I bought at the recent Bonham’s sale in Knightsbridge a picture by Suddaby which complements one I already have. Because neither is like what one might call a “normal” Suddaby, nobody ever guesses the artist’s name. Both are oils of flowers in a vase on a window ledge, with the window open behind the vase. This set-up enables the artist [Read More…]
Results for search of category: 20th century British art
Adrian Allinson at Lord’s
During the One Day International between England and South Africa on Sunday I found myself in a part of the Pavilion at Lord’s that I don’t normally go in. And there I found a group of 20thC pictures of cricket subjects. The one that caught my eye was by that rather unacknowledged English painter, Adrian Allinson. Born in 1890, he [Read More…]
Scotney and Corsham
The Victorian National Trust house at Scotney was the home of the architectural historian, Christopher Hussey. There are some John Pipers to see (of Cuckmere as well as of the Castle), but a particular treat is to see 2 major works by the portraitist, John Ward, who died in 2007. Christopher Hussey gets the full-length treatment in a magnificent picture; his wife [Read More…]
British art in America
Back from New York and Minneapolis. In MOMA saw various Francis Bacon’s: a 1991 triptych, which must have been one of his last pictures; a Pope; and Study of a Baboon from 1953. The latter came from James Thrall Soby. I have come across him in the context of my Peter Watson research, as correspondence survives between them, although they [Read More…]
John Piper at Dorchester-on-Thames
Increasingly it is possible to regard Piper as an extremely important artist of 20th C Britain. This is partly because of the efforts by his supporters to put on a wide variety of shows of his work, enabling the audience for such things to get a much greater perspective on the breadth of his talents than is available for many [Read More…]
Basildon Park
The National Trust at Basildon have arranged a display of mid-20th C British art from the Arts Council permanent collection. I visited it on Sunday. Sensitively arranged throughout the house the idea is a loose commemoration of Lord Iliffe, who himself collected pictures of this type and period. There is the important and well-known Sutherland from 1950, Standing Form against [Read More…]
Peter Watson and others in Sicily
Just returned from Taormina. Peter Watson visited in 1950/1, staying at the grand hotel, the San Domenico Palace. Nearby was Truman Capote, who lived there at the time, and also the Englishwoman, Daphne Phelps, at Casa Cuseni. She had a string of high profile cultural visitors and it would be interesting to know if Watson was one of them. It would [Read More…]
Graham Sutherland and John Piper
I caught the quite extensive show of Sutherland at Oxford. There was a deliberate concentration on landscapes, especially of Welsh scenes. The issue was that the extensive output of fairly small pictures of this type did not necessarily represent the finished product. It can be hard to decide whether Sutherland is working through ideas or leaving such works fully formed. Insofar as they [Read More…]
Peter Watson in the FT
Nice to see Watson on page 13 of today’s Financial Times! Not a paper which often refers to him. He pops up in a review of the new Keith Vaughan show at the wonderful Pallant House. Richard Cork’s review rather oddly labels him a “publisher”, presumably because he paid for the publication of Horizon. He is sometimes confused with a [Read More…]
Robin Ironside at Pallant House
Went to see the Robin Ironside exhibition at Pallant House in the pouring rain yesterday. A small show, rather dimly lit, presumably because of the fragile medium used in most of the pictures. But a treat to see a group of his work, as it is remarkably hard to come by in the art market or in any public gallery and it [Read More…]