Critique
Art
The Washington Post’s Anne Midgette: “The collection shows him dumping a huge bag of tricks out on the table in the ’60s and continuing to play with them, examine them, and follow them ever further to new solutions, for the rest of his life.” For Holland Cotter of the New York Times, the exhibition highlights Lichtenstein’s enduring appeal: “His work looks like no one else’s, and some of it still feels fresh and audacious. He encapsulates, at least in his early work, the spirit of an era. He is embedded in the culture now, and unlikely to be dislodged.” Paris’s Pompidou Centre attracts the kind of devoted fans who will happily camp in line all night for the first glimpse of a major new show – so watch your step if you’re heading to the 4th arrondissement this month. Dalí, a celebration of the great Surrealist’s prolific life work, has already attracted great acclaim from critics – among
them, The Independent’s Charles Derwent: “If two things emerge from the Pompidou’s admirably po-faced show, they are Dalí’s inventiveness and talent for evasion. It is easy to forget that the forms on those posters which were Blu-tacked to our teenage bedrooms – the eggs and ovoids, the rocks that morph into flesh and back into rocks again – were all his own work: familiarity with them has bred contempt. Framed on a gallery wall, his capacity for seeing double feels like something akin to genius.” Where others only see urban sprawl and grey, shapeless forms, Australian artist Jeffrey Smart sees beauty. His latest exhibition, Master of Stillness, is halfway through its run at the Samstag Museum of Art – tracking the changing face of Australia during the past 60 years. Sydney Morning Herald’s Andrew Stephens is enthralled: “Smart’s distinct style creates an air
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of the mysterious... Architectural fragments, modern urban wastelands, brooding skyscapes, empty roads and, often, a lonely and inscrutable human figure amid it all - these elements in a Smart painting entice us, make us frown with curiosity, and lead us down diverging paths.”
Images: Roy Lichtenstein: A Retrospective, National Gallery of Art
The mark of Roy Lichtenstein is unmistakeable: cartoonish structures, painstakingly-painted pixel dots, and a preoccupation with popular culture that was verging on ridicule. Delve a little deeper into the father of pop art’s repertoire, however, and you’ll find a trove of artistic meanderings – from still life sketches to Picassoesque Impressionist daubings – the highlights of which are currently on show at Washington’s National Gallery of Art. Roy Lichtenstein: A Retrospective is the first major survey of the artist’s work since his death in 1997, and it’s fascinating viewing, finds