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This portrait of Dame Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth is quite a showstopper. But then the whole show is full sensational portraits by John Singer Sargent and I adored them all. Sargent clearly had an eye for the theatrical and this really comes through in his approach to clothing, styling and presenting his subjects. He was not remotely squeamish about clothes. He would not be bullied by any of his sitters and, in some cases, insisted that they pose for their portrait in clothes of his choice rather than the fancy gowns they might have had in mind.

Above is a double portrait of Mrs Fiske Warren and her daughter Rachel, 1903. Apparently Mrs Fiske Warren presented herself to Sargent in a green gown. He immediately asked her to source a white frock. So she borrowed a dress from her sister in law which didn’t really fit. And her daughter is draped in some kind of pink cloth. Sargent painted the portraits in their home which was full of dark and lustrous objects. He wanted the subjects of the painting to glow in that environment and show off their complexions. He was more interested in getting the right effect for the painting than pleasing the vanity of the sitter. The result is glorious. Interestingly, there are some photographs of the painting process next to the picture which shows just how cluttered and intense the background was.

Sargent was a master of expression. Yes, his subjects look beautiful but he can cleverly convey character and personality. Although they are wearing sumptuous dresses, the pose gives us an immediate connection with their lives and environment. On the left is Madame Ramon Subercaseaux who played the piano and on the right is Mrs Edward Darley Boit whose lively personality is very apparent.

What’s especially fabulous about this show is that the curators have managed to display many of the actual dresses and costumes which feature in the paintings. It was great to see the magnificent portrait of La Carmencita (Carmen Dauset Moreno) an acclaimed dancer in the 1890s and the magnificent costume she danced in. Sargent saw her perform in New York and managed to paint her in a very statuesque pose while the swirly brushwork on the costume leaves us in no doubt that she has just finished whirling around in her routine.

Many of the subjects of the portraits talk about the length of time it took Sargent to complete the painting. He was meticulous and very assured in his technique for achieving impressions of texture, light on fabric, fine, filigree lacework and solid, woollen fitted suits. However, there’s one portrait he made which, we are told, took less than an hour. Below, is his portrait of Vernon Lee, 1881. Born Violet Paget, Vernon Lee chose to give herself a genderless name. Apparently she was satisfied with the swift and accurate depiction which Sargent achieved.

This impressive and extensive show – many of the paintings come directly from the Tate’s own collection as well as the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston – really captures Sargent’s ability to direct his subjects and choose fitting outfits. He also made no concessions to any self-conscious demands of the subjects and painted works which are both accurate in likeness and painterly in style. The show is on until 7th July 2024. Wonderful.

We’ve all heard of Yoko Ono. My earliest awareness of her was as a schoolgirl and Beatles fan. We would see pictures of her, sitting quietly in the recording studio while her husband, John Lennon, composed, rehearsed and recorded songs with The Beatles. We resented her. We blamed her for breaking up our favourite pop group. We never gave her artistic life or creative contribution to the world a second thought. But, by the time she met John, she had already established herself as a leading light in conceptual and performative art. Connecting herself with one of the most famous humans on the planet could be construed as an extension of her art.

Well, now we have the chance to see exactly what she had been up to prior to her Beatles ‘coupling’ and much of the work she did subsequently. Yoko Ono was at the vanguard of conceptual and participatory and performance art. I’m impressed that she embraced the thought-processes of this difficult form of art when she was so young. It takes tremendous confidence and sense of self-worth to bravely set up events in major world cities, become friends with fellow artists and carve a very individual niche in the contemporary art world.

It was fascinating to see her early work. The exhibition opens with her film entitled Match when she films the striking of a match close up and watches it burn down. I think we all share in the fascnation of this little task but few think to record it in such a serious way. She presents the film as an indication of how time passes.

Below, is a photo of gathering of contemporary artists in a tatty-looking loft in New York where she initiated artistic ‘happenings’. She was in her early twenties when she navigated her way into that art world and established herself as a powerful practitioner.

