Reviews Archive

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...

Natalia Goncharova: Luboks, Icons And Russian Avant-Gardism – Edward Lucie-Smith

Born in 1881, Natalia Goncharova was a full generation older than Lee Krasner and came from a very different background from that of Krasner’s...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 of top-quality works. Only...

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...

Faith Ringgold and Luchita Hurtado – Two Women Artists Of A Certain Age

I was looking at the tapestries with painted and sewn figures, the colourful designs of pioneering activist and artist Faith Ringgold when I heard...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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.

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...

Whatever Happened To Anthony Caro? – Three Reviews – Edward Lucie-Smith

Whatever happened to Anthony Caro? In Jonathan Jones’ new book about the history of British art from Hogarth to Banksy, Caro gets about half...

Jonathan Jones Sensations – Book Review – Edward Lucie-Smith

Jonathan Jones’ new book from Laurence King Publishing is a quality job. Entitled Sensations, it bears on its back cover a recommendation from none...

Bruce McLean Plus Three Other London Shows – Edward Lucie Smith

In a trough after its immediately pre-Easter excitements – Rembrandt at Gagosian, Sean Scully at the NG – the London art world looks faintly...

Kathy Acker And I – ICA Retrospective – Paul Carter Robinson

I,I,I,I,I,I,I Kathy Acker is a fitting title for this quasi-retrospective exhibition which opened at the ICA on Tuesday night. In fact, it would have...

Chantal Joffe: Her Own Sense Of Being – Victoria Miro – Sue Hubbard

Chantal Joffe Victoria Miro London: In his seminal 1972 book Ways of Seeing, the late John Berger claimed that: ‘A woman must continually watch...

Figurative Abstraction And Meditative Dreamscapes Two London Shows – Edward Lucie-Smith

Currently, Huxley Parlour in Swallow Street, a location better known for its restaurants rather than for art, has a show rather mysteriously entitled Figurative...

Sean Scully National Gallery – Rembrandt and Now Gagosian – Edward Lucie-Smith

At first glance, the Sean Scully show that just opened at the National Gallery in London couldn’t be more different from the exhibition not...

Raqib Shaw Landscapes Of Kashmir – Pace NY – Ilka Scobie

Kashmiri born, London based Raqib Shaw has created his first dazzlingly immersive and multicultural landscape series.

Richter and Snyder Two London Spring Exhibitions – Edward Lucie-Smith

The Gerhard Richter show currently in the smaller of Gagosian’s three London galleries is maybe best described as “a bit of a tease”.

Edvard Munch: Ibsenian Imagery And Isolation – Edward Lucie-Smith

A new exhibition of work by the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch now at the British Museum claims to be the biggest ever devoted to...

Johan Van Mullem – Unit London – Oliver Malin

Unit London & their emergence as a leading gallery brand on Instagram, (355K people can’t be that wrong?) are a serious force to be...

The GHost Parlour – Sarah Sparkes – New Art Projects London

The GHost Parlour, Sarah Sparkes’ solo exhibition at New Art Projects London, intimately explores the theme of ghosts and spirits, a subject which has...