Arts Reviews

The good, bad and ugly in arts and exhbitions

Saturday

Ed Rex

Read on

I was nervous as I approached the man in Paddington station on Saturday night. We Brits tend to assume that being addressed by a total stranger means one of two things: either they want our money, or they’re mad (and the 48 copies of Ben Macintyre’s Agent Zigzag in my bag might have suggested the latter). I was nervous as I approached the man in Paddington station on Saturday night. We Brits tend to assume that being addressed by a total stranger means one of two things: either they want our money, or they’re mad (and the 48 copies of Ben Macintyre’s Agent Zigzag in my bag might have suggested

Deborah Ross

Defining women

His & Hers is a film (obviously) which, by rights, should be as dull as dishwater, if dishwater is truly dull, which it sometimes is and sometimes isn’t. His & Hers is a film (obviously) which, by rights, should be as dull as dishwater, if dishwater is truly dull, which it sometimes is and sometimes isn’t. (I saw the face of Jesus in dishwater once; that was quite cool.) It’s a documentary featuring a group of Irish women — 70, in total — talking individually about the men in their lives: their grandfathers, fathers, boyfriends, fiancés, husbands, sons and grandsons, and that is it. Nothing else happens at all. Actually,

Michael Tanner

Winning way

Two of the most popular operas in the repertoire, works which I adore, but which I’m almost always disappointed by productions of; yet on two consecutive evenings in the Wales Millennium Centre I gained intense pleasure from each of them. Two of the most popular operas in the repertoire, works which I adore, but which I’m almost always disappointed by productions of; yet on two consecutive evenings in the Wales Millennium Centre I gained intense pleasure from each of them. What went right? Both Il Trovatore and Die Fledermaus are works of overflowing tunefulness, with almost inscrutable plots. The first duty of the producer — once it was considered to

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Under the rainbow

The pantomime, we’re often told, exists in no culture but Britain’s. Maybe we should look a bit harder. The Wizard of Oz is a children’s fantasy, epic in form, comic in idiom, populated by folksy stereotypes, which uses the metaphor of a journey to present a mythical clash between good and evil. It ends with order restored and virtue triumphant, and with the characters discovering that self-knowledge and wisdom are more valuable than the illusory contentments of wealth or power. All that’s missing is some bad acting and a few painfully ribald puns. The pantomime, we’re often told, exists in no culture but Britain’s. Maybe we should look a bit

Giannandrea Poesio

To cut a long story short

Christopher Wheeldon’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is to ballet what Pixar and DreamWorks movies are to cinema. Christopher Wheeldon’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is to ballet what Pixar and DreamWorks movies are to cinema. It takes a well-known children’s story and peppers it with references for an adult audience. And, like the Shrek saga or the recent Tangled, it combines storybook conventions with the latest performing trends, such as stunning visual effects and that episodic structure most musicals thrive on. Indeed, there were many moments when I expected characters to warble. Alas, they did not, even though singing would have been an ideal complement to the razzle-dazzle of the performance.

James Delingpole James Delingpole

Triumph of the West

If at the beginning of the 15th century you’d had to predict who was going to dominate the world for the next 500 years, the answer would surely have been China. If at the beginning of the 15th century you’d had to predict who was going to dominate the world for the next 500 years, the answer would surely have been China. From the sophistication of its sanitation system to the size of its fleet, China — under the Emperor Zhu Di and his eunuch naval commander Cheng Ho — was a country going places. Its mighty, 400-foot-long ships sailed as far as Malindi on the East African coast and

Saturday

Niru Ratnam

Aesthetic responses

Over the past month I’ve strolled through Berlin’s Alte Nationalgalerie to examine Edouard Manet’s ‘In the Conservatory’ in close detail. Over the past month I’ve strolled through Berlin’s Alte Nationalgalerie to examine Edouard Manet’s ‘In the Conservatory’ in close detail. I’ve taken a look at what’s on offer on the stands of international art dealers including Gagosian and White Cube at the VIP art fair. I have also considered buying shares in a 1988 gouache by Sol LeWitt. And I’ve done all these things from my front room thanks to an internet revolution in the art world. In December, the first stock exchange for art opened up with shares in

