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InSight No. 151
Edmund de Waal | no speaking is left in me June 20, 2024 Harnessing his gifts as a poignant and sensitive writer, Edmund de Waal employs a range of literary devices to create... Read more -
InSight No. 144
Frank Auerbach | Head of Julia - Profile II March 1, 2024 In the art of Frank Auerbach, reassuring continuities—of studios, sitters, idiom—are pitched against the desperate struggle to do it differently... Read more
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InSight No. 153
Duncan Grant | Hampstead Heath July 19, 2024 A rural patch north of London has provided more than one English painter with rich material to make landscape into... Read more -
InSight No. 151
Edmund de Waal | no speaking is left in me June 20, 2024 Harnessing his gifts as a poignant and sensitive writer, Edmund de Waal employs a range of literary devices to create... Read more -
InSight No. 150
Augustus John | Landscape in Wales June 7, 2024 In paintings of Provence and Wales made before the First World War, Augustus John and his friends treated the landscape... Read more
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InSight No. 149
Henry Moore | Time/Life Screen: Maquette No. 4 May 24, 2024 Rising to the challenge of antiquity and throwing off the restrictions of wartime austerity, Henry Moore gave a distinctive face... Read more -
InSight No. 147
Augustus John | Portrait of Percy Wyndham Lewis April 26, 2024 To coincide with the opening of Piano Nobile’s new exhibition Augustus John & the First Crisis of Brilliance, InSight considers... Read more -
InSight No. 146
David Bomberg | Bomb Store April 12, 2024 Having been an official war artist in the First World War, David Bomberg felt himself well equipped to serve when... Read more
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InSight No. 145
Cyril Mann March 15, 2024 As a new stage adaptation of Cyril Mann’s life opens at The Playground Theatre this week, InSight tells the story... Read more -
InSight No. 144
Frank Auerbach | Head of Julia - Profile II March 1, 2024 In the art of Frank Auerbach, reassuring continuities—of studios, sitters, idiom—are pitched against the desperate struggle to do it differently... Read more -
InSight No. 143
Henry Moore | Ideas for Sculpture: Reclining Figures February 16, 2024 Like Leonardo, Raphael and Michelangelo before him, Henry Moore was a doodler. He liked to doodle and he doodled with... Read more
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InSight No. 142
Jean Cooke | The Wild Plum Tree February 2, 2024 Like so many busy or preoccupied people, the painter Jean Cooke had a messy garden. She turned it to her... Read more -
InSight No. 141
Duncan Grant | Still Life January 12, 2024 Duncan Grant’s early still-life pictures contributed to a new universe of creativity that skilfully brought together easel painting, decorative objects... Read more -
InSight No. 140
Barbara Hepworth | Preparation December 21, 2023 InSight considers a poignant work of angelic humanist art by a titan of the modernist movement in Britain—Barbara Hepworth. InSight... Read more
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InSight No. 139
Frank Auerbach | Head of Laurie Owen I December 8, 2023 Regarding only the appearance and physical presence of his sitters, Frank Auerbach makes pictures of the human head that defy... Read more -
InSight No. 138
Paul Nash | River and Trees November 24, 2023 Unlike so many artists who have gazed across the Seine and thought it a good idea to paint the bridges,... Read more -
InSight No. 137
Edmund de Waal | answer to an enquiry November 10, 2023 The ceramic installations of Edmund de Waal defy categorisation, operating somewhere between the earthy rigours of studio pottery and the... Read more
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InSight No. 136
R.B. Kitaj | Welcome Every Dread Delight October 27, 2023 To coincide with Piano Nobile’s recently opened exhibition R.B. Kitaj: London to Los Angeles, InSight considers one of the paintings... Read more -
InSight No. 134
John Hoyland | 20.9.70, 1970 September 29, 2023 In the late sixties, John Hoyland took on new challenges in painting just as his life underwent significant personal and... Read more -
InSight No. 133
Lucian Freud | Nose (Janey Longman), circa 1986 September 15, 2023 After a brief period studying with the painter and gardener Cedric Morris, Lucian Freud developed his own distinctive and highly... Read more
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InSight No. 132
