Allen Jones, Anselm Kiefer, Peder Balke and Moroni

A busy weekend of catching up on viewings. The Kiefer show at the Royal Academy was astonishing.I had no previous knowledge of his work and went twice to try to get to grips with it. The size of the work is overwhelming and cumulatively highly impactive. It seems logistically impossible that some of the works were able to be transported to London without damaging them. The work is impossible to summarise; perhaps one can say that work which compels thought on the part of the viewer has achieved something worthwhile. He clearly has artistic ability and imagination and the whole of German history to play with as his subject matter.

The 19th century Norwegian artist, Peder Balke, at the National Gallery is fascinating as well, but in a different sense. Unknown not just to me but I suppose to most people at the show at the National Gallery (free), he had a narrow talent to display the achievements of Creation particularly around the North coast of Norway and in the desolate Finnmark. The show served as a useful geography lesson. Beyond that, it intrigued, but only moderately. He seemed not to have tussled with the human figure , at least not in the pictures in this show, and there are limits to how many times one can sensibly goggle at the jagged cliffs of that inhospitable North coast.

Allen Jones in the Burlington Galleries at the back of the Royal Academy was, alas, a disgrace. A truly ghastly exhibition; far too large as a show and in rooms which were far too large for almost anything smaller than full-scale Kiefer specials. One wonders what the organisers were thinking of. The notorious human furniture pieces were there and it was of course interesting to see work which had seemed so shocking long ago; a few of the paintings were fine in their slick, tricky way. The majority of the sculptures were beyond parody. The final room barely merited a glance. Judging by the fact that, on a Saturday morning, I was almost the only person viewing the show, others have not been too tempted.

Moroni at the Royal Academy was a quiet joy. Subtle, skilful, high quality work; one felt like a nascent connoisseur seeing such attractive pictures.The only drawback is that horrid glass staircase up to the rooms.

Henry Lamb
To the Salisbury Museum to see a good show of Henry Lamb’s work. The Gallery isn’t big enough for a major retrospective, but it was a good effort. The challenge with someone like Lamb is to persuade people to come and see pictures by a painter few can [Read More…]

The Snail that climbed the Eiffel Tower and other work by John Minton
Martin Salisbury has produced a classic and he has been beautifully supported by the Mainstone Press. As an object alone, this book is a delight; knowing nothing about the artist, one could leaf through this production and gorge on its quality. There can be no better way to remind the art world that they diminish artists like Minton at their peril; his paintings were the tip of his iceberg and it is only when they are taken with his other work that his skills and achievements get their proper recognition. He may have had a short life as an artist, but what a marvellous range of achievements.

Sir Denis Mahon
At Westport House in the West of Ireland this week, I saw a portrait of Mahon as a young man. He wears a suit and his OE tie. Turns out that his mother was a Browne, the family name of the Marquess of Sligo, owner of the house [Read More…]

Anthony Fry at the Holburne, Bath
Chris Stephens from Tate Britain took over at the Holburne last year and this exciting show is an example of how he intends to develop aspects of this Bath gallery, which is situated at the end of the extraordinary Great Pulteney Street. It is not easy to see [Read More…]

⋅ Jankel Adler ⋅ Eileen Agar ⋅ John Aldridge ⋅ Adrian Allinson ⋅ Michael Andrews ⋅ Edward Ardizzone ⋅ Arthur Armstrong ⋅ Frank Auerbach ⋅ Michael Ayrton ⋅ Francis Bacon ⋅ Wilhelmina Barns-Graham ⋅ Edward Bawden ⋅ Adrian Berg ⋅ Basil Blackshaw ⋅ David Bomberg ⋅ Louis le Brocquy ⋅ Jean Bullock ⋅ Edward Burra ⋅ George Campbell ⋅ Prunella Clough ⋅ Geoffrey Clarke ⋅ William Coldstream ⋅ Cecil Collins ⋅ Robert Colquhoun ⋅ John Craxton ⋅ Alfred Daniels ⋅ Alan Davie ⋅ Gerard Dillon ⋅ William Gear ⋅ Wilfred Dudeney ⋅ Richard Eurich ⋅ Hans Feibusch ⋅ Lucian Freud ⋅ William Gear ⋅ Mark Gertler ⋅ William Gillies ⋅ Beatrice, Lady Glenavy ⋅ Duncan Grant ⋅ Richard Hamilton ⋅ John Hayward ⋅ Thomas Hennell ⋅ Patrick Hennessy ⋅ Paul Henry ⋅ Barbara Hepworth ⋅ Josef Herman ⋅ Patrick Heron ⋅ Derek Hill ⋅ Tristram Hillier ⋅ Roger Hilton ⋅ Ivon Hitchens ⋅ David Hockney ⋅ Frances Hodgkins ⋅ Robin Ironside ⋅ Augustus John ⋅ David Jones ⋅ Karin Jonzen ⋅ Eric Kennington ⋅ Laura Knight ⋅ Peter Lanyon ⋅ Wyndham Lewis ⋅ Laurence Lowry ⋅ John Luke ⋅ Robert MacBryde ⋅ Sine Mackinnon ⋅ Norah McGuinness ⋅ William McTaggart ⋅ FE McWilliam ⋅ Bernard Meninsky ⋅ Oliver Messel ⋅ Colin Middleton ⋅ John Minton ⋅ Henry Moore ⋅ Cedric Morris ⋅ Rodrigo Moynihan ⋅ John Nash ⋅ Paul Nash ⋅ Christopher Nevinson ⋅ Algernon Newton ⋅ Ben Nicholson ⋅ Sir William Nicholson ⋅ Winifred Nicholson ⋅ Daniel O’Neill ⋅ Eduardo Paolozzi ⋅ Victor Pasmore ⋅ John Piper ⋅ Eric Ravilious ⋅ Alan Reynolds ⋅ Ceri Richards ⋅ William Roberts ⋅ Michael Rothenstein ⋅ Kenneth Rowntree ⋅ William Scott ⋅ Matthew Smith ⋅ Stanley Spencer ⋅ Gilbert Spencer ⋅ Rowland Suddaby ⋅ Graham Sutherland ⋅ Julian Trevelyan ⋅ Fred Uhlman ⋅ Leon Underwood ⋅ Keith Vaughan ⋅ Edward Wadsworth ⋅ Alfred Wallis ⋅ Evan Walters ⋅ John Ward ⋅ Carel Weight ⋅ Gerald Wilde ⋅ Kyffin Williams ⋅ Edward Wolfe ⋅ Bryan Wynter ⋅ Jack Yeats ⋅

20th Century
British and Irish Art

Art Commentator and Historian
Adrian Clark

Allen Jones, Anselm Kiefer, Peder Balke and Moroni

20th Century British and Irish Art

Art Commentator and Historian Adrian Clark

Allen Jones, Anselm Kiefer, Peder Balke and Moroni

20th Century
British and Irish Art

Art Commentator and Historian
Adrian Clark