Tag Archives: paintings

Modern art on display in an English country house setting

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CLAYDON HOUSE IN Buckinghamshire has been owned by the Verney family since 1620. It has been owned by the National Trust since 1956. Filled with beautifully and quite fantastically decorated rooms, the house contains many works of art – paintings, sculptures, furniture, etc – collected by the Verneys.

Until 14 September 2026, the house and its gardens are hosting an exhibition of contemporary artworks. These have been provided by the White Cube group of art galleries. More than 40 works from their collection are on display. The artists, whose work can be seen at Claydon House include (to name but a few): David Altmejd, Tracey Emin, Theaster Gates, Antony Gormley, Anselm Kiefer, Isamu Noguchi, Raqib Shaw, and Cai Guo-Qiang. These and others make a very impressive line-up. Some of the works are in the gardens, but most of them are within the house, mingling with the Verney’s own collection of objets d’art.

From the point of view of looking at these artworks, I see little point in showing them in the historic setting of Claydon House. There is something faintly amusing seeing the contemporary artwork almost competing with the variety of picturesque items within the house, which were created many years before their existence. As for the sculptures in the garden, I liked their settings.

After seeing the White Cube’s offerings at Claydon House, a thought occurred to me. The Verney’s collection of art and the interior décor of their residence reflected the aesthetic tastes of the house’s owners over the centuries. It was art that was collected by wealthy landowners who lived at Claydon and wanted to keep up with latest fashions. What I wondered was whether the family would have bought artworks such as were being lent by White Cube had they still been living in the house today. After all, what is sold by White Cube is mostly only affordable by private individuals with considerable wealth. And had the Verney family continued to live in the grand, opulent style that is reflected in the rooms of Claydon House, they might well have been tempted to add some of the kind of art – maybe not the most adventurous pieces – sold by White Cube to their collection.

Both the mansion with its historical décor and artworks and the exhibits provided by White Cube make it well worth visiting Claydon House.

This artist shines lights on life in modern India

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BORN IN MYSORE (Mysuru) in 1969, the Indian artist NS Harsha lives and works in that city. He studied art first at Mysore’s Chamarajendra Academy of Visual Arts, and then at Maharaja Sayajirao University in Baroda (Vadodara). Until 31 July 2026, there is a wonderful exhibition of his large paintings at the Victoria Miro Gallery in London.

Almost all of Harsha’s beautifully executed paintings in the show contain depictions of lighted oil lamps (diyas), often many in a single work. In some paintings, the oil lamps are arranged to form regular patterns. In others, they are interspersed with images of people, animals, food, and items used in daily life. The numerous people who appear in these works are frequently workers in their overalls and hard hats (helmets), animals, and people planting crops. From a visual point of view, the paintings are very pleasing even if one has no idea what, if any, message the artist is attempting to convey. Although they depict contemporary subjects and far from being miniature, they hark back to the historical traditions of Indian Miniature paintings.

In a web page produced by the Chemould (Prescott Road) Gallery in Bombay, I read that:

“Like a chronicler, often drawing from popular stories and local perceptions of international news events, Harsha depicts in his canvasses small town/city Indian life in our increasingly globalized times. His intricately detailed canvasses juxtapose seemingly disassociated images of scenes of small town and village India with those of more recognizably international ones. Harsha’s multi-layered narratives strongly suggest that the global is always already located within the local imagination.”

Regarding the lamps in the paintings, the Victoria Miro website explained:

“The works, which elaborate on the artist’s celebrated, ongoing ‘lamp grid’ series, feature diyas – lamps traditionally made from clay that are lit during rituals, prayers, ceremonies, celebrations and during power cuts – with flames and trails of smoke together creating patterns that guide the eye around each canvas …  In Harsha’s work they represent energy, forces perhaps unseen.”

This interesting interpretation is useful enough, but the paintings alone speak for themselves, and throw an intriguing light on contemporary life in India.

I enjoyed viewing this exhibition, and becoming aware of a fascinating artist, whom I had not come across before.

