The Zone of Interest. Review by Graham Buchan. What qualifies a film as a masterpiece? Well, if it rattles around your mind for several days afterwards that’s a pretty good sign. The Zone of Interest does this in spades, having already chilled you to the marrow.
Graham Buchan
Sarah Lucas: Happy Gas. Review by Graham Buchan. It is clear from this retrospective of Sarah Lucas’s thirty-five year career that an obsession with tits, toilets, cigarettes, shoes and chairs informs much of her work.
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.
Empire of Light. Review by Graham Buchan. A very reliable rule in most film-making is that an excellent script can still be turned into a bad film, but a poor script will never be turned into a good film.
Tár. Review by Graham Buchan. Tár is a mesmerizing and complex tale of a jet-setting star orchestral conductor, Lydia Tár, and her past transgressions, her failings and her fall from grace.
Lucien Freud, New Perspectives. Review by Graham Buchan. The National Gallery has a big, comprehensive exhibition – over 60 paintings – to mark the centenary of Lucien Freud’s birth and to document the whole range of his seven-decade painting career.
Milton Avery. Royal Academy. Review by Graham Buchan. Milton Avery must be considered as a bridge between art movements rather than a singular trail-blazer for any particular group.
The Duke. Review by Graham Buchan. In The Duke the director Roger Michell establishes exactly the right tone from the outset and maintains it steadily right up to the film’s very satisfying conclusion.
Francis Bacon: Man and Beast. Review by Graham Buchan. “Life is suffering”. If you need visual confirmation of that, look no further than this great exhibition of Francis Bacon’s work.
West Side Story, directed by Steven Spielberg In the new West Side Story Leonard Bernstein’s magnificent music and Stephen Sondheim’s incisive and witty lyrics have all been preserved and bring as much pleasure as before.
The Last Caravaggio. Review by Graham Buchan. Sometimes it is more rewarding to spend extended time with one great example of an artist’s work than to work through a whole exhibition. This is the opportunity being offered by the National Gallery’s free show The Last Caravaggio.
By Graham Buchan • added recently on London Grip, art, exhibitions, painting • Tags: art, exhibitions, Graham Buchan, painting