Muse Reviews: 16 March

A round-up of the week’s reviews…

Installation view showing Adriaen de Vries’s, ‘Bacchic Man Wearing a Grotesque Mask’ with Ed Ruscha’s ‘Seventeenth Century’. © Ed Ruscha. Photo: Michael Bodycomb

Outstanding Renaissance and Baroque Bronzes at the Frick Collection (David Ekserdjian)

The Hills’ collection of bronzes is not vast – the outstandingly lavish and learned exhibition catalogue by Patricia Wengraf and others may run to 375 pages, but contains a mere 32 entries – yet it is both extremely choice and highly focused.

First Look: ‘Cézanne and the Modern’ at the Ashmolean Museum (Colin Harrison)

There are so many masterpieces that it is difficult to choose! The two late Cézanne oils, including one of the greatest views of the Mont Sainte Victoire, are very special. And the Van Gogh is extraordinary. However, the quality of every work, and its state of preservation, is outstanding.

Untitled (1976–7), Gordon Matta-Clark. © 2013 Estate of Gordon Matta-Clark

A Hard Line: Sculptor Richard Deacon curates ‘Abstract Drawing’ (Beth Bramich)

The absence of figurative subjects serves to draw attention more keenly to the materials and artistic approaches, and particularly to the qualities of the mark-making. The crispness of Tomma Abts’ coloured pencils contrast with Bob Law’s scratchy and smudged crosses, as does the delicacy of Richard Wright’s gold leaf and the thump of Richard Serra’s paint stick.

Ascension (2000), Bill Viola © Bill Viola Studio / Photo: Kira Perov

Meditations on Film: Bill Viola at the Grand Palais (Caroline Rossiter)

Reflection is an important part of experiencing Viola’s videos. In many of the installations time is slowed right down so that small movements are spread over minutes. The Grand Palais audience was captivated by the upward rain shower and levitation in Tristan’s Ascension, even though the action itself is predictable and projected in super-slow motion.

Buddha and Bodhisattvas (Gupta period; 5th–6th century), Eastern India. Christophe Hioco, Paris

A Tour of Asia Week New York (Louise Nicholson)

If you are in New York and wish you were at Maastricht, pine no more. The sixth Asia Week New York (14–22 March) has kicked off and it’s a real bonanza.