An artist from Nigeria at a gallery in London

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BACK IN 2023, we were in Hastings, and saw an exhibition of works by artist Nengi Omuku. She was born in Nigeria in 1987, and received artistic education (BA and MA degrees) at London’s Slade School of Art. She lives and works between London and Lagos (Nigeria). After seeing the exhibition in Hastings, I wrote about it here: https://adam-yamey-writes.com/2023/10/18/wild-silk-beside-the-east-sussex-sea-shore/ .

Today, 23 May 2026, we saw another exhibition of her art, which is being held at Pippy Houldsworth Gallery in Heddon Street, London W1 until 30 May 2026. Like the work she exhibited in Hastings, this show is a collection of her paintings on sanyan – a hand spun cloth that has been made by the Yoruba people since long before their lands were colonised by Europeans. Nengi takes a great interest in the production of this traditional textile. The subject matter on the paintings in the London show the artist’s exploration of the “politics of green spaces in urban centres”. She is particularly concerned with the insufficient quantity of green spaces in Lagos. Examination of aerial views of the city confirm her anxiety: large areas of the city are devoid of green spaces. Statistically, as far as this is concerned Lagos has not much less green space than Manhattan, but considerably less than Central London, and far less than Greater London.

The paintings, which depict different urban scenes, are delicately painted in slightly muted colours. Close examination of the pictures reveals the details of the cloth upon which paint has been applied. It was a small exhibition, but well worth seeing.

An artist from the Amazonian rainforest in Cambridge

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FRANK BOWLING WAS born in Guyana (formerly British Guiana) in 1934. He came to England in 1953. He studied art at Chelsea College of Art,  then at The Royal College of Art. He is the first ‘black’ artist to have been made a member of the Royal Academy of Arts (in 2005). Until 17 January 2027, there is a small exhibition of Bowling’s work at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.

 

Displayed in a circular room, there are about 10 works to be seen. Almost all of them are large images tending towards abstraction,  but some with figurative details. Some of the images have patches of three-dimensional accumulation of paint, sometimes with fragments of material attached. All the works are gloriously colourful. One of them is an impressionist map of the continent where Bowling was born: South America.

 

The little exhibition is a good example of the idea that ‘small is beautiful’, but most of the exhibits are far from being small.  I  am pleased that I have seen this show.

A British artist whose parents came from the Caribbean

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THE BRITISH PAINTER Hurvin Anderson was born in Birmingham (UK) in 1965. His mother and father came to Britain from Jamaica before he was born. As a child, he carried a sketchbook with him wherever he went. He studied art first at Wimbledon College of Art, and then later at the Royal College of Art. Until 26 August 2026, there is an exhibition of his works (mainly paintings) at Tate Britain in London.

Although Hurvin was not brought up in the Caribbean, he learned a lot about the place by listening to his parents talking about the places they had left. The first room of the exhibition contains paintings he made after seeing his parents’ and their friends’ photographs. They are not copies of the photographs but they depict his impressions of what can be seen in them.

Other rooms contain paintings which he made in the Caribbean while undertaking an artist’s residency in Port of Spain in Trinidad & Tobago. In some of these pictures, he explored the complex relationships between slavery, the Caribbean’s colonial past, and modern social situations. In some of the paintings, he places his subject matter behind a painted barrier, for example a grid or fence, to emphasise the fact that often in the Carribean, some people (black or poor) were excluded from pla es where others (white or wealthy) were admitted. Although many of Hurvin’s paintings contain messages or comments about life in the Caribbean, his emphasis is on the aesthetic, rather than the politics.

One of the many pictures that caught my attention was called “Between Port Radix and Moruga II”. According to its exhibition label, it depicts a Hindu mandir (temple) in Trinidad. It shows a low building in front of which many pennants, each on its own pole, are fluttering in the wind. Tridad has a south Asian community. One of its best-known personalities was the writer VS Naipaul (1932-2018).

