Visual arts
Sarah Kent
Paradise, according to German artist Thomas Struth, is to be found in the tropical rain forests of Yunnan Province, China. His gorgeous photograph Paradise 11 is the first thing I saw on entering the Hayward Gallery and, immediately it had a soothing effect on my frazzled urban psyche. Then I spotted the cable car dangling above the tree canopy – a sure sign that the remote wilderness of Xishuangbanna is no longer unspoiled; Paradise has been trampled on. Next I discovered that these magical forests are being uprooted to make way for rubber plantations.Since this is an exhibition review Read more ...
Sarah Kent
A young woman sits sewing (pictured below right: Young Woman Sewing,1655). She is totally immersed in her task, and our attention is similarly focused on her and every detail of her environment. The cool light pouring though the window illuminates her work and also gives us a clear view. She sits on a wooden platform that raises her above the cold floor tiles; on one side of her is a linen basket and, on the other, an ebony chair, its carved back and legs picked out with gleaming dots of light. Resting on the chair is a lacemaking kit replete with beautifully observed little bobbins, waiting Read more ...
Katherine Waters
Bill Brandt’s photographs and Henry Moore’s studies of people sheltering underground during the Blitz (September 1940 to May 1941) offer glimpses of a world that is, thankfully, lost to us. A year and a half after the end of the bombing campaign, the work of the two artists was published side-by-side in the December 1942 edition of the pioneering illustrated magazine, Lilliput. As a caption beneath a sleeping woman reads, “It is interesting to note how often Brandt and Moore, working quite independently of each other, chose very similar subjects for their work.” The magazine’s full-page Read more ...
Florence Hallett
For David Hockney, drawing is born out of familiarity: his portraits both express and fulfil the urge to know someone deeply and well. In his 60-year career, he has returned again and again to those closest to him, drawing them often enough that each portrait feels like a fragment of a conversation held over time: sometimes they pick up where they had previously left off, sometimes they return to a subject long forgotten. In the first major exhibition to be devoted to Hockney’s drawings for more than 20 years, one is acutely aware of intruding on a lifelong dialogue, the nature of which is Read more ...
Sarah Kent
The exhibition starts on the Barbican’s lift doors, which are emblazoned with photographs from the show. They include one of my all-time favourites: Herb Ritts’s Fred with Tyres 1984 (pictured below right), a fashion shoot of a young body builder posing as a garage mechanic, in greasy overalls. Despite his powerful muscles, he looks tired and petulant. The admixture of power and vulnerability is a theme running through this wonderful show, which explores masculinity in all its glory as portrayed by artists in photographs, films and videos, since the 1960s.Introducing the show is a quote from Read more ...
Sarah Kent
The screen is filled with the head and shoulders of a man lying on his back; he could be dead in the morgue or lying on the analyst’s couch. He doesn’t move (it’s a still), but we hear his voice recounting the terrible story of the day he accidentally killed his brother. 7th Nov. (main picture) lasts 23 minutes – long enough for you to examine every follicle on the man’s scalp, while at the same time picturing each detail of the horrific tale. The film demonstrates the amazing power of words to trigger mental pictures, while also highlighting the difference between seeing and imagining. Read more ...
Sarah Kent
“From today, painting is dead.” These melodramatic words were uttered by French painter, Paul Delaroche on seeing a photograph for the first time. That was in 1840 and, since then, painting has been declared dead many times over, yet it refuses to give up the ghost.Even now, when so many artists are choosing photography, film or video over paint on canvas, artists like Glenn Brown, Marlene Duma, Peter Doig and Jenny Saville continue to expand the possibilities of the archaic medium and prove there’s plenty of life in it.The Whitechapel Gallery's new show Radical Figures: Painting in the New Read more ...
Sarah Kent
It looks as if vandals have ransacked Whistler's Peacock Room. The famous interior was commissioned in the 1870s by shipping magnate, Frederick Richard Leyland to show off his collection of fine porcelain. The specially designed shelves have been broken and their contents smashed; shards of pottery lie strewn across the floor.The destruction seems also to be coming from within, though; it’s as if some form of vile corruption were infecting the very substance of the exotic room. Over the mantelpiece hangs a painting of a princess by James McNeill Whistler; circles of mould have infected Read more ...
Sarah Kent
“I forgive you,” he said. “I forgive you… for the bombs.” Spoken by a young Muslim in measured tones that can’t hide his fear, these chilling words recall a random encounter with a stranger. Written and directed by Imran Perretta and based on his own experiences of growing up in London, the destructors provides harrowing insights into what it’s like to be seen by society as a potential threat, a terrorist in the making. Not long after 9/11, the attack on the Twin Towers has created an atmosphere of suspicion and distrust, which registers on the stranger’s face in an “obscene gaze, full Read more ...
Florence Hallett
Even more than most, Picasso exhibitions need a focus: he was so prolific and diverse that the alternative is neither practical nor comprehensible. As topics go, Picasso’s works on paper, it turns out, is not nearly focused enough, and the Royal Academy’s exhibition includes quantities of drawings, prints, paintings and paper cut-outs, all means by which Picasso organised and developed his thoughts, of which he had very many.Drawings are uniquely revealing, and a room dedicated to the preparatory works for Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, 1907, a painting often credited as the first utterance of Read more ...
theartsdesk
Picasso and Paper, Royal Academy ★★★ A fascinating subject that proves too unwieldy for a single exhibition. Until 13 Apr Rembrandt's Light, Dulwich Picture Gallery ★★★★ A novel collaboration between curators and cinematographer Peter Suschitzky. Until 2 FebWilliam Blake, Tate Britain ★★★★★ Vast and satisfying show for a visionary and iconic artist. Until 2 Feb See all the theartsdesk's visual arts coverage
Florence Hallett
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 our favourites are still running, and there’s a month left to see Rembrandt’s Light at Dulwich Picture Gallery. The show skilfully eschews gimmickry in order to explore Rembrandt’s expert manipulation of light to aid storytelling and evoke nuances of mood and atmosphere (pictured below: Rembrandt, The Denial of St Peter, 1660). Rembrandt was an Read more ...