The London Traveler

I’ve been fascinated by Antony Gormley’s work for a long time. As I type, one of his ‘energy’ bodies from the exhibition at the Baltic, Gateshead, is looking over me – a body formed of black scratched ink marks, crackling with energy as if the body is every moment being formed by atoms whirling in space, coming together and flying apart.
White Cube has just opened a new exhibition by Gormley at its Mason’s Yard gallery. One of the two installations, ‘Lost Horizon’, is unsurprising – as so often, Gormley takes his own body as the subject. He has created casts, …read more

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This is the last month of the Henry Moore exhibition at Kew Gardens. If you have even the remotest interest in modern art, you should make the effort to get out there.
Henry Moore was an artist who was profoundly influenced by landscapes. His sculptures often evoke the forms of hills and valleys, of naturally eroded rocks and boulders. And he was a perfectionist about the placing of his sculptures, often creating them for specific places outside. Seeing a Moore sculpture in an expansive landscape, therefore, gives you a fresh feel for what he was trying to achieve – and for …read more

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The East End seems to have an attraction for strange houses. First there was the Rachel Whiteread ‘House’ in Mile End – a cast of the inside of a complete terraced house. You could see the fireplaces, the windows, the bookshelves – but all turned inside out, as it were.
Now Sumer Erek is building a house out of recycled newspapers in Gillett Square, Dalston (close to Dalston Kinsland railway station). It’s a comment on the menace all of us know – the abandoned free papers that flap across our streets and rustle in the gutters like slightly sinister pigeons, and …read more

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I remember the first time I saw a Derek Jarman film. I’d been brought up on Disney and westerns – here was something brave, rough, colourful and violent, and it opened my eyes to modern film-making.
So I was naturally interested in the Serpentine Gallery’s Derek Jarman exhibition, which includes a new film about Derek by Isaac Julien as well as rare Super-8 footage from Jarman’s private archive. There are also lightboxes showing views of Jarman’s seaside cottage at Dungeness – out of a a remote shack on a shingle beach, Jarman created an eclectic and weird kingdom of his own, …read more

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The National Gallery’s new exhibition showcases the work of Pompeo Batoni  – an eighteenth century Italian painter whose speciality was portraits of foreigners ‘doing the Grand Tour’.
One of his sitters wears a spectacular kilt and plaid that quite takes your attention away from the fine Roman ruins against which he is posed. The British tourist away from home was just as easily recognisable in the eighteenth century as he is now!
But even if you’re not particularly interested in eighteenth century tourists, Batoni’s paintings are a fascinating record of what really drove the art world in the eighteenth century. He highlights …read more

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An intriguing new exhibition has just opened at 176. Gerry Fox, a documentary film-maker, has created an installation using film to portray a very personal view of London.
I’ve never been satisfied with photographs of London because, for me, London is always moving, always changing. Fox’s movie screens show London in movement – sometimes speeded up, sometimes slowed right down.
He visits a busy Soho street. He climbs around an old, overgrown cemetery. He floats around the figure of Peter Pan as if, like the lost boys, he’s learned how to fly. It’s all reminiscent of a silent movie – …read more

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If you want to see the best of the royal palaces in London, in my mind there’s only one choice. Ignore Buckingham Palace, don’t bother with St James’s – take a trip out of town and spend the day at Hampton Court.
 

Hampton Court is practically two palaces in one. First of all, there’s the fine red brick Tudor palace started by Cardinal Wolsey – the last flush of the Gothic style. And secondly, there’s the fine baroque palace by Sir Christopher Wren – an English rival to Versailles.
Wolsey began the palace in 1514. It wasn’t just his private residence – …read more

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If you’re intending to visit the National Gallery you may be interested in an audio tour with a difference.
Former Director Charles Saumarez Smith chose his favourite paintings in the gallery and narrates the tour himself. He also gets members of staff to comment on the works – for instance the head of the Conservation department tells how difficult it is to look after a Van Gogh properly.
And if you found that fascinating, there’s a separate tour all about conservation issues. It includes the detective work that proves the ‘Cosimo Tura’ allegory was actually started by another artist – and …read more

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If you’re intending to visit the National Gallery you may be interested in an audio tour with a difference.
Former Director Charles Saumarez Smith chose his favourite paintings in the gallery and narrates the tour himself. He also gets members of staff to comment on the works – for instance the head of the Conservation department tells how difficult it is to look after a Van Gogh properly.
And if you found that fascinating, there’s a separate tour all about conservation issues. It includes the detective work that proves the ‘Cosimo Tura’ allegory was actually started by another artist – and …read more

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Timothy Taylor Gallery, in the West End, is hosting an exhibition of Andy Warhol’s photographs from 18 January to 29 February.
Warhol’s photos, the gallery says, show him as “the lover of boring things”. What’s amazing is the enthusiasm with which he photographs the detritus of urban life – bottles left lying in a street, the textures of modernist buildings, a homeless person lying in a doorway.
Lovers of Pop Art will recognise Warhol’s obsession with repetition, too, from his prints of soup cans, Marilyn Munroe, or dollar bills. He takes photos of bottles lined up on a shop’s shelves, or focuses …read more

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