My Painting of the Month for November comes from the inspirational Indian pavilion at the Venice Biennale. “Zameen”, 1955, a controversial frieze painting, several feet long, from 1955; it has been alternatively praised and vilified by critics over the years but has become an established icon of Indian Modern Art. The theme is typical of twentieth…
Category: Painting of the Month
October Painting of the Month
Venice. Where does one begin? There is so much wonderful art and architecture in this city, it is difficult to know. The Accademia, which is the city’s traditional gallery helped inform that choice by opening its doors to the public for free entry today. After the queues subsided late afternoon we browsed in relative calm,…
September Painting of the Month (2)
Spanish culture. This month I have decided to have a second painting of the month from the rich base of Spanish art. We have been touring some of the Northern regions of Spain. Having left Catalunya far behind we are now in the Basque Country. Ramiro Arrue’s Yo ou le Fandango is a Basque gem….
Catalan Painting of the Month
We have arrived into the Catalan region of Spain and cannot help but notice the politics, from the emphasis of the Catalan language to the myriads of flags hanging everywhere, even painted into the road surfaces. Looking around for a fairly neutral painting is quite difficult but I found this from the, originally New York…
Piero di Cosimo – The Forest Fire
The gift or discovery of fire has fascinated all manner of prehistory, mythological and cultural investigation from the cave dwellers to Disney (Baloo the bear). And it is the subject of my Painting of the Month for August. The Ashmolean has a great collection of artefacts including some iconic Renaissance panel paintings. The Forest Fire…
The Manneporte (Etretat) – Monet
Etretat on the Normandy coast features in my Painting of the Month for July. Monet painted this cliff eighteen times on various visits to the seaside resort. This one, the closest, was either painted in an illusionistic way or he braved a very rough sea in a dinghy to get this close. Monet shows us…
Renoir Umbrellas 1881-86
Renoir’s Umbrellas seems wholly appropriate as My Painting of the Month for this very wet June. I have always loved this painting in the National Gallery but never quite sure why. It seems such an unusual scene. I think it is the engaging looks Renoir seems to conjure up. Is it the ‘Girl with the…
Joan Miro – Painting of the Month
Joan Miro is the twentieth century Spanish surrealist who features in my Painting of the Month. May 1968 was an idea he painted between 1968 and 1975, late is in his life. It is a challenging view but is there to remind us of the revolutionary fervour that overtook Europe in 1968; this month 51…
Hepworth – The Conclusion
Barbara Hepworth, as my followers will by now know, is one of my favourite modern artists. I find her sculpture full of power and emotion and I also enjoyed researching the Hepworth Wakefield, David Chipperfield’s award winning gallery. While Hepwort’s sculpture is ubiquitous her paintings are much harder to find as they appear from quite…
