Galleries - February 2012

ported Hanina ’s move to the West End, last month AnthonyHep- worth’s return to Bath from High Street Kensington and now long- established Westbourne Grove gallery England and Co is off to Portland Place. As we’ve sugg- ested before, the quantum growth of the area’s fashion business (not to mention its social fashionability) can’t be helping plus, of course, the current re-consolidation of London’s Central West area as a rich artistic hub. Pity about the variety and individualism though. First Moderns While many of us are well aware of the SainsburyCentre’s super- lative permanent collections of World Art, its almost equally won- derful holdings of Art Nouveau from the Anderson Collection be- quest are less visible and largely unfamiliar. A splendid new exhi- bition there, ‘The First Moderns: Art Nouveau, from Nature to Abstraction’, the first in a series on European design of the late 19th and 20th century, aims to put that right. Using this (and its great Modernist Art and Design colle- ction presumably) as a starting point but with significant loans from Glasgow School of Art, the V & A and private collections, this show explores the fascinating development of Art Nouveau from the natural to more abstract, geo- metric forms. 50/30 Julian Hartnoll has always foll- owed a highly idiosyncratic path as a dealer, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise to learn that he is celebrating his 50 years in the business with a stock sale of 322 pieces. Neither is he doing it through a London auction house but via a less well known, though extremely well run, regional sale- room, Holloway’s of Banbury. Terming it “a rationalization”, it is by no means a disposal of lesser stock, with some highly significant paintings by lifelong passions of his –‘Kitchen Sink’ artists such as Bratby, Jack Smith and Edward Middleditch, Indian Modernist F.N. Souza and Victorian giant G.F. Watts –all for sale. In a final touch, the auction has been held back to give the artists’ families the chance to benefit from the new Artists’ Resale Rights and more- over, with buyers’ costs absorbed by the saleroom. Not quite so long established, but in their very different field of contemporary painting, equally singular in the range of artists and styles, Christopher Burness of Cadogan Contemporary is curr- ently celebrating 30 years in bus- iness with a mixed exhibition of artists like Sargy Mann, who has been with them since they began, and others who will secure their future such as Elise Ansel and Deborah Tarr. ANTENNAE 8. GALLERIES FEBRUARY 12 My Fair Lady Amidst the pomp and circum- stance of the Diamond Jubilee, a more personal side to the Queen is revealed at the Victoria & Albert Museum. A new show, Queen Elizabeth II by Cecil Bea- ton, spans their iconic sittings across four decades (1930s to 1960s). With his trademark glam- our shots and incisive comments in his diaries and letters, Beaton captures the Queen with a unique warm intimacy. We see her fresh- faced and tentative at her first public engagement, regal, yet nervous at her Coronation and her unbridled joy as a first time mother. Even as a teenage prin- cess, she holds your gaze with the magnetism of the most seasoned Beaton A-lister. Rare behind the scenes images at the Coronation reveal her extraordinary calm whilst palpable high tension sur- rounds her. Absorbing contact sheets tell a candid narrative of significant family events – the familiar interaction hinting that the royal family might be like our own. Even the most official portraits show a vulnerability, which makes the Queen seem simultaneously ordinary and extraordinary – thus revealing the accessibility which underpins her appeal and the innate power of photography. Melanie Abrams Heading East What’s happening in West London? In November we re- From left: Cecil Beaton by Curtis Moffat. Cecil Beaton, Queen Elizabeth II with Prince Andrew, 1960 both ©V&A. L oetz Vase with combed blue decoration c.1900 at Sainsbury Centre Edward Middleditch ‘Crowd Earl’s Court’ from the Julian Hartnoll sale at Holloway’s Auctioneers