From Outside: Tess Jaray - Barber Institute of Fine Arts (until 12 May 2019)

Tess Jaray

From Outside: Tess Jaray is at the Barber Institute of Fine Arts until 12 May 2019.
From the Barber website:
The elegant Art Deco design of the Barber Institute of Fine Arts inspires five major new paintings by Tess Jaray, RA. One of Britain’s most distinguished and influential painters and printmakers, Jaray works in the abstract tradition, and her contemplations on form and colour have been inspired by architecture for more than 50 years. These meditative yet monumental canvases – created specially for this exhibition – demonstrate the continuing importance of the built environment as a source of inspiration to Jaray, and explore the spatial and emotional qualities of structure, mass and surface through lyrical colour, geometry and pattern. The exhibition is enhanced by a selection of drawings created throughout Jaray’s career, on display off the nearby Green Gallery print bay.

Tess Jaray, Fez Green, 2017

Tess Jaray, Revue, 2018

Tess Jaray, Echo,

Tess Jaray with Fez Green

Elizabethan Treasures: Miniatures by Hilliard and Oliver - National Portrait Gallery (until 19 May 2019)

Nicholas Hilliard, Unknown Lady, c1595

Elizabethan Treasures: Miniatures by Hilliard and Oliver is at the National Portrait Gallery, until 19 May 2019
From the NPG website:
Described as ‘a thing apart from all other painting or drawing’, the portrait miniatures of the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods are some of the greatest works of art to be produced in the British Isles. Hilliard and Oliver were compared by their contemporaries to Michelangelo and Raphael, and gained international fame and admiration.  
This will be the first major UK exhibition of these miniatures for a generation. It will explore what these intimate images reveal about identity, society and visual culture in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.
Reviews:
Laura Cumming (The Observer) "Small miracles: Sharp sight, close scrutiny and an unbelievably steady hand unite in these exquisite Elizabethan miniatures – among the greatest works in European art" (5 stars)
Mark Hudson (The Telegraph) "A magnificent clash between two giants of the miniature" (5 stars)
Melanie McDonagh (Evening Standard) "Exquisite talent from two great players" (4 stars)
Jonathan Jones (The Guardian) "Small wonders" (4 stars)

Nicholas Hilliard, Unknown Man Against a Background of Flames, c1600

Nicholas Hilliard, Queen Elizabeth I, 1572.

Nicholas Hilliard, Sir Walter Ralegh, c1585

Isaac Oliver, The Three Brothers Brown, 1598

Isaac Oliver, Unknown girls aged five and four,1590

Isaac Oliver, Ludovick Stuart, 2nd Duke of Lennox and Duke of Richmond, c1603

Nicholas Hilliard, Self-portrait aged 30, 1577

Isaac Oliver, Self-portrait, c1590

Robert Ryman, 1930 - 2019

Robert Ryman, Ledger, 1982

Robert Ryman died 8 February 2019.

Robert Ryman made white, monochrome paintings, for about 60 years.  Or not.

From ArtNews: Asked if he made “white paintings” in 1971 in Artforum, Ryman replied, “No, it may seem that way superficially, but there are a lot of nuances and there’s color involved. Always the surface is used. The gray of the steel comes through; the brown of the corrugated paper comes through; the linen comes through, the cotton (which is not the same as the paint—it seems white): all of those things are considered. It’s really not monochrome painting at all.” (From ArtNews - see below)

And the works are, given the limitations of palette, astonishingly varied and inventive. And beautiful. 
I don't think of myself as making white paintings. I make paintings; I'm a painter. White paint is my medium. (Artforum, May 1971)

Read appreciations and obituaries:
Adrian Searle (The Guardian) "The master of white who took painting apart."
Oliver Basciano (The Guardian) "American artist known for his white paintings who was regarded as the link between abstract expressionism and minimalism."

Jerry Saltz (Vulture) "In Remembrance of Robert Ryman, 1930-2019."
Andrew Russeth (ArtNews): "Robert Ryman, Relentlessly Inventive Abstract Painter, Is Dead at 88”

Roberta Smith (The New York Times) “Robert Ryman, Minimalist Painter Who Made the Most of White, Dies at 88”.
Gareth Harris (The Art Newspaper) "Art world tributes for Minimalist painter, Robert Ryman"

Robert Ryman, Untitled, 1961

Robert Ryman, Untitled, 1965

Robert Ryman, Twin, 1966

Robert Ryman, Bridge, 1980

Robert Ryman, Director, 1983

Robert Ryman, Untitled, 2010

Robert Ryman in his Manhattan studio in 2004

George Shaw: A Corner of a Foreign Land - Holburne Museum, Bath (until 6 May 2019)

