MICHAL BONCZA and MARIA DUARTE review Facing War, Kontinental ’25, Bugonia, and Relay
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Getting those excitations
JAN WOOLF marvels at the dream-like forms of little-known English surrealist Henry Orlik, whose work reaches back to the traumas of war and migration
(L) Defeat (Aeroplane over LA); (R) Beauty and Sharks
[Henry Orlik and Winsor Birch]
MAYER WAKEFIELD is frustrated by a production of Ibsen’s classic study of an anti-heroine that fails to elucidate her motivations
PETER MASON tunes his ear into the domestic affairs of a Carribbean couple with a troublesome son
Evidence points to a Scottish provenance for the extraordinary Irish illuminated manuscript, the Book of Kells, suggests RACHEL MOSS
CHRIS SEARLE relishes an account of the years when a black American music carried a message of anti-racism and class struggle
This stunning film about a Bulgarian textile worker highlights the exploitative nature of Euro-capitalism, says RITA DI SANTO
PETER MASON thrills to Irish folk band The Haar
Henry Orlik, Cosmos of Dreams
Maas Gallery, London
LIKE me, you have probably not heard of the painter Henry Orlik. That’s because painting, not fame was his game. Eschewing the conceits of the art world, dealers took most of the money, leaving little for the artist.
A recluse for 50 years and now aged 77, Orlik has agreed to his first major retrospective, Cosmos of Dreams, at the Maas Gallery London, and later in his hometown of Marlborough.
The work is engrossing.
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