European Solidarity Centre, by Barbara Lewis. Many of us can spell Solidarnosc, because we’ve seen it written so many times in the bold, red logo created by Jerzy Janiszewski in the early days of the Solidarnosc movement credited with toppling Communism in eastern Europe and leading to the fall of the Berlin Wall.
Barbara Lewis
Crowning Glory: The Story of Tiaras. Review by Barbara Lewis. Tiaras have an honourable claim to star in Firle Place’s latest, multi-layered exhibition in the year Queen Elizabeth has marked her platinum jubilee.
Edvard Munch. Masterpieces from Bergen. Review by Barbara Lewis. “Disease, insanity and death were the angels that attended my cradle,” Edvard Munch wrote. They went on to haunt him for the rest of his life and to become the driving forces of his art.
The Excursions of Mr Broucek. Review by Barbara Lewis. The Excursions of Mr Broucek is an opera like no other – or as Wasfi Kani, the founder and power behind the bold, brave and never daunted Grange Park Opera, puts it: “Cosi fan Tutti it isn’t.”
London Now and The Art of Literature. Review by Barbara Lewis. Leonardo da Vinci, creator of Salvator Mundi, the most expensive painting sold yet, said: “painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen”. Seller of the Salvator Mundi in 2017, Christie’s, which is cultivating its image as so much more than a place where very rich people spend millions, has taken his words as part of the inspiration for an exhibition open free to the public that showcases teasingly the latest lots next to rarely seen, privately-held works that are not for sale.
As You Like It. Review by Barbara Lewis. Shakespeare famously was for all time, and yet this version of As You Like It feels uniquely relevant to our age.
Lillias White Sings Broadway. Review by Barbara Lewis. The pan-damn-demic, as Broadway singer Lillias White puts it, has abated sufficiently for her to bring her considerable presence to cosy, atmospheric venues, including London’s Crazy Coqs.
Anyone Can Whistle. Southwark Playhouse. Review by Barbara Lewis. Anyone Can Whistle opened on Broadway in April 1964 to mixed reviews and closed shortly afterwards. Nearly 60 years on, this Southwark revival deserves to run and run as Georgie Rankcom’s inspired direction does justice to Sondheim’s genius, even when in its early phase, to make musicals from the most unlikely material.
Surrealism Beyond Borders. Review by Barbara Lewis. Surrealism has never respected borders of any kind. As a movement, it crystallised in 1924 in Paris, and, even then, some artists questioned whether they could belong to something that by definition defied easy categorisation.
Truth to Power Café. Review by Barbara Lewis. Speaking Truth to Power has come to mean “saying something to those in a position of trust or authority who don’t want to hear it,” Jeremy Goldstein, the MC of the Truth to Power Café, tells us. It’s a non-violent means of conflict resolution whose origins lie in the anti-war movement.
An Earl’s Court Miscellany. FinboroughFrontier online content. Review by Barbara Lewis. The ever-inventive Finborough Theatre has combined its return to real-life drama with an enlightened decision to carry on delivering original online work for free that surely can only enhance one of the strongest off-West End brands.
Abundance: Atlas of Infinite Possibilities. Review by Barbara Lewis. In celebration of its two decades of promoting Polish talent, a selection of winning works and of the art later produced by some of the laureates is on display in the State Gallery of Art.
By Barbara Lewis • art, exhibitions, painting, sculpture, year 2022 • Tags: art, Barbara Lewis, exhibitions, painting, sculpture