Reviews and Highlights | 2017

‘The exhibition is visually exceptionally stimulating, allowing you to really get lost in his systematic patchwork approach to painting and the material effects it brings to each piece.’

Review – Cezanne Portraits

‘[…] it is one of very few exhibitions which solely dedicate themselves to the Pre-Raphaelites’ important engagements with the Old Masters…These artistic dialogues were formative in shaping and consolidating their visual language and artistic aims, rebelling against the decadence of High Renaissance art (held in high esteem by the Royal Academy) in search of a purer, meaningful approach to art that dealt with serious contemporary issues.’

Review – Reflections: Van Eyck and the Pre-Raphaelites

‘The Saint Barbara…is a stunner in its details and unfinished quality, encapsulating not only van Eyck’s precise handling of oil paint, but his draughtsmanship with metalpoint.’

Review – Monochrome

‘Scythians is an outstanding example of visual research at work! The exhibition cleverly navigates the remnants of a nomadic civilisation without a writtten language.’

Review – Scythians

‘[…] the drawings in this exhibition really are outstanding demonstrations of an artist’s continual attempt to grasp human likeness and produce a representation that justifiably evokes both the sitter’s interior and external character.’

Review – The Encounter: Drawings from Leonardo to Rembrandt

‘Sebastiano’s roots in the Venetian tradition meant that he was a master of colour. Painting in oil, he could exploit the medium’s slow-drying properties to reproduce the sensitive and contrasting effects of light and dress his figures in vivid colours. Michelangelo was a sculptor first, painter second. He was the inventor of expressive, monumental figures. Their collaboration was a fusion of Florentine disegno and Venetian colorito. Why? Because Raphael had both.’

Review – Michelangelo & Sebastiano

‘We see him [Hokusai] experimenting with materials and pigments. He learns to create light effects similar to Western art: his bold outlines become more sparingly used, and patches of tone are left to fade into a mirage of other colours. Even at an elderly age, Hokusai was limitlessly productive.’

Review – Hokusai: Beyond the Great Wave

‘Her resplendent drapery and bright colours catch the attention of every visitor, stealing the limelight, and putting her sisters to shame.’

Review – Flaming June: The Making of an Icon