Exhibitions
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…
Exhibitions: Tiziano
‘When Titian paints eyes,’ observed Eugène Delacroix, who spent a lifetime admiring, studying and copying the Venetian artist, ‘they are…
Julian Trevelyan, a Jekyll and Hyde painter, at the Bohun Gallery
Between 1917 and 1923, Julian Trevelyan produced a map and an illustrated guide to Hurtenham, an industrial town on the…
Is the Louvre suggesting that Germany is programmed for war and catastrophe?
Curated by the Louvre as a tribute to mark the 50th anniversary of the Franco–German co-operation treaty signed in January…
Museums in dire straits forced to sell treasure to raise funds
It is a desperate state of affairs when museums and art galleries sell outstanding works of art in order to…
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 —…
Springtime of the Renaissance: Sculpture and the Arts in Florence, 1400–1460
Sixty per cent of the best Renaissance art is said to be in Italy, and half of that is in…
Cabinet of curiosities
In 1951, the artist and writer Barbara Jones (1912–78) organised an exhibition called Black Eyes and Lemonade at the Whitechapel…
Why on earth paint portraits in the age of photography?
‘Everybody faces rejection,’ the portrait artist Aaron Shikler said. He should know, having had three official White House portraits of…
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…
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…
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…
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…
The Angel of the Odd: an exhibition that ends with a satisfying shiver
To some extent, all Romanticism has its origins in darkness, coming in the wake of the 1755 Lisbon earthquake that…
Shades of Gray
The Anglo-Irish designer Eileen Gray keeps on being rediscovered but she remains a puzzle. The nub of the Gray ‘problem’,…
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’,…
Free spirits
‘Gypsies seem to have been born into the world for the sole purpose of being thieves,’ Cervantes begins his story…
Peter Archer — Notes from an Inland Sea
Peter Archer used to paint landscapes on the Cornish side of the Tamar river. Their most notable features were lovingly…
Wandering eye
‘When Matisse dies,’ declared Picasso, ‘Chagall will be the only painter left who understands what colour really is.’ Wandering around…
Foundling Hospital tokens
‘Dear Sir, I am the unfortunate woman that lies under sentens of Death in Newgatt…’ So begins a letter of…
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…
The new seekers
Over the past year or so, art world insiders have queued up to denounce the current state of the contemporary…
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…
Bring in the lawyers
When collectors want to purchase an expensive work of art, they contact their lawyers to write up a contract with…
Seraphic misfit
This year marks the 15th anniversary of the Estorick Collection and it is fitting that Giorgio Morandi (1890–1964), one of…