Spencer Gore | From a Window in the Hampstead Road September 8, 2023 Spencer Gore was ‘a perfect modern’ who found inspiration in the humdrum urban landscape. His paintings of Camden Town streets... Read more -
InSight No. 131
Augustus John | Portrait of Dorelia August 25, 2023 The archetypal muse, Dorelia McNeill inspired some of Augustus John’s most sensitive portraits in painting and drawing. One writer described... Read more -
InSight No. 130
Howard Hodgkin | Hotel August 4, 2023 Even as he poured his life experiences into painting, Howard Hodgkin often remained silent about the personal circumstances that his... Read more
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InSight No. 129
William Scott | Signs Orange and Ochre July 21, 2023 Orange is variously claimed to be the colour of joy, dance, unconditional love, health, power, vitality and, most literally, fire.... Read more -
InSight No. 128
Duncan Grant | Still Life with Fruit and Compotier June 30, 2023 Long before the era of paper cups and over-the-counter service, Duncan Grant and Henri Matisse savoured the civilising effects of... Read more -
InSight No. 127
Ben Nicholson | 1968 (ramparts) June 16, 2023 Riding a wave of critical and commercial success, in the decades after the Second World War Ben Nicholson travelled around... Read more
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InSight No. 126
Celia Paul | My Mother Facing June 2, 2023 Ahead of Piano Nobile’s Celebration of Portraiture exhibition, which coincides with the reopening of the National Portrait Gallery, InSight considers... Read more -
InSight No. 125
Walter Sickert | St Rémy: Chevet de l'Eglise May 19, 2023 For Walter Sickert, a little spring sunshine was a fine thing and not to be wasted. Deep shadows helped him... Read more -
InSight No. 124
Euan Uglow | Palm Tree May 5, 2023 This bank holiday, set sail for Euan Uglow’s painted desert island paradise. InSight No. 124 Euan Uglow, Palm Tree, 1971... Read more
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InSight No. 119
Ben Nicholson | squares & circles February 24, 2023 Ben Nicholson’s rare use of lithographs reflected his friendship with pioneers of improved print and typography. InSight No. 119 Ben... Read more -
InSight No. 118
Craigie Aitchison | Crucifixion with Angels February 9, 2023 Despite his Christian upbringing, Craigie Aitchison cared less for religion than he did for art. His use of Christian imagery... Read more -
InSight No. 117
Grayson Perry | Untitled (She Is My Mind) January 18, 2023 InSight considers an early work by the recently knighted artist Sir Grayson Perry. It is on display at the London... Read more
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InSight No. 114
Alberto Giacometti | Nature morte avec bouteille November 23, 2022 Alberto Giacometti was one of the most respected European artists of the mid-twentieth century. His attitude to work was an... Read more -
InSight No. 113
Lynn Chadwick | Iron Composition November 9, 2022 British art of the 1950s was ruled by twisted forms and an angst-ridden mood. The idiomorphic sculptures of Lynn Chadwick... Read more -
InSight No. 112
Paul Nash | Ruin in the Forest of Dean October 26, 2022 Paul Nash was a poet painter whose landscape paintings evince a hidden world, overflowing with Blakean imagery and fragmentary historical... Read more
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InSight No. 110
Frank Auerbach | Reclining Head of Julia September 26, 2022 To mark the opening of Piano Nobile’s exhibition Frank Auerbach: The Sitters, InSight considers the recent work of Britain’s greatest... Read more -
InSight No. 108
John Armstrong | On the Promenade, 1947 August 24, 2022 Retreating to Cornwall in 1945, John Armstrong began making visionary paintings of leaves and feathers. His imagery brims with surreal... Read more -
InSight No. 107
Damien Hirst | Trust, 2003 July 13, 2022 Once the chief enfant terrible of the Young British Artists, Damien Hirst has long since swapped formaldehyde sharks for a... Read more
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InSight No. 106
Leon Kossoff | Seated Figure No. 1 June 29, 2022 The writer N.M. Seedo was the defining model of Leon Kossoff’s early career. A painting of her - Seated Figure... Read more -
InSight. No. 105
Paul Nash | Sunrise over Valley, 1943 June 16, 2022 Paul Nash's view of the world was transformed by an imaginative grasp of landscape history, an interest in druidic ritual,... Read more -
InSight No. 103
Duncan Grant | Portrait of Simon Bussy, circa 1922-25 May 26, 2022 A man of good ties and a painter of curiously vivid pictures, Simon Bussy was one of the few truly... Read more
