Harmless fun ... detail from Tom Gidley's Analyst in Spring 2. Photograph: Courtesy of Paradise Row
Exhibition of the week: Tom Gidley
The art of Tom Gidley is pleasant and diverting. I know, I know. These are not the words normally used of contemporary art. As in a Private Eye cartoon , critics enthuse about "disturbing" work that deconstructs convention. Meanwhile, modern-art-haters sneer that it's ugly and empty. But perhaps the new is sometimes just ... Nice. I cannot see any great profundity in Gidley's installation of variously metamorphosised photo-based paintings and cheerily sloppy ceramics. But they're good fun. Some kind of unspoken narrative hovers behind the engaging arrangement of images and abstractions in the larger ground floor gallery, perhaps even a dark tale of desire. Some of the paintings are vibrant. All hover just this side of kitsch in a way that is entertaining. The ceramic sculptures are eerily totemic. They would look great in an overrun garden, hinting at sinister secret cults. Downstairs, the mood dissipates and the sum fragments into its parts, but there is a lovely smeared and spattered version of The Battle of San Romano by Uccello. Like I say – all good fun and no one got hurt.
• Paradise Row, London, until 30 June
Bridget Riley
A giant of abstract art, a national treasure.
• Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert and Karsten Schubert, London, until 13 July
House of Cards
A great work by Richard Serra is among the sculptures assembled in a (large) English country garden.
• Waddesdon Manor, Aylesbury, until 28 October
Henry Moore
Official art, mysteriously popular with necrophile modernists.
• Gagosian Britannia Street, London, until 18 August
Howard Hodgkin
He paints the wild colours of the heart.
• Alan Cristea, London, until 7 July
Masterpiece of the week
Power of precision ... detail from Jean-Siméon Chardin's The House of Cards, about 1736-7. Photograph: The National Gallery, London Jean-Siméon Chardin, The House of Cards
Chardin's painting celebrates the co-ordination of hand and brain. It is a portrait, not of an individual, but of human cognitive powers. In 18th-century France, reason was championed as the solution to the injustice and muddle of the Old Regime. The art of Chardin is an exquisite expression of this Enlightenment ideal . Here he concentrates on concentration itself. The precision of the young man's hand and eye as he balances the cards is an image of what human beings can achieve, when reason rules us.
• National Gallery, London
Image of the week
The 12th summer pavilion for London's Serpentine Gallery, designed by Ai Weiwei with architects Herzog & Meuron. Photograph: Rune Hellestad/Corbis What we learned this week
That Ai Weiwei had to Skype in his thoughts about his Serpentine pavilion design because he's unable to leave China
That the world of DIY design is being made over by people carving their own dildos or making their own toothpaste-squeezing devices
More confirmation that Thomas Heatherwick is a legend of design
That Martin Creed paints with his eyes shut – and that he's made an ace punk video of a joyful jiggle
Which new, big-name artworks got donated to the Tate this week
And finally
Have you seen the Guardian Art and Design Flickr page? Share all your latest cultural snaps there
Or share all of your artworks with us
Or follow us on Twitter
Like us on Facebook
Check us out on Tumblr
Sign up for the Art Weekly newsletter
0 comments:
Post a Comment