Quarantaine. Review by Barbara Lewis. Flanders in its golden age produced the painters Van Eyck and Memling. Around six centuries on, the work of Belgian conceptual artist Honoré δ’O, at first sight bears no relation to his aesthetic forebears.
exhibitions
Gwen John: Art and Life in London and Paris. Review by Barbara Lewis. As curators and art historians work to redistribute glory that men historically monopolised, Pallant House Gallery’s latest major exhibition devotes itself to extracting Welsh-born artist Gwen John from beneath the shadow of her more worldly brother Augustus John.
Paula Rego: Crivelli’s Garden. Review by Graham Buchan. Two years ago Tate Britain mounted a major retrospective of Paula Rego’s work and it was a great exhibition. Now the National Gallery shows a single piece of Rego’s work, albeit a big one: Crivelli’s Garden is nearly ten metres wide and two metres high.
![Piet Mondrian, Composition in colour B, 1917. Oil on canvas, 50.5 x 45 cm. Collection Kröller-Müller Museum[48965]](https://londongrip.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Piet-Mondrian-Composition-in-colour-B-1917.-Oil-on-canvas-50.5-x-45-cm.-Collection-Kroller-Muller-Museum48965-180x200.jpg "Piet Mondrian, Composition in colour B, 1917. Oil on canvas, 50.5 x 45 cm. Collection Kröller-Müller Museum[48965]")
Hilma af Klint & Piet Mondrian: Forms of Life. Review by Graham Buchan. I recommend this show because any exhibition which redresses the balance in favour of a neglected artist is to be commended even if, as I think, af Klint’s work is not altogether good.
Archaeological Museum of Heraklion and Palace of Knossos. By Barbara Lewis. Regarded as the first advanced civilisation in Europe, Minoan Crete dated from around 3000 BC until around 1100 BC, preceding ancient Greece.
Peter Doig, The Courtauld Gallery. Review by Barbara Lewis. Peter Doig never tries to create real spaces, only painted spaces, we learn at the beginning of the Courtauld’s exhibition of some of his most recent work, including paintings created since his move from Trinidad to London in 2021.
Spain and the Hispanic World. Review by Carla Scarano. We are lucky that the Hispanic Society Museum and Library in Upper Manhattan is closed for refurbishing so that the collection that the philanthropist Archer M. Huntington accumulated in the late 19th and early 20th centuries can travel the world on loan.
Museum of New Zealand/Te Papa Tongarewa. Review by Barbara Lewis. In their desperation to get New Zealand’s founding document signed, the British in undue haste drew up a Maori version of the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi that is disputed to this day.
Pasolini Painter. Review by Carla Scarano. Pier Paolo Pasolini’s complex personality and multifaceted creativity are displayed in full at the exhibition Pasolini Pittore at Galleria d’Arte Moderna in Rome.
White. Review by Carla Scarano. The exhibition at the School of Historical Dress in Lambeth is displayed in one large room on the ground floor; it features white pieces of cloth and garments and accessories from the school’s rich collection.
Lucian Freud: New Perspectives. Review by Carla Scarano. The exhibition thoroughly explores Lucian Freud’s artistic career, displaying an extended range of paintings.
Unseen Photography from the 19th Century. Review by Barbara Lewis. Belgium, which declared independence in 1830, became a forerunner in photographic identification and is home to the oldest preserved mugshots, dating from 1843. As well as using photography to catch criminals, Belgium led the way in putting the technique to arguably criminal uses, including pornography and the wider abuse of power, which sadly finds an echo in today’s AI image manipulation.
By Barbara Lewis • art, books, exhibitions, history, photography • Tags: art, Barbara Lewis, books, exhibitions, history, photography