My Ten Best Exhibitions of 2014
I know, I’m sorry, but lists are really easy and I already have all the pictures ready.
Nicolas de Stael, le Havre
Mostly landscapes and sea views, with a few fantastic abstracts, from the latter part of his career.
Martial Raysse, Pompidou Centre
I’d never heard of him, but he’s France’s most expensive living painter (not that that means he’s good – but he is). Comparable, I think, to Richard Hamilton as an ideas man.
Malevich, Tate Modern
Stupendous exhibition, both in the nature of the work on show and its historical interest and importance. How did he manage to avoid being shot? I think he probably died of natural causes just in time…
Georges Braque, Guggenheim Bilba0
To be truthful, I’d thought of him as Picasso’s more boring collaborator in Cubism, so I was excited to see the beautiful works on dark backgrounds here.
Cezanne and the Modern, Ashmolean
Cezanne, Manet, VG, Degas and the revelation of those Soutine Expressionist townscapes and portraits. Soutine was a favourite of De Kooning, so he’s good enough for me…
Soutine
Richard Deacon, Tate Britain
Twisting, tortured, beautiful shapes in twisted, tortured materials. And, mostly, huge…
Veronese, National Gallery
Huge compositions, luscious colours, dramatic gestures, fabulous flesh – and some crap, insipid Jesuses to offset the brilliance…
Kenneth Clark Collection, Tate B
Pretty good stuff, Ken, even though you ploughed a particular furrow and had a “firm” (distorting?) hold on British modern art. I loved the Pasmores, Sutherlands, Moores, Trevor Bell…
Graham Sutherland
Egon Schiele, Courtauld
Once seen never forgotten, these scrawny, distorted, perfectly drawn figures and faces. How would he have developed, had he lived a longer life?
Frankenthaler/ Turner, Margate
Bit tenuous, the link between the two; basically, hers look like landscapes and they both do washes – but some beautiful works from both. Knew the Turners but not the Helens…
Also great, but not quite…
Matisse Cut-Outs – I loved them, but it needed a few paintings to beef it up.
Silent Partners, Fitzwilliam, Cambridge – the mannikins exhibition; some beautiful pictures, notably Millais’ Black Brunswicker..
Richard Hamilton. Tate Britain – bursting with ideas, but cold, somehow..
Modern Art and St. Ives, International Exchanges 1915 – 65; Tate St.Ives – this one full of brilliant art, but I knew most of them so it didn’t make the top ten. Actually now I come to think, this was my real number two after de Stael.
Winifred Nicholson
And the Turner Prize was pretty good this year, even though it was nearly all video and the wrong one won.
So, having done the best, here’s My Worst Exhibitions of 2014:
Franz Widerberg, at the Kings Place. Alien spacemen in horrible colours.
Richard Tuttle at the Whitechapel – mostly ticky-tacky.
Gerhard Richter at the Goodman Gallery – great artist, playing about.
Making Colour, National Gallery – not as exciting as it could have been.
Ruin Lust, Tate Britain – ditto.
OK, that’s enough; maybe I’ll do films and books tomorrow. If not, Happy New Year from all at blackpaint.wordpress.com. Bye!
Life Drawings
Blackpaint
29.12.14
