Botticelli in the Heaven and Hell of 2016 London

There are two Botticelli shows in London, Botticelli Reimagined at the V&A and Botticelli and Treasures from the Hamilton Collection at the Courtauld Gallery. 

Erwin Blumenfeld, Advertisement from Picture Post, 1969

Sandro Botticelli was born in 1445 in Florence and his best known works, Primavera and The Birth of Venus, are both held by the Uffizi in his hometown and unfortunately don’t travel, but the V&A show, the largest exhibition of Botticelli paintings and drawings ever held in the UK, does have lots of other treasures. Botticelli is, it seems, current and is with us even away from these exhibitions. In London we are able to see no less than nine of his paintings for free on a regular basis at the National Gallery including Venus and Mars and one of my favourites, Portrait of a Young Man (a different painting from the one of the same name at the V&A). I am a little bit obsessed by a series of his paintings, which I have only seen in reproduction, held by the Prado in Madrid and sadly not at the V&A – widescreen ratio panels with a cross sectioned storyboard showing the grizzly tale of Nastagio degli Onesti, which involves a girl being hunted by dogs – they are flatly painted with a hint of naivety and I love looking at them.

Unravel These Knots: Emma Talbot at The Freud Museum,

Alex Michon visits the Freud Museum and finds contemporary art and a symposium

‘Art is not psychoanalysis and psychoanalysis is not art.’

Joanne Morra (speaking at Intimacy Unguarded: Gender, the Unconscious and Contemporary Art).

Emma Talbot, Interpret My Dreams/Case Study, 2016

Walking home this evening, I am struck by the sight of a glorious salmon coloured sky. Something about this excuse-me- while-I-kiss-the-sky purpley haze reminds me of Emma Talbot’s work in Unravel These Knots. Significantly, showing at the Freud Museum, the work deals with thoughts, memories, emotions and psychological associations. Images made concrete from the half glimpsed mists of the mind’s eye.

Sparkles of Fury

“Raged with curses and sparkles of fury”

from The book of Los by William Blake

Last night something extraordinary happened to my soul, it was awakened and moved in a way that so seldom happens at performance art events. As part of Blake’s Outsiders, Damian and Delaine Le Bas along with the band Noiseferatu enacted a visceral slice of agitprop performance titled Jerusalem? The Ancient Days? Albion? which seemed to stop the clocks. Existing outside and of its time, expressing all the howling, hidden discontent felt towards the Sick Rose at the heart of Angerland.

Joseph Cornell: Wanderlust at the Royal Academy

Cathy Lomax takes her Cornell with a side order of Stezaker and Bracewell.

Still from Angel (Joseph Cornell and  Rudy Burckhardt, 1953)

I find Joseph Cornell’s fan-like obsessions with film and ballet stars and his collecting and ordering of found objects fascinating and inspiring. I haven’t seen much of his work in the flesh, so a retrospective at the Royal Academy was an exciting prospect. Before going in to see the exhibition I listened to an ‘in conversation’ between the writer Michael Bracewell, a Cornell dissenter who finds his work ‘morbid and dotty’ and the artist John Stezaker, a Cornell admirer.

Peter Doig at Palazzetto Tito

Peter Doig's show at Palazzetto Tito is either the best thing at this year's Venice Biennale or it's an irretrievable, living relic.

Rain in the Port of Spain (White Oak), 2015

Peter Doig’s show at Palazzetto Tito is a neat, clean and sublime experience. The work is sparsely hung, a delight to walk around; the paintings vary in scale but not in intensity. Each one functions as a window into a world where dreamscapes are elevated, the painter within his palace embalmed in a vivid palette.

Some Girls

A visual chronicle of Lucian Freud's relationship with Caroline Blackwood (on display at Ordovas) causes Michael Ajerman to recall the ever-true words – it sucks when it's over.

Girl In Bed (1952)

It has been a little more than four years to the day since the passing of Lucian Freud. Articles continue to gossip (how many kids?!) and curators squint and crunch. Refreshingly, Ordovas provides an antidote and presents the highly focused show, Girl. Visually chronicling the relationship between Freud and his second wife, Caroline Blackwood. As viewers we plunge into their lives and world within the four paintings on display.

Supersymmetry - Illuminating Art in the Digital Age

Sarah Moor visits Ryoji Ikeda's Supersymmetry at Brewer Street Car Park and finds it just a touch overwhelming.

Japanese electronic composer and visual artist Ryoji Ikeda first came onto my radar last summer thanks to Spectra, his light and sound installation which lit up Victoria Tower Gardens in August. Spectra bore some resemblance to the United Visual Artists Barbican exhibition Momentum of the same year, which used pendulums to choreograph light, sound and movement, distorting the visitors' experience of space. Similarly Umbrellium, part of last years Digital Revolution exhibition at the Barbican, allowed participants to shape, manipulate and interact with luminous forms. Preceding the examples above, the 2013 Light Show at the Hayward Gallery showcased the experiential and phenomenal aspects of light like never before, remaining to date one of my favourite exhibitions.

The power of light and sound to create atmosphere and shape spaces is clearly not new – it dates back to the 1960s in fact – however Ikeda brings the immersive, sensory experience to the public in unusual ways.

Spectra, August 4th-11th 2014