Press and Editorial
John Virtue: London Landscapes - Major paintings & drawings
April 2007Annandale Galleries
» View John Virtue: London Landscapes - Major paintings & drawings exhibition
"These paintings are punk epics: gritty; brazen with tough truth. You don't so much look at them as collide with them; pictures which smack you into vision. This is what all strong painting is supposed to do: deliver a visceral jolt, half pleasure-hit; half inexplicable illumination". - Simon Schama, National Gallery Catalogue 2005
A taste of the extraordinary success of the exhibition of John Virtue's painting at the National Galley London has come to Sydney. The London exhibition broke all records for an associate artist show drawing over 135,000 visitors and receiving enormous critical acclaim in the press.
Annandale Galleries are proud to present key works from the London show including "Landscape 710" a huge 3 X 6 metre opus as well as more recent London landscapes and a suite of drawings. As well known critic and writer Martin Gayford writes; "London over the centuries has inspired many great artists (Monet, Turner, Whistler, Constable). John Virtue?s paintings which capture the power, dynamics and brutality of the city today, can stand up to the competition".
JOHN VIRTUE counts among his influences Constable and Turner and Dutch landscape but also American abstract expressionism and Japanese calligraphy. The result is extraordinary contemporary painting, fresh and exciting, vibrant and original.
JOHN VIRTUE (born 1947, lives and works London and Lucca, Italy) has had over thirty solo exhibitions including the Whitechapel, Serpentine and National Gallery in London and the Yale Centre for British Art in New Haven Connecticutt. His work hangs in numerous public and private collections in the UK, USA, Europe and Australia. This is his third solo show at Annandale Galleries.
» View John Virtue: London Landscapes - Major paintings & drawings exhibition
"These paintings are punk epics: gritty; brazen with tough truth. You don't so much look at them as collide with them; pictures which smack you into vision. This is what all strong painting is supposed to do: deliver a visceral jolt, half pleasure-hit; half inexplicable illumination". - Simon Schama, National Gallery Catalogue 2005
A taste of the extraordinary success of the exhibition of John Virtue's painting at the National Galley London has come to Sydney. The London exhibition broke all records for an associate artist show drawing over 135,000 visitors and receiving enormous critical acclaim in the press.
Annandale Galleries are proud to present key works from the London show including "Landscape 710" a huge 3 X 6 metre opus as well as more recent London landscapes and a suite of drawings. As well known critic and writer Martin Gayford writes; "London over the centuries has inspired many great artists (Monet, Turner, Whistler, Constable). John Virtue?s paintings which capture the power, dynamics and brutality of the city today, can stand up to the competition".
JOHN VIRTUE counts among his influences Constable and Turner and Dutch landscape but also American abstract expressionism and Japanese calligraphy. The result is extraordinary contemporary painting, fresh and exciting, vibrant and original.
JOHN VIRTUE (born 1947, lives and works London and Lucca, Italy) has had over thirty solo exhibitions including the Whitechapel, Serpentine and National Gallery in London and the Yale Centre for British Art in New Haven Connecticutt. His work hangs in numerous public and private collections in the UK, USA, Europe and Australia. This is his third solo show at Annandale Galleries.