Martin Gayford

2015 in exhibitions – painting still rules

As the forthcoming Goya, Rubens and Dumas shows at the National Gallery and Tate prove, painting is in rude health

issue 03 January 2015

The New Year is a time for reflections as well as resolutions. So here is one of mine. In the art world, media and fashions come and go, but often what truly lasts — even in the 21st century — is painting. Over the past 12 months, there has been a series of triumphs for pigment on canvas, including the glorious Veronese exhibition at the National Gallery, and a demonstration by Anselm Kiefer at the Royal Academy that we still have painters of towering stature among us.

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