Summer exhibition

This year’s annual exhibition at the Royal Academy, the world’s largest open contemporary art exhibition in the world.

I think this year’s show was one of the better ones! There was lots of work I’d have happily taken home with me but sadly I didn’t. As ever I loved the rooms of small pictures but this year these seemed to be a better blend of work by academicians and the public. Highlights from those rooms included Stephen Farthing’s two pictures of a collie dog in a flat cap, that is the picture was of the underside of a flat cap with a picture of the dog in the middle of it not a dog in a hat, which would also have been good! I also liked Ben Madgwick’s “Aspirin” which was a picture of an old fashioned Aspirin bottle on the edge of a canvas with a very glossy finish.

Of the bigger works I liked Joe Tilson’s pictures of Venice of which there were a few scattered about the show. These had a think decorative geometric border with a picture of a Venetian church in the middle. I also liked the wit of Phil Shaw’s “For Piet’s sake II” a picture of books on Mondrian arranged in the pattern of a Mondrian picture.

The award for most hideous picture in the show goes to “Johnny Otis (Hand jive)” by Henry Kondracki which was a blue and black picture of a jazz band. I found it a bit bland and ugly.

Reviews
Times
Independent
Evening Standard


 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Renaissance Nude

Image
Beautiful exhibition at the Royal Academy looking at the nude in Renaissance art. The show was gently themed but mainly let the pictures speak for themselves. It began by looking at the subjects, both religious and secular, which include nude figures then examined techniques and models used in these works, finishing by looking at more personal pictures. This is a period I’ve studied a lot so there were a lot of old friends and it was quite fun predicting what might appear. There were a few surprises too such as the rather surprising drawing of the Ecstatic Christ. I liked the fact the show included lots of different art forms not just paintings including sculpture, etchings, drawings and illuminated manuscripts. There were some fascinating hangs to draw comparisons particularly two sets of pictures by Giovanni Bellini and Hand Memling from almost exactly the same date. These were shown back to back in a display cabinet down the middle of one room. My favourite work was ...
Read more

Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year Exhibition 2019

Image
Delightful exhibition at Clarendon Fine Art showing pictures from the Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year TV series. I had loved the series which had set nine artists, both professional and amateur, to paint one of three celebrities. It then had a semi-final and final with them all looking at one sitter and in the final they also took on a commission. I loved the way you watched a picture build and how some were then made or spoiled by one stroke of paint.   Finding these pictures I knew so well in the flesh was therefore fascinating. None of them disappointed. My favourite artist from the final, Tom Mead, works looked just as good in real life if not better as you could see the detail. The show included his impressive self-portrait which he submitted to enter the competition, a wonderful fragmented picture of his reflection in a mirror giving a sense of movement. I loved that it included a large version of him and a miniature. His commission for the final of Jazzie B...
Read more

La Pelle: Luc Tuymans

Image
Fascinating exhibition at Palazzo Grassi o, a retrospective of the work of the painter Luc Tuymans. I loved these paintings which looked like out of focus photographs which gave an ethereal, wistful effect. My favourites were the ones which looked at the close detail of something such as showing a wax seal and another looking at the surface of brocade. They mirrored the way I often look at the surface and detail of paintings in in this case I ended up looking at the detail of a detail. A lot of the work was responding to 20th century German history and the current rise of right wing groups. This sometimes gave quite beautiful pictures a sinister edge such as “Walk” which looked like a slightly Lowry like scene of people walking in a park from above but turned out to be based on a photograph of Nazi dignitaries strolling around Berchtesgarden.   There are also some lovely portraits which turn out to be of Nazi leaders or a leader of the Ku Klux Klan. The leaflet for ...
Read more