The Week UK 17.08.2019

36 ARTS

THE WEEK 17 August 2019

Art

Fifteenth-century Spain was

“a dangerous place” for

non-Christians, said Rachel

Spence in the FT. With the

Reconquista in full swing, its

rulers Ferdinand and Isabella

“stamped their fervent

Catholicism on the land”,

encouraging persecution of

Muslims and Jews, and

ultimately ushering in the

Inquisition. One person who

may have had particular cause

for caution was Bartolomé

Bermejo (c.1440-c.1501),

apainter of religious scenes

who was probably aconverso

–“aJew who converted to

Christianity or was descended

from converts”. We know little

about his life, but it’s likely that

Bermejo was forced into a

“nomadic” lifestyle for fear of

the Inquisitors. Indeed, it seems

his wife “fell foul” of them,

and was tried but subsequently

pardoned for “following Jewish

practices”. But you don’t need to know about his background to

appreciate that Bermejo was “an extraordinary painter” with a

“magpie-like passion for all things lustrous”. Although fewer than

20 of his works are known to have survived, the National Gallery

has gathered together seven of them forasmall but revelatory

exhibition that demonstrates he is simply “too valuable to neglect

any longer”.

Bermejo may remaina“tantalisingly elusive figure”, but his

“bounteous” paintings burst with “stories”, said Lucy Davies in

The Daily Telegraph. Such is

the “cramming of detail”, he

must have been influenced by

such contemporaneous

Netherlandish painters as van

Eyck and Bosch. The textures

of fabrics are almost tangible,

“each cloud is unique, every

fingernail carefully rendered”.

Your eyes are drawn to the

Christ child’s exquisitely

dimpled knees in the

Montserrat Triptych

(1470-75), whileSt Michael

Triumphant Over the Devil

(1468) depicts its protagonist

as asword-wielding

“colossus”, his golden armour

“so gleaming thatacity is

reflected in his breastplate”.

Bermejo wasa“master of big

moods as well as tiny details”,

said Waldemar Januszczak in

The Sunday Times. His last

known painting, “a dark and

doomed pietà”, presents the

dead Christ “slumped uncomfortably” across Mary’s lap against

ahostile landscape in which “lizards, snakes and butterflies” dart

about furtively. It is as if “the earth itself has turned twisty and

angsty”. Elsewhere, we seeaseries of small paintings telling the

story of Christ after the Crucifixion, depictinga“hirsute” Jesus

surrounded by scenes that evokeavery Spanish kind of

“mayhem”. It’s utterly thrilling: with powers of painted

observation that are light years ahead of any of his 15th century

Spanish contemporaries, “Bermejo had no right to be this good”.

Whata“thunderously impactful” show this is.

Exhibition of the week Bartolomé Bermejo

National Gallery, London WC2 (0800-912 6958, nationalgallery.org.uk). Until 29 September

The subjects of this show are two game-

changing, near-legendary art magazines

that championed the work of some of

the most radical and important artists

of the 20th century: Verve, published

from 1937 to 1960, and the slightly

later Derrière le Miroir, which ran from

1946 to 1982. Both printed full-colour

lithographs, created specifically for the

publications by artists including

Ellsworth Kelly, Marc Chagall and

Henri Matisse, and copies often

became collectors’ items in their own

right. The exhibition brings together

acomprehensive selection of these

original works, ranging from the

abstractions of Alexander Calder and

Jean Arp to the nightmarish figuration

of Francis Bacon. Highlights include

Matisse’s ingeniousL’Escargot(1953);

agloriously exuberant 1956 Miroir

cover lithograph by Joan Miró; and a

number of images by the fantastic but

substantially less well-known Italian

painter Valerio Adami. Taken together,

they formapotted history of the best of

European postwar art. Prices range

from £300 to £1,750.

58 Bermondsey Street, London SE1

(020-7407 1025). Until1September.

The Desplà Pietà (1490): “the earth itself has turned twisty and angsty”

Where to buy...

The Week reviews an

exhibition inaprivate gallery

Behind the Mirror

at Eames Fine Art

Francis Bacon’s 1966 Derrière le Miroir cover

It was painted as a

“stark reminder” of

the violence of the

Troubles. But 50

years after the events

it commemorates, a

20ft mural in Derry of

aboy holdingapetrol

bomb has become

“something else: a

tourist attraction”,

says Rachel Hall in

The Guardian. The mural–based onafamous

photograph by Clive Limpkin, taken during

the August 1969 riots that are often seen as

the beginning of 30 years of armed conflict in

Northern Ireland–isone of 12 painted between

1994 and 2006 byagroup known as the

Bogside Artists. Although criticised at the time

by Catholics and Protestants for “glorifying”

violence, the murals have nevertheless become

Northern Ireland’s eighth most-visited attraction

–prompting the council this year to take the

“controversial step” of illuminating them at

night. But many still wonder whether such

“Troubles tourism” isagood way to encourage

understanding. Do the murals “serve to educate

people about the past”, asks Dr Sara McDowell

of Ulster University, or do they simply transfer

the “sense of trauma” on to new generations?

Lessons from the past

©C

ATEDRAL DE BARCELONA (FOTÓGRAFO GUILLEM F-H)