Canal Boat Contemporary. Review by Barbara Lewis. Miniatures are the perfect art form for those who do not have extensive gallery space – and for taking an ironic swipe at those who do.
exhibitions
Lee Miller. Tate Britain. Review by Graham Buchan. Tate Britain’s new show is the largest ever exhibition of Miller’s work and we get to know what a remarkable and varied life she had.
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.
HOUSE OF HABERDASH: Ben Philipps visits a multi-media – text and textiles – at the Torriano Meeting House
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.
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”
Impressionist Paris. Review by Barbara Lewis. Impressionist Paris, A Panoramic View of Paris in French Impressionism. Published by Hannibal Books to coincide with the exhibition New Paris: From Monet to Morisot at the Kunstmuseum in the Hague until June 9
Nordic Noir. Review by Barbara Lewis. Beyond “The Scream,” Edvard Munch’s gift to art was his innovative approach to woodcuts, which involved cutting them into pieces so they could be coated in different colours and then putting them back together like a jigsaw.
By Barbara Lewis • added recently on London Grip, art, drawing, exhibitions • Tags: art, Barbara Lewis, drawing, exhibitions