Category: Foreign Correspondent

Reviews of exhibitions and art by our correspondents throughout the world.

London calling

Foreign Correspondent London Calling Mark McDonald (Assistant Keeper – Old Master Prints and Spanish Drawings, British Museum). What can only be described a brilliant summer in London is rapidly drawing to a close; brilliant not only for the long hot days that could on occasion be compared to Australia, but what has been on view at the British Museum. Not wanting too much to boast about the Department of Prints and Drawings with its ceaseless offering of exhibitions that delight and inspire, but Fra Angelico to Leonardo: Italian Renaissance Drawings curated by my colleague Hugo Chapman with Marzia Fiettti of the Uffizi showed 100 drawings, fifty from each collection, that was a revelation. There is good reason to feel exhausted by the endless privileging of the Italian Renaissance in both academia and museums, but this exhibition was an eye-opener showing…

David Maskill – Close Examination: Fakes, Mistakes and Discoveries

Close Examination: Fakes, Mistakes and Discoveries London, The National Gallery, 30 June – 12 September Reviewed by David Maskill This exhibition, currently showing at London’s National Gallery, is one of the highlights of the summer season. As art institutions struggle with the effects of the recession, blockbusters that rely on extensive and costly loans and on the attendant crowds to pay for them have been in decline in recent times. If this exhibition is anything to go by, this may not be such a bad thing. Drawn mostly from the National Gallery’s own collection, the curators have selected forty works and explore their material histories to tell fascinating tales of deception, curatorial blunders and rediscoveries of long lost masterpieces. This is a show that needs the visitor to take time and to look closely at the works on display –…