a creative talent that knew no boundsMonday, 09 August 2021
Sophie Taeuber-Arp gave her work titles like Movement of Lines, yet there’s nothing dull about her drawings and paintings. In her hands, the simplest compositions sizzle with tension and dance with implied motion. Animated Circles 1934 (main picture), consists of blue, grey and black circles on a white ground. Read more... |
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