Martin Gayford

Maximum wattage

G.F. Watts was way ahead of his time, as this beautifully installed new exhibition at the Watts Gallery shows

issue 29 July 2017

On his deathbed in 1904, George Frederic Watts saw a extraordinary spectacle. He witnessed the universe coming into being: the ‘breath of the Creator acting on nebulous matter’ causing ‘agitating waves & revolving lines’ to fly out in all directions. With hindsight, it is tempting to conclude that Watts had a vision not, as he thought, of reality in ‘a glorious state’, but of abstract painting.

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