Ben Street

3 weeks ago | the-tls.co.uk | Ben Street |Charles Darwent |Jennifer Higgie

Frank Auerbach was right: “There isn’t a Turner that doesn’t somehow fly and there isn’t a Constable that doesn’t burrow.” J. M. W. Turner appears to have seen the world from midair: as viewers of his paintings, we can feel suspended in vortices of swirling wind, snow or smoke. John Constable, by contrast, has his feet firmly planted in the dirt. The mulch and turf in his work seems smelt and touched, as though experienced from the vantage of a mole.

Oct 23, 2024 | the-tls.co.uk | Rod Mengham |Ben Street |Boyd Tonkin

Four years ago Tracey Emin was diagnosed with a cancer so aggressive that survival beyond six months seemed the least likely outcome. Her response was to paint – as much as possible – and the results convey not just her horror of the disease, but also her anger at her own body, as well as resentment of the past lovers who abused it. There are forty-three works in this show: forty paintings, two sculptures and one film. Its subject is vulnerability, but its mood is defiance.

Oct 16, 2024 | the-tls.co.uk | Ben Street

“Untitled III” by Willem de Kooning, 1978, from the book under review

Oct 3, 2024 | artreview.com | Ben Street

An exhibition at Henry Moore Institute recasts failure as potential Birth of Venus (2010) is a square white pedestal large enough to display a lifesize sculpture of, say, the birth of Venus, but which supports instead only a square piece of duct tape and a patina of scrapes and scuffs. Placed in the corner of a room in Hany Armanious’s solo exhibition at the recently refurbished and relaunched Henry Moore Institute, it would be easy enough to overlook were it not for the company it keeps.

Sep 22, 2023 | apollo-magazine.com | Ben Street

Despite the drastic changes in his work, Philip Guston’s signature remained consistent.