Sorolla

'A Rose Bush at Sorolla's House'

1918-19

 'Types from Salamanca'

1912

'Siesta'

1911

Paintings taken from 'Sorolla: Spanish Master of Light'

An uplifting and inspiring exhibition at The National Gallery at the moment - well worth a visit. I spent a very happy afternoon with the best Senorita I know thinking of many happy times spent in Spain.

Closes 7th July 2019

Edward Burne-Jones' Strong Footwear Game

Details from The Holy Grail Tapestries, 1890-4

Perseus and The Sea Nymphs, 1877

Very on-trend strappy leather sandals, chain mail ankle boots and feathered footwear - say what you like about Edward Burne-Jones but he had excellent taste in shoes. 

Alice Neel

One of the many joys of London is that having time to burn is often a blessing, as I found last week while waiting for a friend to finish work.  Nearby was the Victoria Miro Gallery and a retrospective of American painter Alice Neel's work. What a great show - full of life and vibrancy. Neel sounds like she was a pretty fab, painting and living in New York with her children and long term latino lover, her work focusing on local subjects.

Alice Childress, 1950

Girl with Pink Flower, 1940s

Anselmo, 1962

Victoria Miro

16 Wharf Road N1 7RW

On until 29th July 2017

Cherry Blossom

Cherry Blossom in a Glass, 1932

Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin

Taken from Revolution: Russian Art 1917-1932, a brilliant (if horribly overcrowded) exhibition at the Royal Academy. So much to see, and in my case, learn. Petrov-Vodkin's ancestors were bandits, and according to local legend his surname derives from homemade vodka produced by his grandmother... what's not to love?

Ends 17th April

Italian Dinner

Italian Dinner by Josef Frank

Frank's print shows all the ingredients needed for an Italian dinner, with seafood to complete the meal. Great show of Frank's work at the Fashion and Textile Museum in Bermondsey

teamLab

Beautiful and immersive projections by Japanese collective teamLab at Pace Gallery, London recently. Entry is timed and each group granted access is designated 20 minutes only - it's worth it for a burst of uplifting colour and movement.

See more here

FRANK

The Frank Auerbach exhibition at the Tate ends this weekend - I recommend getting there before it closes its doors on Sunday. It's interestingly curated and crucially not too vast, which allows for you to get to the end of the show without feeling like a lie down.

Love this painting of London in the heat

Hampstead Road, High Summer 2010

Head of William Fever, 2003

"I'm always aware that what Frank produces are Auberbachs first and last... I'm aware of being a prompt. But what transpires and is eventually, declared to be (provisionally) done is something marvellous... These paintings give such a sense of being alive that I for one am pleased that here, whew, I'm still breathing." William Fever, 2015

Saul Leiter

Taxi, c.1957

Postman, c.1952

I went to see the Saul Leiter exhibition at the Photographer's Gallery this week - it's free before midday so I recommend swinging by if only to get away from Oxford Street for 10 minutes. I didn't know anything about Leiter, but loved his work - particularly his focus on the small details of everyday life.

Christmas, c.1950s

The exhibition is on until the 3rd April

Rembrandt: The Late Works

I've jostled for a place at a free bar and in the queue at the Zara January sale but neither rivals the fierceness of the O.A.P's at the National Gallery earlier this week, who joined me in seeing 'Rembrandt: The Late Works'

 

Self Portrait, drawing on an Etching Plate, 1658

 

The exhibition was packed with avid Rembrandt fans. I experienced a personal first at an exhibition - a gentleman tapping me on the shoulder while I was listening to the audio guide and asking me to explain the painting in front of me. He didn't hang round for long.

 

A Young Woman Sleeping, c.1654

 

The work was varied and interesting - there's obviously a lot to know about Rembrandt. Sounds like he had a pretty eventful (if not tragic) private life alongside his prolific artistic output.

 

Juno, 1662-5

 

I loved Juno's opulent get up in particular.

Rembrandt:The Late Works is on at The National Gallery until January 18th 2015.

