'Picasso and Modern British Art' at Tate Britain
February 15 2012
The new 'Picasso and Modern British Art' show at Tate Britain is excellent. Regular readers will know that in both subjects I'm a little out of my comfort zone (I give up in about 1830), but even so I greatly enjoyed the exhibition. It displays with clarity and zest Picasso's influence on key British artists of the twentieth century, from Wyndham Lewis to David Hockney, via the likes of Henry Moore (above).
Normally these 'Big Name & ....' exhibitions are an excuse to put on blockbuster shows with tenuous links to something British or contemporary (like the recent Poussin & Twombly at Dulwich). Picasso and Modern British Art, however, sets out the great man's role in nurturing Britain's creative geniuses with a cohesive narrative so oten lacking in today's exhibitions. You can find other more insightful reviews of the exhibition here (from Richard Dorment, who gives it four stars) and here (from Jonathan Jones, who gives it three). So I'll confine myself to giving a deserved hurrah to the show's curators, James Beechey and Chris Stephens. Well done.