George Shaw, Scenes from the Passion: The Fall, 1999

George Shaw: A Corner of a Foreign Land is at the Holburne Museum, Bath, until 6 May 2019

From the Holburne website:
The Holburne is the only European venue for Shaw’s major retrospective at the Yale Center for British Art. It covers his career from 1996 to the present, including some new works never shown in the UK. Shaw’s paintings, made with enamel model paint, focus on the Tile Hill estate, a post-war development on the outskirts of Coventry where he grew up, and the ancient woods surrounding it. Steeped in modern and historic fine art traditions, Shaw’s work alludes to twentieth-century painting and photography, and the legacy of such European masters as Titian. The exhibition also features his skills as a draughtsman.

From the Yale Center for British Art website:
Spanning three decades of Shaw’s prolific artistic practice, the exhibition features nearly seventy paintings, more than sixty drawings, numerous prints, and a range of sketchbook and notebook materials, as well as several new works. Shaw is celebrated for his paintings depicting the postwar Tile Hill council estate, where he spent his childhood. His work focuses relentlessly, even obsessively, on the Midlands—the region of England anchored by the cities of Birmingham, Derby, and Coventry.

Reviews: 
Jonathan Jones (Guardian) “The only artist who can unite England”
Feature:
Tim Jonze (The Guardian) "Anarchy in Coventry: George Shaw's Greatest Hits"

George Shaw, Sunrise over the Care Home, 2018

George Shaw, Someone Else's House, 2018

George Shaw, Mum's, 2018

George Shaw, Scenes from the Passion: The Blossomiest Blossom, 2004-5

George Shaw, Ash Wednesday: 8.30am, 2004-5

George Shaw, It's All the Same to Me, 2014-15

George Shaw, Scenes from the Passion: Christmas Eve, 1998

Don McCullin - Tate Britain (until 6 May 2019)

Don McCullin, Homeless Irishman, Spitalfields, London, 1969

I’m in a very funny place: I’m in an art gallery and yet I’m a photographer saying I don’t want to be an artist. (See Jessie Bond, The Art Newspaper) 

Don McCullin is at Tate Britain until 6 May 2019

From the Tate website:

Tate Britain presents a comprehensive retrospective of the legendary British photographer Don McCullin.

This exhibition showcases some of the most impactful photographs captured over the last 60 years. It includes many of his iconic war photographs – including images from Vietnam, Northern Ireland and more recently Syria. But it also focuses on the work he did at home in England, recording scenes of poverty and working class life in London’s East End and the industrial north, as well as meditative landscapes of his beloved Somerset, where he lives.​
Sir Don McCullin was born in 1935 and grew up in a deprived area of north London. He got his first break when a newspaper published his photograph of friends who were in a local gang. From the 1960s he forged a career as probably the UK’s foremost war photographer, primarily working for the Sunday Times Magazine. His unforgettable and sometimes harrowing images are accompanied in the show with his brutally honest commentaries.
With over 250 photographs, all printed by McCullin himself in his own darkroom, this exhibition will be a unique opportunity to appreciate the scope and achievements of his entire career.

Reviews:

Adrian Searle (Guardian) "Witness for the Prosecution" (5 stars!) 

Mark Hudson (Telegraph) "Images so powerful you feel McCullin hovering at your shoulder". (5 stars!)
Beth Williamson (Studio International) "... widely known as a war photographer... this exhibition, covering 60 years, shows the full scope of his work."
Laura Cumming (The Observer) [With review of Diane Arbus] "Two lone souls out in the world". (5 stars!)

Features:
Don McCullin and Simon Grant (Tate Etc) "Don McCullin: The Interview".

Jessie Bond (The Art Newspaper) "Don McCullin on why he is showing at Tate Britian even though he is not an 'artist'".

Kate Kellaway (The Observer) "Once photography gets a grip, you're captive: Don McCullin and Giles Duley in conversation".
Ben Luke (The Art Newspaper) "Reportage storms the citadel: documentary photography joins the canon of British art"

Don McCullin, The Guvnors in their Sunday Suits, Finsbury Park, London, 1958 

Don McCullin, Suspected Lumumbist freedom fighters being tormented before execution, Stanleyville, 1964

Don McCullin, Shell-shocked US Marine, The Battle of Hue, 1968

Don McCullin, The Battle for the City of Hue, South Vietnam, US Marine Inside Civilian House, 1968

Don McCullin, Seaside pier on the south coast, Eastbourne, 1970s

Don McCullin, Local Boys in Bradford, 1972

Don McCullin, Woods Near My House, Somerset, c1991