by Catherine McCulloch
To kick off the New Year, The Arts Desk's art critics look back to 2011 and give their verdict on the year's visual arts, selecting their highs, lows and their only so-sos. For Mark Hudson, 2011 was a year marked by its inability to present a definitive new kind of art for now, with its emphasis more on reappraising the past. The exception ought to have been the British Art Show in Nottingham, supposedly the place to find cutting-edge contemporary art by those not long out of college. But, though entertaining enough, Hudson found nothing profound or revolutionary enough there to transform the art world and derail the prevailing trends left by the YBAs, though he pinpointed Turner Prize nominee Karla Black as a noteworthy exception.
The old guard was one that impressed critics. On the other hand, artists such as Frank Stella and Gerhard Richter managed to stun critics with their retrospective works. The Tate Britain and Haunch of Venison's renaissance of painters such as Bacon and Hockney in addition to their revival of different genres of visual art including pop art, constructivism and expressionism were also greatly appreciated players in London's galleries.
Slipping in under the radar were some gems on less familiar artists, among them the Royal Academy's survey of 20th century Hungarian photographers including Capa, Brassai and Kertesz and the Dulwich Picture Gallery's look at Canadian Post-Impressionists in Painting Canada: Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven. Meanwhile, Alice Vincent, after her first year living in the capital, looked back at what the London galleries had to offer, and at the many examples of city art that caught her eye. Foremost among them was Ron Arad's calming installation 'Curtain Call' at the Camden Roundhouse, providing much-need shelter during the August riots, Charlie Tuesday Gates's 'DIY Taxidermy' in the West End and Edwyn Collins's 'Nature Punk' at Idea Generation, which managed to capture Collins's rehabilitation after a stroke through his ever improving sketches of birds. Also making their mark were the National Portrait Gallery's late-night openings for Late Shift Extra: ReAnimate, which specialised in genre cross-fertilisation, and Ryan McGinley's welcome return to the Alison Jacques Gallery.
Among the chief disappointments of 2011 was Tracey Emin's retrospective at the Hayward Gallery, which in Hudson's view was undeserved, the V&A's Post-Modernism show which, rather than showing us the future, managed to trivialise the movement instead, and two while big-hitting shows that in the end fell just short of greatness: Tate Modern's Mir exhibition and the Royal Academy's Degas and the Ballet exhibition.
Though much was unimpressive, there is still reason to believe great things will unravel for the visual art world in 2012. Another piece that deserves appraisal was John Martin's painting at the Tate Britain, which critic Graham Fuller deemed a visual success. Fuller felt that the painting inspired those who viewed it. Thus, with this year's pros and cons, there is hope for the future of visual art in the year to come.
Catherine McCulloch is a leading expert of <a href="http://www.theartsdesk.com/visual-arts">visual art</a> and <a href="http://www.theartsdesk.com/visual-arts">London galleries</a>. Find out more about the visual arts at theartsdesk.com.
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New Unique Article!
Title: Reviews from a year of visual arts
Author: Catherine McCulloch
Email: lauren@bluepostdigital.com
Keywords: visual art, visual arts, London galleries
Word Count: 493
Category: Hobbies
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