The 2022 Turner Prize at Tate Modern, Liverpool

Alongside the great Turner exhibition we could see the work of the four short-listed candidates for the Turner Prize. Three were installations that included videos and sound. The winner was Veronica Ryan, who was present when I was there.  Her work represents some of her Caribbean heritage, in particular the craft work (crochet, sewing) that her mother did and also the types of fruit and vegetables that she ate as a child.  It appeared very low key, in comparison with the dramatic work of one of the other shortlisted, Heather Phillipson.  I’ll have a look in Hackney at Ryan’s larger sculptures that are on the street there. 3* 

JMW Turner with Lamin Fofana: Dark Waters at Tate Liverpool

This is an extensive exhibition of Turner’s work, sketches, watercolours and full-size oils.  It is accompanied by a sound track composed by Fofana that represents the sea and the experience of African people as they travel across oceans to their enslavement. 

Turner was obsessed with ships and the sea.  There are some really fine examples here of his meticulously detailed pen and ink drawings of sailing ships, his watercolours and ink wash drawings of the sea and, in particular the sea during storms.  Also present were some of his finest epic representations of shipwrecks.  The audio tracks formed a perfect background to the intensity of these shipwreck paintings. 5* 

Cézanne at Tate Modern, London

Interesting to see works by Paul Cézanne that are outside the usual range that appear in all art books. And to see how his style developed from the early thick oil paintings from the 1860s to, ultimately, the very minimalist pencil and watercolour sketches from the first decade of the 20th century. All the while, he remained obsessed with fruit on a table, represented in every possible way. 

Ridiculously popular exhibition and so crowded that it is difficult to spend time studying the works in detail, but worth a visit. 4*

Christ Church Picture Gallery, Oxford

The gallery was in the news in 2020 when three thieves broke in and stole the canvases of three famous works of art, including a Van Dyck. The gallery is in an isolated spot in the University campus; so it isn’t difficult to see how it could happen.  The paintings were never found. 

The collection is largely by well known, but also lesser known artists from 15th and 16th century Italy.  There are some very fine examples. 

There was a marked contrast in the easy and almost free access (we had to ask for them to open up) to the almost empty gallery of highly valued works and the kind of experience one has visiting the crowded galleries of, say the National Gallery or the Royal Academy. 

The gallery is in a fine 18th century building in exquisitely manicured gardens.  One would expect nothing less. 4* 

In Plain Sight, an exhibition about vision at the Wellcome Collection, London

Interesting collection of exhibits related to vision and covering a wide range of historical periods, from the ancient beliefs about the eye as an instrument of evil through to 3-D imaging and AI. We see early attempts to measure abnormalities of vision and early success in correcting sight with spectacles.  Along the way there have been multiple strange quack remedies and devices that were promoted as cures for visual problems, while the obvious remedy of spectacles has gradually become a fashion statement.  

As always with Wellcome exhibitions, beautifully curated and informative. 5*

Winslow Homer, an exhibition at the National Gallery, London

A rare chance to see the work of this famous  and favourite American artist (1836-1910, nearly all of whose work is to be found in US galleries.  

His paintings illustrate the themes that interested him most, from the plight of emancipated slaves after the American Civil War, through the relationship between humans and sea in the coastal towns of North East England and Maine in the US, to life and the people of the Caribbean, which he visited several times;

Homer rarely provided any explanation of his work and yet the meaning of his paintings are lucid and relevant today. Some of his more realist paintings serve as a historical record of the hardship for former slaves  in the US, while a number of his fishing village paintings reflect the forgotten role of woman in the fishing industry of the time. He was clearly obsessed with the sea and spent much of his career successfully developing ways of representing in two dimensions the power and movement of ocean waves.

A really interesting exhibition. 5*