Reviews of exhibitions in London and beyond, as well as books and performances related to the visual arts. 

The Batman of Pop Art

Lichtenstein: A Retrospective, Tate Modern, London

Whatever interpretation we place on Lichtenstein’s approach to his work, it is chiefly the early Pop material for which he remains famous and it makes the major visual impact in this exhibition. It leaves us with contradictory emotions.

The customary and the disturbing

Man Ray Portraits, National Portrait Gallery, London

It is, perhaps, ironic that that Man Ray — who participated in this movement which set out to challenge received social attitudes - could also produce photographs which are eye-catching, yet conventional. Perhaps he deliberately split his work into the customary and the disturbing, maintaining this juxtaposition of radically different things in a Surrealist spirit

Duchamp, the Joker

The Bride and the Bachelors: Duchamp with Cage, Cunningham, Rauschenberg and Johns part of Dancing Around Duchamp season at the Barbican, London

The Duchamp season at the Barbican is a tribute to the most significant of Duchamp’s reincarnations, his American revival as the godfather of a new and irreverent attitude towards art’s institutionalisation and its obsession with the nature of the medium.

A deeper realism

Manet: Portraying Life, Royal Academy, London

Manet was too traditional for the supporters of Impressionism, too experimental for the traditionalists.

Light entertainment

Light Show, Hayward Gallery, London

An exhibition of light based art since the 1960s is all about light, kids (no cameras) and action!

Rethinking art and disability

Unlimited Global Alchemy, Bluecoat, Liverpool, September 2012

The impression that was given by these individuals was that despite their HIV diagnosis, they were getting on with their lives. So I was somewhat confused as to why the Bambanani members saw themselves as ‘disabled’. And this was the first point that came up in the discussion when Gadsden informed us that Nondumiso wasn’t even aware that she had a disability until she had been informed by the artist.

From I-Limbs to iPhones

Superhuman, Wellcome Collection, London

The tour moves on and I’m dragged, kicking and screaming out of my holiday from reality. Or should it be holiday from fantasy. It’s hard to tell how seriously to take the futurist Ray Kurzweil when he talks about humans and technology merging. But Superhuman has certainly made it clear than humans are embracing enhancements and apparently it wont be too long before robots get morals too.

Not just an also-ran

Bronze, Royal Academy, London

At the heart of metal-work lies skilled craft, with its need to mentally master and physically apply scientific knowledge - along with the unavoidable effort this entails. in other words, technical education is involved here and this is something which has, arguably, been neglected by educationalists since the end of the Second World War.

Connoisseurship and condescension

Bronze, Royal Academy of Arts, London / Raphael, Teylers Museum, Haarlem

Seeing these two exhibitions within a couple of days of each other was a fascinating contrast in museological approach. Bronze aims to entertain, to impress and even to overwhelm with its accumulation of great works. But it deadens the soul with poor display and foolish presentation. In every respect Raphael is the more worthy exhibition.

A less jaded age

The Search for Immortality: Tomb Treasures of Han China, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

This chain of cosmic interdependency reflected the social hierarchy on earth, so the tombs of emperors and their officials were grandiose in order that their status would be duly acknowledged in the spiritual realm; if they were not, then the ranks of masses beneath them would have faced uncertainty after death, and would have wasted their lives observing official rituals.

Sounds of belonging and loneliness

Dixon Clark Court Symphony, by Sarah Strang with Nathaniel Robin Mann and Daniel Merrill, performed by the London Contemporary Orchestra, Union Chapel, London

The experience was enveloping and immersive, very much assisted by the chapel’s booming acoustic, which the musicians played into with glee (memorably, the machine-gun clatter of two snare drums grew into a deafening roar).

Stash All Old Things!

Song Dong: Waste Not, Barbican, London

It would be a mistake to interpret ‘Waste Not’ as a straightforward critique of the materialist ethos of consumer culture, or as drawing a parallel between the drab uniformity of the Maoist era and the homogeneity of globalised consumerism. More profoundly, it hints at the possibility that material abundance can free us from the kind of tyranny that possessions have over us in times of scarcity.

Fascination, fear and excitement

Lucian Freud Portraits, National Portrait Gallery, London

Freud’s grandfather, Sigmund, attempted to examine and explain the workings of the human mind and helped to expand our understanding of them, including their more disturbing aspects. In a sense, his grandson followed in his footsteps. But instead of using the consulting room and couch, the younger Freud employed the studio and the paintbrush.

Can’t see the wood for the trees?

David Hockney: A Bigger Picture, Royal Academy, London

‘Three Trees near Thixendale, Summer 2007’, shows bulging trees leaping out towards us like boxers’ gloved fists punching towards their opponents, while ‘Hawthorn Blossom near Rudston, 2000’, shows these vast shrubs lining the approach to an arch, giving it an air of mystery.

Dirty money?

Not If But When: Culture Beyond Oil, by Platform, Art Not Oil and Liberate Tate (2011)

The aim of Culture Beyond Oil, a book produced by the arts and activist organisations Platform, Art Not Oil and Liberate Tate, is to draw attention to cultural sponsorship by the oil industry. The book is a type of intervention that questions the status quo – just like the scenario described above, which was carried out by Liberate Tate in June 2010. What does oil sponsorship reflect of the culture it supports? What does culture do, for oil money? What does oil money do to culture?