AbCrit
Ribera, Mantegna & Bellini
AbCrit
Robin Greenwood reflects on work from two London exhibitions: Ribera: Art of Violence at the Dulwich Picture Gallery and Mantegna and Bellini at the National Gallery, London (both on view through January 27, 2019). Greenwood concludes: “I feel both with Mantegna and Ribera a potent link with art now, if we could but unlock that […]
Patrick Heron @ Tate St. Ives
AbCrit
Geoff Hands reviews works by Patrick Heron at Tate St Ives, on view through September 30, 2018. Hands writes: “Heron’s work is often distinguished by its example of colour-shape dexterity and glorious visuality and a chronological display may not have accommodated or extended the potential impact of his achievements. The visual dynamism of the paintings, from all […]
Matisse-Bonnard @ the Staedal Museum
AbCrit
Richard Ward reviews Matisse-Bonnard: Long Live Painting at the Staedal Museum Frankfurt, on view through January 14, 2018. Ward notes that the “difference of approach [of the two artists] is visible throughout the exhibition and manifests itself in various ways: Matisse’s primary creation is pictorial space. Even a simple, almost sketch-like painting, such as the amazing ‘Open […]
Gillian Ayres @ the National Museum Cardiff
AbCrit
Nick Moore reviews a retrospective exhibition of paintings by Gillian Ayres at the National Museum, Cardiff, on view through September 3, 2017. Moore begins: “The overarching sense of this exhibition is of a celebration of a painter whose work is vibrant, energetic and ambitious, but perhaps, above all, someone who has lived in painting. Ayres’s rich colour and […]
Alan Gouk on Key Modernist Paintings
AbCrit
Alan Gouk presents his thoughts on great modernist paintings by Cézanne, Picasso, Matisse, Bonnard, Gauguin, Monet, and Braque. Gouk remarks: “What painting is about is claiming the surface – making it real to you, palpable, physically present, and tangible almost. At its best it is the expression of one’s involuntary response to surface, but without resorting […]
Richard Smith: Work of Five Decades
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John Bunker reviews Richard Smith: Work of Five Decades at Flowers Gallery, Cork Street, London, on view through July 15, 2017. Bunker writes: “To point to and paraphrase Matisse … he said the first line that an artist makes as she/he begins a drawing is in fact the 5th as there are already the four […]
Patrick Jones: No Pasaran
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Len Green reviews Patrick Jones: No Pasaran recently on view at the PS45 Gallery, Exeter, March 10 – April 9, 2017. Green begins: “The exhibition “No Pasaran” represents a life-long artistic journey by Patrick Jones, a journey which illustrates how he and his work have been affected by artistic influences from America and Europe. The […]
Brancaster Chronicles at Greenwich
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Harry Hay reviews the recent exhibition Brancaster Chronicles at Greenwich at the Heritage Gallery. The show features works by Alexandra Harley, Anne Smart, Anthony Smart, Emyr Williams, Harry Hay, Hilde Skilton, John Bunker, John Pollard, Mark Skilton, and Robin Greenwood. Hay writes: “… if one was to visit the Brancaster Chronicles website, and if they were […]
Alan Gouk: New Abstract Colour Paintings
AbCrit
Emyr Williams reviews Alan Gouk: New Abstract Colour Paintings at the Hampstead School of Art, London, on view through May 12, 2017. Williams writes: “Greens drag through yellows and vice-versa, creating limes, reds through purples and purples through magentas. Blue is often bonded with white, and white is used to kick areas into a bristling […]
Painting & Structure
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John Bunker reviews the recent exhibition Painting & Structure at the Kennington Residency, London. The show featured works by Daniel Sturgis, Mali Morris, Sophia Starling, Andrea Medjesi-Jones, Kes Richardson, and James Campion. Bunker writes: “This show brings together an interesting mix of painters who tend to ‘play’ with the tension between crafted excess and severe […]
Victor Pasmore @ Pallant House Gallery
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Robin Greenwood reviews Victor Pasmore: Towards a New Reality at Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, on view through June 11, 2017. Greenwood concludes: “… right from the off, his paintings show an interest in spatiality and volume, starting with the Cézanne-esque Bradman Still Life of 1929, which emphasises rounded three-dimensionality over planar flatness; and continuing right […]
The Shchukin Collection at Fondation Louis Vuitton
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Alan Gouk reviews Icons of Modern Art. The Collection Shchukin at The Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, on view through March 5, 2017. Gouk writes: “This is what was so apparent in the confrontations afforded here, however many times one may have seen some of these pictures in different contexts and settings; how solidly and succulently […]
Frank Avray Wilson @ Whitford Fine Art
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Nick Moore reviews a recent exhibition of paintings by Frank Avray Wilson at Whitford Fine Art, London. Moore writes: “The first thing one is aware of walking into a room full of Avray Wilson’s paintings is the vibrant colour; vibrant in that it appears to be alive and pulsing, even glowing, bringing to mind stained […]
Robert Motherwell @ Bernard Jacobson
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John Bunker reviews Robert Motherwell: Abstract Expressionism at Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London, on view through November 26, 2016. Bunker writes: “Motherwell has a reputation for being the clever aesthete who was always too enamoured of the ‘Old World’ of Mediterranean sunshine, azure skies, Gauloises packets – and always with an eye for rare book wrappers […]