Millet: Life on the Land. Review by Graham Buchan. If you have read the classic book on English rural life, Ronald Blythe’s Akenfield, you will know that such a life, particularly before farming was mechanised, was one of unremitting hardship and poverty, and definitely not to be romanticised. The French painter Jean-François Millet rendered that sort of life in paint.
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HOUSE OF HABERDASH: Ben Philipps visits a multi-media – text and textiles – at the Torriano Meeting House
Birdsong. Review by Barbara Lewis. Flanders, one of the most densely populated areas of Europe, is the birthplace of artist David Claerbout, whose reaction to an excess of human frenzy is a quest to redefine time.
Kiefer – Van Gogh. Review by Graham Buchan. If you see here echoes of Van Gogh’s last acknowledged, doom-laden masterpiece Wheatfield with Crows (1890), then you will likely find this exhibition at the Royal Academy highly satisfying.
The Très Riches Heures of Jean, Duke of Berry. Review by Barbara Lewis. The dazzling Gothic beauty of these miniatures and calendars foreshadowed the work of Jan van Eyck and other outstanding 15th-century Flemish painters.
Hiroshige, artist of the open road. Review by Barbara Lewis. Japanese artist Utagawa Hiroshige (1797–1858) lived as Japan shifted from the isolationism that characterised the shogun-dominated Edo period towards opening up to the world.
Poetry review – THE ICONOSTASIS OF ANXIETY: Pam Thompson engages with a dense and complex short collection by W N Herbert
Poetry review – HEALING THE PACK: Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch admires clare e. potter’s intricate blending of the animate and inanimate
Nocturnal Journey. Review by Barbara Lewis. Detachment from time and space are the hallmarks of Hans Op de Beeck’s meticulously crafted art, which arguably make it fitting that he has never had a complete exhibition of his work in his native Belgium – until now.
Books of Hours, Books of Hope. Review by Barbara Lewis. If, like me, you need a reminder of the definition, a book of hours is a devotional manual designed for personal prayer.
Grayson Perry: Delusions of Grandeur. Review by Barbara Lewis. One of the joys of Grayson Perry’s exhibition is that it is he who provides the explanatory notes. A standout peg is: “An artist’s job is to bite the hand that feeds him, but not too hard”
Poetry review – A CERTAIN PENANCE OF LIGHT: Julian Stannard discusses Debasish Lahiri’s unusual approach to ekphrastic poetry
By Michael Bartholomew-Biggs • art, books, poetry reviews, year 2025 0 • Tags: art, books, Julian Stannard, poetry