I was unfamiliar with her work full of ‘instructions’. She invites the viewer to become the artist rather than a passive observer of someone else’s work. Above is my photo of an artwork on the floor. Yes, you might observe, but that’s just a painted circle. It is, yet a bottle of water has been positioned above it and every now and then a little drip falls onto the painted circle creating dots and changing its character. It is an artwork. But it’s taken several decades of conceptual art for something as abstract as this to be understood.

Yoko Ono’s film called Bottoms was the film which both enhanced her reputation as an artist and caused a shudder through the spines of the establishment. No one could be quite sure whether she was being rude and subversive or genuinely celebrating the human figure. The British Board of Film Censors banned Film No 4 (BOTTOMS). In protest, Ono staged a protest with this poster, above, and gave reporters daffodils.

Of course, it’s her relationship with John Lennon, who was clearly captivated by her creativity and energy, which still fascinates us most. There are films of the famous ‘Bed Ins’ and their peace campaigning. This exhibition is entertaining, thought-provoking and strangely moving too. As Yoko Ono enters her 90th decade it’s absolutely right that she should be celebrated at one of our major galleries.

The show is on at Tate Modern until 1st September.

Above are a few details from one of the remarkable narrative paintings which once adorned the side of a strong box or container for a bride’s trousseau. It tells the story of David and Goliath and the long panels are just packed with fascinating images. You can’t really see the scale from these pictures but they are tiny and there is so much going on. You have to use a magnifying glass to really absorb the delicacy and detail.

As you scan these works you pick up more and more information. It’s like looking at a Breugel painting from the Renaissance world of a hundred years earlier. You get a real sense of clothing, the interiors, the layout of the towns and landscape. Then there are the animals.

The expressions and actions really tell a story. Here’s David holding the severed head of Goliath, below.

These pieces must have taken a very long time to paint. It’s astounding to think that they were fixed onto boxes which, most probably, were commissioned by the Medici family in Florence and used to store everyday goods. Pesellino was a favourite with the illustrious family and used this connection to gain more commissions to make altar pieces and religious paintings.

What a tragedy that he caught the plague in 1457 at the tender age of 35 and died. Vasari, who wrote about the lives of the artists of the period, rated Pesellino’s work and speculated on what he might have achieved if only he had lived. It’s a rare treat to see this charming exhibition at the National Gallery.

The full opening of East Bank is within sight. The London College of Fashion was the first building to open. It overlooks the canal which winds through the Olympic Park and is home for budding new designers who’ll benefit from a whizzy new learning space. Next door is the new V&A East Museum which will open in 2025 and a new Storehouse nearby which will give visitors the chance to see a vast array of exhibits which have not had the space to be seen in the Kensington site.

It was very thrilling to see the models which give an impression of the line up of new buildings. Each of the cultural institutions are full of enthusiasm for cooperation with their neighbours. The London College of Fashion will be able to send students to look at the V&A’s archive of clothing, fabric and patterns. The new BBC Studios, due to open in 2025 is located right next door to the new Sadlers Wells East which opens next year. There are plans for musicians coming to the studio to participate in dance projects in the new space, for music being recorded to be piped into the Sadlers Wells’ foyer and for a tremendous cross-pollination of ideas and learnings.

Then we walked over the canal to the new UCL East building. This is the building with the global ideas, literally. The Gaia Globe by Luke Jerram hangs in the atrium. On each floor students will have access to state-of-the-art facilities and, again, the chance to collaborate with different departments within their building. The new UCL building has welcomed its first batch of students and what a fortunate bunch they are. It’s very heartening to hear about the development of East Bank. It shows that the Olympic legacy is alive and kicking and showing just how exciting this area of London is going to become.

And, as a finale to the visit, I was able to go to the viewing platform of the ArcelorMittal Orbit. From that lofty vantage point I could survey not only the wonderful Olympic park but the views all across London on a bright sunny day. Can’t wait to go back to East Bank to see how it is progressing.

