Government Art Collection: 12 From No 10 selected by Downing Street Staff

Whitechapel Gallery
The forth in a series of five exhibitions of the GAC at Whitechapel and the first chosen by 'ordinary people', in this case staff at 10 Downing Street. Each previous show was chosen by the 'great and the good' but unfortunately this one suffers in comparison and is just a little bit dull. It lacks the curatical flair of that selected by the artist Cornelia Parker or the interesting comparison of the selections of MP's to your prior assumptions of them.

To be fair there are some interesting pictures that caught my eye, I especially liked these photos by Seamus Nicolson which show ordinary, everyday situations of urban life. By the use of the darkness of the night and the artificial light of the shops they produce a beauty that you wouldn't expect.

The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists

The latest film by Aardman Animation (Wrong Trousers, Chicken Run) is a very funny tale of an inept pirate captain, Pirate Captain, and his crew and their efforts to win the pirate of the year award. A very inventive, intelligent film with plenty of jokes for the adults to enjoy as well as the kids.

Fanny Craddock

Walking through Leytonstone, East London today my eye was caught by this plaque. David Cameron and Rebekah Brooks - you can keep your Chipping Norton set Leytonstone was the birthplace of the great Fanny, how did I never know this before? I always thought the song sung by West Ham fans 'oh East London, is wonderful, it's full of tits, fanny and West Ham' referred to a part of a women's anatomy but maybe not.

Anthony Caro - Jubilee Park, Canary Wharf

An exhibition focusing on Caro's steel sculptures from 1973 to 2010. Steel being probably my favourite material for sculpture I enjoyed it immensely. I read that Caro doesn't like his sculpture being displayed outside which is possibly understandable, given its industrial look perhaps he feels it is best in a factory type setting, but I thought it went rather well in the landscaped stone and grass of Jubilee Park.


A word of advice though, try and avoid going at lunchtime on a sunny day if you can. I made that mistake and it was hard to see some of the sculptures properly as the park was so crowded. A return visit on a rainy day allowed much easier, albeit wet, viewing.

David Hockney, A Bigger Picture, Royal Academy Jan - Apr 2012‏

This is not hot off the press, since the exhibition has already closed, but we just managed to squeeze under the wire at the Royal Academy. The exhibition was truly wonderful and very inspiring. I have never been a particularly big fan of David Hockney, though to be fair I haven't seen a lot, I just associate him with boys diving into swimming pools in California. However in the last few years he has spent a lot more time in Britain and rediscovered his home county of Yorkshire, and the association has been very fruitful. Many trips over the same ground from his mother's house in East Yorkshire to visit a sick friend inspired him to paint views of the Yorkshire Wolds, and he has done what seems to be the best representation of British countryside since ... well, possibly ever. There were many paintings in a very naturalistic style which are a breathtaking reminder of just how beautiful the British countryside often is, and staggering by their sheer number, hung much more closely together than the Royal Academy normally would do (apart from the summer exhibition), yet somehow it works. He had several very large scale collections of similar views done in different seasons, which adds a lot to the appreciation.

As well as more naturalistic styles, he brought in several other ways of working, e.g. many paintings of certain dead trees which he was fascinated with, or lanes in all weathers. Although many of the paintings were in relatively realistic colours, he adds dimensions by using some more vibrant artificial-looking colours, and some works were completley done with imaginary colours, making a very striking effect. Echoing some older works which used collages of overlapping and uneven photographs to make a cubist look, he had several large works done in panels which don't quite join up, adding a frisson of cubism to an otherwise relatively natural-looking set of works.

Extending the panel/cubist theme further, he and an assistant produced some video works in panels, made by driving the same route many times over with multiple cameras in complementary positions, sometimes overlapping, sometimes at slightly different angles, providing fascinating effects which make you wonder why it hasn't been thought of before (as far I know).

He also did an homage to the French painter Claude Lorrain, recreating and reinterpreting his Sermon on the Mount painting many times over in different ways. It didn't seem altogether successful to me, but it was certainly an interesting idea.

The largest room was given over to a huge collection of works which he apparently produced specifically for the exhibition and that room. I don't know what will happen to them afterwards (there certainly aren't many living rooms big enough to take it!), as he produced a monumentally large painted work at one end of the room, and then 51 works printed from ipad drawings. I had no idea that an ipad could be used in this way, but he has explored and mastered it and produced a great variety of wonderful effects, some surprisingly natural-looking, though always with some give-away air brush look to them, but nevertheless very good works, and surprisingly they don't look pixellated, considering they have been enlarged from a relatively tiny drawing pad to full-size paintings. Amazing.

He said in some exhibition notes that anyone could take the idea of painting the same view in different seasons, for instance in their own gardens, and he makes it look easy. However it only took a few minutes with a sketch book to remember that it certainly isn't!

An old master and a living artist at the same time, it is amazing to be at what seems to me to be the peak of his powers, still inventing new techniques, so late in life (born 1937). It's a good thing there isn't a mandatory retirement age for artists!

Absent Friends - Harold Pinter Theatre

Revival of the 1974 Alan Ayckbourn comedy in the Abigail's Party mould. It is set at a tea party that everyone is dreading as it is for Colin, an old friend whose girlfriend recently drowned, which leads to some amusing scenes of social embarraesement.

The  retro Seventies set added to what was an enjoyable couple of hours with its spider plants, sunburst clock and naff fashions.

Gillian Wearing - Whitechapel Gallery

A survey of Wearing's art to date featuring films and photographs. Some of the films are moving and affecting although my preference is for her iconic 1992 series, 'Signs that say what you want them to say, and not Signs that say what someone else wants you to say' where strangers are offered paper and pen to communicate their message.

Leytonstone gallery to showcase Palestinian art

A Leytonstone gallery is to launch a new exhibition next week showcasing the work of five Palestinian artists. 'Defiance' is being held at The Stone Space, in Church Lane, from Thursday April 19 until Sunday May 6.

Organisers say the show, put together in conjunction with the Arts Canteen group, illustrates the determination of the Gaza-based painters to both overcome and be inspired by the difficult conditions in which they live.
Entry is free.

Visit www.thestonespace.com for more information.

John Golding 1929 - 2012

John Golding, who has died at the age of 82, was an art historian and abstract artist. He books included  Cubism, A History and an Analysis, 1907-1914 and Paths to the Absolute which argued that the best abstract art was not simply decorative but was "heavily imbued with meaning and with content", which he illustrated with studies of seven abstract artists, beginning with the early 20th-century Europeans Piet Mondrian, Kazimir Malevich and Wassily Kandinsky and ending with the post-second-world-war Americans Jackson Pollock, Barnett Newman, Mark Rothko and Clyfford Still.

As well as teaching and writing on art Golding was also a fine artist in his own right interested in the exploration of colour and light.