Patrick Caulfield and Gary Hume side by side at Tate
Sixties still life painter Caulfield is 'quietly magnificent' but can YBA Gary Hume measure up?
What you need to knowA new survey exhibition of the work of British painter Patrick Caulfield has opened at Tate Britain. The show runs in parallel with an exhibition by British painter Gary Hume.
Caulfield, who died in 2005, is associated with pop art and photorealism, and is best known for his formal but colourful still lifes and domestic interiors from the 1960s onwards.
Gary Hume, part of the 'Young British Artists' group, is best known for his bold, large-scale paintings using high gloss paint and images of celebrities from Tony Blackburn to Kate Moss. Both exhibitions run until 1 September.
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What the critics likeCaulfield and Hume share wit, a love of painting and a dialogue with their contemporaries, says Richard Dorment in the Daily Telegraph. You have to look at their pictures with close attention - and "it is well worth the effort".
"Patrick Caulfield is the greatest late 20th-century British painter the international art world has never heard of," says Marina Valzey on the ArtsDesk. This quietly magnificent exhibition may at last bring about a satisfactory reversal of fortune.
"Hume is a master of colour," says Nancy Durrant in The Times. His combinations make no sense in theory but somehow work and the resulting paintings are undeniably gorgeous.
What they don't like"The pairing does allow us to see both artists better but not as Tate Britain hoped," says Ben Luke in the Evening Standard. Caulfield emerges as an intelligent and sophisticated, if not quite great painter; Hume looks desperately lightweight.
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