Andrew Lambirth

Painting Now doesn’t represent painting now. Thank goodness

The exhibition at Tate Britain is dull with obviousness — for some real painting go for The Elemental North at Messum's

‘Untitled’, 2012, by Simon Ling
  • Comments

  • Painting Now: Five Contemporary Artists

    Tate Britain, until 9 February

  • Euan Uglow Drawings

    Marlborough Fine Art, 6 Albemarle Street, W1, until 1 February

  • The Elemental North

    Messum’s, 8 Cork Street, W1, until 15 February

The death of painting has been so often foretold — almost as frequently as its renaissance — that any such prediction today is nothing short of foolhardy. Of course, painting is alive and well and living in London, but you wouldn’t know that from the current exhibition of five artists at Tate Millbank.

Already a subscriber? Log in

Keep reading with a free trial

Subscribe and get your first month of online and app access for free. After that it’s just £1 a week.

There’s no commitment, you can cancel any time.

Or

Unlock more articles

REGISTER

Read next

Trending

Marcus Walker

Hell is the multi-faith prayer room at Bristol Airport

From the magazine
When the Roman Emperor Justinian finished building the Hagia Sophia church in Constantinople in 537 he compared it to the great temple in Jerusalem. ‘Solomon, I have surpassed thee,’ he declared. Some 400 years later, as visiting ambassadors from Kyiv were led into the same ethereal structure, they remarked: ‘We did not know if we

Because you read about art

Also by Andrew Lambirth

Latest

Comments

Don't miss out

Join the conversation with other Spectator readers. Subscribe to leave a comment.

Already a subscriber? Log in