Christine Riding

https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/wright-of-derby-from-the-shadows-by-christine-ri...

This was the official program book of the exhibition of Wright’s work at the National gallery in London that I went to last month and really enjoyed. (File 770 ran a piece on it too.) The book consists of three parts – a short introduction from National Gallery directors Sir Gabriele Finaldi and Tony Butler OBE; an essay, “Between Darkness and Light”, by Christina Riding; and another essay, “A show more ‘Peculiar’ Painter of Candlelight”, by Jon King.

I am more pleased with the balance of the essays in the book than I was with the commentary in the exhibition itself; Riding does write about the scientific content of Wright’s work, and King makes the point that this is also linked to changing concepts of education in the 18th century. Art criticism isn’t generally my bag, but this is very helpful, and also lavishly illustrated for quite a modest price. show less

I liked seeing the works together and reading the commentary but the art history content was usually dry and sometimes unconvincing. Skimmed.