Martin Gayford

Cambridge

Critic at Freelance

I'm a critic and author of books on art. My next book will be A History of Pictures, co-written with David Hockney.

Articles

Martin Gayford goes bananas for Bergamo’s bonkers basilica

1 week ago | worldofinteriors.com | Martin Gayford

In 1529 the painter Lorenzo Lotto complained that his mind was ‘much assailed by various and strange disturbances’. This was an unusual declaration to make in a business letter, but then Lotto (c1480–1556/7) was far from being a prosaically conventional individual. He was neurotic, driven, obsessive and possessed the imagination of a 16th-century René Magritte. His letter concerned the 68 intarsia, or marquetry, panels he designed to adorn the choir stalls of Santa Maria Maggiore in Bergamo.
‘The possibilities of paint are never-ending’: Sir Frank Bowling interviewed

1 month ago | spectator.co.uk | Martin Gayford

‘I’m full of excitement waiting for this to dry out,’ Sir Frank Bowling exclaims. We are sitting in his studio, a room in a quiet Victorian yard that survives amid the tower blocks of Elephant and Castle. In front of us a semi-finished canvas – a glorious welter of yellow and orange in diverse modulations – is pinned to the wall. It’s executed in acrylics, a water-based material. Bowling, like Turner – one of his heroes – believes in using buckets of water, sometimes more or less literally.
‘The possibilities of paint are never-ending’: Sir Frank Bowling interviewed

1 month ago | spectator.com.au | Martin Gayford

‘I’m full of excitement waiting for this to dry out,’ Sir Frank Bowling exclaims. We are sitting in his studio, a room in a quiet Victorian yard that survives amid the tower blocks of Elephant and Castle. In front of us a semi-finished canvas – a glorious welter of yellow and orange in diverse modulations – is pinned to the wall.
‘Teaching someone to draw is teaching them to look’: the year’s best art books

Dec 4, 2024 | spectator.com.au | Martin Gayford

Colour, the painter Patrick Heron once proclaimed, is a continent that artists have yet to explore. The mammoth two-volume The Book of Colour Concepts (Taschen, £150) catalogues numerous attempts to map this mysterious chromatic domain, from the late 17th century to the mid 20th. It quickly becomes clear that this area is infinitely vast.
‘Teaching someone to draw is teaching them to look’: the year’s best art books

Dec 3, 2024 | spectator.co.uk | Martin Gayford

Colour, the painter Patrick Heron once proclaimed, is a continent that artists have yet to explore. The mammoth two-volume The Book of Colour Concepts (Taschen, £150) catalogues numerous attempts to map this mysterious chromatic domain, from the late 17th century to the mid 20th. It quickly becomes clear that this area is infinitely vast. One only has to glance at the plates of the ‘Viennese Colour Cabinet’ (1794) – a whole column of blue-greens – to realise that.
How a single year in Florence changed art forever

Oct 30, 2024 | spectator.com.au | Martin Gayford

The story goes that one day early in the 16th century Leonardo da Vinci was strolling through Florence with a friend. Near the Ponte Santa Trinita they came across a group of gentlemen disputing a point in Dante’s Divine Comedy. Seeing Leonardo, they asked him to explain the passage. At that same moment, Michelangelo Buonarroti also happened to hurry by, and Leonardo beckoned the sculptor over to interpret it for them.
How a single year in Florence changed art forever

Oct 30, 2024 | spectator.co.uk | Martin Gayford

The story goes that one day early in the 16th century Leonardo da Vinci was strolling through Florence with a friend. Near the Ponte Santa Trinita they came across a group of gentlemen disputing a point in Dante’s Divine Comedy. Seeing Leonardo, they asked him to explain the passage. At that same moment, Michelangelo Buonarroti also happened to hurry by, and Leonardo beckoned the sculptor over to interpret it for them.
Sunday Book Review: September 21, 2024, Books on Venice Edition | JD Supra

Sep 22, 2024 | jdsupra.com | Martin Gayford

September 22, 2024 To embed, copy and paste the code into your website or blog: In the Sunday Book Review, Tom Fox considers books that would interest the compliance professional, the business executive, or anyone who might be curious. It could be books about business, compliance, history, leadership, current events, or anything else that might interest me.
How Michael Craig-Martin changed a glass of water into a full-grown oak tree

Sep 11, 2024 | spectator.com.au | Martin Gayford

‘Of all the things I’ve drawn,’ Michael Craig-Martin reflects, ‘to me chairs are one of the most interesting.’ We are sitting in his light-filled apartment above London, the towers of the City rising around us, and we are discussing a profound question, namely, what makes an object a certain type of thing? Or to put it another way, what makes a chair a chair? Craig-Martin’s career has been characterised by what he calls ‘my object obsession’.
How Michael Craig-Martin changed a glass of water into a full-grown oak tree

Sep 11, 2024 | spectator.co.uk | Martin Gayford

‘Of all the things I’ve drawn,’ Michael Craig-Martin reflects, ‘to me chairs are one of the most interesting.’ We are sitting in his light-filled apartment above London, the towers of the City rising around us, and we are discussing a profound question, namely, what makes an object a certain type of thing? Or to put it another way, what makes a chair a chair? Craig-Martin’s career has been characterised by what he calls ‘my object obsession’.