Royal Academy of Arts – Nigel Ip

Tracey Emin / Edvard Munch: The Loneliness of the Soul – Royal Academy of Arts, London

I’ve been struggling for days to write this review and I don’t know why. The short answer is that it’s an impressive exhibition. But it’s also more than that. It leaves an indelible impression on you. Consisting of works created almost exactly 100 years apart, I like to think Tracey Emin / Edvard Munch: TheContinue reading “Tracey Emin / Edvard Munch: The Loneliness of the Soul – Royal Academy of Arts, London”

Wonderful fun at Sensing Spaces

Architecture isn’t always everyone’s cup of tea, and neither is installation art. Personally, reading about architecture bores me – there’s just something about not being in the architecture itself that irritates me. The inability to feel the space described. And this is exactly what Sensing Spaces is about: feeling. Li Xiaodong’s timber forest. Own photograph.

Going with the times – Daumier at the Royal Academy

Exhibitions held in the Royal Academy’s Sackler Wing have always been very impressive. My first exhibition at the RA was the J. W. Waterhouse: The Modern Pre-Raphaelite back in 2009, and since then the subsequent shows have hardly disappointed. Daumier (1808-1879): Visions of Paris continues this trend of high-quality monographic exhibitions, having previously exhibited worksContinue reading “Going with the times – Daumier at the Royal Academy”

Summer Exhibition 2013 – slightly different from usual…just ‘slightly’.

A few months ago I was welcomed home by a rather strange envelope from the Royal Academy of Arts. I wondered what it could be. Turns out I was invited to the buyer’s viewing of the 245th annual Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy. Having never been formally invited to such events, I was feelingContinue reading “Summer Exhibition 2013 – slightly different from usual…just ‘slightly’.”

London Original Print Fair 2013

There’s so much Bacon! I’m overwhelmed by all this Bacon! – My friend Liliana. The above quotation sort of sums up our first-time experience visiting the Royal Academy of Art’s London Original Print Fair 2013. Taking up most of the Main Galleries – 10 out of 13 rooms – the fair exhibits the print collectionsContinue reading “London Original Print Fair 2013”

Manet and Parisian Modernity

“Manet…join[s] to a pronounced taste for reality, for modern reality…that active and spacious imagination, both sensitive and bold, without which…even the best talents are only servants without masters, agents without authority.” – Charles Baudelaire, 1862 Well, it’s the first ‘proper’ week of my Easter break, so I decided to make my first trip to theContinue reading “Manet and Parisian Modernity”