Michael Harrison – Frames of Reference

A Small Retrospective

I love the Annely Juda Gallery very much. I’ve been visiting as long as I’ve lived in London and it always feels like I’m coming home. I first knew it as a small warehouse space in Tottenham Mews, next-door to the Angela Flowers Gallery. It was all scrubbed floorboards and whitewashed walls hung with jewel-like fragments of Bauhaus, De Stijl and Russian Constructivist art. Most exhibitions seemed to be called The Non-Objective World and they were always a great education in abstraction. In 1990 she moved to Dering Street where I first discovered the work of Eduardo Chillida, and saw an exhibition of minimal white reliefs by Alan Reynolds. It was a revelation. Continue reading “A Small Retrospective”

Francis Davison: Collages

The Redfern Gallery, 20 Cork Street, Mayfair, W1S 3HL is presently a great place to get lost. Until 9th December, it is the venue for a fabulous exhibition of collages by the late Francis Davison, a master of the art of papier collé or torn paper ‘paintings’. This is a rare chance to see such a spectacular display of his work all gathered together in one special place. Continue reading “Francis Davison: Collages”

Lunaris

The new CD by the Frank Harrison Trio arrived yesterday. It’s an album of acoustic trio music, piano, bass, drums, with echoes of Keith Jarrett, Esbjörn Svensson, Fred Hersch, but mostly it sounds like the Frank Harrison Trio. The CD cover features a watercolour by Andrew Walton (which appeared in an earlier Frames of Reference post here), Moon Arc, the moon over Port Meadow, Oxford’s answer to Grantchester Meadows. Frank’s father, Michael Harrison, was director of Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge until 2011, and a great friend of Andrew Walton. The album is dedicated For Moikal.

Frank Harrison Trio – Sunrise (Port Meadow)

As well as working with his own trio, with Dave Whitford on double bass and Enzo Zirilli on drums, Frank Harrison also plays piano and keyboards with Gilad Atzmon in the Orient House Ensemble, and he was also involved with Robert Wyatt’s mesmerising For The Ghosts Within.

Victor Skipp

Kettle’s Yard are presently hosting – A Lasting Legacy: The House and Collection of Victor Skipp. When he died in 2010 Victor Skipp left his estate to Kettle’s Yard. He was a writer and historian with a passion for art and philosophy. This exhibition reflects his many interests, with displays of modernist and minimalist art side by side with tribal rugs, African sculpture, Indian miniatures, folk art and vernacular architecture: a perfect complement to the existing Kettle’s Yard collection. Continue reading “Victor Skipp”