 

Close and Far, Calvert 22

I made the trip to Calvert 22 gallery last weekend to see an exhibition of Russian photography. The show aims to examine Russia's evolution over the past 100 years by comparing the way various Russian photographers have approached their subject.

Pastoral, 2008-12
Alexander Gronsky

Anna Alexeevna, 2010

Olya Ivanova

The stand out work for me was that of Sergei Prokudin-Gorsky, who sounds like he had a pretty great time taking pictures of the length and breadth of the Russian empire after being commissioned by the last Tsar, Nicholas II, to do so.

Dinner During Hay Making, 1909

Peasant Girls, 1909

 Prokudin-Gorsky was a pioneer of colour photography. After inventing his own means of developing film, he did so while on the move in a specially equipped rail road coach complete with darkroom. Travelling far and wide, the pictures that emerged from this mobile darkroom show a multi-faceted Russia and are fascinating to look at.

Group of Harvesters, 1905-15

The exhibition is free and on until 17th August, see it if you can.

Facing the Modern

I've finally got round to seeing the Viennese portraiture exhibition at the National Gallery. I don't know a lot about the period or the main painters featured - Egon Shiele, Gustav Klimt, Gustav Mahler - but really enjoyed the show, despite its really quite dark undertones.

Klimt, whose painting 'The Kiss' has seen a thousand mugs and placemats, painted some very beautiful portraits of dead women

Portrait of Ria Munk on her Deathbed

1912 

And one of the most moving drawings was by Egon Shiele, of his pregnant, dying wife

 

 Portrait of Edith Shiele Dying

1918

But there were also lots of portraits of beautiful women in their Viennese finery, i.e lots of sartorial inspiration

Portrait of Maria

1912

Josef Maria Auchentaller

Hermine Gallia

1914

Gustav Klimt

The show skims the surface of what preoccupied Vienna at the turn of the century - I certainly left with a long list of things to google....and it's definitely worth a visit before it closes on the 12th January.

Dig by Daniel Silver

Today I went to the exhibition 'Dig' by artist Daniel Silver. Curated by Artangel, the sculpture was displayed in what was once one of the biggest Odeon cinemas in central London but has now been reduced to a building site. The artwork and site worked so well together that even though sculpture isn't always my thing, I found the installation thought provoking and inspiring.

The downstairs dungeon bit is the part you've probably already seen on someone's instagram. I loved the swampy boardwalk around the standing statues.

And I really liked this unintentional art work by the invigilators

 

For more see the Artangel website, here.

Photo Finish

I had a little while to burn before a meeting yesterday, so I swung by The Photographer's Gallery for a quick look round.

I'd forgotten that the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize was on. I shortlisted two, and enjoyed the work from Pieter Hugo

Yakubu Al Hasan, Agbogbloshie Market, Accra, Ghana 2009

But what really caught my eye was the photo collage triptych by John Stezaker:

Marriage LXIV, 2012

Betrayal XVIII, 2012

Muse XIII, 2012

Found these images quite arresting, their titles definitely lent to their poignancy. I didn't realise that Stezaker had won the photography prize a few days ago. 

The exhibition closes this Sunday - worth checking out before it goes if you're in the area.

Dirty Knees Look at These

Well done to sister act Perran and Tegan Williams who with a group of others organised, curated and exhibited in a very fleeting pop up show currently on in South Kensington. The show was both unpretentious and exciting - full of great works by young artists at the start of their careers.

Pieces were selling all over the place! Including a ladder pasted with National Geographic images by One Off favourite Tegen.

Looking forward to the next show...

Check out the exhibition if you can before it closes: 7th & 8th August 2012, Firmdale Hotel, 18 Thurloe Place, SW7 2SP.

Pool Side

The postcard above the mirror in my bedroom from a trip to the Photographer's Gallery last month inspired me to take these poolside pictures on my phone whilst in Spain, two weeks ago.

Almost a bit torturous looking at them now though.
See here for some great Pool side outfits.