Laura Gascoigne

21st-century floating world

It’s an irony of Western art that our vision of modern metropolitan life was shaped, via Impressionism, by ukiyo-e prints — ‘pictures of the floating world’ of Edo, Japan. It’s an irony of Western art that our vision of modern metropolitan life was shaped, via Impressionism, by ukiyo-e prints — ‘pictures of the floating world’ of Edo, Japan. In his new exhibition, Tokyo, at Flowers East, Jiro Osuga updates that vision for the 21st century. The son of a Japanese businessman, Osuga left his native Tokyo for London in 1970 at the age of 12 and studied at Chelsea and the Royal College of Art. Since his first exhibition at

Roderick Conway-Morris

Fruit of the vine

According to Athenaeus of Naucratis, the 2nd-century AD author of The Sophists’ Banquet, the ancient Sybarites kept the capital of their city-state in southern Italy supplied with wine through a network of ‘vinoducts’ that reached far out into the surrounding countryside. According to Athenaeus of Naucratis, the 2nd-century AD author of The Sophists’ Banquet, the ancient Sybarites kept the capital of their city-state in southern Italy supplied with wine through a network of ‘vinoducts’ that reached far out into the surrounding countryside. Amusing though this high-table story was, it reflects the extent to which ancient Mediterranean civilisations were fuelled by the fermented grape, a sacred fluid central to the imagery

Angela Summerfield

Visual dialogue

An encounter with the paintings by the established Berlin-based Swede Peter Frie comes as a breath of fresh and insightful air to the British contemporary art scene. The dozen or so works (large-scale oil landscapes and a few still-lives) are displayed in stunning contemporary settings: a glass gallery and an adjacent artists’ house at Roche Court (a period house with grounds, better known for its sculpture programme). Landscape painting has not fared well within the dictates of modernist and post-modernist art definitions. It is as if an urban-centric, text-driven and often anti-aesthetic dogma has stifled both alternative discourse and individual human expression. Yet our experience of landscape, and by association

James Hart-Dyke

On the edge

There’s nothing safe or cosy — and, indeed, there shouldn’t be anything safe or cosy —about being an artist. There’s nothing safe or cosy — and, indeed, there shouldn’t be anything safe or cosy —about being an artist. Being an artist means living on the edge, going outside your comfort zone, being challenged. Artists put that challenge into practice in all sorts of different ways; and for me it’s meant seeking out challenge — and adventure — in a very focused way. I call what I do ‘extreme art’: I’ve deliberately set myself a series of tasks that have taken me into challenging and even dangerous situations, so I can

Andrew Lambirth

Painter’s progress

Andrew Lambirth talks to Alan Reynolds, who abandoned a lucrative career as a landscape painter to follow his instincts towards abstraction At the age of 85, Alan Reynolds is enjoying a sudden and well-deserved flurry of interest in his work. A superb monograph has just been published on his art, written by Michael Harrison, director of Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge, and to launch the book there’s an exhibition at Annely Juda Fine Art (23 Dering Street, W1, until 26 March). This is Reynolds’s seventh solo show at the gallery, which has successfully represented him since 1978, and which has been responsible for promoting his work in Europe. The new work

George Hull

Eccentrics on parade

A young aristocrat and the daughter of a banished duke fall in love at a wrestling contest. Both are forced from court by family intrigue, and take refuge in the same enchanted forest. She recognises him, but not vice versa, since to avert assault she has disguised herself as a boy. Confusions ensue. Stephen Unwin’s production of As You Like It (at the Rose Theatre, Kingston, until 26 March) is hoppled from the start by an antipathetic Orlando. A few minutes into the play he charges across the stage and attacks his eldest brother violently from behind. We can only sympathise as Oliver (William Tapley) plots to have him killed

