Domestic harmony

Home and Garden: Domestic Spaces in Paintings 1960–2004; Geffrye Museum, Kingsland Road, E2, until 4 February 2008

The final part of a quartet of exhibitions devoted to the subject of Home and Garden, competently supported by a useful catalogue, is currently enlivening the Geffrye Museum in London’s East End. It’s a pleasure to visit: the Geffrye’s permanent display of period rooms is always worth looking at, there’s a garden and restaurant, and downstairs is the still newish space for temporary exhibitions.

The visitor is greeted by a pair of paintings at the gallery entrance: on the right, one of the best paintings in the show, Jean Cooke’s striking psychological portrait of her husband John Bratby, and, on the left, the vertiginous hall-and-corridor spaces of Anthony Green’s ‘Dinner Party’. Unashamedly autobiographical, Green’s imagery delves into his past as though it were a bran tub, and occasionally comes out with paintings of this strength and quality.