Exhibitions
Frank Holl: a forgotten talent much admired by van Gogh
The Watts Gallery, just outside Guildford off the Hog’s Back, is a delightful place to visit at any season, with…
Is the best Australian art yet to come?
Astonishingly, the last major survey show of Australian art in this country was mounted more than half-a-century ago. Then it…
Henry van de Velde — the man who invented modernism
In the Musée du Cinquantenaire, a grand gallery on the green edge of Brussels, those bureaucratic Belgians are welcoming home…
David Tress: an artist of independent spirit
Like all artists of independent spirit, David Tress (born 1955) resists categorisation. He has been called a Romantic and a…
Under the Greenwood Tree - an exhibition worth travelling for
A mixed exhibition of paintings, drawings and prints devoted to the subject of the tree might sound an unexciting event,…
Laura Knight was an artist skilled in the ways of the world
The popular conception of Dame Laura Knight is of an energetic woman piling on the paint in the back of…
At last Alfred Munnings is being taken seriously again
Sir Alfred Munnings (1878–1959) did himself a grave and lasting disservice when he publicly attacked modern art in a bibulous…
The problem with self-portraits: Ruth Borchard competition and Stranger reviewed
My wife says you can always tell a self-portrait by the quality of its self-regard. There’s something about the eyes…
State-sponsored cultural renaissance in revolutionary Mexico
Revolution shook Mexico between 1910 and 1920, but radical political change was not mirrored in the art of the period.…
Samuel Courtauld’s great collection
In 1929, Samuel Courtauld owned the most important collection of works by Paul Gauguin in England: five paintings, ten woodcuts…
Compare and contrast Rodin and Moore
One generation is usually so busy reacting against its predecessors that it can take years for a balanced appreciation of…
Modernist Marxists skew the Lowry exhibition
There has been much positive comment about the rehang of the Tate’s permanent collection, which sees a welcome return to…
A Crisis of Brilliance makes the trek to Dulwich worthwhile
This exhibition was dreamt up by David Boyd Haycock, a freelance writer and curator, following the success of a book…
Exhibitions: Why can’t the critical fraternity make up its mind?
As more time elapses since the regrettable fracas over Kitaj’s 1994 Tate exhibition and his tragic suicide in 2007, he…
Exhibition: What really goes on in a royal bedchamber
What exactly are the ‘secrets of the royal bedchamber’? That the actual bed was seldom if ever slept in let…
Eduardo Chillida — the great modern sculptor, whom we shamefully ignore
Eduardo Chillida (1924–2002) is one of the greatest of modern sculptors yet curiously little known in this country. The last…
