Art Exit 1939 – A Very Different Or Analogous Europe – Edward Lucie-Smith
There can be no doubt that Art-Exit: 1939, at the 12 Star Gallery in Europe House, Smith Square, is a highly political exhibition.
18 July 2019
Reviews
Charlie Smith London Is 10 – Edward Lucie-Smith
The new show at Charlie Smith London celebrates, as the handout tells you, “a full decade’s operations in Shoreditch”. Within that period, the gallery has presented 88 exhibitions and has participated in more than 30 art fairs in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the USA and here in the UK.
14 July 2019
Fact Liverpool: Real Work Two Exhibitions – Alice Lenkiewicz
Liz Magic Laser has created an exhibition on the ground floor of Fact Liverpool as part of Real Work. This… Read More
14 July 2019
Olafur Eliasson: Work That Is Right Here Right Now – Edward Lucie-Smith
Olafur Eliasson is now a very big deal in the world of contemporary art
10 July 2019
Talking Maps: Geocentric Eccentricity At The Bodleian Library – Paul Black
Artlyst has attended Talking Maps, a new exhibition at the famous Bodleian Libraries, Oxford – a celebration of maps throughout history
9 July 2019
Takis Tate Modern Kevork Mourad Ismaili Centre – Two Shows – Edward Lucie-Smith
The Greek artist Panayiotis Vassillakis, known simply as Takis, born in Athens in 1925, is a very senior member of today’s international avant-garde. His new show at Tate Modern – what? Not a woman, not a person of colour? – therefore qualifies as an event of some interest.
7 July 2019
Frieze Sculpture 2019 A 3D Non-Statement – Edward Lucie-Smith
It’s time for the annual show of sculpture in Regent’s Park, organised by the Frieze Art Fair, but opening far in advance of the fair itself, and lasting for much longer. Also, it’s free. What’s on view, you see for nothing. Which makes me wish, quite fervently, that it was a more convincing show.
6 July 2019
Felix Vallotton: A Lost Prophet – Royal Academy – Edward Lucie-Smith
Felix Vallotton, the subject of a new exhibition on view now, at the Royal Academy, was a betwixt and between sort of artist. Swiss by birth, he became French.
4 July 2019
Alexander Calder Stories: Spectacular New Exhibition Centro Botín – Jude Cowan Montague
When the boats sail past on a summer’s day and the light falls gently, and we’re solstice-awake in the long days, Alexander Calder reels back to life as if he himself is a film, viewed in the flickering light of the sea cast by this special spot.
3 July 2019
Contemplating the Spiritual in Contemporary Art – Revd Jonathan Evens
Contemplating the Spiritual in Contemporary Art a new exhibition at Rosenfeld Porcini is proof, if proof is needed, that there is no shortage of artists exploring, as Erika Doss described them, ‘the intersections of iconography, religious orthodoxy
30 June 2019
FairforSaatchi: The Making Of A Summer Fixture – Simon Tait
A new contemporary and modern art fair at the Saatchi Gallery has just opened as a “pop-up” during the London Summer fair season. Organised in just six frantic weeks FairForSaatchi hopes to become an annual fixture.
29 June 2019
Cindy Sherman NPG Retrospective A Major Blockbuster – Edward Lucie-Smith
The Cindy Sherman retrospective just opened at the National Portrait Gallery is a major blockbuster, illustrating all aspects of a very prolific career.
27 June 2019
Scott Eaton Artist Plus AI – Edward Lucie-Smith
A rather too brief exhibition, well hidden away in the bowels of Somerset House and not mentioned in the official handout listing what is currently on view in the main gallery spaces there, raises many questions that aren’t being asked in our rather smug London contemporary art world. Entitled The Artist + AI, it is a compact solo show for an American artist called Scott Eaton.
25 June 2019
Donald Sultan Huxley-Parlour Sam Jackson Charlie Smith London 2X Reviews – Edward Lucie-Smith
This is the time of year when London’s grandee galleries – official and commercial – are so busy presenting us with blockbuster shows that lesser lights tend to get squeezed out, at least where publicity is concerned. Here are a couple of exhibitions on a somewhat lesser scale that it would be a pity to miss. One, at Huxley-Parlour in Swallow Street, offers the work of the American artist Donald Sultan, one of the stars of the return to painting (as opposed to other forms of artistic expression) that took place in American art in the 1980s.
25 June 2019
Paula Rego Where The Personal Is Political – Marina Vaizey
All art is perforce autobiography, and every picture tells a story. How could it be otherwise? No outstanding artist almost literally makes visual these underlying possibilities more than Paula Rego.
18 June 2019
Gender Fluidity Celebrated In New Hayward Gallery Exhibition – Teo Robinson
Kiss My Genders at the Hayward Gallery curated by Vincent Honore is a dynamic voyage and vivacious celebration of infinite representations of gender-diversity, gender non-conformity, androgyny and gender-subversion over the course of 50 years, featuring a mélange of 100 artworks by 35 international artists.