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InSight No. 102
Albert Irvin | Cloud, circa 1960-65 May 11, 2022 Between 1955 and 1965, ‘a tremendous mood of confidence’ charged British abstract painting with freshness and profundity. As the Second... Read more -
InSight No. 101
Euan Uglow | Seated Nude, circa 1954 April 27, 2022 In the 1950s, the Slade School of Fine Art fostered a new generation of figure painters. Long hours in the... Read more -
InSight No. 100
Harold Gilman | London Street Scene in Snow March 30, 2022 For its one hundredth edition, InSight considers a remarkable London street scene by Harold Gilman – a famously diligent, slow... Read more
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InSight No. 99
William Crozier | Still Life March 16, 2022 To coincide with Piano Nobile’s new exhibition William Crozier: Seize the Flow’r, InSight considers a significant group of still life... Read more -
InSight No. 98
Ben Nicholson | November 1960 (Anne) March 2, 2022 Ben Nicholson returned to relief carving with gusto shortly before moving to Switzerland in 1958. Throughout his Swiss period, his... Read more -
InSight No. 97
Irma Stern | Summer Morning in Madeira February 16, 2022 Well-travelled and inquisitive, the South African artist Irma Stern used her work to explore the people and places she visited.... Read more
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InSight No. 96
Barbara Hepworth | Two Forms February 2, 2022 To Barbara Hepworth, the act of carving by hand was highly significant. After giving birth to triplets in October 1934,... Read more -
InSight No. 95
David Hockney | Portrait of Bernard Nevill, 1970s January 20, 2022 THE PEACOCK REVOLUTION SAW THE TRANSFORMATION OF MENSWEAR IN BRITAIN, WITH FROTHY HANDKERCHIEFS AND DRESSY PRINTS. BERNARD NEVILL AND DAVID... Read more -
InSight No.94
Craigie Aitchison | Butterflies in a Landscape, 1964 December 20, 2021 Piano Nobile is pleased to represent the Estate of Craigie Aitchison, a remarkable artist who often achieved perfection through simplicity.... Read more
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InSight No. 92
Elisabeth Frink | Assassins I, 1963 December 2, 2021 Caught between the exciting, sometimes shocking events of the time and an intense, insular focus on artistic form, it was... Read more -
InSight 91
Joan Miró | Untitled, 1959 November 24, 2021 A contemporary and compatriot of Picasso, Joan Miró won fame as a Surrealist in the 1920s and later built an... Read more -
InSight No. 90
Jean Cooke | Cave Painting I, 1965 c. November 17, 2021 Sussex's chalk landscape has inspired painters and writers from Enid Bagnold and William Nicholson to the subject of this week's... Read more
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InSight No. 89
Walter Sickert | Nuit d'Été, circa 1906 November 10, 2021 In this final instalment focusing on Sickert, InSight compares one of his most significant nudes with paintings by his friends,... Read more -
InSight 88
Walter Sickert | This Venice that the Italians called 'Venezia' November 3, 2021 This Venice that the Italians called 'Venezia' From Dickens to the prostitutes of Venice, this week InSight delves deeper into... Read more -
InSight 86
Walter Sickert, The New Bedford October 27, 2021 Over the next three weeks, to celebrate Piano Nobile's current exhibition SICKERT: The Theatre of Life, InSight delves into the... Read more
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InSight 86
Euan Uglow | Still Life with Honeysuckle | 1968 October 20, 2021 Euan Uglow was a painter’s artist, exploring proportion and perspective with fastidious care and transcribing appearances into art with cautious... Read more -
InSight No. 85
Craigie Aitchison | Baker’s Egg, 1974 October 13, 2021 A lifelong lover of ‘kitsch’, Craigie Aitchison achieved a rare synthesis of style and content in paintings that stand out... Read more -
InSight No. 84
Gluck | Cottage with Cat, 1967 October 6, 2021 This week Insight considers the artist born Hannah Gluckstein. Shedding the gender that was assigned at birth, Gluckstein became Gluck,... Read more
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InSight No. 33
R.B. Kitaj | Fulham Road Cinema Bathers, 1988 September 29, 2021 A regular and avid cinema-goer, R.B. Kitaj revered the medium of film. He often borrowed figures from film stills and... Read more -
InSight No. 81
Walter Sickert | Portrait of Mrs Barrett, 1906 September 15, 2021 Ahead of Piano Nobile’s major exhibition opening next Thursday, SICKERT: The Theatre of Life, InSight considers one of Sickert’s earliest... Read more -
InSight No. 79
