Critics for The Arts Desk look back on the year's visual arts and identify their highlights, turnoffs and everything inbetween. Though a fresh form of art was not delivered, 2011's art excelled in its reconstructions of the past that prevailed throughout the work. One major event that failed to produce evidence of promising new artists was The British Art Show in Nottingham. One notable contender, however, was Karla Black, a contender for the Turner Prize this year.
For the most part, it was the old guard who shone through. And consequently, despite a distinct lack of earth-shattering shows, there was, Hudson asserted, a great deal of very good stuff on show, not least the much-lauded retrospectives of veterans Frank Stella and Gerhard Richter. For their part, Tate Britain and Haunch of Venison both earned Brownie points for throwing fresh light on well-trodden ground such as Pop Art, Constructivism, Expressionism and Britain's postwar painters including Hockney, Bacon and the now late Lucien Freud and Richard Hamilton.
The survey of 20th-century Hungarian Photographers from The Royal Academy were what Hudson considered to be rather mediocre and the Canadian Post-Impressionist exhibition at the Dulwich Picture Gallery also failed to gain approval. However, after living in London for a year, Alice Vincent reflected on the quality of London galleries and could think of plenty of metropolitan pieces that she found memorable. Ron Arad's 'Curtain Call', Charlie Tuesday Gates's 'DIY Taxidermy' and 'Nature Punk' by Edwyn Collins were among her favourites.
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.
It wasn't all doom and gloom though; 2011 may have been neither here nor there for Hudson, but still he was optimistic that the year's output signalled more interesting things to come in visual art. On a cheerier note, Graham Fuller's year was made by finally seeing John Martin's epic Romantic 1812 painting 'Sadak in Search of the Waters of Oblivion' at Tate Britain's John Martin: Apocalypse exhibition, after a missed opportunity in 1974. He found the painting nothing short of a visually stunning treat and a dream come true. A turbulent year it may have been, but the art world seems alive and well and hopefully destined for even greater things in 2012.
For the most part, it was the old guard who shone through. And consequently, despite a distinct lack of earth-shattering shows, there was, Hudson asserted, a great deal of very good stuff on show, not least the much-lauded retrospectives of veterans Frank Stella and Gerhard Richter. For their part, Tate Britain and Haunch of Venison both earned Brownie points for throwing fresh light on well-trodden ground such as Pop Art, Constructivism, Expressionism and Britain's postwar painters including Hockney, Bacon and the now late Lucien Freud and Richard Hamilton.
The survey of 20th-century Hungarian Photographers from The Royal Academy were what Hudson considered to be rather mediocre and the Canadian Post-Impressionist exhibition at the Dulwich Picture Gallery also failed to gain approval. However, after living in London for a year, Alice Vincent reflected on the quality of London galleries and could think of plenty of metropolitan pieces that she found memorable. Ron Arad's 'Curtain Call', Charlie Tuesday Gates's 'DIY Taxidermy' and 'Nature Punk' by Edwyn Collins were among her favourites.
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.
It wasn't all doom and gloom though; 2011 may have been neither here nor there for Hudson, but still he was optimistic that the year's output signalled more interesting things to come in visual art. On a cheerier note, Graham Fuller's year was made by finally seeing John Martin's epic Romantic 1812 painting 'Sadak in Search of the Waters of Oblivion' at Tate Britain's John Martin: Apocalypse exhibition, after a missed opportunity in 1974. He found the painting nothing short of a visually stunning treat and a dream come true. A turbulent year it may have been, but the art world seems alive and well and hopefully destined for even greater things in 2012.
About the Author:
Catherine McCulloch works in the arts industry and has an extensive knowledge of visual art and London galleries. To find out more on London's visual arts, visit theartsdesk.com.
