London Art October

Here are some more interesting recommendations from our wonderful art connoisseur and roving reporter.

RICHARD HAMILTON

‘The Late Works’

The National Gallery, Trafalgar Square till January 13th 2013

Hamilton is one of my all time favourite artists who sadly died last year at the age of 89. This show of mainly unseen work produced in the last decade of his life shows his fascination and knowledge of computer programming. He worked with computer technicians and used a 3D modelling programme when creating some of his images.

Hamilton had visited the National since his student days at the Royal Academy and would copy paintings in order to improve his technique. This show has paintings based on works in the gallery by 17th century Dutch masters.

His fascination with linear perspective from the 15th century is shown in paintings of hotel lobby’s in Berlin. He also revisits the work of Marcel Duchamp which had interested him for most of his life.

His last series of 3 paintings entitled Balzac were all created using photoshop the last of which was finished after his death and is listed as ‘a digital approximation of the finished work’.

DAVID ROBERTS ART FOUNDATION

‘The House of Leaves’ Part 1 of 4

Symes Mews, Camden High Street, London NW1 till November 10th Thursday-Saturday

This is a new gallery space housed in a former furniture factory where the extensive collection owned by David Roberts is to be shown. The 4 parts of this show will continue till February 2013.

The ‘First Movement’ includes work by Louise Bourgeois, Matthew Day Jackson, Thomas Housego, Tony Cragg and Keith Coventry plus numerous others.

PACE LONDON

Rothko/Sugimoto ‘Dark Paintings and Seascapes’

6 Burlington Gardens, London W1 till 17th November

This is a new space opened next to the Royal Academy’s Burlington House and is showing Rothko’s late black and grey paintings alongside Sugimoto’s photos of bodies of water. This is the first private gallery show of Rothko for almost 50 years.

Rothko’s dark paintings, produced a year before his death in 1969 show a departure from his signature blocks of colour that had defined his earlier work. These works had been reduced to two distinct rectangles, one dark and one lighter.

The Sugimoto Seascapes, begun in 1980, depict bodies of water from the English Channel to the Bay of Sagami with the images divided into two rectangles, one dark. one light.

ORDOVAS

Carracci/Freud ‘Painting from Life’

25 Savile Row, London W1 till 15th December

A fabulous show juxtaposing 3 portraits by Annibale Carracci (1560-1609) with 6 portraits by Lucian Freud (1922-2011).

All the paintings are head portraits and explore Freud’s interest in the Old Masters especially those shown at the Dulwich Picture Gallery from where the Carracci’s have been loaned.

By placing the two artists side by side one can see how Freud had been influenced by the techniques and styles of the earlier artist.

LISSON

Anish Kapoor

29 and 52/54 Bell Street, London NW1 till 10th November

A show of new work by the Turner prize winning artist and the first living artist to have a solo show at the Royal Academy.

Kapoor continues to produce his signature hemispheres coated in monochrome pigments and hung classically on the walls of the largest gallery space.

Alongside these are a series of new ‘earth’ works many of which are table sculptures and evoke the natural forms of rock and coral.

In the sculpture yard is an imposing large scale piece made from Corten steel.

He continues to use extruded cement for both wall and floor standing pieces, some of which incorporate his signature colours.

JOANA VASCONCELOS

Haunch of Venison

103 New Bond Street, London W1 till November 17th

A new site-specific sculptural installation by this Portuguese artist. She uses handmade knitting, and crochet alongside fabrics, ornaments and hand painted ceramic tiles to produce enormous textile forms with far reaching tendrils that wind around the floors and up and down stairs.

The tiled supporting structures are reminiscent of the retro computer game Tetris.

The rich mix of traditional Portuguese fabrics with fluo coloured crochet gives a more than colourful result.

A departure from the fabrics is a piece using identical stem irons which have been formed into the shape of a giant waterlily using an iron in the place of petals. These petals open and close emitting steam as the iron plates reach vertical position.