The Barber Institute of Fine Arts in Birmingham often has fancy ideas for shows. But it’s outdone itself with Scent and the Art of the Pre-Raphaelites, an event that looks simultaneously at the way art looks and how it smells. It’s inspired by a book published in 2022 by Dr Christina Bradstreet, a curator and theoretician, […]
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Marvel at the Italian Renaissance masters of magic
The Royal Collection may not actually be a bottomless pit of art treasures, but it certainly feels like one. Show after show features fresh selections of goodies pulled out from far corners of the monarchical holdings and unleashed on us serfs, pleasuring us and filling us with envy. The enormous cache of Italian Renaissance drawings […]
Should we open our hearts to Vanessa Bell?
Slowly, effectively, the MK Gallery in Milton Keynes has been devoting ambitious shows to female artists whose work has been underappreciated. It’s a process that began in 2019 with a pioneering display about Paula Rego, and which has continued with examinations of the nanny turned street photographer Vivian Maier, and a tribute to the bottomless […]
Look again! There’s more to this artwork than meets the eye
Art is full of secrets. It’s one of the best things about it. However well you know a work of art, something in its story will always remain hidden. It doesn’t matter how famous you are — the Mona Lisa, the Sistine Chapel ceiling — it doesn’t matter what you are — Leonardo’s The Last Supper, Van Gogh’s Sunflowers — […]
This is Francis Bacon’s surprising other side
I went into the Francis Bacon show at the National Portrait Gallery with a noisy doubt wedged in my mind: Bacon was not a portraitist, so what is he doing here? I came out after an hour and a half of being slapped around by exciting paintwork with a new dollop of respect for the […]
Mike Kelley: Ghost and Spirit — is this a reflection of a troubled mind?
Metaphorically, Mike Kelley was a big noise, an artist showcased at every biennale, written about in every art mag, yapped about at every curatorial gathering. Unfortunately, he was also a big noise physically, and Tate Modern’s retrospective tribute to him is so relentlessly and unpleasantly loud, with grunts, bangs, sighs, slurps, giggles, throbs and screams, […]
Finally, the abject Turner prize is worth a look
After six years, the Turner prize is back in London. This needs celebrating not because we Londoners have missed it — we haven’t — or because anyone believes London is its rightful home — we don’t — or because there was anything unworthy about the venues it ended up in on its superannuated tour of […]
Monet’s London dream has finally come true
The Savoy. It’s a typical September afternoon in London — cold, windy, overcast — and I’m spinning my way through the revolving door that marks the entrance to perhaps the world’s most famous hotel, accompanied by a conga of international rich folk returning from a hard day’s shopping. They are carrying elegant packages wrapped at […]
SpongeBob SquarePants hijacks the Royal Academy
Michael Craig-Martin is a hugely influential figure in British art. He has done really well out of it: CBE, knighthood and now a lengthy retrospective at the Royal Academy. What a shame he’s such a ghastly artist. His work is a trampling of the delicacies and visual charms of art. World-class insensitivity can, if arrived […]
Van Gogh at the National Gallery: masterpieces no one has ever matched
The exciting Vincent van Gogh show that has arrived at the National Gallery is packed with thrills and achievement. Everything at the event — 60 works, including many of his greatest — was produced in the two tumultuous years he spent in the south of France, from February 1888 to May 1890. It’s Van Gogh’s […]