Andrew Lambirth 
Exhibition review: Saloua Raouda Choucair, Shanti Panchal
Forgive my ignorance, ladies and gentlemen, but I must confess that I had never heard of Saloua Raouda Choucair before the advance publicity of the Tate’s exhibition. She’s not in… Read more
Painting begins at 90 – celebration of Jeffrey Camp, Anthony Eyton and Patrick George
The year 1923 was a good one for British artists, witnessing the birth of three painters who became friends and whose work epitomises a rich strand of realism in the… Read more
Alexander Calder, Eilis O’Connell, Mary Newcomb
Alexander Calder (1898–1976) needs no introduction. The master of the mobile — that poignant hanging arrangement of moving elements — he also invented the stabile (stationary) and the standing mobile.… Read more
Cabinet of curiosities
In 1951, the artist and writer Barbara Jones (1912–78) organised an exhibition called Black Eyes and Lemonade at the Whitechapel Gallery celebrating the popular arts of toys, festivities, souvenirs and… Read more
Exhibition review: Looking at the View, Tate Britain
Most of us like to look at a view, though not all are fortunate enough to live with one, in which case art can offer an alternative, a window on… Read more
Exhibitions: R.B. Kitaj: Obsessions The Art of Identity
Nowadays, R.B. Kitaj (1932–2007) tends to be ignored by the critics in this country — like a bad smell in the corner of the room. It was not always thus:… Read more
Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum
The Reading Room is currently packed with Roman remains and with visitors attempting (or pretending) to look at them. The latest blockbuster at the BM (sponsored by Goldman Sachs) looks… Read more
George Bellows; Sydney Lee RA
The American artist George Bellows (1882–1925) is best known for his boxing paintings, but as this surprising exhibition reveals, that was only the half of it. We don’t really know… Read more
Cross examination
As Easter comes upon us in this bitter spring, many of us are drawn to contemplate the mystery of Christ’s passion: his Crucifixion, Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven. You don’t… Read more
When Picasso was a boy wonder
Exhibitions are only as good as the loans that can be secured for them, as was seen at the Royal Academy’s Manet exhibition recently. The exhibits at Burlington House were… Read more
Barocci exhibition review: is he better unfinished?
The press release blithely informs us that Federico Barocci (1535–1612) is ‘beloved by artists and art historians throughout the ages’, but I must beg to differ. Not by me, nor… Read more
How Roy Lichtenstein became weighed down with superficiality
On both sides of the Atlantic there are still heated debates about who invented Pop Art, the Americans or the British, but it seems much more probable that concurrently each… Read more
David Inshaw: the great romantic
David Inshaw will celebrate his 70th birthday on 21 March, around the time of the spring equinox. On the eve of this grand climacteric, which will be marked by an… Read more
In the thick of it
Man Ray, born Michael Emmanuel Radnitzky (1890–1976) in Philadelphia, was a maker of images par excellence. He made sculptures, paintings and photographs, but the medium was always secondary to the… Read more
Ice Age art at the British Museum: Geniuses of 40,000BC
The best way to approach any exhibition is with a clear and uncluttered mind, without expectations or prejudices. Of course this is often impossible, for all sorts of reasons, particularly… Read more
Finding beauty in junk
Although Kurt Schwitters (1887–1948) did not invent the technique or theory of collage, he was one of the greatest practitioners of it, raising it in his work to the level… Read more
Thoroughly modern Manet
There can’t really be many people who look at art with any regularity who continue to confuse Manet with Monet. But there are those who still think that Manet was… Read more
Seraphic misfit
This year marks the 15th anniversary of the Estorick Collection and it is fitting that Giorgio Morandi (1890–1964), one of the most consistently popular of the museum’s artists, should inaugurate… Read more
Nexus of opposites
Francesco Clemente (born Naples 1952) began his rise to prominence in this country with two exhibitions at the Royal Academy — the famous New Spirit in Painting of 1981, when… Read more
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