Near the end of the show, there is a gallery that contains four paintings that Hurvin created specially for the Tate’s exhibition. These, like all the others on show, are beautifully composed and skilfully executed. Hurvin’s portrayals of both people and nature make a visit to the exhibition extremely enjoyable.

The art of war at a museum in south London

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ALTHOUGH LONDON’S IMPERIAL War Museum contains a rich collection of objects related to warfare, it also has a fine art gallery in which there are many paintings inspired by, and recording, wars from WW1 onwards. The artworks, mostly paintings, are to be found in the rooms in the Blavatnik Art, Film and Photography Galleries on the museum’s third floor.

“Gassed” by John Singer Sargent

The paintings and other artworks are mostly by artists, who are now well-known, such as, to mention only a few: Joan Miro, Paul Nash, Eileen Agar, Laura Knight, Percy Wyndham-Lewis, John Piper, Eric Ravilious, John Singer Sargent, David Bomberg, and Steve McQueen. Others are by less well-known artists, and many of them have created images inspired by outbreaks of warfare that have occurred since the end of WW2. One of these, made by Steve McQueen, is a collection of postage stamps with faces of military personnel who died during the relatively recent Iraq conflict. These postage stamps, all of which bear a soldier’s portrait and the head of Queen Elizabeth II, are kept in a special wooden cabinet with sliding panels that can be pulled out to see the stamps.  Like all the other artworks, this is both dramatic and moving. And seeing them during a period of warfare in the Middle East made them seem even more poignant.

There are several paintings by artists who joined British Colonial Artists Scheme, which encouraged ‘native-born’ artists to depict aspects of activities connected with warfare in the colonies. One of these artists was an African called Katongole. Another artist of interest is an Iraqi refugee called Walid Siti, who was born in Iraqi Kurdistan in 1984, and his etching was inspired by warfare.

Of all the wonderful paintings on display, two particularly attracted my attention. One showing Indian soldiers, who were recovering from injuries during WW1, lying in beds under a large, amazingly decorative dome in Brighton Pavilion, This was painted by Douglas Fox-Pitt in 1919. The other, which is the biggest picture in the galleries, is by John Singer Sargent. Called “Gassed”, it shows a long line of blindfolded soldiers, injured by poisonous gas, being led by an officer wearing a white overcoat. As they walk along, they are passing the corpses of their fellow soldiers.

The artworks in the Blavatnik Galleries at the Imperial War Museum easily rival what can be seen in the permanent collection of Tate Modern, and are a ‘must-see’ for anyone who has an interest in twentieth century artists, especially those who worked in Britain.  

Staring at paintings by Hogarth on the stairs

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RECENTLY I WENT to a hospital, St Bartholomew’s (‘Barts’), which is near to London’s Smithfield meat market and the Barbican. I went there not because I was ill, but to view a magnificent artwork. It is in the hospital’s North Wing.

The walls of the main staircase in the North Wing are covered with huge paintings depicting scenes from stories in the Holy Bible. What makes them both attractive and interesting is that they were painted by the English artist William Hogarth (1697-1764). According to a website relating to this artwork (https://bartsnorthwing.org.uk/):

“Hogarth decorated the stair free of charge, allowing him to indulge his ambition, and giving the hospital a grand entrance to the Great Hall at no cost.”

Hogarth was a Governor of the hospital. The paintings that illustrate ‘The Pool of Bethesda’ and ‘The Good Samaritan’, were created in 1736–1737.

In 2025, the restoration of the paintings was completed, and the staircase was opened for public viewing at last – they had been hidden from public view for about 300 years.  The stairs lead up to the spectacular, vast Great Hall (designed in 1732 by architect James Gibbs), which can also be visited.

And when you have admired the artwork and the Great Hall, head around the corner into Long Lane, and enjoy refreshments at Details, a charming café (near Barbican station) with interesting interior design.

