Stuff Seen - Walter Seymour Allward

Howdy!



B+

The only thing preventing Mr. Allward from reaching the "A" level is the shoddy nature of the catalogue, the lack of any other paperwork (press release, invite, list of works, etc.) and the slacker behavior of the folk babysitting the gallery. It was an absolutely breathtaking display of drawings about and related to the memorial built at Vimy. The drawings rock like nobody's business, and it's a pity that they all weren't from one collection. But...

I also liked the fact that this was the first time in recent memory that someone has attempted to resuscitate the reputation of a dead artist and wasn't their daughter. Although I do want to know which came first, the idea for the exhibition, or the idea for the book (not the catalogue).

Also exhibiting at the same time at the Carlton U art gallery were some Carl Bream pieces (who also got his own room at the National Gallery) and the less I say about them, the better. They also had some Cape Dorset Graphic Artists up that were fun, and a selection from their permanent collection. All of those are gonna remain ungraded because none of them felt like "real" exhibitions to me.