Susan Hiller, Lucidity and Intuition: Homage to Gertrude Stein, 2011

What could be more uncanny than neat piles of books actually underneath a desk, if not neat piles of books on a decidedly uncanny subject? In this case, automatic writing. For Gertrude Stein, to whom this sculpture is intended as a homage, the books represent a return of the repressed.…

12 pieces of conceptual art that would probably work as tweets

From the 20th century onwards, the beauty of much art is it has no need for the eye of a beholder. Conceptual works, in theory, place as much importance on the idea as the finished visual object. And while lots can be said about the dozen pieces below, the kernel…

Francis Alÿs/James White/Clare Twomey/Surreal Friends

Here’s a round up of the pieces I wrote for Culture24 last week. Enjoy! Review: Surreal Friends: Leonora Carrington, Remedios Varo and Kati Horne at Pallant House Review: James White: New Paintings, Max Wigram Gallery Review: Clare Twomey: A Dark Day in Paradise, Brighton Pavilion Review: Francis Alÿs: A Story…

Review: Modern Times – Responding to Chaos

Exhibition: Modern Times, De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-Sea, until June 13 2010 Somewhere between art and architecture sits a drawing by minimalist sculptor Fred Sandbeck. His pencil and chalk plan for a Zurich gallery construction hovers in mid air, reminding us of the Utopian potential of pictorial space. The architectural…

Review: From Sickert to Gertler – Modern British Art from Boxted House

Exhibition: From Sickert to Gertler – Modern British Art from Boxted House, Brighton Museum & Art Gallery, until September 12 2010 Long before Brit Art, there was British Art. In the early 20th century this was typified by the painterly, figurative work of a group centred around Camden in London.…

Review: Richard Hamilton – Modern Moral Matters

Exhibition: Richard Hamilton – Modern Moral Matters, Serpentine Gallery, London, until April 25 2010 More than 50 years since Pop Art began, it is a 1960s aphorism which best explains the varying effects in this show. Marshall McLuhan may have coined the phrase, but it is Richard Hamilton who really…