Ai Weiwei. Review by Barbara Lewis. This book accompanies the exhibitions Ai Weiwei: The Art of Defiance at Patrick Derom Gallery, Brussels, Belgium (September 19 – November 14) and Ai Weiwei: Life – Revolt – Poetry at the Emile Verhaeren Museum, Sint-Amands, Belgium (September 21– December 13)
painting
Drawn into your Presence. Review by Graham Buchan. This is a very interesting and, in some ways, unique exhibition curated by Jim Grover and Ruth Grover. It links three distinct periods of Christian religious imagery.
British Landscapes. Review by Barbara Lewis. In the depths of World War Two, the British government funded a project called “Recording Britain” that commissioned artists to capture landscapes and buildings at risk of disappearing.
Richard Dadd: Beyond Bedlam. Review by Graham Buchan. The work of a largely forgotten and unusual Victorian artist is on show at the Royal Academy. Richard Dadd (1817-1886), a product of the Academy, was held in very high regard at the start of his career and then suffered a major psychotic episode (in which he killed his father) and spent the remaining forty-three years of his life in mental institutions.
Poetry review – FROM DARKNESS TO LIGHT: Thomas Ovans admires Alwyn Marriage’s sequence of ekphrastic poems based on Christian artworks
A Red that Sings. Review by Barbara Lewis. “The red that sings” is a phrase rooted in the intellectual atmosphere of the 19th-century when scientists first grappled with the concept of synaesthesia, and poets and painters seized on it as a heightened response to the anxiety and excitement of breathless social change.
Van Dyck, The European. Review by Barbara Lewis. A lack of evidence means art historians can only speculate about the relationship between Peter Paul Rubens and his most gifted pupil Anthony van Dyck (1599–1641).
Michaelina Wautier. Review by Graham Buchan. How fantastic it is to have a substantial exhibition of a completely unknown artist; for that artist to be a woman who painted in the 1600’s; and for her work to be so assured, so accomplished and such a pleasure to experience.
Metamorphoses. Review by Barbara Lewis. The final word of Ovid’s “Metamorphoses” is “vivam”: I shall live. It was prophetic. More than any other poet, Ovid lives on as a muse to fine artists to this day.
The Weight of Being. Review by Barbara Lewis. “Life is hard, that’s why no one survives” is the title of a work by Middlesborough-born artist Gordon Dalton.
Ultimately, even art is not a cure, but it can console, give meaning and even extend our lives. It’s true for us all to varying degrees.
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.
Richard Dadd. Review by Barbara Lewis. A friend of the young Richard Dadd when he was one of the stars of the Royal Academy of Arts referred to his “rich voice as full of music as a joy-bell” and his “sportive humour, exciting innocent mirth”. A few years later, Dadd had stabbed his father to death during a psychotic episode. Dadd avoided hanging but spent the rest of his life locked away – first in the Bethlem Royal Hospital and then in Broadmoor.
By Barbara Lewis • added recently on London Grip, art, exhibitions, painting • Tags: art, Barbara Lewis, exhibitions, painting