Distinctly lacklustre

Radical light: Italy’s Divisionist Painters 1891-1910
National Gallery, until 7 September, Sponsoered by Credit Suisse

Divisionism is based on the scientific theory of the prismatic division of light into the colours of the spectrum. It’s more familiarly known as pointillism and its greatest exponent was Georges Seurat. Italy bred a minor outbreak of Divisionism, and it is to these artists and to a fleeting period of their work that this show is dedicated. Divisionism was one of the key staging posts on the way to Futurism, but I doubt that it deserves an exhibition all to itself.

Divisionism developed out of the Impressionists’ habit of putting unmixed colours next to each other and making the surface of the painting dance with light. The intention of the Divisionists was that the viewer’s eye would combine the unmixed dots or dashes of colour in such a way as to generate a more lively effect than mixed colours.