The eyes have it near London’s Smithfield Market

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GINNY ON FREDERICK is a tiny art gallery at 99 Charterhouse Street, next to Smithfield meat market. We had never heard of it before, and after seeing it mentioned in the Financial Times newspaper, we went there today (11 March 2026) to view a collection of portrait paintings by British-born Hanna Murray (b. 1994). She received her MFA from New York Academy of Art in 2021, and now lives and works in Brooklyn, New York (USA). Like the gallery, the artist was new to us.

The six paintings on display were all portraits, beautifully executed. What makes each of them special is the artist’s depictions of her subjects’ eyes. They are literally eye-catching, and especially alluring. Along with her choice of colouring, the eves give the portraits an almost dreamlike quality, slightly weird but in a positive way. The gallery’s excellently written handout mentions the eyes, suggesting (quite correctly) that the subjects depicted:

“ … appear to observe themselves being observed.”

Difficult to find because it is so small and without a noticeable sign outside it, Ginny on Frederick was well worth the visit, and seeing the works by Hannah Murray was a delightful experience.

Portraits of Pakistan near London’s Piccadilly

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IT IS WORTH climbing the steep staircase that leads to the Larkin Durey gallery in Mason’s Yard, near London’s Piccadilly, to view the paintings of Naira Mushtaq, which are on display until 20 March 2026. Ms Mushtaq was born in Lahore, Pakistan. She studied art at Kinnaird College For Women, Pakistan, and then at National College of Arts, also in Pakistan. Then, between 2017 and 2019, she studied at University of the Arts London: Central Saint Martins. Currently, she lives and works in London.

The paintings being shown at Larkin Durey were painted in 2025 and 2026. The artist wrote (https://nairamushtaq.squarespace.com/artist-statement) that her artistic practice:

“ … is focused on history, memory and social commentary stemming from a desire to understand grief and memory and how memories are formed as affect … My practice examines these questions by looking at the socio political and cultural context, while in most instances the backdrop of this comparison is my home country of Pakistan – the concerns under question are broader. Which memory is being remembered, who is it being remembered by, and the context of remembrance. How one memory merges with another, multiplicity and singularity of memory, what narratives we tell, what we choose to remember and what is the value of the narratives that we choose to remember if at all, drawing from these areas of interest and I examine memory as a form of impalpable archive while the tangible photograph or sourced materials aid to its inaccuracy, a palimpsest of truths and half-truths.”

Each of the 20 paintings on display depict faces or parts of faces. In each painting, the artist has used subdued colouring, which maybe suggests a sadness about her subjects, and concern about her often troubled native land. Some pictures depict faces and people in such a way that they look as if they are adapted from stills taken from a film (movie), being watched through darkly tinted spectacles. One portrait shows a distorted face, which reminded me of the way that Francis Bacon used to paint. And another evoked memories of Edvard Munch’s “The Scream”. Otherwise, her style is her own. Despite their melancholic, sometimes menacing subject matter, and dark colours, the paintings are both highly original and pleasing visually.

I am very glad I climbed the steep staircase to view this talented artist’s paintings.

A neglected painting by MF Husain in a building in Bombay

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ONE OF INDIA’S greatest modern painters was Maqbool Fida Husain (1915-2011), who was born in what is now Maharahtra. He studied art at the Sir JJ School of Art in Bombay.

 

While visiting Bombay’s branch of the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) on 2 January 2026, we saw two of Husain’s drawings and two of his paintings.  They had been hinges next to a portrait of the artist by Anil Naik  (born 1959), a graduate of Sir JJ School School of Art.

 

Husain’s painting at LIC

From the NGMA,  we made our way to the huge Bombay headquarters of the LIC insurance company.  My wife had read that this place is home to a painting by MF Husain. Nobody in the building knew about it despite the fact that the painting occupies most of one wall of the foyer of one wing of the building.

 

Husain’s painting at LIC is in need of some conservation work. The lower part of it is hidden from view because an x-ray machine used to check bags etc has been placed against it. It was painted in 1963 and depicts Indian life and culture.

 

It is to be hoped that thus fine mural will neither be allowe to fade away nor destroyed.