Showing results by author "N.P. James" in All Categories

This essay considers the major Cézanne exhibition at the Tate Gallery London, staged from 8th February until 28th April 1995. Rather than focusing exclusively on the artist's work, the piece attempts to place the exhibition in context, exploring the institutional arena of presentation and the social and economic strata to which the retrospective is mainly addressed.

A review of the retrospective exhibition of sculptor Sir Antony Gormley OBE held at the Royal Academy London. Encounters varied works from studies and notebooks to gigantic installations.

This is a personal view of Picasso and Paper, a major exhibition held at the Royal Academy, and explores over 300 works covering drawing, collages, and prints.

Published as a Cv audiobook, Cv/VAR series 94 reviews "'Beyond Belief", a major exhibition at White Cube of the prominent British artist Damien Hirst (born 1965, Bristol UK, upbringing in Leeds Yorkshire). The author experiences the Biopsy and Fact paintings, votive pieces, and installations including the imposing "Saint Sebastian, Exquisite Pain" and views "For the Love of God", the iconic GBP50 million diamond skull.

This essay takes as its focus two paintings by Johannes Vermeer (1632-75): The Milkmaid c.1661-62 and Woman Holding a Balance c.1662-65, and considers critical approaches to the artist by four historians, Edward A. Snow, Lawrence Gowing, John Michael Montias, and Martin Pops. Its aim is not solely to describe Vermeer's art, but by a process of comparative analysis to discern the various standpoints of his biographers, and to clarify their methodologies in research.

A review of the exhibition Late Constable at the Royal Academy London. Includes the family background of the artist, his career development, and working methods and technique. Noted works include "The Leaping Horse", "Cottage in East Bergholt", "Rainstorm at Sea", "Chain Pier Brighton", "Stonehenge", and "The Cornfield". Includes essays by Edward Lucie-Smith ("John Constable", 2006) and Janet Barber ("John Constable: Earth and Sky", 2012).

An interview with leading British sculptor Sir Anthony Caro (1924-2016) recorded by Nicholas James at his Barford Street sculpture studio Camden Town in 1994, used as a basis for a feature in Art Monthly 1994. Also includes the essay "Caro to Wilding: Shifts in Modern British Sculpture", comparing the work of Caro with Alison Wilding.

First published as Journal of the Gallery London in 1993 with revised editions in 1998 and 2001, more than 400 entries chronicle the life of the city; a powerfully driven arena of dysfunctional experience. Episodes record incidents and encounters; in the streets, with shoppers and travelers, in the landscape, and in scenes of social and internal life. As the journal develops, fact and fiction blend into a filmic sequence of events.

A review of Nam June Paik at Tate Modern, explores the exhibition room by room. "When asked about his practice Paik replied "I am aware of Zen, but I am an artist: I react to Zen in the same way I react to the music of Johan Sebastian Bach."

Seven days in Funchal on the Island of Madeira. Journal notes of the settings, locations, and personal stories in diary entries.

The 2013 monograph republished on the occasion of the 2020 Andy Warhol retrospective at Tate Modern London featuring: Campbell's Soup Cans, 1960s portraits; Suicides and Car Crashes; Sex Parts; Latinx Trans Portraits and the finnale Sicty Last Suppers 1986. Includes Andy Warhol at the NGMA Edinburgh, October 2007, A Celebration of Life...and Death. Magdalena Wasiura on Andy Warhol: Brigid Bardot portrait at Gagosian Gallery 2013.

Experiences plaster models and maquettes ranging from The Thinker to the Burghers of Calais, portraits of Helene von Nostitz and dancer Hanako. Explores small imagined compositions of male and female figures and fragments of body parts preserved by Musee Rodin.

A facsimile edition of an book created by N.J.P.Wegner, 1961, contains fables by Aesop and other classical authors. As a child, he would sometimes go upstairs to the studio where his father, Fritz Wegner (1924-2015), a renowned children's book illustrator, worked. He would stand beside him watching pencil roughs evolve into finished studies of intimate detail; the little figures and settings hatched with a scratching dip pen.

A review of Anselm Kiefer exhibition at White Cube Bermonday tours room by room, with analytic descriptions of the large scale works on view.

Review of the exhibition of visionary artist William Blake at Tate Britain, September 2019: The exhibition is arranged in eight rooms of the downstairs gallery spaces of Tate Britain, low-lit, maroon-painted walls, a very comprehensive collection of a highly original and complex visionary creator.

The 251st Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy London in a review recorded at the press view on 3rd June 2019. The Summer Exhibition is most popular event in the nation’s cultural calendar, and commercially the most successful. It allows works in all media, print/photography/painting/sculpture/architectural models - with rooms arranged by different Royal Academicians, some of whom, like Barbara Rae’s Arctic room, set a theme to their hang.

Viewing the exhibition at the Ashmolean Museum Oxford by American Artist Jeff Koons (born 1955). Considers sculptures such as Silvered Ballerinas, a Magenta Balloon Venus, and GPS System. Also the artist's re-constitution of classic works by Titiam, Rubens, and Gericault with the inclusion of a blue glass sphere. 

A recorded visit to van Gogh and Britain considers the work of Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) placed in the context of British art and literature of the 19th century and his effect on succeeding generations of artists.

In a collection of works and artist’s notes, the listener is introduced to the intimate process of landscape painting; from the initial choice of the subject and theme to detail the formation of a work. Oils, watercolors, drawings, and sketchbooks include views of the Sussex Downs, Cornwall, and Dartmoor and abroad in France, Greece, and Southern Spain; with studies of London, Paris, and work from the model, made in live studios.

Interview with leading British sculptor Alison Wilding, RA, recorded at Tannery Street Studio, Bermondsey, in 1995. She describes the making of Harbour, in alabaster and pvc moulding, and Echo, a stainless steel sculpture exhibited at Karsten Schubert. Sourcing materials, the levels of the work; assistant Adam Kershaw; and its relation to other contemporary works.