Bernard Frize: Colour Divides - Simon Lee Gallery

Bernard Frize, Mescali, 2014

Bernard Frize: Colour Divides is at Simon Lee Gallery until 24 June 2014.
Bernard Frize turned to abstract painting at the end of the 1970s constructing compositions determined by elaborate sets of rules. For each series of paintings Frize employs a different technique. The work is resolutely un-expressive and un-representational: it is about the essence and process of painting itself.
This exhibition features work which derives from a painting Frize made in 1986 on the ceiling of the Musée d’art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. The pictures also have a theme of 'doubling' - "Each act of doubling is specific, enacted sometimes within and sometimes between works. Some among these paintings become pairs, while others are divided and doubled within their confines, cut in two, painted twice, superimposed, above and below." (Simon Lee Gallery)
Looks like a great show.
Read article by Karen Wright.

Bernard Frize, Mascile, 2014

Bernard Frize,  Ariemi, 2014

Bernard Frize, installation view Simon Lee Gallery, 2014

Bernard Frize, installation view Simon Lee Gallery, 2014

Bernard Frize, installation view Simon Lee Gallery, 2014

Bernard Frize, installation view Simon Lee Gallery, 2014

John Bellany, 1942 - 2013

John Bellany, Male and Female Figures Chained, 1968

John Bellany died on 28 August 2013.
A forthcoming memorial tribute exhibition to John Bellany at Beaux Arts Gallery (5-28 June 2014) has belatedly alerted me to his passing.
The Scottish artist's distinctive, expressionist paintings were (at their best) drenched in a dour, Celtic mythology mixed with Calvinism and rooted in the lives of fishermen; his vision was for much of his life fuelled by alcohol and seemed to channel the spirits of Beckmann, Bosch and Kokoschka. My selection of paintings is taken from the 1960s and 70s when his work was at its darkest - his palette subsequently lightened considerably.
Read obituaries by Janet McKenzie and in The Telegraph.

John Bellany, The Fright, 1968

John Bellany, The Obsession, 1966

John Bellany, Star of Bethlehem, 1965

John Bellany, My Father, 1966

John Bellany, The Kilnlochbervie, 1966

John Bellany, Mizpah, 1978

John Deakin - The Photographers' Gallery

John Deakin, Francis Bacon (Vogue), 1952

Under the Influence: John Deakin and the Lure of Soho is at The Photographers' Gallery 11 April - 13 July 2014.
This is a terrific exhibition. I love Deakin's intense photographs of Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, George Dyer, Henrietta Moraes and others in the Colony Room circle of 1950s and 60s Soho; oddly, his great prints look even better having been salvaged from Bacon's studio - paint stained, creased and torn.
Sacked twice from Vogue, Deakin, an alcoholic, was clearly a difficult person. Gordon Comstock's profile of him, John Deakin: Champagne and Sulphur in Soho quotes George Melly describing him as a "vicious little drunk of such inventive malice and implacable bitchiness that it's surprising he didn't choke on his own venom". 
The Photographers' Gallery show includes 'rarely seen and un-shown works':  it is very good.
Watch a short video pairing Deakin's less well known pictures of Genoa with Johnnie Shand Kydd's pictures of Naples: A Tale of Two Cities.
Read a review of John Muir's book of the exhibition and a review of John Muir's earlier book A Maverick Eye: The Street Photography of John Deakin.

