Stanley Spencer in Rotterdam/Francis Bacon in the Hague

Went at the weekend to the Kunsthal in Rotterdam,where there is a splendid new Spencer show.There are a large number of Spencers on display and also an attempt to contextualise the work by including work by many other contemporary British artists.So it turns into a wider review of the British art scene of the period,particularly of his early years.I can recall seeing pictures by William Roberts,Paul Nash,Gilbert Spencer,Bomberg,Freud,David Jones,Eric Gill,Wyndham Lewis etc etc.

One swings around a bit on Spencer.At one moment he is a mad English individualist in all his unique brilliance and there seems little point trying to find any context for him.Then it seems possible to see similarities between some of his work at some points with some of other people’s works at particular points in their careers.I am not a particular fan of the value of identifying influences in modern British art,but it must actually be quite unusual for artists to achieve genuine uniqueness.In Spencer’s case,of course,and probably in most cases,the influences may well be those of earlier artists and not contemporaries.So I suppose the possible value of setting the scene with the work of others is to show a whole generation of British artists responding to the same sort of shared inheritance that was art history when they started out,however divergent their careers became.

Anyway,worth a visit.I am not sure whether Rotterdam itself merits a long tourist stay,but we combined it with a stay in the Hague,from where we visited Delft on the tram and saw there the fascinating little Vermeer museum they have.At the Gemeentemuseum in the Hague there is currently a room full of Francis Bacon pictures,some on long term loan from the Estate.Unfortunately,they seem rather cramped in a small gallery with low ceilng and bright lights.The inevitable glazing on the pictures means that it is very difficult to look at the pictures without irritating reflections of lights and some sort of construction in the middle of the room.It is impossible to photograph the Bacons from any angle.

It’s been a bit of a Bacon fest recently,as we also came across the picture in the Thyssen in Madrid the week before.

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

Stanley Spencer in Rotterdam/Francis Bacon in the Hague

20th Century British and Irish Art

Art Commentator and Historian Adrian Clark

Stanley Spencer in Rotterdam/Francis Bacon in the Hague

20th Century
British and Irish Art

Art Commentator and Historian
Adrian Clark