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 have come across. A secret weapon in this case turned out to [Read More…]
Results for search of category: 20th century British art
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 a collection of Fry’s pictures ; there haven’t been many shows and [Read More…]
Bawden at the Fry Art Gallery
The private view yesterday was full of an enthusiastic local crowd. Edward Bawden is the poster boy of the Fry Art Gallery; something close to their raison d’etre. The Gallery always has plenty of his work on show and they busy themselves in the London art market from time to time snapping up work by their favourite artist which appears [Read More…]
Ghika and Craxton at the British Museum
There is a great treat in store in Room 5 at the BM: a curious show of the work of the Greek artist, Ghika, and of John Craxton. They knew each other in Greece for many years and they also mixed there with the cosmopolitan world of Paddy Leigh-Fermor and his wife, Joan ( nee Eyres-Monsell). One hardly ever sees [Read More…]
Lucian Freud, John Minton, Jamaica
A holiday at The Jamaica Inn prompts thoughts about which artists have painted  on the island. The 20th century British artist most closely associated with Jamaica in my mind is John Minton. He first came by boat to Kingston with his then boyfriend, Ricky Stride, in 1950. They apparently met on the boat two British Jamaican residents, Peter and Alice Blagrove, [Read More…]
Gerard Dillon at the Ulster Museum
I visited this super show last week in Belfast. Just one room, but carefully chosen by someone with an eye for Dillon’s important works. So each picture is a substantive work; there is no padding with minor works. As ever, for me the show preached to the converted. I have no doubt that Dillon was a considerable artist; possibly limited [Read More…]
Patrick Hennessy and Gerard Dillon
Good news from Ireland. At last one can see what has every sign of being a proper retrospective of the peculiar work of Patrick Hennessy, opening shortly.Long the partner of Harry Robertson Craig, and friendly with Colquhoun and Macbryde, he worked in a super-realist style. I am not sure where such a style derived from, (Hennessy was Irish but went to art [Read More…]
John Bratby at the Jerwood Gallery
Down to Hastings to see Bratby at the Jerwood. I have seen a lot of his pictures through the salerooms over the years, but of course one gets a patchy impression like that. At Hastings there are enough pictures to give one more of an overview, although the arrangment isn’t obviously logical in a chronological sense. Also, the Gallery clearly [Read More…]
Basil Blackshaw
Caught a BBC documentary on Iplayer about him. I assumed he had died, but apparently not. Interviews with him show him as an old man in rather desperate need of a haircut. His work is varied and sometimes highly impressive. He is a country artist/man, with many pictures of the dogs and horses he has been surrounded with in Northern [Read More…]