“Ideas came to me like I was tuning into some radio from the sky…” says Yoko Ono, and, having seen a press preview of Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind, at Tate Modern, I’d say that the sound in her head was always turned up. The gallery has given this most enigmatic and influential of female artists a well-deserved retrospective.
Entangled Pasts 1768 – Now is a very thought-provoking show at the Royal Academy in London. In the late late 18th century many of the leading artists, and members of the new Royal Academy of Art, were instrumental in helping to change attitudes towards indigenous people and the abolition of slavery. There’s a very imaginative mingling of works from the late 19th century to pieces by artists working today, many of them contemporary members of the Royal Academy.
Pesellino. Every heard of him? No, I hadn’t either, but his work is amazing. In his short life, from 1422 – 1457, he produced the most fabulous narrative paintings along with epic commissions for the Pope and Medici family. We can now enjoy a glimpse of his genius at the National Gallery where there’s a wonderful jewel-box of an exhibition in Room 46.
I have glimpsed the future and it’s looking good. Last week I joined a press tour of East Bank, the new cultural quarter for London within the Olympic Park at Stratford and was blown away by all the new buildings and the spirit of collaboration with fellow cultural institutions which is alive in East London.
Ah, the power of the sketch, the immediacy of the scribble and the quick depiction. It’s something all artists do, have done, and continue to do. It’s really good to see so many of the works on paper which made by the impressionists gathered in one place. The Royal Academy in London has presented a very charming exhibition of works from Degas to Toulouse-Lautrec and everyone in between, showing how versatile and useful paper, of all sizes, has been for capturing the moment in pencil, charcoal, paint or pastel.
Spot the difference! Is it pastel, or is it oil paint? Both works, entitled The Lavergne Family Breakfast by Jean-Etienne Liotard (1702-1789), are utterly glorious and are now now on show at the National Gallery. This is a rare chance to see these two works side by side.
The annual Taylor Wessing photo portrait prize exhibition returns to the National Portrait Gallery after three years with 58 winning photographs of great sensitivity and atmosphere.
Women in Revolt! Yes, it’s a thing. And Tate Britain has just launched a huge exhibition putting the focus on art and activism in the UK between 1970-1990. Celebrating the early days of women’s liberation, the equal pay legislation and social reforms of the late 20th century there’s a lot to see.
Paper Places 