John Deakin, George Dyer, c1964

John Deakin, George Dyer

John Deakin, Portrait of an unknown girl in a cafe, 1960s

John Deakin, Francis Bacon, 1968

John Deakin, Francis Bacon, 1952

John Deakin, Lucian Freud, c.1961

John Deakin, Lucian Freud,1960s

John Deakin, Henrietta Moraes

John Deakin, Tony Abbro, newsagent, Old Compton Street, December 1960

John Deakin, George Dyer in Francis Bacon's Reece Mews Studio, c.1964

Alan Davie, 1920 - 2014; Tate Britain, Gimpel Fils and Alan Wheatley Art

Alan Davie, Patrick's Delight, 1960

Alan Davie died on 5 April 2014.
BP Spotlight: Alan Davie is at Tate Britain 14 April - 28 September 2014; Alan Davie: The Symbol is Neither Rational nor Concrete is at Gimpel Fils, 24 April - 23 May 2014; Alan Davie: The (Wild) Eye of Wonder: EarlyPaintings 1945-1970 is at Alan Wheatley Art, 9 April - 23 May 2014.
Alan Davie, Scottish painter and musician, one of the major figures of British post-war art has died at the age of 93 just days before 3 London exhibitions of his work open. These shows mark a return to visibility of a prolific artist who had largely slipped from public sight. Davie was one of the first British artists to respond to the achievements of the New York Abstract Expressionists. He encounteered the work of Rothko, Pollock and de Kooning at the 1948 Venice Biennale. 
Davie's 'action' painting method was built on improvisation techniques developed as a jazz pianist and saxophonist as well as Zen Buddhism. The imagery in his work drew from a wide range of sources and interests including Indian, Aztec and Aboriginal art.
Read The Artist that Time Forgot, an article by Mark Hudson written after a recent conversation with the artist; watch a selection of short videos of Davie  discussing his work on the Abstract Critical website and Talking Pictures 14: Alan Davie; read obituaries by Michael McNay, in The Telegraph and at the arts desk.

Alan Davie, Entrance to a Paradise, 1949

Alan Davie, Bubble Figure No.1, 1954

Alan Davie, Birth of Venus, 1955

Alan Davie, Opus O.521C The Horse that has visions of Immortality No.3,1963

Alan Davie, Ankh for the Serpents, 1967

Alan Davie, Entrance for a Red Temple No.1, 1960

Alan Davie, Fairy Tree No.5, 1971

Alan Davie, Altarpiece for Kali, 1980

Alan Davie, photographed by Ida Kar, 1958

Alan Davie, photographed by Eamonn McCabe, 2014

Veronese - National Gallery

Paolo Veronese, Perseus and Andromeda, 1575-80

Veronese: Magnificence in Renaissance Venice is at the National Gallery until 15 June.
Veronese was "one of the greatest painters who have ever lived", is the bold claim of Xavier Salomon, curator of this exhibition; Nicholas Penny, director of the National Gallery is reported to agree with Salomon that The Martyrdom of St George (c.1565, see below) is 'arguably the world's greatest painting'.
I simply haven't seen enough Veronese (yet) to know if this is overwrought hyperbole or sound judgement. But just on the basis of reproductions of paintings such as Perseus and Adndromeda (above) I am ready to be seduced. Reviews, too, have been pretty positive:
"The show of a lifetime. This is the first – and quite likely the last – chance we will have to see his soaringly beautiful art at full stretch in this country." (Laura Cumming)
Veronese (1528-88), born Paolo Caliari in Verona (hence 'Veronese') became one of the leading artists of Venice alongside Titian (c.1490-1576), the sculptor Sansovino (1486-1570) and architect Andrea Palladio (1508-80). He was notable for large scale paintings of mythological and biblical subjects. 
In 1573 Veronese was summoned before the Inquisition to explain the inclusion of inappropriate figures in his painting of the Last Supper: "Did some person order you to paint Germans, buffoons, and other similar figures in this picture?", Veronese responded:  "When I have some space left over in a picture, I adorn it with figures of my own invention… ". Ordered to remove the offending figures 'at his own expense', Veronese simply retitled the painting Feast at the House of Levi (see below - NB not included in exhibition).
Read reviews by Laura Cumming, Waldemar Januszczak,  Richard Dorment; watch a short video of Nicholas Penny talking about the Adoration of the Kings. Click on images to enarge.

Paolo Veronese,The Martyrdom of St George, c.1565

Paolo Veronese, Lucretia, 1580s

Paolo Veronese, Portrait of a Lady, known as the "Bella Nani", c.1560-5

Paolo Veronese, The Adoration of the Kings, 1573

Paolo Veronese, The Conversion of Mary Magdalene, c1548

Paolo Veronese, Mars and Venus United by Love, 1570s

Paolo Veronese, The Feast at the House of Levi, 1573