Frank Auerbach | Reclining Nude, 1954 September 1, 2021 Though Frank Auerbach received his formal training at St Martin's School of Art, the evening classes of David Bomberg which... Read more
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InSight No. 78
David Bomberg | Ronda El Barrio, San Francisco, 1954 July 21, 2021 As summer heat starts to build, withering the grass and scorching the earth, David Bomberg's Spanish vistas provide an equivalent... Read more -
InSight No. 76
Barbara Hepworth | Reclining Figures July 7, 2021 Over the next two weeks, InSight presents two works by one of the great sculptors of the twentieth century: Barbara... Read more -
InSight No. 70
Graham Sutherland | Armoured Form June 30, 2021 In the late 1940s and the early 1950s, Graham Sutherland experienced a burst of artistic invention and critical recognition. Graham... Read more
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InSight No. 73
Lynn Chadwick | Seated Figure I, 1973 June 16, 2021 Internationally renowned and highly inventive with his materials, most notably his adoption of the plaster-like substance Stolit, Lynn Chadwick was... Read more -
InSight No. LXXII
Paul Nash | Spring Landscape, circa 1930s June 10, 2021 The landscape art of Paul Nash (1889-1946) encompasses both modernist impulses and a traditional rural life. Paul Nash Spring Landscape,... Read more -
InSight No. 71
Tony Bevan | Locked Fingers June 2, 2021 Grinding his own pigments and working from his own image, Tony Bevan is a self-sustaining artist of inventive means and... Read more
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InSight No. 70
Cedric Morris | Portrait of Rupert Doone May 26, 2021 Now on view in Piano Nobile’s exhibition ‘Defining British Art’, this portrait was painted in the wanderjahr which Cedric Morris... Read more -
InSight No. 69
Grayson Perry | Map of Nowhere and The American Dream May 12, 2021 Piano Nobile’s new exhibition Grayson Perry: Ceramics and Prints includes two examples of the artist’s map-like works. InSight considers the... Read more -
InSight No. 67
Glyn Philpot | Two Muses at the Tomb of a Poet, 1937 April 28, 2021 After a period living in Paris in 1931, Glyn Philpot changed his style. As a friend said, the new style... Read more
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InSight No. 66
Mark Gertler | Still Life, Vase with Flowers April 21, 2021 Despite perennial bouts of mental and physical ill health, Mark Gertler remained intensely focused on his work. The mid-1920s marked... Read more -
InSight No. 65
Anthony Caro | Table Piece CXLI April 14, 2021 The mid-1970s was a time of increased exposure for Anthony Caro and his rising international fame coincided with a highly... Read more -
InSight No. 64
Irma Stern | Portrait of a Woman April 7, 2021 After settling in Cape Town in 1920, Irma Stern started making regular painting trips to tribes around the Cape. Working... Read more
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InSight No. 63
Ben Nicholson | 1971 (two squares and very green) March 31, 2021 In 1965, Ben Nicholson discovered a remarkable field of ancient standing stones in Brittany. For the next six years, he... Read more -
InSight No. 62
Spencer Gore | The White Horse, Hertingfordbury, 1909 March 24, 2021 Described by his friend Sickert as ‘a perfect modern’, Spencer Gore’s early paintings belong to the world of Impressionism. InSight... Read more -
InSight No. 61
Leon Kossoff | Willesden Junction March 17, 2021 Not until the beginning of the twentieth century did modern artists shift attention away from railway stations towards the track... Read more
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InSight No. 60
Ivon Hitchens | Sussex Landscape March 10, 2021 Ivon Hitchens’s style was always highly individual. The free approach to colour and design in his later easel paintings developed... Read more -
InSight No. 58
Ben Nicholson | Pisa, 1951 February 24, 2021 Ben Nicholson produced only a small number of intaglio prints in his career. Each example is marked by pictorial subtlety... Read more -
InSight No. 57
William Nicholson | The Grey Shawl February 17, 2021 For a blissful period of five years, the painter William Nicholson owned a rural retreat on the Sussex coast. The... Read more
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InSight No. 53
John Hoyland | 16.9.66 January 20, 2021 In a special edition of InSight, Sam Cornish considers the ‘pillars of space’ in John Hoyland’s work from the 1960s.... Read more -
InSight No. 51
Bryan Wynter | Maremma January 6, 2021 Though Cornwall was a defining part of his work and his lifestyle, it was not the limit of Bryan Wynter’s... Read more