17 June 2019
Keith Haring: A Sign Of The Times – Tate Liverpool – Alice Lenkiewicz
The highly anticipated first UK exhibition of Keith Haring’s work has opened at Tate Liverpool. It is vast, covering most aspects of his work and career. This was my first experience seeing so many pieces by this seminal figure from the 1980s,’ in the flesh, so I was curious to learn more about the man.
16 June 2019
Mark Dean Mediating Between Creation And Creator – Revd Jonathan Evens
In his book, God in the Gallery: A Christian Approach to Modern Art Daniel Siedell suggests that many works of modern and contemporary art are ‘poignant altars to the unknown god in aesthetic form.’
15 June 2019
Bartolome Bermejo And The Paper Museum – Two Free Exhibitions – Edward Lucie-Smith
Once again the National Gallery offers a small, free, finely crafted show devoted to an Old Master painter that few people will know much – or indeed – anything about. In this case, to works by Bartolome Bermejo (c.1440-c. 1501).
15 June 2019
Oscar Murillo A Cultural Hero Of Sorts – Edward Lucie-Smith
I’ve just read a piece on the web complaining that the one area of the contemporary art world where gender equality is making no progress is in the exhibition programmes of big commercial galleries.
11 June 2019
Francis Bacon – The Power Of The Illicit – Edward Lucie-Smith
The new Francis Bacon show at Gagosian Grosvenor Hill is something of a landmark event. It contains a sumptuous array… Read More
10 June 2019
Keith Tyson – Enrique Martínez Celaya Two London Shows – Edward Lucie-Smith
If you want to take the temperature of the London art world, here are two places to do so. One is the show for Keith Tyson, at Hauser & Wirth. The other is an exhibition for Enrique Martinez Celaya at Blain/Southern. These two dealers rank very high amongst the international commercial spaces in London.
9 June 2019
Lee Krasner Abstract Expressionist – The Barbican – Edward Lucie Smith
The catch-up continues: two more female artists, from different phases of the now safely defunct Modern Movement, are now being given their due. They are Lee Krasner, with a solo show at the Barbican; and Natalia Goncharova, at Tate Modern. Both of these were considerable talents. Were they game-changers? That, I think, is a slightly different question.
6 June 2019
Frank Bowling: In The Presence Of A Significant Painter – Sue Hubbard
It’s rare to walk into an exhibition and be bowled over (forgive the pun). To encounter work that touches the heart as well as the mind in these insouciant times. Frank Bowling’s exhibition at Tate Britain is one such rare show, reminding us of what painting can do.
2 June 2019
Four London Art Exhibitions To See – June 2019 – Edward Lucie-Smith
London’s posher galleries offer exhibitions of all kinds right now, but they tend to have a slightly depressing characteristic in common. The artists concerned are usually either very senior or dead. Few of them are British. The days when the YBAs dominated the British art scene are long over. In a way, this is a tribute to the cosmopolitanism of today’s London art world.
28 May 2019
Manga: Masterpieces Of Narrative Art – British Museum – Edward Lucie-Smith
It is bold of the British Museum to embark on an exhibition of Japanese Manga in their most significant and grandest temporary exhibition space – the one right at the back of the building, on the ground floor.
26 May 2019
Vicky Crowe: 50 Years Of Painting – Clare Henry
Venice, the Pentland Hills, Prince Charles?” They may not have a lot in common, but all have provided Vicky Crowe with significant inspiration. They also encapsulate her three main concerns: still life, landscape and portraiture. That she excels in each is a cause for admiration and astonishment!
26 May 2019
Anish Kapoor: Splashing Bloody Wombs And One Penis – Jude Cowan Montague
I can’t see an Anish Kapoor exhibition at the moment. I can’t talk about Anish Kapoor at the moment. Not without the first thing on my mind being that infamous black paint copyright purchase.
25 May 2019
Leonardo Da Vinci A Man Of Seductive Charm – Edward Lucie-Smith
This will be a great year of Leonardo celebrations because 2019 marks five centuries since the great artist died and Leonardo is now one of the great monuments of Western culture. Various countries are squabbling over who can do his memory the most honour.
25 May 2019
Artificial Intelligence More Than Human – Barbican – Edward Lucie-Smith
Right now, the Curve Gallery at the Barbican has a big show entitled More Than Human that seems exceptionally relevant, not so much to what is happening in the visual arts right now, as to what seems likely to happen. Its theme is AI (artificial intelligence).
20 May 2019
Piero Manzoni The grid And Everyday Materials – Ilka Scobie
Self-taught artist and avant-garde predecessor to the Arte Povera movement, Piero Manzoni was born to an aristocratic family in Soncino, Italy in 1933.
18 May 2019
Cathy Wilkes: Resurrecting The Forgotten British Pavilion Venice Biennale – Sue Hubbard
May you live in interesting times is the overarching theme of this year’s Biennale. Dystopia and dissonance are everywhere played out in the themes of climate change and post-human CGI that take us to some dark places.
14 May 2019