Some of the works on on show are ‘old friends’. We’ve seen Degas’ After the Bath (centre) done in pastel but I really enjoyed seeing The Market Stall by Pissaro (left) and a work by Armand Guillaumin – whom I was unfamiliar with – and his freely drawn Interior (right). All these three works are relatively polished and probably provided reference for larger scale oil paintings. But it’s the immediacy of these works which are so striking. You really get the sense of the artist’s gaze and feel that you, the viewer, are also in that space observing the same thing.

Three portraits, above. Two of them have clearly been made with the subject’s consent. On the left is a portrait of Isabelle Lambert in 1885 by Berthe Morisot. Centre is Woman with a Black Boa, done with diluted oil paint by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and, on the right is a rather fascinating charcoal sketch by Giusseppe de Nittis called In the Cab, circa 1880-83. With this one you can see that there’s the semblance of a photo in the ‘snapping’ of this moment done in charcoal. The two women in the carriage are unaware of the artist’s gaze. Apparently De Nittis bought his own carriage and turned it into a mobile studio and trundled around Paris making fleeting impressions of life on the move.

I was very drawn to the bright colours in pastel in this stylised scene on paper by Odilon Redon. It’s called Ophelia Among the Flowers, 1905-08. It is a very luscious example of pastel on paper and the strong colours this medium can produce. In the middle is a sketch by Georges Seurat called The Gleaner, c. 1882. He’s used black conte crayon in a very ‘printerly’ way – it could almost be a lithograph. Then there’s this intriguing scene on the right by Vincent van Gogh called The Entrance to the Pawn Bank, The Hague 1882. Why did he choose this subject, one wonders? It’s a mix of narrative scene and architectural landscape but so confidently drawn and very atmospheric.

And finally, here’s a mini gallery of other sketches and drawings which caught my eye. There’s so much to see in this show and it’s easy to spend a long time just gazing at the works and enjoying seeing the artist’s hand at work, the smudges, the smoothing, the clear, crisp lines and the atmosphere of the subjects they are capturing. Yes, we’ve all got cameras these days but I don’t think artists will ever stop enjoying the power of the quick sketch. These are a joy to view.

The show is on in the Gabrielle Jungels-Winkler Galleries until 10 March 2024.

This show is an absolute treat. I was unfamiliar with Liotard before seeing this show. His life filled the span of the 18th century. He was a jobbing artist, a traveller, an engraver and a portraitist. But he became an absolute master of pastels. These were chalk-based dry pastels which he must have sharpened to the most delicate point to use like a fine colour crayon to create the detail. He created the pastel portrait of The Lavergne Family Breakfast in 1754 and sold it to his patron, William Ponsonby, Viscount Duncanon for 200 guineas. He didn’t see the painting for 20 years when he was invited to stay at the Duncanon home. He decided to make a very exact replica in oil paint. It is like seeing double but you can, of course spot the difference.

Above, you can see the two paintings side by side. The oil painting is on the left. The colour of the oil paint has faded a little and the blue on the Japanese tea cup is now brown rather than blue, as seen in the original pastel version. There’s a more smoky, soft and delicate feel to the pastel version.

Above, you can see the difference in the close up. Both are so beautifully painted/drawn. But what’s so striking is the attention to detail and the absolute reproduction of the original but in a different medium.

Above are self-portraits by Liotard. When he first appeared on the London social scene he wore a knee-long beard and flounced around in red robes. He must have cut an exotic dash in the salons and drawing rooms of aristocratic homes. And he became hugely successful with commissions coming in from hundreds of wealthy families who shelled out large amounts of money to be depicted in pastel and then in oils.

Using the pastels, Liotard managed to create a wonderfully soft surface and luscious fabrics which really flatter the sitter. He was also really good at capturing character.

It’s great to have the chance to see this less well-known artist and relish his talents with a rarely seen medium. It’s on show in the Sunley Room at the National Gallery until 3rd March 2024.

Now, where’s my pastel box!

