Another Country: London Painters in Dialogue with Modern Italian Art
Estorick Collection, 39a Canonbury Square, London N1, until 20 June
In recent years there has been something of a vogue for encouraging contemporary artists to respond to particular works by artists of the past, and to make paintings as part of that response. The prime example of this curatorial trend was Encounters: New Art from Old, staged by the National Gallery in 2000, and including such painters as Balthus, Patrick Caulfield, R.B. Kitaj, Cy Twombly and Euan Uglow. The exhibition featured a number of bizarre pairings (Uglow and Monet was one) and some highly fruitful ones, such as Leon Kossoff with Rubens, but the thrust of the show involved new work being produced around a specific painting in the National’s collection. The Estorick’s fascinating exhibition is less prescriptive than that.
The idea for the show comes from Lino Mannocci (born 1945), an Italian painter resident in England since 1968, with something of a reputation as a mover and shaker in artistic circles.
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