Donatello at the V&A is a once in a lifetime chance to see a true genius no turtles allowed “The greatest sculptor of all time” is a hefty title to live up to. “Donatello: Sculpting the Renaissance” makes a hearty case for it in this expansive and thrilling exhibition. It’s curated in partnership with the Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi and the Museo Nazionale del Bargello in Florence, and the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, which have [...]
Postwar Modern at the Barbican is a timely exhibition full of energy art review How do you make sense of war? How can the human psyche comprehend senseless, wanton de- struction and loss of life for supposed political reasons? This question is searing red hot across the world following Russia’s inva- sion of Ukraine, and adds an un- nerving poignancy to this vibrant survey of 48 artists working in [...]
The long weekend: Brecon Beacons, South Wales We explore Wales’s illustrious and ancient mountains. THE WEEKEND: Spend an inspiring weekend amidst gorgeous rolling countryside and valleys, dramatic mountain ranges, breathtaking waterfalls and forests. The Brecon Beacons National Park is a haven for lovers of the outdoors at every level of exertion, from leisurely strolls along the River Usk, stopping at traditional Welsh [...]
Michelangelo & Sebastiano review: The National Gallery’s compelling visual investigation of an overlooked artistic partnership March 16, 2017 You probably haven’t heard of Sebastiano del Piombo, the Venetian born artist and contemporary of the Renaissance superstar Michelangelo. Frankly the dynamic, superlative output of Michelangelo blows Sebastiano’s relatively diminutive works out of the water. Thankfully, this show is unconcerned with ‘rediscovering’ a lost master, or using Michelangelo’s name to sex-up a generic Italian Renaissance [...]
America After the Fall depicts the pain and the anxiety of America following the Wall Street Crash February 23, 2017 Hot on the heels of its Russian Revolution exhibition downstairs, the RA continues on an exciting trajectory in its programming with an equally intriguing – and rigorously curated – show in its Sackler Wing, focusing on American art in the decade following the Wall Street Crash of October 1929. Much has been made of the [...]
Beyond Caravaggio has left the National Gallery, so we’ll just have to put up with Cagnacci’s Italian Baroque masterpiece instead February 20, 2017 For those missing strong, dramatic Italian Baroque art in their lives now the excellent Beyond Caravaggio show has wrapped, the National Gallery have secured (timely, for Valentines?) a superb and extremely rare loan of the magnificent painting, ‘The Repentant Magdalene’ by Guido Cagnacci, from the Norton Simon Museum in California. Many will likely not have heard [...]
Revolution: Russian art 1917-1932 review: A dense and difficult exhibition that rewards those who look beyond the red flags February 9, 2017 Revolution: Russian Art marks the centenary of the momentous turning point in Russian history, the October Revolution of 1917, with a monumentally packed survey of the complicated, politically charged visual art up to the suppression of the Avante-Garde by Stalin in 1932. The bright red first room, filled with propaganda and state-sanctioned Social Realist painting, [...]
Gavin Turk’s Who What When Where How and Why at Newport Street Gallery is proof he has brains as well as balls November 24, 2016 The double-height room in Damien Hirst’s Newport Street Gallery – recently home to Jeff Koons’ giant Balloon Dog – lies empty save for an English Heritage blue plaque reading “Gavin Turk worked here, 1989-1991”. This is the piece, entitled Cave, that infamously caused his tutors at the Royal College of Art to refuse to present [...]
Picasso Portraits at National Portrait Gallery is an astonishing display of the artist’s versatility October 6, 2016 The sheer prodigious output by Pablo Picasso is one reason he’s regarded by many as the greatest artist of the 20th Century. A gift for curators, his rich catalogue can be examined from all manner of starting points. It is surprising then, that this survey of his portraits is the first large-scale exhibition on the [...]
Abstract Expressionism at Royal Academy: These rarely travelled loans and invigorating, bombastic artworks resonate strongly with today’s fractured world September 22, 2016 This superlative show is huge in every sense: big themes, giant icons of mid century art, enormous canvases, and no small amount of ambition on the Royal Academy’s part, tackling an often shied from movement – or ‘ism’ – which was last explored in such a survey in the UK back in 1959. Even for [...]
