David Hockney

I am very fond of the work of David Hockney but left the exhibition at the Portrait Gallery with feelings of pleasure and disappointment. I hadn’t realised how many portraits he had painted, but more than that – just how much I appreciate all his other work. The recent portraits did not seem to carry his usual energy and depth of examination.

Edna Manley

Years ago I was stopped in my tracks by a huge carving of Eve by Edna Manley in a Sheffield gallery. I recall that the accompanying text quoted Manley as saying “I may not be the best sculptor in the world but I am certainly the world's best woodcarver”. Is it still in Sheffield?

Flowers and Questions

Tate Modern is showing Flowers and Questions, a retrospective of the work of Fischli and Weiss. It is difficult to explain the appeal of this work in that is it so varied and comes to meet you in many different forms.

The Fischli and Weiss film The Way Things Go is a real barn-stormer and such a contrast to the 80 small plaster sculptures and the large photographs of planes and flowers which cover the wall of another room. It is worth a visit. The slide in the Turbine Hall is a great experience at 69!