The fun of going to the press preview for this exhibition is the chance to meet the photographers who are there and also some of the subjects. The most striking subject of the morning was Captain Beany taken by Roo Lewis. Barry Kirk, AKA Captain Beany established the world’s only baked bean museum from his council flat in Port Talbot in South Wales. Dressed in very striking orange suit, and with beans tattoo’d on his eyebrows, he cut a spectacular dash next to the photograph taken of him in his Captain Beany outfit, resting at home.

I enjoyed meeting Rona Bar and Afek Aveshalom who specialise in photographing couples in their homes. This shot is of Roy and Josef, both tattoo artists, with their daughter Jude in Tel Aviv. I loved the baby’s direct stare at the lens and the striking language of the tattoo decorations.

These are just two of the large portraits by Keshmara from the series Vogue: The Arab Issue. Each shot is surrounded by tin cans and create a very eye-catching display at the back of the exhibition.

I liked this shot by Philippa James of her daughter, Lucy, in the glasses, and her 14 year old friends as they scroll their phones creating Tik Tok films. Lucy strikes a pose that, as James says in the notes on the wall, might have been learned from viewing other girls on social media.

These photos all caught my eye. I think what I like about them is the information we glean from the expression on the subject’s face. You can see that there is a thoughtfulness about all of them. The viewer can imagine the thoughts but the words from the photographer on the wall next to the picture provides a useful context.

The Taylor Wessing exhibition is on show at the National Portrait Gallery until 25th February 2024.

You enter this show and are confronted by a dramatic painting which any mother can relate to. A woman is holding a screaming baby. She looks exhausted but resolute. She will get through this. The painting is by Maureen Scott and was made in oil on board in 1970. That is the year this show begins its trawl through the trials and triumphs of women as the huge social changes took hold in the latter years of the 20th century. Charting the history of feminism is a huge subject to tackle. Imagine doing the same thing with a subject like poverty…. ? There is no ending. And so it feels with women’s rights. Yes, things have changed a great deal and are still changing but it’s still far from perfect.

I was very struck by the newspaper cuttings charting the experience of women living in ‘modern’ high rise dwellings in Hackney in the 1980s. I would guess that the architects of these homes were not women. With no space for children to run about and the challenges of dragging everything up and down many flights of stairs when the lift doesn’t work it’s understandable some women reached the end of their tether. But a group of women did find a solution. They took over an old building (at ground level) with outdoor space and set up a nursery. Once a safe place for childcare is established then women can work. It seems so blindingly obvious that you do wonder why designers and planners never thought about such things.

I liked a lot of the portraits and self-portraits on show and also the materials used to create the pieces. Much of the work was done using yarn, wool, cotton, weaving and materials which are not usually ‘valued’ by artists. I’m not sure they told us a huge amount about the social circumstances of the women featured but they are interesting to view.

On balance, I thought there was almost too much to take in within this show I felt exhausted by the breadth and variety of images and the huge range of women’s issues explored. But it’s good that the artwork created by women at the forefront of ‘revolt’ and social change should be collected, displayed and given the credence and authority to take their place within the history of not just protest art, but art.

Outside Tate Britain, on the grass to the right of the gallery steps, is a really fascinating installation which is part of the show. It’s an ‘edible artwork’ by Bobby Baker. It’s the re-staging of an artwork entitled An Edible Family in a Mobile Home which was first presented in 1976. You enter a pre-fabricated East London house which has been entirely papered with newspaper and magazine pages. The images have been outlined in icing. The figures within the house are all made of cake and biscuits – a man slumped in a chair, a boy in a bath, a figure on a bed and a baby in a cot. The woman is portrayed by a mannequin with shelves in her abdomen where food is stored. This is a replica of the original work with some updates added by Bobby Baker. But all the food sculptures are edible and, as the exhibition lasts, the cakes and biscuits will be eaten. It’s a very intriguing installation. However, my feet stuck to the floor and on rainy days visitors might find the visit a very, very sticky experience, but it’s huge fun and thought provoking too. I do recommend you pop in if you’re passing Tate Modern.

Women in Revolt! runs from 8th November until 7th April 2024.