William Eggleston - NPG

William Eggleston, Untitled (Girl with Red Hair, Biloxi, Mississippi), 1974

William Eggleston: Portraits is at the National Portrait Gallery until 23 October 2016.

William Eggleston’s place in the pantheon of great photographers is assured – however, it is a surprise that the latest major show of his work is at the National Portrait Gallery. It is not that people don’t feature in some of his photographs, it’s just that his detached approach to ‘people photography’ does not conform to what is generally classified as ‘portraiture’. Personally, I like his approach very much: Asked whether he photographed a human in the same way as he photographed a parking lot, the artist replied: “I think so, absolutely.” (See article by Andrew Dickson.)

Read reviews by Laura Cumming, AdrianSearle, Mark Hudson, Ben Luke.

Listen to Eamonn McCabe talking about the exhibition on Front Row. (He comments: … this great artist - he is an artist, forget this label ‘photographer-artist’, he is an artist… Discuss!)

At the time of writing I haven’t seen the exhibition so I can’t be sure that all of the pictures in my selection are actually in the show.

Click on images to enlarge.

William Eggleston, Untitled (Dennis Hopper),1970-74

William Eggleston, Untitled, c1970, (Devoe Money in Jackson, Mississippi)

William Eggleston, Untitled (from The Los Alamos Project,1966-74)

William Eggleston, Untitled, 1973-4

William Eggleston, Untitled (Boy in Red Cardigan), 1971

William Eggleston, Untitled, 1976

William Eggleston, Untitled, 1969 - 70 (the artist's uncle, Ayden Schuyler Senior, with Jasper Staples, in Cassidy Bayou, Summer, Mississippi)

William Eggleston, Untitled, (Morton, Mississippi), c1972

William Eggleston, Untitled, 1965-68

RIBA Stirling Prize 2016 - shortlist

Blavatnik School of Government by Herzog & de Meuron

I always enjoy the Stirling architecture prize and this year’s shortlist looks great. I have only visited one of the buildings - Newport Street Gallery, which I enthused about, here - but, judging just by the pictures, the Blavatnik School of Government looks spectacular and the Outhouse is a dream house.

The full shortlist for the RIBA Stirling Prize 2016 includes three university buildings – two in Oxford and one in Glasgow – a private house, a housing estate redevelopment and an art gallery. 
The buildings are:

- Blavatnik School of Government by Herzog & de Meuron

- City of Glasgow College Riverside Campus by Michael Laird Architects with Reiach and Hall Architects

- Newport Street Gallery, designed by Caruso St John Architects

- Outhouse, Gloucestershire, designed by Loyn & Co Architects

- Trafalgar Place, designed by dRMM Architects

- The Weston Library, designed by Wilkinson Eyre

See a selection of images below with links to descriptions of the buildings on the RIBA website.

Read commentary by Oliver Wainwright and Rowan Moore.
The winner of the prize will be announced on 6 October, 2016 and the winner is Caruso St John for the Newport Street Gallery!

(See the shortlists (and winners) for 2015, 2014 and 2013.)

Click on images to enlarge.

Blavatnik School of Government by Herzog & de Meuron

City of Glasgow College Riverside Campus by Michael Laird Architects with Reiach and Hall Architects

Newport Street Gallery, designed by Caruso St John Architects

Outhouse,Gloucestershire, designed by Loyn & Co Architects

Trafalgar Place, designed by dRMM Architects

The Weston Library, designed by Wilkinson Eyre

Painters' Paintings - National Gallery

Edgar Degas, Combing the Hair (La Coiffure), c1896 - owned by Henri Matisse

Painters’ Paintings: From Freud to Van Dyck is at the National Gallery until 4 September 2016.

What a pleasure this exhibition is. Inspired by Lucian Freud’s bequest to the National Gallery of a fabulous painting by Corot – he left it to the nation in gratitude for Britain giving refuge to his family from the Nazis in 1933 (see below) – this exhibition brings together a selection of great works collected by great artists, notably Lucian Freud, Henri Matisse, Edgar Degas and Sir Anthony Van Dyck; the exhibition also includes the not quite so great painters Lord Leighton, Sir Thomas Lawrence and Sir Joshua Reynolds. Examples of each artist-collector’s work is exhibited alongside works they had owned.

The premise of the exhibition does make for a fascinating set of stories and insight into the ’conversations’ artists have with the works both of their contemporaries and across time with their forebears. But more than that it simply brings together a concentrated selection of terrific paintings.
The highlights of the exhibition are the rooms devoted to Matisse and Degas and their respective collections. Matisse’s Degas (Combing the Hair, above) is, I think, a sensational painting; Degas himself was, evidently, an obsessive collector, acquiring more than 1,000 works in his lifetime.

The show, dips a little with the rooms devoted to Leighton, Lawrence and Reynolds but concludes on a high note with Van Dyck’s own great work alongside a couple of Titians.

Below is my selection of favourites from the exhibition. Click on images to enlarge.

Read reviews by Laura Cumming, Mark Hudson, Ben Luke and Jonathan Jones,

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Italian Woman, c1870 - owned by Lucian Freud

Henri Matissse,  The Inattentive Reader (La liseuse distraite), 1919

Paul Cezanne, Three Bathers, 1879-82 - owned by Henri Matisse

Pablo Picasso, Portrait of Dora Maar, 1942 - owned by Henri Matisse

Jacques-Emile Blanche, Francis Poictevin, 1887 - owned by Egar Degas

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Angelica saved by Ruggiero, 1818-39 - owned by Edgar Degas

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Oedipus and the Sphinx, c1826 0 owned by Edgar Degas

Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Monsieur de Norvins, 1811-12 - owned by Edgar Degas

Raphael, An Allegory ('Vision of a Knight'), c1504 - owned by Sir Thomas Lawrence

Sir Anthony van Dyck, Thomas Killigrew and William, Lord Crofts (?), 1638

Titian,  Portrait of Gerolamo (?) Barbarigo, c1510 - owned by Sir Anthony van Dyck