Michael Tanner

Musical marvel

It is some time since any of the masterpieces of Wagner’s high maturity has been staged in London, so ENO’s revival of Parsifal was most welcome, despite memories of the irritations and worse of the production in 1999. It is some time since any of the masterpieces of Wagner’s high maturity has been staged in London, so ENO’s revival of Parsifal was most welcome, despite memories of the irritations and worse of the production in 1999. Since then it has toured the world, and achieved contemporary immortality on DVD, a performance recorded in Baden-Baden. The ENO revival is directed by Daniel Dooner, and is quite extensively revised, though not nearly

Giannandrea Poesio

Order in chaos

The history of Western ballet over the past 40 years can easily be divided into two chapters: the pre- and post-William Forsythe eras. In the early Eighties, the multitalented American-born dance-maker brought Postmodernism into ballet, challenging formulae and tenets that were 400 years old. His radical approach to the old art made some scream with horror. But it also injected new life into a languishing art. Nothing escaped Forsythe’s radical but well thought-out approach. Body axis, symmetries, gravity and gravitas were questioned and reworked along with the many conventions and expectations that were central to both making and watching ballet. Crucial duets disappeared behind a wall, while curtains and lights

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Literary junkyard

We critics know everything about the theatre. We see the best shows, we get the finest seats in the house and we’re occasionally treated to a fuming glass of vin ordinaire to lubricate our ruminations. And yet what do we really know? We critics know everything about the theatre. We see the best shows, we get the finest seats in the house and we’re occasionally treated to a fuming glass of vin ordinaire to lubricate our ruminations. And yet what do we really know? Last week a family funeral forced me to miss the press night of Frankenstein and when I logged on to the NT website I found it

Deborah Ross

Poor planning

Although I appreciate it is always hard to come down from the Oscars and that special, magical tingle in the air — if I hadn’t turned in after MasterChef, as I always do, I would have certainly stayed up all night to watch — it’s time to get back to business and this week’s big film The Adjustment Bureau, which could do with a significant amount of adjusting itself. Although I appreciate it is always hard to come down from the Oscars and that special, magical tingle in the air — if I hadn’t turned in after MasterChef, as I always do, I would have certainly stayed up all night

Simon Hoggart

The real thing | 5 March 2011

I had prepared myself for another rant at Comic Relief, a grisly occasion on BBC1 in which every year parades of slebs preen themselves on their good works. What made my teeth curl was the way some comedian would announce that the Twistelton Lions had held a pram race through the town (with the mayor dressed as a baby!) and took £1,459, a fraction of what the sleb expects for a single performance. Last year we saw Jonathan Ross congratulating all those people who had climbed Kilimanjaro, so raising one-20th of Ross’s annual salary. Couldn’t he have saved them the trouble by writing a cheque? As Jeremy Hardy used to

Saturday

Andrew Lambirth

Selective attention

Another vast exhibition at Tate Britain, but one which will no doubt prove popular with the public. Watercolour is a national pastime, and the English tend to wax proprietorial about it. As a painting medium it appeals greatly to amateurs because it’s nearly always possible to do something passable in watercolour which couldn’t be achieved in oil paint without more knowledge, application and experience. Passable, yes, but not distinguished: it takes a very great deal of skill to achieve the more than ordinary in watercolour, and herein lies its seduction and challenge. The stakes are raised by the existence of a tradition of great watercolour painting in this country, which

St John-Simpson

Cultural connections

Afghanistan has been subjected to centuries of turmoil, yet an astonishing collection of treasures survives and will be on show at the British Museum next week, as the exhibition’s curator St John Simpson explains Afghanistan is often described as the crossroads of Asia and of the ancient world, and a major new exhibition of objects loaned by the National Museum of Afghanistan in Kabul to the British Museum sets out to tell the story of its turbulent history and rich culture. By virtue of its position and physical geography, Afghanistan has always played an important role in the mediation of cultures between Iran, Central Asia and South Asia. The ebb